chicago trip

The trip of Chicago is one that I will never forget, I had such a great learning experience. From waking up early for meetings to observing the city, every moment of it was exciting and unforgettable. Through this one week trip in Chicago, I learned so much about Vision Zero and the history of Chinatown in Chicago. I learned about one of the ways that Vision Zero Chicago plan on being successful in this plan in which they would encourage Chicagoans to take buses instead of driving to decrease fatalities. One of the many things I noticed about Chicago is that the transportation is very efficient. The center of the city had many buses and trains, so the wait wasn’t long. I payed very close attention to my surroundings and noticed that the voice recordings on the CTA buses didn’t have different languages. I became more aware of my surroundings in SF because there are things I took for granted such as how the variety of languages the voice recordings play really make it way easier for people who don’t speak English to get around. Behind the great impression of the city and the transportation, I learned about the improvements the city plan on making and how they are working to fix some of their underlying transportation problems. If it weren’t for the informational meetings with people working for Chicago’s vision zero, I wouldn’t have known that one of Chicago’s problems is that the number of transportation lines isn’t actually enough since they don’t reach the outer parts of the city and they are working on adding more bus lines. Thanks to this trip, I was able to have this amazing hands on experience where I saw for myself by making it to these meetings in the city itself. I hope to be able to go back someday to see how Chicago improved or changed!

- Lina Mai