The Urban Transportation Center at UIC is dedicated to conducting research and education and providing technical assistance on urban transportation planning, policy, operations and management. We specialize in these core clusters of transportation research: transit planning, operations and management; transportation funding and financing; freight planning, operations and management; and data development for transportation planning and policy analysis.
With the assistance of three federal grants, the Urban Transportation Center is now funded as a partner of three new national transportation research consortia: The National Center for Transit Research; the National University Rail Center (NURail); and the National Center for Freight & Infrastructure Research & Education (CFIRE). The awards are funding collaborative research in the areas of public transportation, rail engineering and technology, and freight and infrastructure.
Guest speaker Frank Patton discusses the Illiana Expressway and a proposed rail corridor
within it during a brown bag lunch on Monday, April 16 in the UTC conference room.
UTC updates
May 2012
• The Spring 2012 edition of the UTC's newsletter, The Connector, is now available.
April 2012
• Executive Director Steve Schlickman is quoted in an April 28 article in Crain's Chicago Business on Rahm Emanuel's handling of transportation issues in his first year as Mayor of Chicago.
• Executive Director Steve Schlickman is quoted in an April 3 Progress Illinois article on the unlikeliness of the proposed CTA Red Line expansion receiving funding from private investors. He is also quoted in a March 30 Chicago Tribune article on a recent performance assessment of CTA and Metra in comparison to transit systems in other U.S. cities.
• Highlights from the conference Rebuilding the North American Economy Together an event sponsored by CN and supported by Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, are now available.
February 2012
• UTC Research Assistant Rebecca Geissler presented on feminist transportation planning at a brown bag lunch held Tuesday, February 28, at the transportation center. The event was part of the ongoing UTC Diversity Lunch Series.
• Research Associate Professor Paul Metaxatos is quoted in a February 24 article in the Northwest Indiana Times on the prospect of a single fare card to be used on the CTA, Metra and Pace.
• Siim Soot, associate professor emeritus in the Urban Transportation Center, was featured on ABC 7 News and quoted in a corresponding news article on Febuary 22. Soot spoke on the frequency of traffic accidents caused by wrong-way driving by impaired drivers.
• Executive Director Steve Schlickman is quoted in February 14 articles in both Medill Reports and the Northwest Indiana Times on the CTA's hiring of Goldman Sachs to explore a public-private partnership option to fund Red Line projects.
January 2012
• Executive Director Steve Schlickman is quoted in a January 26 article in Medill Reports on the danger of participants in the monthly Critical Mass bike rides refusing to obey traffic laws.
• Urban Transportation Center staff attended the Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting, held January 22-26, in Washington, DC. The theme of the event was "Transportation: Putting Innovation and People to Work." A number of UTC staff and affiliates presented at the event, which featured over 600 sessions and workshops across all transportation modes, and drew more than 11,000 transportation professionals from around the globe.
• A January 17 article in Crain’s Chicago Business reports on the Urban Transportation Center winning up to $1 million per year for two years as part of two newly designated federal University Transportation Centers.
• Executive Director Steve Schlickman is quoted in a January 12 article in Medill Reports on the CTA's new text messaging system to track trains on a conventional cell phone, a counterpart to its Train Tracker app for smart phones.
• The December 2011 edition of the UTC's newsletter, The Connector, is now available.
Ongoing research projects
The METSI project continues to provide UTC with funding for research, and is crucial to both the breadth and depth of research topics that UTC faculty, staff and students undertake. These topics include Transportation Planning, Land Use and Economic Impact of Transportation, Operations, Management and Finance, and Traffic Engineering, among others.
Other prominent projects include the CTA Project and ongoing freight research funded by a gift from CN Railroad.
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