“The trains are always delayed. It takes me hours to get to work and I don’t drive.”

In South Side Chicago a friendly man is heading home after what he says has been a long day’s work in a downtown restaurant. The shadows are growing longer on an abnormally hot afternoon, and the street corners are starting to feel a little less welcoming. Happy to chat at length, he grows visibly frustrated when asked to assess public transport in Chicago and explains that he is constantly worried about train delays causing him to end up being in trouble with his boss. This, he says, has always been the case.

Having spent the last few days navigating this part of the city I’m not surprised by his concerns over reliability. The truth is transport inequality in Chicago is stark. Hardworking Chicago residents who need to get to work, pick children up from childcare or visit friends, face a public transport lottery dependent on where they live. 

Despite being home to the nation’s second largest public transport system, almost half a million residents in Cook County live in ‘transit deserts’. Simply put, these people have to walk for more than a half mile to a rail stop, or a quarter mile to find a reliable bus route. For many, public transport has failed them, and it’s cabs or ride hailing apps which provide a vital service. 

While transit deserts are not a new concept – it is well known there are parts of the city which are deeply underserved when it comes to transportation – there is only limited research into what people in these areas think, how they manage to get around Chicago, and what concerns them most. 

That’s where I – and my organization, public policy consultancy Public First – come in. Working with a market leading rideshare app, we wanted to better understand how real people choose to travel in the city’s most underserved areas. The majority of the city’s transit deserts are located in the less affluent areas of Chicago – many of which are in the South Side – and, although we spoke to residents across the city, it was here that our research was most focused.

We spent a number of days embedded in these communities, holding interviews at length with Chicagoans as they went about their day to day lives, commuting to work, visiting friends and family, or heading to the shops.

So what lessons did we take away from our time in Chicago and its transit deserts?

Firstly, people living in transit deserts were most concerned by the safety and reliability of public transport. Chatting to residents across the whole city, there was a shared worry over hopping on a bus or train after dark – this was the same for men and women, young and old, affluent or poor.

Alongside this was the constant worry their journey would be delayed or cancelled. People in transit deserts explained they had long commutes – often one or two hours long – and the shockingly high frequency of buses and trains running late or simply not turning up left many permanently stressed about being late for work or childcare commitments.

One man we spoke to lived in the South Side but worked in a downtown coffee shop. He often took Uber to work in the morning because his shift starts very early and public transportation offering is so limited it would take him two hours longer than ordering an Uber. 

Secondly, when it came to these underserved communities, they simply could not depend upon the bus or trains to get them to where they needed to be. It was incredibly common in these parts for people to explain that they either drove or took ride-sharing apps like Uber or Lyft because these were the only options they had. 

While driving was popular, there was no guarantee of this option either, with many people explaining that they were forced to share cars with other family members, and stories of broken down and stolen vehicles were common.

Finally, the most crucial lesson was the way in which ride-sharing apps are embedded into city life. Many assumptions are made about the types of people who use taxis or ride-sharing options, and the kinds of journeys they take: affluent professionals on nights out downtown. And, of course, there is something to be said for how these transport options facilitate Chicago’s leisure and retail economy. 

But, for many, these are essential services rather than a luxury. While the public transportation offering feels crudely divided between the underserved South and the rest of the city, services like Uber and Lyft pick up the slack and are available across Chicago. Even some of the most struggling neighbourhoods of the city are heavily reliant on ride sharing to get where they need to go. 

Local decision makers must keep this in mind as they plan for the future. Chicago needs to be accessible to all, and persistent inequalities need to be sorted so that people have the freedom to live their lives as they wish.