Streetsblog Chicago

Tragically, fitness instructor Ron Mendoza, 43, died two days after being hospitalized for injuries from a collision on his bike with a car driver.

On Thursday, disadvantaged business enterprises attended a meeting hosted by the Chicago Transit Authority to learn more about the Red Line Extension and the subcontracting opportunities available. The event took place at the CTA’s West Loop headquarters.

This week’s Chicago Reader "First Tuesdays with Maya [Dukmasova] & Ben [Joravsky]" at Nighthawk on the topic of “Public Transit Crisis” lived up to the theme. The conversation with state representative Kam Buckner and activist (and former Streetsblog reporter) Lynda Lopez touched on familiar CTA woes: the ongoing triple-whammy of sub-par cleanliness, safety, and reliability; the predicted $730 million Chicagoland transit system budget shortfall by 2026; and a punishing funding structure that keeps the system hobbled. But it was the audience Q & A where on-the-ground frustrations of riders—and CTA workers in particular—gave a pulse to the urgency of the crisis at hand.

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Monday I wrote about the Chicago Transportation Authority hosting a meeting tomorrow morning to introduce disadvantaged business enterprises and small businesses to the three CTA-identified bidders for the Far South Side's Red Line Extension Project as potential subcontractors. After I asked a colleague to review the article before publication, he had some interesting questions.

Recently the Chicago Department of Transportation, with community input from local residents, has installed bike lanes on many Northwest Side streets. One of them was Wrightwood Avenue (2600 W.), a popular residential east-west cycling route.

Prospects are looking very good for the proposed $3.6 CTA Red Line Extension proposal on Chicago's Far South Side. Last December the Chicago City Council approved the controversial transit tax-increment financing district for the project, which is projected to raise $959 million for the extension. In March, President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2024 discretionary funding budget earmarked another $350 million for the project.

This week, the Chicago Transit Authority announced that the final stage of the Red and Purple Modernization Phase One Project will begin this summer. Specifically, the transit agency is wrapping up the reconstruction of the Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn, and Bryn Mawr stations to upgraded, wheelchair-accessible facilities, and the CTA will start reconstructing southbound Red and  Purple tracks. Community meetings about the project will happen on June 21 and 22 – see the bottom of this post for details.

Last week, Cook County released its first ever Bike Plan, charting a path for safer and more plentiful bicycle infrastructure across the county. The plan calls for hundreds of miles of new low-stress bike paths: 90 miles of new off-street paved trails, 150 miles of new side paths and 230 miles of new low-stress on-street routes, including quiet residential streets and protected lanes. According to the plan, this upgrade would place 96 percent of Cook County residents less than a mile from a low-stress bike route.