Active Transportation Alliance

Senior mayoral advisor David Spielfogel had some disappointing quotes in yesterday’s Sun-Times, arguing that “it doesn’t make sense” to make large streets like the Mag Mile car-free. However, that doesn’t mean innovative changes to major roadways are off the table.

Yesterday’s Active Transportation Alliance announcement submitting 20 streets for consideration as partial or total car-free spaces has already sparked a lively dialogue. Stories in the Tribune, Sun-Times, ABC, and DNAinfo have all examined whether or not the automobile-dominated status quo represents an appropriate allocation of public space.

It pains me to report there probably won’t be an Open Streets event in Chicago this year. Since 2005, the Active Transportation Alliance has been lobbying the city of Chicago to stage a ciclovía, a Latin American-style car-free event, in which the streets are opened for walking, biking, and other forms of healthy recreation. Various city departments declined to help organize and raise funds for Open Streets (originally called Sunday Parkways), so Active Trans did the work themselves, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years to hold a number of events between 2008 and 2013. Much of the money was used for paying for the police officers and traffic control aides required by the city.

On Tuesday, the Active Transportation Alliance honored several movers and shakers in the local sustainable transportation scene at an awards reception in the Revolution Brewing taproom. Mayor Rahm Emanuel was given the Extra Mile Award in recognition of his role in implementing bike-share, bus rapid transit, the Red Line South rehab, and protected bike lanes.

Funding for major Chicagoland transit projects will be at stake tomorrow, when regional representatives convened by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning vote on whether to move forward with the Illiana Tollway. Even though approving the Illiana will jeopardize CTA and Metra improvements by adding competition for the same pot of funds, all four Chicagoland transit agencies – and the Chicago Department of Transportation – either voted for the project or abstained in an advisory vote earlier this month.

You've got to hand it to them, Roger Romanelli and his Ashland-Western Coalition anti-bus rapid transit group have done an effective job of organizing residents who oppose the CTA’s plan for fast, reliable transit on Ashland Avenue, garnering plenty of media attention. Now it’s time for some of Chicago’s 1,800-plus registered BRT supporters to become as visible and vocal as the NIMBYs.

The "Commuter Challenge" is an annual competition held in many cities, in which companies compete to get the most employees to bike commute during Bike to Work Week in June. It's a good opportunity to start converting people who are "interested but concerned" about biking for transportation into regular bike commuters: Workplaces host events on how to do it, team leaders at each office answer any questions, and some companies even reward employees with cash. The competition is basically a fun way to raise awareness about how bicycling to work is a viable option for many people.

[This article also appeared in print in Checkerboard City, John Greenfield's transportation column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets on Wednesday evenings.]

Amtrak riders tested new bike racks in the snack car of a train to Michigan last month, as the railroad prepares to launch roll-on service for trains to Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Lansing. Derrick James, the director of government affairs for the central region of Amtrak, sent these photos of the event.