Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about video

Mayor Emanuel Digs In to Kick Off Bloomingdale Trail Construction

By Steven Vance | Aug 27, 2013 | 3 Comments

At today’s groundbreaking of the Bloomingdale Trail component of The 606, Mayor Emanuel noted it’s been 100 years since the Bloomingdale Line, a freight railroad, was elevated onto the current viaduct. The trail will open in fall 2014, but Park 567 – located at one of the trail’s future access points – opened temporarily today. A different […]

Eyes on the Street: Gompers Park Speed Cameras in Effect

By Steven Vance | Aug 27, 2013 | 33 Comments

In the video, one car will be issued a warning. Watch for the subtle flash reflecting against the trees. Chicago’s first two speed cameras started monitoring car traffic yesterday around the Gompers Park “children’s safety zone” in North Mayfair. The speed cameras are at 4124 W Foster Avenue and 5119 N Pulaski Road and will […]

What It Takes to Install a Divvy Bike-Share Station

By Steven Vance | Jun 28, 2013 | 5 Comments

Tuesday morning I caught up with a Divvy bike-share station installation crew to tape the installation of the station in Pritzker Park across from the Harold Washington Library Center. The system Chicago is using, developed by the Public Bike System Company, is modular and relies on solar power, so the stations can be installed very quickly, without […]

Check Out MPC’s New Video Introducing Bus Rapid Transit to Chicagoans

By John Greenfield | Jun 25, 2013 | 36 Comments

The city’s plan for “gold-standard” bus rapid transit on Ashland between 95th and Irving Park will create a fast, reliable north-south public transportation route by converting travel lanes into dedicated bus lanes, helping more people move efficiently though the city. That’s a hard concept for many Chicagoans to wrap their heads around, as evidenced by […]

New Bike Lane Design on Milwaukee Should Reduce Crashes and Frustration

By Steven Vance | Jun 13, 2013 | 20 Comments

The bikeway upgrades on Milwaukee Avenue between Elston Avenue and Kinzie Street were completed Wednesday, adding bike lanes separated from traffic with parking and flexible posts. Other features include green striping before intersections and the city’s first two-lane bike lanes allowing faster cyclists to pass slower ones on the bridge over the Ohio Street ramp to […]

New Configuration at Fullerton and LSD Confounds Peds and Cyclists

By Steven Vance | Jun 4, 2013 | 18 Comments

Last year the Chicago Department of Transportation reconfigured Fullerton Avenue between Cannon Drive and the lakefront to make it easier for cars to enter southbound Lake Shore Drive, at the expense of pedestrians and bicyclists. To make room for a dedicated right-turn lane and a second on-ramp lane, CDOT eliminated the south sidewalk of Fullerton, […]

Truck Driver Kills 24-Year-Old Woman Crossing Kennedy Exit

By Steven Vance | Apr 23, 2013 | 22 Comments

The driver of a vegetable oil tanker ran over and killed Catherine Cong Ye, 24, as she crossed a Kennedy Expressway off-ramp along Randolph Street while walking toward the Loop yesterday morning at around 8:30 a.m, reports ABC7. The driver was turning right onto westbound Randolph Street when the ladder on the right side of […]

Chicago to Pursue Center-Running Bus Rapid Transit on Ashland Avenue

By Ben Fried | Apr 19, 2013 | 29 Comments

After a year of study and outreach, today Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Transit Authority, and the Chicago Department of Transportation announced plans for center-running Bus Rapid Transit on Ashland Avenue. Once implemented, the project could set a national precedent for high-quality BRT, improving transit speeds as much as 80 percent during rush hour, according […]

Eyes on the Street: Speed Indicator Sign Now Flashing at Speeders

By Steven Vance | Mar 6, 2013 | 6 Comments

The Humboldt Park speed indicator sign on Division Street, which we reported yesterday was broken, has been fixed. The sign currently displays the speed when a driver is traveling at exactly 30 mph and flashes the speed when the driver exceeds 30 MPH. According to a CDOT staffer, the sign will be adjusted to always […]

Talking Bike Lanes With Transpo Engineer Rock Miller, Ex-President of ITE

By Steven Vance | Feb 13, 2013 | 7 Comments

At an event last week for traffic and transportation engineers hosted by the Congress for the New Urbanism, I had the chance to talk to Rock Miller, who served as president of the Institute of Transportation Engineers last year. ITE and CNU teamed up in 2010 to produce a new guidebook, Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares, […]