About Us
What is UChicago Transit Enthusiasts?
UChicago Transit Enthusiasts & Explorer seeks to engage, educate, and advocate around transportation and urban planning in Chicagoland and beyond. Through these three pillars, we foster a community for students interested in transit/transportation.
Engage
We ENGAGE through our transit excursions. Transit excursions are activities in the city that we subsidize or offer at a low-cost to members. Each excursion is different, but they all share a common characteristic: they are accessible on public transit or connected to transportation. In the past, we have held trips to the Illinois Railway Museum, Pullman National Park, Garfield Conservatory, and more.
The aim of these excursions is to expose new and newly outgoing students to the wonders the city of Chicago has to offer. We truly want to bring people off campus to destigmatize the reputation public transit in Chicago holds. In hosting these excursions, we hope that students will become more sociable with each other and build stronger club bonds, become inspired to explore more of the city on their own, and become motivated to engage with the local residents and communities that our university is a part of.
Educate
We EDUCATE through our speaker series and networking opportunities. We hold partnerships with a variety of groups in the transportation industry. The Chicago Transit Authority, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Chicago Department of Aviation, Chicago Young Professionals in Transportation, and more are just some of the organizations we have held events within the past or maintain connections with. Our speaker series draws out rising stars with roots in the University to connect directly with students on topics like Data Science and Transit, Social Equity in Fare Enforcement, Airline Network planning, and more.
Additionally, we regularly host competitions and events in partnerships with other RSOs and University departments, such as our First Annual Transit Datathon (sponsored by Transit Tees). If you’d like to learn more, one of our speaker events was featured in Chicago StreetsBlog, check it out here.
Advocate
We ADVOCATE through our partnerships with community action groups like Commuters Take Action. We work with community stakeholders to identify flaws in our city’s transit network and we take action. Some examples of prior actions promoted or organized by our club have been picketing with Chicago Transit Authority train workers for better working conditions, boosting petitions calling on reform in the leadership of the Regional Transportation Agency, and inviting speakers from the community to educate students on other issues plaguing quality service.
Events are primarily planned by the leadership team, though any event can be proposed by a member and receive support. We invite you to get involved by joining our Discord server, it’s where a majority of conversations around our organization take place, and you’ll get a larger say in how we operate. If you have any interest at all in transportation, urban planning, or adjacent fields, you’ll love our RSO.
How can I get involved?
Join our Discord to engage with our growing community of undergraduates and graduate students, and/or join our Listhost by requesting to join us on Blueprint. All events are posted on our Discord and sent out to our list host. All public events are posted to our Blueprint page.
To join our listhost and get email notifications, join us officially on Blueprint. (UChicago CNET account required)