Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Federal Policy

Regional Transit Needs New Funding to Meet $20 Billion Backlog

By Steven Vance | Apr 2, 2014 | 3 Comments

Transit systems in Northeastern Illinois face a $20 billion maintenance backlog. Now the question is how to pay for it. Governor Pat Quinn’s Northeastern Illinois transit task force has shown some of the possibilities at the region’s disposal, but hasn’t staked out a position on how to secure the necessary revenue to keep Chicagoland’s track, […]

Feds Include Red/Purple Rehab and Ashland BRT on Lists for Future Funding

By John Greenfield | Mar 10, 2014 | 7 Comments

There was some good news last week for two of the Chicago Transit Authority’s big upcoming projects. On Wednesday the Obama administration recommended the CTA’s Red & Purple Modernization project for fiscal year 2015 funding, and included the Ashland bus rapid transit corridor on a lists of transit projects for possible future funding. However, approval […]

Illinois’s New Highways Will Cost Taxpayers Dearly

By Steven Vance | Feb 14, 2014 | 14 Comments

The nation may be driving less, but Illinois road boosters are still determined to build more highways. The problem for Illinois taxpayers is that it may be impossible to construct these new roads without huge subsidies. Tolls on the proposed Illiana Expressway may be four times as high as tollways elsewhere around Chicago, according to […]

What Will Our Future Be Like If We Don’t Change How We Get Around?

By Angie Schmitt | Dec 5, 2013 | No Comments

How will Americans get around in the year 2030? A recent report from the RAND Corporation lays out two “plausible futures” developed though a “scenario analysis” and vetted by outside experts. While RAND takes a decidedly agnostic stance toward the implications of each scenario, the choice that emerges is still pretty stark. In the first […]

Controlling Trains Will Save Lives, Reducing Car Speeds Will Save Many More

By Steven Vance | Dec 4, 2013 | 7 Comments

After the fatal Metro-North commuter rail crash in the Bronx this weekend, yesterday the Chicago Tribune published an informative article about Positive Train Control for Metra. PTC is a technology that can slow or stop a train when the engineer is incapable of operating it, not paying attention, or when something else goes wrong. After a commuter […]

Bike Writer Elly Blue Discusses the Economics of Cycling

By John Greenfield | Nov 26, 2013 | 18 Comments

On Friday I had the pleasure of moderating a discussion of cycling and economics with bike writer Elly Blue, author of the new book “Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save The Economy,” at City Lit bookstore in Logan Square. Blue’s work has appeared in various biking, sustainability, and feminist publications, and she’s also the author of […]

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