Payton Chung
Payton Chung is Editor at Large of Streetsblog USA. He first addressed a city council about smart growth in 1996, accidentally authored Chicago's inclusionary housing law, and sees the promises and perils of planning every day as a resident of "beautiful as well as sanitary" Washington, D.C.
Recent Posts
Here’s Looking at You, Kidwell: The Tribune’s Anti-Traffic Cam Reporter Has Left the Paper
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Investigative reporter David Kidwell broke the Redflex bribery scandal and pressured the city to make reforms to the red light camera program, but much of his reporting on automated enforcement was misleading and betrayed an apparent personal bias against traffic cams.
Yellow Journalism: Tribune Panics Over “Risky” Stoplight Timing
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Day in and day out for at least 30 years (and perhaps for almost a century), over 3,000 stoplights all across Chicago have whirred through tens of millions of cycles the exact same way: green, then yellow for three seconds, then red. Yet today, this three second cycle was suddenly declared a public safety emergency, […]
Why the Tribune’s Red Light Camera Story Is Garbage Journalism
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In a huge front-page story Friday, the Chicago Tribune published yet another installment in its long-running vendetta against the city’s photographic traffic enforcement program. Because the Trib chose to obscure key information about the severity of crashes, the story is worthless as an evaluation of the city’s red light camera program. The article lavishes attention […]
Uptown Developer Finds New Bikes Enticing New Tenants
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Visitors staying overnight at some Chicago hotels have long been able to borrow bikes during their stays, but now one apartment building owner has upped the ante and is giving away bikes for rather longer-term stays. Cedar Street Companies is offering free custom bicycles as an incentive for new tenants to sign two-year leases before […]
Today’s Headlines
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Proposed Federal Budget Deal Could Include Funds For Red Line Rebuild (Crain’s) Tollway Examining Tri-State Rebuild, Could Add More Lanes For Cars, Buses (Tribune) Mayor Backs New Zoning Incentives For Affordable Housing Near Transit (Crain’s) Report Urges More Mixed-Income Housing Near Transit in North Shore (Tribune) Proposed Redevelopment of Logan Square Mega Mall Adds Housing, […]
Effective “Stop For Pedestrians” Signs Worth The Minimal Replacement Cost
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An article in Monday’s Tribune confirmed what we already knew: Chicago’s “Stop for Pedestrians” signs have been taking a beating from careless drivers. In 2012, the city began installing the placards by crosswalks at unsignalized intersections. The Trib reported that 78 percent of the 344 signs installed have been replaced after motorists crashed into them. […]
The Great Traffic Projection Swindle
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This is the final piece in a three-part series about privately-financed roads. In the first two parts of this series, we looked at the Indiana Toll Road as an example of the growth in privately financed highways, and how financial firms can turn these assets into profits, even if the road itself is a big money loser. […]
How Macquarie Makes Money By Losing Money on Toll Roads
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This is the second post in a three-part series about the Indiana Toll Road and privately financed highways. Read part one. Macquarie Group, the gigantic Australian financial services firm with some $400 billion in assets under management, has made a lot of money in the infrastructure privatization game. The publicly traded company owns the Brussels Airport, […]
The Indiana Toll Road and the Dark Side of Privately Financed Highways
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This is the first post in a three-part series on the Indiana Toll Road and the use of private finance to build and maintain highways. In September, the operator of the Indiana Toll Road filed for bankruptcy, eight years after inking a $3.8 billion, 75-year concession for the road with the administration of Governor Mitch Daniels. […]
Experts Critique 28 Community Proposals for Logan Square ‘L’ Site
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On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Planning Council concluded the Corridor Development Initiative, a series of three public meetings that brought area residents together to envision a new development atop the entrance to the Logan Square ‘L’ station. 35th Ward Alderman Rey Colón enthusiastically noted that this was by far the best-attended of the three meetings. The […]
Did Chicago Bike Commuting Really Dip in 2013?
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The Census Bureau released American Community Survey estimates for 2013 last week, which report that the number of people biking to work in Chicago has decreased from 1.6 percent in 2012 to 1.4 percent in 2013. This could well prove to be a one-year blip against a broader, multi-year trend that has seen bike commuting nearly […]
Oil-Laden Freight Trains Delaying Amtrak, Commuter Trains Across U.S.
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Oil production is booming across North America, as new technologies make it possible to extract liquid crude oil from sources like the Bakken shale oil field in North Dakota and Montana, or Alberta’s tar sands. The ever-increasing volume of crude oil mined in remote Great Plains locations often finds its way to refineries via “rolling pipelines” – freight […]