Which Affordable American City is Better Planned? 

Hey! I'm going to be streaming on my second channel later this week, talking about cities and trains of course. So if you're interested definitely give it a follow! www.youtube.com/@alanfisherextras

Go full masochist and do a Texas Triangle (HOU, SA, AUS, DAL) comparison

Didn't expect to make a little appearance in this one! Glad I caught you while you were in town. Would love to see more of these comparisons, especially between up-and-coming cities.

Philly's narrow streets are why I'm probably never leaving. You can get very far in this city in a 20 minute walk because you're hardly ever waiting to cross a street.

I love both cities, have lived in both. Chicago is probably my favorite between the two but you cannot go wrong with either. If your family and friends are along the NE corridor that probably gives the edge to Philly.

As a New Yorker, used to slow performing trains, I was very impressed with how fast Chicago El trains accelerated and decelerated, slowed down for curves but quickly sped up again, reach speeds of about 40 MPH between local stops. Our express trains max out at 50 on straight level track if we're lucky, and 55 on a few downhill sections, but on many straight sections of express tracks you'll go no faster than 42-44 MPH. In NYC, our local trains accelerate relatively slowly, and if there's a curve, it'll be signaled to go slowly well before, and doesn't accelerate nearly fast enough after. Our systems were built around the same time so age isn't an excuse; NYC has a lot to learn from Chicago.

What you said at the end is so true. I've lived in Chicago all my life and I go to UW Madison while having a lot of friends in Milwaukee. The current Hiawatha express is the Amtrak service in the midwest with the highest ridership and one of the few that works reasonably well. What's frustrating is that it was actually faster 100 years ago. It currently has a top speed of 79 mph and takes 90 min (One of the few midwest services that beats out driving). However 100 years ago it had a top speed of 110 mph and took 75 min. It would literally be my dream to not only extend the service to Madison but for it to run at speeds of 110 mph like the Lincoln service. That train would seriously get a ton of ridership. Madison is one of the fastest growing cities in the Midwest and home to one of the largest universities as well. Milwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin and Chicago is the largest city in the Midwest. If they could connect all three cities that would be amazing.

I will always love how you fill in the Philly-spaced-hole that all other transit/urban planning channels leave. Everybody always skips over this city!

We almost had a high speed rail link between Milwaukee, Chicago, Madison, and Minneapolis. But Governor Walker and the Koch brothers killed the project over ten years ago. I still get angry thinking about it.

I love living in Chicago. So easy to walk around neighborhoods or take transit wherever.

This is the most balanced, fair, and accurate comparison of these two cites I’ve ever seen. Awesome work!

I get the Philadelphia/Chicago comparison, because Philadelphia has a big city vibe to it, but it’s cut from the same cloth as Boston.

I literally just came to the realization yesterday that both of these cities are relatively affordable. Thank you, Alan Fisher, for reading my mind and making a convenient video for me.

Some friends and I took Septa/NJ transit trains from Philly to New York on a Saturday AM and came back Sunday AM after bar hopping Manhattan all night back in the 80's.

glad you enjoyed your time in chicago. the views when riding the L are unmatched.

You're dead on for both the positives and negatives of Philly and Chicago and I chose to move to Philly after spending my entire life in the South for the exact same reasons you did. You truly can't go wrong with either, but also I just love the chaotic nature of Philly 😜

Just visited philly during the week of July 4th, and I gotta say, going back to my midsized city and it's comparatively awful public transit has me considering the move to Philly.

Waking up to see Alan pitting my two urban planning crushes against each other was very exciting and makes grad school applications even more interesting….

Nice to meet you in Chicago, Alan! Hope you come back sometime soon!

"really really bad, like only one train per hour" -me weeping in caltrain 😭

3:24 dang I’d kill for one train every 2 hours on the weekend. In LA the Ventura county train line would be an ideal way for me to visit my in laws but on the weekends it barely runs. Saturdays has 2 round trips and sundays used to have 0…they just added their first round trip! Still, I’m happy that Metrolink is working to drastically boost frequency on all rail lines so I’m just hoping that the project gets finished soon!

