Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Streetsblog Network

Former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford died yesterday at the age of 46. He had been battling cancer. Ford was a high-profile, polarizing figure who built a political career playing off tensions between the urbanizing central city and Toronto’s working-class outer neighborhoods. Most famous to Streetsblog readers was Ford’s almost comical hatred of bike lanes. “Cyclists are a pain in […]

High-speed police chases have no place in crowded cities. The risk of killing innocent bystanders is just too high to justify maybe preventing the “bad guy” from getting away. Branden Klayko at Network blog Broken Sidewalk reports that Louisville recently revised its police chase policy to become “among the strictest in the country,” and it’s saving lives: In 2012, […]

A promotional video for the Milwaukee Bucks’ new downtown arena promises the public a “ripple effect” for their investment of hundreds of millions of dollars, saying the stadium will “transform” the neighborhood with development and jobs. The whole thing is pretty over the top. Jeramey Jannene over at Urban Milwaukee has evaluating the recently unveiled stadium design. He notes that, for some […]

The D.C. Metro was shut down for 29 hours straight earlier this week while inspectors checked for defects in jumper cables, which transmit power between sections of the electrified third rail, along all the track in the system. To its credit, WMATA publicly documented the process. Stephen Repetski at Greater Greater Washington reports that inspectors found 26 jumper […]

Last time we checked in on Houston’s bus network redesign, ridership was on the rise just a few months after METRO, the local transit agency, rearranged its routes. The new pattern optimized existing resources, providing more people with access to more frequent bus service without costing more to operate. Leah Binkovitz at The Urban Edge, the […]

Today’s emergency 24-hour shutdown of the D.C. Metro system is a transit embarrassment of epic proportions. The shutdown follows an electrical fire in a subway tunnel Monday, and will allow for system-wide safety inspections. Metro has been under federal control following a smoke inhalation death caused by a similar problem last year. David Alpert at Greater Greater Washington wonders how the region’s […]