A curious thing: the 2005 Chicago bike maps were paid for by Chase/Bank One as part of its Bike One marketing scheme. (Personally, I suspect it’s because LaSalle has had pretty good success “owning” many of the local running events, notably the Marathon.) This year’s map notes the many recently opened branches around town. Curiously, a good many are within one block of CTA stations — most obviously following the Blue Line out along Milwaukee, where before there were no branches between the West Loop and Avondale, now four branches have sprouted within a block of the Blue Line between Division and Logan Square, plus two further from the train. This is in addition to the ATMs placed inside many stations. Of course, this makes eminently good sense — many stations have existing retail clusters around them, and people want convenient banking that fits into their daily schedules, and many of said schedules include the train — but it’s still interesting to have this longitudinal comparison.

CTA stations that Bank One has opened branches within two blocks of in the past year:
Red Line: Cermak, Harrison, Chicago, Sheridan, Lawrence, Bryn Mawr, Thorndale/Granville
Brown Line: Armitage, Irving Park, Western, Kedzie
Blue Line: Logan Square, California, Damen, Division
Orange Line: Roosevelt, Pulaski
Purple Line: South Blvd.