As a Chicagoan I always felt like Philly was a unofficial sister city. Glad to see I wasn't too far off

I can't speak for Chicago, but biking in Philly has gotten a lot better over the years. When I first got here 20 years ago, riding was only for the young and bold. Now I see all types commuting in the bike lanes in the morning. Although bikers are only a small fraction, it makes a big difference taking dozens of cars off narrow S Philly streets. I feel like it makes people more calm because there's less gridlock, and everyone almost seems happier to see so more people riding. Personally seeing the change is really exciting and gives me hope, cross my fingers we continue to see progress.

Hey Alan! Great video - remember that Chicago had the Great Fire which levelled the old, narrow-streets incarnation of the city, and had that not happened, its inner city grid might look more like Philadelphia's or Boston's. (There are a few traces of that left, but not many.) Outside the downtown skyscraper core, the north side is traditional streetcar suburbs, more or less from Streeterville/Old Town up to the border of Evanston. That said, once you go west of the Chicago River, it tends to become postwar suburban sprawl and stroads pretty quickly, with lots of parking lagoons and strip malls. For a future video, take a trip up to Montreal! Most of the city core is extremely walkable and the first and second-ring suburbs were all built during the streetcar era; it doesn't become single-family housing until you reach the further edges. Check out downtown, the Old Port, the Plateau, Rosemont-Petite Patrie, and Verdun, and you'll see it's super pedestrian friendly and eminently bikeable as well. (For the opposite, visit Calgary.)

It’s nice to see some positivity about transit in the US for a change. I’d love to visit both cities someday. Cheers from an urban planner in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Excellent video! I'm a Chicago guy that has only visited Philadelphia twice, but I enjoyed the comparison. Can't wait to return to Chicago from my exile in Detroit.

The important question Sad it even has to be just these two.

What Philly needs most is a subway line under the Roosevelt Boulevard from Broad st to Bucks county. Should have been done decades ago. Also extending the Broad st line north to Cheltenham ave and south to the Navy yard would be a big improvement.

Philly vs. Boston would be a great one. I think both of them are even more similar to each other than other cities. Both share similar population, density, transit coverage, sports culture, weird accents… etc. I’m from Boston and been to Philly and really saw how parallel the two are except the big issues on topics of affordability. It truly makes no sense how Boston is so absurdly overpriced. I can’t even afford to move back even if I wanted to. It would be interesting to compare and contrast the two cities and how vastly different they operate despite sharing so much in common.

OMG THE WGN INTRO AT THE BEGINNING IS SENDING ME

GO BIRDS!

Chicago is my favorite city in America, it's such a nice place to just live in

I truly love Philly and think it's very underrated but it has nothing on Chicago imo

A major positive thing you miss about Metra is how cheap it is compared to northeast. Metra will take you 60-80 miles for $9 or less. In New York taking the LIRR train 11 miles from Jamaica Queens to midtown is $5 minimum, usually $6.25. Traveling from New York to Trenton by train is going to be $20 one way, a distance of a little over 80 miles, excluding any transfer costs, from the subway or Path train. If you live in Harlem for example you're going to be at least $3 for a subway ticket to get to the train station, plus the $20 passenger rail fee. If you then want to transfer from NJ transit to Septa its another $10 minimum. Metra takes you much further for a fraction of the cost.

I’d love to see you talk about Baltimore more. Maybe Philadelphia vs. Baltimore. I lived there for a few years and although it’s got its issues I think it is a very underrated city and quite charming.

OOOH its so cool to see my neighborhood on video. my partner and I got engagement photos under the roscoe village sign and live like a 2 min walk away!!!

Philly has a better suburban rail network but Chicago has a very vivbrant downtown living.

Having visited Society Hill, Northern Liberties, Fitler Square, and other Philly neighborhoods multiple times, I have to say Philly is so good for walking. The narrow streets came replete with rows of nice trees which provided great shade in the summertime. The narrow roads allowed for great urban exploration and I always found something new to find whether it be a cute row of houses, cool cafes, or a park. When I studied abroad in England, I noticed how similar the narrow tight streets were to Philadelphia's roads. The building's sizes were consistent and even the downtown felt like it was narrow.

Great comparison, but what I really wanted to know is what clogs your arteries faster - deep dish or cheesesteak?

