Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about IDOT

Repaved South Shore Drive Makes Bicycling Smoother But Problems Remain

By Steven Vance | Oct 23, 2013 | 4 Comments

New Bikeways Week pedals ahead as we look at new and upgraded bike lanes all over the city. Yesterday I visited the Lakeside development in South Chicago to get a tour in anticipation of the grand opening of what’s known as the South Lake Shore Drive extension. After that, I checked out 1.25 miles of […]

IDOT Wants Your Feedback on the Statewide Bike Plan

By Steven Vance | Oct 23, 2013 | 33 Comments

The Illinois Department of Transportation is heading toward its winter goal of completing the statewide transportation bike plan. A meeting in Chicago this July led to a slightly tense discussion about IDOT’s ban on protected bike lanes, during which a staffer deftly tempered the mood by saying, “We used to focus only on highways… you’re […]

Another Example of IDOT Blocking Efforts for Safer Chicago Streets

By John Greenfield | Oct 22, 2013 | 39 Comments

[This piece also runs in Checkerboard City, John’s column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets on Wednesday evenings.] The Illinois Department of Transportation isn’t all bad, but it sure seems that way sometimes. Earlier this year Steven Vance broke the story that IDOT has been blocking the Chicago Department of Transportation from installing protected […]

Sprawl Continues With Illiana’s Inclusion In The Regional Plan

By Steven Vance | Oct 17, 2013 | 12 Comments

The Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Committee, part of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s governance, poked a billion dollars worth of holes – the estimated amount of public subsidy ranges between $400 million to over $1 billion – in the GO TO 2040 regional plan today by voting to list the Illiana Tollway as a […]

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 […]

CMAP Board, Voting Down Illiana, Tells How IDOT Is Witholding Funds

By Steven Vance | Oct 10, 2013 | 12 Comments

After discussion that was heated at times, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning board voted ten to four yesterday against including the Illiana Tollway as a fiscally constrained project in the GO TO 2040 regional plan. This advisory vote precedes the MPO policy committee’s deciding vote, which was supposed to take place yesterday, but was pushed […]

As IDOT Postpones Illiana Vote, Planners Say the Region Doesn’t Need It

By Steven Vance | Sep 27, 2013 | 3 Comments

Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider has pushed back a crucial vote about the Illiana Expressway a week to October 17. The vote by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning policy committee will decide if building 47 miles of tolled highway south of the urbanized areas of Chicagoland and into Indiana can proceed. If […]

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 […]

IDOT Truck Driver Injured Pregnant Divvy Rider on Augusta Last Week

By Steven Vance | Sep 12, 2013 | 12 Comments

An Illinois Department of Transportation employee driving a Ford pickup truck struck a pregnant Divvy rider at around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, September 3, at the intersection of Augusta Boulevard and Ashland Avenue. The 34-year-old victim, who was riding from East Village to work on Michigan Avenue, sustained injuries to her face and body; her pregnancy […]

MPC: Funding the Illiana Expressway Would Be a Big Mistake

By Steven Vance | Sep 5, 2013 | 32 Comments

The Metropolitan Planning Council, a non-profit promoting economic development strategies for Chicagoland, has come out strongly against the Illiana Expressway, a 47-mile highway the Illinois Department of Transportation has proposed for the rural communities of southern Will County and northwestern Indiana. MPC released a statement yesterday highlighting numerous shortcomings in IDOT’s proposal, including vague financing […]

IDOT Prepares to Ram Through Another Expensive Highway Project

By Steven Vance | Aug 20, 2013 | 53 Comments

The Illinois Department of Transportation is again seeking the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s help to build an expensive highway expansion that isn’t included in the region’s planning blueprint. This time, it’s not about a putting a flyover above Halsted Street and a wall in front of people’s homes, like the agency plans to do […]

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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