Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about State Policy

Quinn, Rauner Should Get On Board With Region’s Performance Measures

By Steven Vance | Sep 2, 2014 | 6 Comments

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s lauded GO TO 2040 regional plan prioritizes transportation investments based on performance measures, rather than through arbitrary formulas or aggressive politicking. This ensures that the hundreds of millions of federal dollars that CMAP handles are spent on projects selected on need and merit, rather than just because someone important likes […]

Man Killed Sunday Was 4th Person Fatally Struck on North Avenue This Year

By John Greenfield | Aug 26, 2014 | 22 Comments

View Larger Map The 2700 Block of West North Avenue. A man killed by an allegedly drunk driver Sunday is the latest in a series of people fatally struck on speeding-plagued North Avenue, in 2014. Around 8:25 p.m. Sunday, a 55-year-old man was crossing northbound on the 2700 block of North Avenue near Cermak Produce, […]

The Metra-Politan Perimeter Ride: Pedaling to Every Metra Line Endpoint

By John Greenfield | Aug 20, 2014 | 12 Comments

[This article also appeared as a cover story in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets on Wednesday evenings.] I confess that I’m obsessed with pedaling the perimeters of things. For years, I led the Chicago Perimeter Ride, a hundred-mile bicycle tour of the rim of the city, stopping to admire goofy commercial architecture landmarks, from […]

Successful Pilot Means New “Bus on Shoulders” Routes For Pace

By Steven Vance | Aug 12, 2014 | 5 Comments

For the past three years, Pace has run two express bus routes down the Stevenson Expressway (I-55) from Bolingbrook and Plainfield to downtown Chicago and the Illinois Medical District, and used the expressway’s shoulders to bypass traffic jams. Creating these dedicated transit lanes has resulted in better reliability — on-time performance jumped from 68 to 93 percent […]

Quinn Borrows $1.1 Billion to Keep IDOT’s Steamrollers Going

By Steven Vance | Jul 22, 2014 | 15 Comments

Governor Pat Quinn signed two bills today that allow the state to issue $1.1 billion in general obligation bonds to spend on highway resurfacing, widening, and bridge repair. The bills explicitly exclude transit from the new funds, and while they don’t seem to exclude bike lanes, trails, or sidewalks, all of the funds are already […]

CMAP Tells IDOT: “To Each Municipality, According to Their Needs”

By Steven Vance | Jul 8, 2014 | 9 Comments

The Illinois Department of Transportation, whose secretary resigned last week after accusations about patronage hiring, distributed $545 million in gas tax revenue to fix streets in almost 3,000 jurisdictions last year. While this sounds like a lot of money, poor road and bridge conditions across the state can attest to the fact that these funds […]

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