Your videos are art

What a coincidence I got the notification for this video riding the blue line to O'Hare. After exploring Chicago for 4 days, I definitely enjoy the connectivity of their system. Trains are late more often then not, but frequent enough it's not a big deal

Philly cuz one I live right next to it, and two it's endless entertainment. I just zip in, walk around, visit my favorite places, eat a good ass restaurant in Chinatown and then watch the chaos as I go back home.

Love this as a series idea! The possibilities are endless, and if you know one city well but not the other its very helpful to have a point of reference you're more familiar with.

Chi Town represented!!

Going to a suburban metra station and not getting asked which way is Chicago (Impossible challenge)

First, you went and got me homesick with that WGN jingle in the intro. Second, I've been thinking that the Airport connections were disappointing in Chicago, but that's probably just because Stockholm spoiled me with high speed express rail. Third, we tried to do high speed to Milwaukee and even bought the trains before Wisconsin blocked it. Similar story with Indiana. Those two states block half of the most potential regional rail out of Chicago.

I've been on the Metra several times, and I think it's a good system, but an increase in frequency would be a big improvement. And for the loud diesel locomotives, they don't call the F40PH's "screamers" for nothing, they're loud AF! Chicago's L is great for getting around the city, the Metra is good for getting around the Chicago area, and Amtrak is adequate for getting around the Midwest. The last time I rode the Amtrak's Lincoln Service, it was pulled by new Siemens locomotive, but the speed topped out around 85mph, and we had to stop for a freight train or two. I've never been on the L, but it seems to be pretty efficient.

Fantastic video Alan! Never really considered just how similar Philly is to my hometown, but you do a great job at demonstrating that here. I love making comparison videos myself and am very glad to have found your channel recently. Keep it up!

Great video! As a life long Philadelphian you do our city proud by not "sugar coating" Philly's flaws as a city like our WOEFULLY utilized Broad Street Subway system!

Really cool to see a channel I watch with footage of spots I’ve been to countless times

I really appreciated all the streetscape videos that you included. A nice change from the map and diagram heavy vids in this genre. Love my home turf of Chicago, I definitely have taken for granted just how far the metra system can take you. Looking forward to visiting Philly someday.

Interesting selection of these cities for comparison. As someone who works as a planner, I am a member of the American Planning Association. In 2013, I attended the National Planning Conference which was convened in Chicago. After that I did not attend any National Planning Conferences until this year, when it was held in Philadelphia. Both conferences were a great way to learn more about the cities in which they were held. As a transportation planner, transit rider and rail enthusiast, I enjoyed hearing your perspectives on both cities' transit systems and Amtrak service. However, I wish you covered non-transportation attributes of both cities such as parks, architecture, housing affordability, and historic preservation. Suggestion for future comparison: Milwaukee and Cleveland. Thank you.

The dream for me personally is to live in Chicago, as it’s the best non-car-centric city that’s close to family.

coming to both these cities in august, super excited to see both

I would love a Chicago/Toronto comparison since they are almost the same size as cities.

Thank you so much for some Chicago positivity. It drives me nuts how this city is covered... it's beautiful, affordable, and while it has it's problems they are no more or less than any other city. Nice to see someone give it some appreciation

I know you typically focus on the US, but I’d love to see your thoughts on Montréal, I feel like it does well in a lot of similar things to Philadelphia

These are the two major cities that I have spent most of my life, so this is a really cool video for me. Thank you!

I like Philly I love the artwork, food, little streets, south street, big city feel, major sports, the shopping, the location. Never been to Chicago, but I listen to Chicago drill music

I recently traveled to Baltimore spent a few days there and as someone who lives in the Newark area i felt a similar vibe. So that would be an interesting video

You should compare the transit systems of the 3 massive metros in California: Los Angeles, San Fran, and San Diego. Their systems might generally suck due to the car centric city layout, but they do cover a lot of places with reasonable frequencies. I'm moving to the San Diego suburbs soon and find the transit options are better than anything in my home state of Florida.

What a fantastic video and the start of a great series! Might not be on your radar, but for us Canadian viewers, a Toronto vs Montreal would be fantastic!

