Kyle Whitehead

Faster buses, more affordable housing and useful retail near stations, fare capping and other strategies could prevent ridership from falling further.

Data indicates that distracted driving is the real problem, but the CPD isn't issuing citations for it.

The Slow Roll Chicago cofounder argued that the location, cost, and marketing of the event makes it unlikely many residents from Vision Zero focus communities will attend.

Local leaders say many planned improvements would be almost impossible to pay for without help from the feds, so we're going to have to fight this anti-urban budget with everything we've got.

Governor Bruce Rauner is hellbent on selling off the state office building. He's proposed replacing it with a 115-story tower, but advocates want a guarantee that the Clark/Lake station won't be negatively impacted.

The issue is complicated by the fact that Chicago's underserved neighborhoods seem to be disproportionately impacted by serious and fatal crashes.

There was some good news for Chicago straphangers last week. TransitCenter, a New York-based foundation dedicated to improving urban mobility, awarded 16 grants, totaling more than $17 million, to civic organizations, universities, and municipalities, and the Active Transportation Alliance was one of the winners. The Active Trans proposal, called Speeding Up Chicago’s Buses, involves working with the CTA and the Chicago Department of Transportation to eliminate some of the roadblocks to faster transit and higher ridership.

When it comes to opinion pieces about transportation issues, the Chicago Tribune has been publishing some doozies this month. First, in the wake of four bike fatalities allegedly caused by reckless drivers, an editorial in the paper advised cyclists to ride more carefully. Next they ran an op-ed from noted anti-bike crank John McCarron bemoaning the fact that drivers are supposed to look for cyclists before turning to ensure they don’t kill anyone.

The idea of Metra running its Hyde Park and South Chicago-bound Electric District line more like a CTA 'L' line may be gaining traction. If so, much of the credit goes to advocate Mike Payne, who has been tirelessly promoting the concept online and at public meetings. He calls this proposed rapid transit service as "The Gray Line," since that's one of the few colors that doesn't yet appear on the Chicago Transit Authority train map.