App Will Route People, Especially Wheelchair Users, Around Sidewalk Issues
Local computer programmer Steve Luker is creating to create a new app to identify and eliminate all the major bumps, cracks, and missing curb ramps on sidewalks, as well as missing sidewalks, in the Chicago area. While these flaws are an annoyance for everyone, they can be significant barriers for people with disabilities. This issue is personal for Luker, who has cerebral palsy and uses an electric wheelchair to get around. He lives in the northwest suburbs and takes transit to various offices around the region, so sidewalk issues make it more difficult for him to access job sites.
June 10, 2016
Metra Studying Replacement for Old Switch Machine to Improve Reliability
Commuter trains rumble by every few minutes while four Metra workers tell me inside a control tower how they keep 370 trains moving every day. The machine that controls switches between tracks has been operating since 1937. There needs to be more reliable and resilient equipment in place, but it's not a cheap or easy job to replace an ancient system.
June 3, 2016
CTA Will Begin Off-Board Fare Collection Pilot, But Not on the Loop Link
The Chicago Transit Authority plans to test off-board fare collection – where riders pay on the sidewalk before boarding the bus – in an unexpected location. Previously, the CTA and the Chicago Department of Transportation announced they would pilot prepaid fare collection at the Dearborn/Madison station on Loop Link. Instead, the first off-board fare collection will be tested in Avondale on the northwest side.
June 2, 2016
Rotterdam’s Boulevards Demonstrate How to Make Chicago’s Bike-Friendly
I've discovered few similarities between the city of Rotterdam, where I've been living for seven weeks, and Chicago. The most striking similarity is the nearly identical layout of the boulevard streets. While biking from my apartment in Rotterdam towards the cool neighborhood of Witte de With, I realized that as I was cycling on the side road of a wide street, I was really biking on a facsimile of Kedzie Boulevard in Chicago.
May 27, 2016
Eyes on the Street: Dearborn Detour Suggests Salmoning on Lake Street
The City of Chicago has made notable progress on expanding its network of protected bike lanes into more community areas and communities of color than it had before Rahm Emanuel became mayor, but it seems nothing is better about the way bicyclists and pedestrians are accommodated around construction projects. The city has even beefed up detour rules contractors must follow multiple times to benefit human-powered transportation.
May 19, 2016
CTA: We Can’t Reduces Fees That Social Service Providers Pay on Ventra
The Chicago Transit Authority said that it's working to address some of the new burdens that the switch to Ventra has created for social service providers, as described in a study from the Chicago Jobs Council, which I reported about on Monday.
May 11, 2016