I'm a philly area (NJ side) resident and lived in downtown Chicago for a few months for a job last year so I have some input Philly: 1. Philly's Septa has great schdules but needs work. Doesn't help right now that Septa closed a few stations such as Penn Medicine for maintance and now they have more busses running. 2. More NJ Transit to philly would be nice. I feel like my only choice is car because NJ transit makes it a little hard to work out schduling. River Line does a fine job but there needs to be more bus options. 3. That meme is accurate. Philly is kinda crazy and I see some scary stuff on the news somtimes which makes me avoid center city. Chicago: 1. I didn't have a car so public transit is all I had. brown line, purple line, pink line, the city CTA buses, and PACE are fabulous. Last week I visited a friend and got to ride on CTA's new electric buses. Very clean and nice. However the schedules were quite a few minutes off at times up to 10 minute delays. 2. I took Metra once on my way back from the science museum. The Fares were good and the train was clean. However the scheduling accuracy could have been better 3. My biggest complaint is the blue and red lines. They're kind of disgusting especially the underground stations. I know you're most definitely going to mention this in your Blue Line video but yikes did I dread waiting for the Blue line train at the Grand and Chicago stations. Iykyk. That's all. hopefully I didn't offened anyone. Philly and Chicago are both great cities in regards to public transportation and living but there's always room for improvement!

It's unfortunate but at least RU-vidrs like you are never short of transit issues to complain about or at least to suggest improvements on, to give you your due. You have job security with this idea, at least for a decade or two I suspect.

For airport connections Chicago O’hare also has a commuter rail service that will take you either to the loop or to the northwest suburbs

Appreciate you making this video. I am torn between choosing to live in Chicago and Philadelphia. I am surprised you did not mention cuisine as that is something I always consider when going somewhere- you gotta eat 3 times a day.

THE WGN THEME LMAO

4:21 while it is in fact an 'L' station in the Lakeview neighborhood, the station itself is called Paulina :)

As someone who was born in Chicago but spent most of my life in Philly, this is going to be interesting.

Very helpful vid, these are the two main cities I’m considering moving to after living in Atlanta recently. I hated it there lol. Still need to visit both Philly and Chicago though!

Recent immigrant from Chicago to Philly! Some of this is very on point, (how does Philly only have two metro lines??!), But there are a few instances where you underrated Philly. In bike lanes, for instance, Chicago has the same amount for a city 3 times the size, and they are rarely separated. Also, and I can't stress this enough, TROLLEYs

In my mind, Philly seems like a blend of Chicago and Boston. Grids + Affordability + underrated = Chicago Human scale + East Coast things = Boston

I think one the things that will hinder the intercity connectivity of Chicago is the lack of good transit connections in the very cities it’s connected to. The NE corridor is one of the best locations in the US to live carfree. While the Great Lakes region is one of the worst. Chicago is a shining beam in a landfill. Posted from Detroit.

I was not expecting that intro for this type of video. As a Philly native, that was amazing!! Now for the remaining 8 minutes of this video.

Amazing video Alan, your video on Metra despite its flaws inspired me to do everything I can to move to Illinois next year. Their planned connection to Rockford is very exciting to see (assuming they can create a schedule that makes weekend/day trips viable)

Awesome video! This might be a dumb question, but can you please do DC vs. NYC next?

Milwaukee mentioned ‼️‼️‼️

Great video, a Cascadia comparison could be interesting

You could always stay more local and look at the transportation and layout of the Lehigh Valley? I live in the area and would be glad to show you around

I live in Melbourne. I like the history of Philadelphia, but the Chicago way is more familiar to me.

chicago is by far my favorite city in terms of relevance, location, culture, and activites. long live cook county

2:56 The idling screaming diesels at Chicago Union Station is a beautiful vibe where if you go to the end of the platform you can be one with the F40s and its just wonderful

