Streetsblog Chicago

Plus a discussion of the problem all-season cyclists loves to hate: Protected lanes not being promptly cleared after snowstorms

Yesterday, Rogers Park resident Bradford Roberts shared a Facebook post stating the "Glenwood Alfresco" pedestrianized block north of Morse Avenue, opened in spring 2022, would be given back to cars on New Year's Eve. This part of Glenwood is on the west side of a Red Line embankment.

As far as I'm concerned, today's presentation by Regional Transportation Authority Executive Director Leanne Redden at the agency's monthly board meeting was this week's second biggest news story about an Australia native. The biggest headline was country musician and Nicole Kidman ex-husband Keith Urban's puzzling performance of Chappell Roan's LGBTQ anthem "Pink Pony Club" for Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago compound.

Got a fun photo of Kathy Schubert at a bike ride or advocacy event that you'd like to share? Please send it to me a jgreenfield[at]streetsblog[dot]org and I may add it to this post, and/or create a gallery of images that I'll link to here.

• Finally! National coverage of the surprising early-morning 10/31 passage of Illinois' robust transit reform/funding bill, the "Halloween Miracle" (Governing)

TLDR: Streetsblog Chicago is kicking off our 2026 fund drive, and we need to raise $50K. We hit some rough road this year, and it looked like we might not be able to keep the (bike) lights on in 2026. Read on if you'd like to hear about how the site got saved... for now. And please consider making a tax-deductible donation to keep our sustainable transportation reporting and advocacy running smoothly next year. Thank you!

In a recent post, SBC contributor Richard Day argued that it's time to move past rejoicing in the passage of the robust transit reform and funding bill that will save local bus and train service, and start getting to work on optimizing the win. "This is the last, best chance we have to deliver the sort of transformative transit system the region deserves," he noted. "We can’t afford to waste it."

The film "Power Trip," written and directed by Myron Levin, discusses how films, video games, and automobile ads glamorize the kind of high-risk driving that kills people and tears families apart. While the number of traffic deaths is falling in other affluent nations, American crash fatalities rose to over 40,000 a year, with speed a factor in 30 percent of the cases. "The film is dedicated to the memory of crash victims everywhere, to their grieving families, and to those working to end the slaughter on our roads," its website states.

New York City dominated the headlines today after electing Zohran Mamdani as mayor. But it wasn't the only big U.S. city that's made history in the past week.