State Policy

The Circle Interchange highway expansion project began construction Wednesday. At a press conference on the Peoria Street bridge, Governor Quinn stressed the job creation aspect of the $475 million project. What Quinn didn't mention is that any $475 million infrastructure project would create a lot of jobs.

For years, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has been an enthusiastic supporter of walking, biking and transit initiatives. In 2001 he hiked from the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan to draw attention to the need for universal healthcare, and he later launched the Walk Across Illinois fitness challenge, encouraging residents to walk 190 miles within one year, an equivalent distance.

At a public meeting about the first state bike plan last night, staff from the Illinois Department of Transportation said the agency is trying to change its culture, and that starts with separating the bicycle component from its Long Range Transportation Plan into its own planning process. With about 70 participants in the crowd at an auditorium in the Thompson Center, IDOT and its consultant, Alta Planning + Design, explained how the bike plan will be developed, led two public input exercises, and fielded questions.

As the Illinois Department of Transportation launches the public input process for the state’s first-ever statewide bicycle transportation plan, the elephant in the room is IDOT’s prohibition of protected bike lanes on state jurisdiction roads in Chicago. Protected lanes have been proven to improve safety for all road users, based on several years worth of data in other American cities like New York, which has been installing them since 2007.

Next Tuesday, July 9, the Illinois Department of Transportation and its consultant, Alta Planning + Design, will host the first two public meetings to start crafting the first-ever state bike transportation plan. This is not a "bikes as recreation" plan.

The Illinois Department of Transportation showed final plans for the Circle Interchange expansion last Thursday at the last public meeting about the project. You now have a week and a half to tell IDOT your thoughts on the record before the public comment period ends July 12 (see how below).

The Illinois Department of Transportation is hosting a meeting tonight to present adjustments to the $475 million Circle Interchange project. The project, justified as way to increase automobile speeds and reduce congestion-related delays and crashes, will still have an ugly flyover over Halsted Street and at eye level of many residents in a nearby apartment building.

This February, Steven Vance reported that the Illinois Department of Transportation has been prohibiting the installation of protected bike lanes on state jurisdiction roads in Chicago at least until the Chicago Department of Transportation collects three years of “safety data” on existing Chicago protected lanes. That means the earliest the ban would be lifted would be July 2014, three years after Chicago’s first protected lanes opened on Kinzie. IDOT is not blocking installation of buffered lanes.

Last Thursday, about a week after the May 29th death of cyclist Robert “Bobby” Cann, killed by an allegedly drunk, speeding driver at Clybourn and Larrabee, the Chicago Department of Transportation announced plans to stripe buffered bike lanes on the entire 3.5-mile length of Clybourn, from Division to Belmont. Construction should start either this week or the following week, according to CDOT spokesperson Pete Scales.