That channel 6 action news lead in... classic! 😂😂😂😂

From Boston, have family in Philly, have lived in Chicago and NYC. I like Chicago a lot more than Philly personally, but I think a better comparison is Philly vs. Boston. Chicago has roughly twice the population of Philly and a 50% larger metro area. When I saw "better planned" I thought this was more of a broad topic, like the layout and design of the city itself-Philly wasn't planned in the same way Chicago was after the great fire, so was curious about things like public spaces etc, where Chicago wins hands down-entirely public lakefront, great public art, plazas, etc. and tons of parks. Plus better museums etc. Chicago has had some truly incredible public works projects over the years, such as lifting the city several inches and building an insane new stormwater runoff and sewage system over decades. You can't beat the 'L' - I find Philly's local rail transit to be in awful condition, way technologically behind, and hard to figure out vs. the 'L.' Not really sure how the NEC plays a role here-I agree the Northeast is very well connected compared to the Midwest, but ultimately it kind of depends where you're trying to get, no? Chicago has two airports connected directly to the L, and you can get virtually anywhere on the planet from O'Hare. Not that O'Hare is a breeze of an airport, but I like it a lot more that PHI. And for domestic flights Midway is a breeze and close to downtown. The existing train to Milwaukee is pretty good, I took it quite a few times to visit friends. 100% agree on Metra's lack of electrification and general clunkiness, though-in particular, wish the lines didn't terminate at so many different stations. But if you don't commute in from the burbs it's not a huge deal for the city dweller. Re: biking, I biked everywhere in Chicago, drivers are a lot calmer in general than NE'ers, and felt comfortable biking there. Plus it's pancake-flat, which makes it easy (when it's not windy, ha).

Before the video starts I'm on team Chicago. I've lived in Chicago but I currently live in Philadelphia and I think that Chicago is better. You just have to find what you are looking for

At least connection wise Milwaukee and Chicago are pretty good. Amtrak runs between them 7 times a day and takes a little under 1.5 hours. They’re trying to make it faster and up the trips to 10 with track upgrades. While there are a few different bus services that drop off at different locations. I’d guess there’s 20 to 30 buses a day. It’s close to being ideal. If they could get me to Chicago in an hour and the train leaves every hour I wouldn’t complain. The biggest issue with connectedness right now is I know people who will go to a sports game or concert in either city and find out the last bus or train leaves around 9:30 and have to leave their event early or get a hotel room. Sometimes people Uber if they’re desperate but that runs about $200 I think.

Cool comparison. If you do another, it would be fun to see you compare Vancouver, Seattle and Portland.

I really wanna check out Philly more next time as in actually getting to spend time there. I’ve been to PA but mainly was a way to get to Boston and it’s a lot of the rural parts I’ve seen to like around Harrisburg. In terms of other cities and towns I really like, Somerville in MA is definitely one of my favorites! Same with Greenville SC. Very charming places imo and very easy to park and walk around. Never been to Chicago either but looks like fun. We helped a woman move from GA to there so I’m curious.

as florida person who needs some change, but still wants to upgrade to a bigger city, Philly has exactly the kind of energy I'm looking for.

Thank you for showcasing Chicago, we always get forgotten about

Would love to see ideas about Allegheny/Pittsburgh transit stuff, its such an interesting area especially due to its geography

If Harrisburg to Pittsburgh got electrified I would finally get off my ass and visit Pittsburgh. It's too close to fly from North Jersey, but I've never felt like driving there either, so I've just never gone. I passed through it on my one Broadway Limited trip 31 years ago, but that was it.

There really should be NEC quality train service between the coast and Chicago. All electric and all triple digit speed with full priority for passenger trains.

My twin brother lives in Philly and I live in Chicago! You literally hit all of the points that me and him go through when we argue lol

That intro alone made me watch this video and consider subscribing lol. I always thought of Chicago being more similar to NYC than Philly, but I've never been. Indianapolis is a lot different than what I'm used to in Philly. I like the calmness of Indy and how bikeable it is, but like you said, nothing beats the northeast corridor with transportation. There's also more to do. I look forward to moving back in a few weeks 😂

Please do a comparison of San Diego with a city like Minneapolis! Both have nearly identical MSA and urban area populations with San Diego having slightly higher transit ridership.

Quick correction: the Blue Line doesn’t terminate at the Loop, it bends around and heads back out due west into the suburbs

Lived Carless both in downtown Chicago and Center City Philadelphia for 10 plus years each. Bike Lanes suck (both need protective bike lanes). Bus and Trains about equal. Both Walkable if you stick to heart of City. Chicago has Lake Michigan which I loved so Chicago wins.

the blue line doesn't terminate at the loop however. It goes from ohare to forest park and vice versa.

I’d love a video about the NEC / Midwest connection route through Pennsylvania.