State Policy

An annoying issue on Elston has a silver lining -- it suggests that protected bike lanes could work on this stretch.

The five-way intersection of Belmont, Western, and Clybourn, as well as the stretch of Western between the Chicago River and Lane Tech High, is friendlier to pedestrians and a lot less gloomy thanks to the just-completed project to remove the nearly 60-year-old Riverview flyover. However, the street makeover missed some opportunities to make the corridor safer and more accessible to all road users, maintaining the overwhelmingly car-centric nature of the corridor.

At yesterday’s public meeting on the North Lake Shore Drive reconstruction the public got a better look at what the Illinois and Chicago departments of transportation have planned for the coastal highway.

Representatives of Active Trans, MCP, and CNT discuss what the good news will mean for sustainable transportation in the Chicago region and the state.

While it’s going to be a challenge to get progressive changes made to the Drive, it’s a battle worth fighting.

Adding new asphalt on the 22 miles of the Tri-State between Rosemont and Oak Lawn would be a waste of money because highway expansion inevitably induces more traffic.

Currently thousands of workers in Chicagoland have part of their wages set aside to buy a transit pass. This occurs before taxes are deducted from their paychecks, and thus saves them a few hundred bucks each year in income taxes. Not everyone can do this, but a new bill in the Illinois House of Representatives intends to increase access to this federal tax benefit, as well provide an alternative option for paying for transit.

This information is crucial for identifying hotspots for collisions and other trends that can better inform the fight against serious and fatal crashes.

After a driver injured Carey Wintergreen on his bicycle, he knew he’d have a long road to recovery. What he didn’t realize is that he’d have to fight his own health insurance company to avoid getting much of his compensation confiscated.