Remember to join Streetsblog and the Active Transportation Alliance next week as we celebrate the CTA’s plan to build fast, reliable bus rapid transit on Ashland Avenue and talk about the campaign to make this vision a reality. We’ll be hosting the Ashland BRT Advocate Social and BeeRT Pub Stroll this Tuesday, October 15, 5:30 p.m. at the Cobra Lounge, 235 North Ashland, just north of the Ashland/Lake ‘L’ stop.

The event is free and open to the public. Enjoy complimentary appetizers courtesy of Active Trans while you share your enthusiasm for better transit with like-minded folks, get your photo taken with an interactive BRT poster and sign the petition endorsing the plan, if you haven’t already done so. Alliance staffers will make a short presentation about ways you can help support BRT, and the next steps for winning the battle over the future of Ashland. We’ll also have free “I [heart] Bus Rapid Transit” buttons, designed by Streetsblog and funded by Active Trans.

At 7 p.m., Steven Vance and I will lead a walk south down Ashland, checking out existing conditions on the roadway and discussing how BRT will help create a safer, more efficient and more liveable street. By coincidence, we’ll be passing by the First Baptist Congregational Church, 1613 West Washington, headquarters of the BRT opposition group the Ashland-Western Coalition, but we will maintain a respectful distance from the historic building. The .7-mile stroll will end at the Park Tavern gastropub, 1645 West Jackson. From there it’s a five-minute walk to the Blue Line’s Illinois Medical District stop.

Hope to see you there, along some of the thousands of other Chicagoans who want to see Ashland reconfigured to become a more sensible, equitable and humane street.

If you like, RSVP for the event on Facebook here.