The Active Transportation Alliance recently held one its monthly Chicago Advocacy Connect Zoom chats, featuring staff from the Chicago City Council's Pedestrian & Traffic Safety Committee. Chief of Staff Iris Postma and Director of Transportation Policy and Planning Morgan Madderon talked about the committee's Vision Zero Policy Package vision, which comes with a three-pronged approach.
"These three pieces of legislation were introduced at the July City Council meeting around a year of conversations with the committee, community groups, and advocacy groups like Active Trans," said Madderon. "You might have seen us at the Chicago Mobility Collaborative [meetings]. We usually host a table and hold conversations around these policies. And the reason why these three are being introduced together is because we feel that they work well in order to combat traffic safety issues."
One prong is lowering the Chicago speed limit from 30 to 25 mph. A lower speed limit would increase the chances of a struck pedestrian surviving a crash, and several other major U.S. cities, such as New York, have already had success lowering their speed limits. Back in May, the Chicago proposal got a lot of support from various speakers at a City Council meeting.
Another prong is establishing a system allowing residents to report bike and bus lane obstructions by drivers of personal and commercial vehicles. This would improve safety by reducing cyclists' need to leave the bike lanes and merge into a mixed-traffic lane to avoid parked cars. It would also shorten bus trip times. And it would give police more time to respond to urgent situations, rather than writing parking tickets.
The thrird prong is establishing an interagency working group to evaluate and implement new fines and fee structures for speed and red light cameras to help ensure automated enforcement is implemented equitably. A January 2022 University of Illinois at Chicago study found that while Chicago's traffic cam program was effective at saving lives, there were racial and ethnic disparities in terms of who the cameras recorded breaking traffic laws. The City of Chicago responded by launching an income-based traffic fine pilot, which halved the ticket fees for low-income residents and offered a debt forgiveness program.
"One of the things that we've heard from a lot of people, a lot of advocates, is that they really want the money that is raised by speed cameras and red light cameras to be directed into funds for infrastructure at the locations," said Postma. "So, there's a lot of people who don't feel trust in how the City is enforcing speeding and red lights and we think that if they can see that 'I got this ticket here, I paid the City, and now the City is using that money to make those intersections safer,' that will get rid of the need for there to be a speed camera in the first place, but also [help] people understand why they're being ticketed and seeing the direct impact of that."
ATA's Managing Director of Advocacy, Jim Merrell, discussed two urgent transportation issues. One is the looming closure of Chicago's Greyhound terminal, 630 W. Harrison St., without any plans to open another intercity bus station elsewhere. In response, 22 advocacy, community, and civic groups joined forces as the Coalition to Save the Chicago Greyhound Terminal.
Merrell also talked about efforts to stop the Illinois and Chicago transportation departments from rebuilding North DuSable Lake Shore Drive as an eight-lane highway with no bus lanes, and instead choose a more people-friendly design. The advocacy group Better Streets Chicago recently hosted a Lakefront Community Visioning meeting on the issue.
Merrell also spoke about the City's Better Streets for Buses plan. "The CTA, in partnership with the Chicago Department of Transportation, put out their Better Streets for Buses plan, which is basically a vision of a network for bus-priority streets," he said. "[These are] places where we could put bus lanes and improve signals and bus stops to really speed up the bus, make it faster and more reliable, and make for a better, more dignified experience for riders. So we're going to be hosting, along with a dozen community-based partners, a series of community listening and learning sessions along five different corridors where we know there's going to be another round of planning and design for bus improvements."
Toward the end of the meeting, ATA Advocacy Manager Alex Perez gave a detailed explanation of The Chicago River Edge Access Study, which started in fall 2023. Active Trans is trying to help create a continuous river trail by noting the gaps and challenges among existing trail sections.
During the meeting, Merrell talked about recent and upcoming sustainable transportation advocacy events. He noted that last Monday, some 150 people joined a ride to protest the City's plan to give the Dickens Greenway bike-ped plan.
Merrell also noted that the #Week Without Driving Challenge will take place from September 20 to October 6. Also next month, the City of Chicago's budget hearings will take place, and national Walk & Roll to School Day happens on October 9.
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