IDOT

The ribbon cutting for the Clybourn Avenue curb-protected bike lanes in Old Town on November 20 was a Kumbaya moment for the city and state transportation departments after years of conflict over protected lanes.

[The Chicago Reader recently launched a new weekly transportation column written by Streetsblog Chicago editor John Greenfield. This partnership will allow Streetsblog to extend the reach of our livable streets advocacy. We’ll be syndicating a portion of the column on the day it comes out online; you can read the remainder on the Reader’s website or in print. The paper hits the streets on Thursdays.]

Back in August, a transportation professional who asked not to be named told me the Illinois Department of Transportation had stopped fulfilling requests from nongovernmental entities for crash location data. This information is crucial for analyzing any transportation network -- for example, we often rely on crash data for Streetsblog Chicago stories. I have since heard the same complaint from other individuals.

The new curb-protected bike lane on Clybourn Avenue and Division Street in Old Town aren't even finished yet, but they're already getting great use. Bike-specific traffic signals should be added later this fall, completing the project. However, there's already a fly in the ointment – delivery drivers are blocking the lanes on a regular basis.

Crash data from the Illinois Department of Transportation is important for the work we do here at Streetsblog Chicago. For example, we recently looked up statistics from IDOT’s Illinois Safety Data Mart crash database in order to investigate the Chicago Department of Transportation’s claim that they intend to close a street in Jefferson Park due to safety concerns. Although the database website has been offline for a while, Streetsblog’s Steven Vance requests the data from the state each year and uses it to update his website the Chicago Crash Browser.

Note: Keating Law Offices, P.C. has generously agreed to sponsor two Streetsblog Chicago posts about bicycle safety topics per month. The firm's support will help make Streetsblog Chicago a sustainable project. Keating Law Offices is not involved in the Bobby Cann case.

It's looking like the nightmarish vision of a totally unnecessary, 47-mile highway cutting through prime Illinois farmland is not going to become a reality. A federal judge ruled yesterday that the Illinois Department of Transportation failed to provide a proper Environmental Impact Statement for the Illiana Tollway.

Two weeks ago, Steven Vance pointed out that the Illinois Department of Transportation's listening tour regarding Governor Rauner's proposed state transportation budget, which includes Draconian cuts to public transit, had only one Chicago stop scheduled, at an event with a $75 admission charge. Partly in response to Steven's post, the department has added two more stops in the city today that are free to the public, a source tells me.

Cook County represents 41 percent of Illinois' population yet only three of the 30 scheduled stops on the Illinois Department of Transportation’s upcoming listening tour regarding Governor Rauner's proposed state budget will take place in the county: two in suburban Cook County and a single meeting in Chicago.