Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about CDOT

New CDOT Guidelines Require Sustainable Design in All Projects

By Steven Vance | Oct 29, 2013 | 1 Comment

The Chicago Department of Transportation continues to expand its role in building livable streets with the introduction of the Sustainable Urban Infrastructure Guidelines [PDF]. These guidelines address much more than transportation – including issues like water quality and economic development – because streets are not just for moving people and goods. CDOT intends this document […]

Will Transit Reps Repeat Their Misguided Support for the Illiana Tomorrow?

By Steven Vance | Oct 16, 2013 | 9 Comments

Funding for major Chicagoland transit projects will be at stake tomorrow, when regional representatives convened by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning vote on whether to move forward with the Illiana Tollway. Even though approving the Illiana will jeopardize CTA and Metra improvements by adding competition for the same pot of funds, all four Chicagoland […]

Metra and Pace Vote For Transit-Crushing Illiana Tollway in Advisory Meeting

By Steven Vance | Oct 8, 2013 | 87 Comments

Chicago-area transportation organizations are poised to shoot themselves in the foot and harm the region by allowing the Illinois Department of Transportation Department to squander limited transportation infrastructure funds on the $2.75 billion Illiana Tollway. On Friday the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s transportation committee voted to recommend moving forward with this wasteful, destructive project, […]

Protected Bike Lanes Will Make State Street a Greater Street

By Kristen Maddox | Sep 27, 2013 | 12 Comments

If support from aldermen Patricia Dowell (3rd) and Will Burns (4th) expressed at a public meeting on Tuesday is any indication, it should be relatively easy for the Chicago Department of Transportation to install buffered and protected bike lanes along State Street from 18th to 26th streets. This eight-block stretch is .8 miles long, since […]

CDOT Reveals Plans for Chicago’s First Raised Bike Lane on Roosevelt Road

By Kristen Maddox and John Greenfield | Sep 27, 2013 | 22 Comments

At a community meeting Tuesday at Columbia College, Chicago Department of Transportation Project Director Janet Attarian outlined plans for the new Roosevelt Road streetscape from State Street to Columbus Drive. The project will include a groundbreaking new segment of sidewalk-level, two-way bicycle lane, part of a bike-friendly route to and from the lakefront. The info […]

Bike Coordinator Ben Gomberg Leaves CDOT After 17 Years

By John Greenfield | Sep 25, 2013 | 9 Comments

It’s the end of an era. After serving as Chicago’s first and only bike program coordinator since 1996, Ben Gomberg says he has left the city’s transportation department for greener pastures. “After 17 years coordinating Chicago’s bike program I felt it was time to move on,” he told me. “I’m proud of establishing the largest and […]

How Can Chicago Fix the “Weak Links” That Mar Bike Access Downtown?

By Steven Vance | Sep 18, 2013 | 41 Comments

Biking downtown has improved substantially with the addition of protected bike lanes on Kinzie Street and Dearborn Street, but much work remains to be done to create a safe, cohesive bike network linking people to Chicago’s biggest employment center. At last week’s meeting of the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council, Michelle Stenzel, a community representative for the […]

CDOT Launches New Online Clearinghouse: “Complete Streets Chicago”

By John Greenfield | Aug 28, 2013 | 3 Comments

The Chicago Department of Transportation has so many balls in the air nowadays when it comes to sustainable transportation and livable streets projects, it can be hard to wrap your head around all of them. The department’s recently launched Chicago Complete Streets web portal is good starting point for getting a handle on the many […]

It’s Time for CDOT to Stop Calling Buffered Bike Lanes “Protected”

By Steven Vance | Aug 8, 2013 | 28 Comments

After Rahm Emanuel was elected mayor, he released a transition report that called for creating 100 miles of protected bike lanes by May 2015. It was an ambitious and admirable goal. The report defined protected lanes as “separated from traveling cars and sit[ting] between the sidewalk and a row of parked cars that shield cyclists […]

Mix of Protected and Buffered Bike Lanes Slated for Busy Broadway

By Steven Vance | Aug 1, 2013 | 48 Comments

The Chicago Department of Transportation will redesign Broadway between Montrose and Foster, a mile-long stretch that’s currently a very car-centric four- to five-lane road. The street is so inhospitable that one resident at a public meeting Wednesday night said she doesn’t drive, walk, or bike on it. The agency failed to make a “complete street” […]

Divvy Grows to 117 Stations, Launches Corporate Memberships

By John Greenfield | Aug 1, 2013 | 27 Comments

Rahm Emanuel celebrated the one-month anniversary of the Divvy bike-share system at a ribbon cutting this morning for a new docking station at Fosco Park Community Center, 1312 South Racine. The mayor announced that with 117 stations scheduled to be online by the end of the day, Divvy will become the fourth-largest public bike system […]

North Lake Shore Drive Will Get Rebuilt, But Will It Be a Great Street?

By Steven Vance | Jul 25, 2013 | 114 Comments

The north portion of Lake Shore Drive, from Grand Avenue to its northern terminus at Hollywood Avenue, will be rebuilt in the next five years. It’s a major transportation project and a huge opportunity for Chicago, but will we make the most of it? A coalition of 15 national and regional organizations presented their vision […]

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