CTA and CDOT launch design concepts for five bus priority corridors to speed buses and improve stops
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Summary
CTA presented early design concepts for five corridors from the Better Streets for Buses network—Pulaski, Fullerton, Western, Garfield/55th and Cottage Grove—aiming to improve bus speed, reliability and passenger amenities, with final recommendations expected by December 2026.
Jason Meader, senior manager of bus strategic planning at CTA, outlined the Bus Priority Corridor Study that will develop design alternatives for five corridors selected from the 17‑corridor Better Streets for Buses network. The corridors—Pulaski, Fullerton (Fullerton/Nordica/Halsted), Western (Howard to 79th), 55th/Garfield (Cicero to South Hyde Park) and Cottage Grove (35th to 100th)—together provide approximately 80,000 daily bus rides, Meader said.
The study tests a range of street design concepts depending on curb‑to‑curb width: center‑running bus lanes with mid‑street boarding islands; offset curb lanes with bump‑outs; continuous curb‑running lanes; and smaller interventions like transit signal priority and select curb extensions. "Some recommendations may look like robust BRT‑style designs or more limited bus priority features," Meader said, noting trade‑offs between bus speed, parking loss and left‑turn access.
CTA and CDOT will use community engagement—three in‑person meetings, a virtual meeting and an online survey—to gather input and refine designs. Meader said outreach findings so far highlight pedestrian safety, bus speed and reliability, rider comfort and shelter preferences, and local business concern about parking impacts. Final recommendations and potential funding pathways are expected to be posted to the project website in December 2026.
Meader emphasized coordination with other initiatives—transit signal priority, resurfacing projects and smaller targeted capital interventions—so that limited construction windows can be used to advance both corridor scale and local improvements. The study will produce design alternatives that CTA will use to seek funding and implementation steps.
Committee questions covered integration with transit signal priority, design choices in constrained curb widths, trade‑offs with bike infrastructure, and how to incorporate driver behavior and boarding enforcement into concepts. Meader responded that design choices will be refined by corridor segment and that the study aims to preserve pedestrian safety and local access while improving bus performance.
