John Greenfield

• BNSF train struck person near 16th/Halsted in Pilsen, no word on their condition, less than 12 hours after BNSF killed person near Westmont (NBC)

Yesterday, Block Club Chicago's Alex V. Hernandez reported that the 4700 block Lincoln Avenue in the Lincoln Square community would be opened for car-free use starting Monday, for the next week. That's being done to accommodate construction work on Leland Avenue between Western Avenue and Lincoln, including a new plaza next to the Western Brown Line station and raised bike lanes. The latter will complete the long-awaited Leland Neighborhood Greenway, a lower-stress, mostly side-street bike route connecting the North Shore Channel Trail and the Lakefront Trail.

• ELP's Howard Learner: "This Earth Day, Illinois must step up to protect our core environmental values," including addressing transit fiscal cliff (Tribune)

Plus a discussion of why at many Metra stations, if you're not a daily commuter, it can be maddeningly non-obvious which platform you need to wait on.

• Block Club: 4 killed since Saturday in crashes in Austin, River North, Roseland "is the worst 24-hour stretch for traffic deaths in over a year, data shows."

• On Wednesday night in Joliet, Kia driver, 29, critically injured man, 56, trying to cross near Cass/Youngs "stroad" intersection with no crosswalks (CBS)

On Monday, April 7, at around 5:09 a.m. a pickup driver, 26, fatally struck a 72-year-old male pedestrian at the intersection of Roosevelt Road and DuSable Lake Shore Drive, just west of the Museum Campus. It was reported that the victim had been trying to cross the highway on foot, although it's illegal to do so there.

• "Could Banning Cars On Michigan Avenue Be The Key To Revitalizing Downtown?" UChicago graduate students say yes. (Block Club)

See the update about the new signs at the bottom of this post, originally published on April 16, 2025.

• John Flemister, 61, a doorman, allegedly drew first, started shooting before being killed in gunfight with CTA worker, 24, near UIC/Halsted (CBS)