Cameron Bolton

Photos by John Greenfield.

On Thursday, DuPage County and the City of Elmhurst staged a pop-up event where road space near the Illinois Prairie Path was covered with lawn furniture, flower pots, toys, and artificial grass to create "parklets."

Yesterday, the City Council's Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic discussed the installation of new speed cameras this year. At the beginning of this year, Earlier this year, Chicago had 162 existing speed cams ,and Mayor Brandon Johnson announced plans to install 50 more. Officials said about 40 additional cameras were requested by alderpersons; 23 of which have been installed so far in April and May; 11 locations are currently being designed and installed; and the remainder are still under consideration.

The 2025 Illinois Bike & Walk Summit, billed as "the state’s most important conference related to biking and walking," was held this past week in Springfield, the state capital. It was organized by Ride Illinois, the statewide cycling advocacy organization.

Good news for rail fans: Recently, Illinois legislators discussed a groundbreaking bill to launch statewide train service.

This Saturday, May 3, the Southwest Collective will host the BIKE Brighton ride, starting from the Chicago Park District Headquarters, 4830 S. Western Ave., and cruise six miles through the Brighton Park neighborhood. The community group describes itself as "a collective of neighborhoods in the Midway [Airport] area, joining forces to improve the Southwest Side of Chicago."

This week, Streetsblog Chicago ran my interview with longtime sustainable transportation advocate Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Vice President for Government Affairs Jacky Grimshaw, who happens to be my grandmother. She was being recognized by Climate Action Museum with its 2025 Tom Skilling Lifetime Achievement Award, so we discussed that honor. We also talked about her current mission urging State lawmakers to address Chicagoland's impending $770 million transit budget gap this spring, so as to avoid nightmarish service cuts next year.

I'm very proud to report that my grandmother Jacky Grimshaw, a legend in local sustainable transportation advocacy, is being recognized by Climate Action Museum with its 2025 Tom Skilling Lifetime Achievement Award.

Recently, Streetsblog Chicago's John Greenfield came across the blog post, "For $5.7 billion, South Side Chicago deserved far more than the Red Line Extension," written by Toronto-based transit advocate August Puranauth. [Puranauth uses they/them pronouns.]

Chicagoland faces a $770 million total public transportation fiscal cliff, which would result in austerity measures – extreme service cuts – in 2026. That is, unless Illinois legislators take decisive action by the end of next month to address the budget gap.