Sustainable Transportation Advocacy
Top Categories
A close, controversial Council vote to borrow $830M for infrastructure: Should safe streets advocates have a glass-half-full POV?
Streetsblog Chicago is a sustainable transportation news and advocacy website, not a publication that typically covers finance. So it's not really my role to opine on whether it was a smart fiscal decision for the City Council to approve an $830 million bond deal to pay for transportation infrastructure. But let's look at how the narrow 26-23 vote went down last Wednesday; some arguments against and for the financing by alders; and reactions from walk/bike/transit boosters.
March 3, 2025
Discussing efforts to reboot Grand Illinois Trail, and build East Branch DuPage River Trail, during ATA’s Advocacy Connect chat
There was also discussion of ATA volunteering opportunities for National Bike Month and the Week Without Driving.
February 24, 2025
Partying like it’s 2025: CTAction’s Dorval Carter retirement celebration heralds a new era for Chicago transit
On January 13, the CTA announced that the agency's embattled President Dorval R. Carter was stepping down after more than a decade on the job. As Streetsblog discussed that day, elected officials and transit advocates had major problems with the way he ran the system, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. They cited major problems with reliability, crime, and cleanliness. As early as last April, everyone from the grassroots group Commuters Take Action to Governor JB Pritzker was calling for new leadership at the agency.
February 3, 2025
City Council elects to form working group to study reduced speed limit as vote on 25 mph ordinance hits speed bump
Today could have been the day when Chicago joined New York City, Boston, Seattle, Portland, and even neighboring suburb Evanston in voting in favor of reducing the speed limit in the city to 25 mph. However, questions and concerns among fellow City Council members were numerous enough for Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) to take the expected vote off the agenda for today's City Council meeting.
Victoria Malis
January 15, 2025
All is quiet on New Year’s Day. 5th and final part of SBC’s Bike Lane Fest 2024: South Side
Check out Part 1: Uptown, Lincoln Square, West Ridge, Rogers Park, Edgewater here
January 3, 2025
Part 3 of SBC’s Bike (and Scooter) Lane Fest 2024: Portage Park, Irving Park, North Center, Avondale, Logan Square, Hermosa, Humboldt Park
Check out Part 1: Uptown, Lincoln Square, West Ridge, Rogers Park, Edgewater here
December 23, 2024
Everyone is a Pedestrian: Active Transportation Alliance annual member party celebrates the power of advocacy
On a frigid #GivingTuesday, the Active Transportation Alliance held its annual member party to celebrate the organization’s 2024 advocacy wins, and announce priorities for the year ahead. Well over 100 members gathered in the cavernous Revolution Brewing taproom – fittingly situated along new curb-protected bike lanes on Kedzie Avenue in Avondale. Attendees mingled for the first hour, sipping beers and scarfing down pizza from Dimo’s and chicken from Nando’s Peri Peri. Full racks in the coat-and-bike room proved that cold-weather cycling is alive and well in Chicago.
December 6, 2024
New walk/bike/transit nonprofit GoodForUs.org is working on Ravenswood Bike Lending Library, other projects
The group would like to see bike libraries expand citywide, and has other ideas to get more people to use active transportation more often and drive less.
June 13, 2024
A wild ride: Storied Chicagoland walk/bike/transit booster Randy Neufeld discusses his long career
The elder statesman of the local sustainable transportation advocacy scene has some new tricks up his sleeve.
May 21, 2024
