Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Loop

Eyes on the Street: Bike and Ped Facilities on the South Side and in the Loop

By John Greenfield | Oct 29, 2014 | 28 Comments

As the construction season winds down, the Chicago Department of Transportation has been busy building a number of new bikeways and pedestrian facilities. We’ll get you up to speed on these with a few Eye on the Street posts in the near future. CDOT recently striped buffered bike lanes on a .6-mile stretch of Pershing […]

Latest “Activate” Placemaking Event Celebrated Filipino Culture

By John Greenfield | Oct 21, 2014 | 3 Comments

The Chicago Loop Alliance’s ambitious program of 2014 placemaking projects is drawing to a close. Last Thursday, the group hosted a vibrant arts event in a Loop alley, inspired by the sights and sounds of a Manila marketplace. This was scheduled to be the last of the monthly “Activate” series, which transforms downtown passageways into […]

Eyes on the Street: Recent Bike Upgrades in the Loop and on the South Side

By John Greenfield | Jul 31, 2014 | 15 Comments

Chicago Department of Transportation crews are continuing their work this summer, building new bikeways and upgrading existing ones. Yesterday, I took a spin around the Loop and the South Side to check out the latest improvements on Randolph, Harrison, California, 33rd, and King. I started out on Upper Randolph, where CDOT recently upgraded the existing […]

Central Loop BRT Will Skimp On Key “Rapid” Features

By Steven Vance | Jul 23, 2014 | 31 Comments

The Central Loop Bus Rapid Transit project will launch without key features that distinguish BRT from conventional bus service. The busways, which the Chicago Department of Transportation will begin building later this year, will include most of BRT’s concrete features, like high-level bus-boarding platforms and dedicated lanes. These features will undoubtedly speed up six Chicago […]

Eyes on the Street: It’s On For Once-Missing Washington/Michigan Crosswalk

By Steven Vance | Jul 17, 2014 | 4 Comments

To help make it easier to walk to the second busiest tourist attraction in Chicago, the Department of Transportation recently reopened a crosswalk across the north leg of the intersection of Michigan and Washington. The crosswalk provides an essential, direct link between the Cultural Center and Millennium Park’s many attractions, like next week’s Milton Suggs Big […]

Central Loop Busway Will Reorganize, Expand Downtown Bike Lanes

By Steven Vance | Jun 12, 2014 | 24 Comments

Bicycle routes through the Loop suffer from “poor connectivity,” admits Mike Amsden, assistant director of transportation planning at the Chicago Department of Transportation. At yesterday’s Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council meeting, Amsden revealed details about how the Central Loop BRT project will improve the situation by spring of 2015. The Central Loop BRT project, Amsden said, will “move people […]

Will Blackline Buses Be a Threat or a Complement to the CTA?

By John Greenfield | May 12, 2014 | 107 Comments

A new bus company called Blackline will offer upscale, express commuter service that will compete with the CTA. It remains to be seen whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing for local transit. As reported in Crain’s Friday, Blackline will be running “luxury buses” between Belmont/Sheridan in Lakeview and three stops in the […]

City Council Takes a Step Backwards, Bans Pedicabs in Loop

By John Greenfield | Apr 30, 2014 | 44 Comments

At today’s City Council meeting, an ordinance regulating pedicabbers – and banning them from downtown streets – passed with almost no opposition. Operators say that the new rules will put them out of business, since they’ll be prohibited from operating in the Loop during rush hours, as well as Michigan and State, between Oak and […]

Summertime Means Seating, Parties in Loop’s Public Spaces

By John Greenfield | Apr 17, 2014 | 6 Comments

The Chicago Loop Alliance, one of downtown’s chambers of commerce, has announced details about its ambitious slate of summer placemaking campaigns. These include monthly “Activate” arts events held in alleys, the Gateway People Plaza on State Street, new amenities for Pritzker Park, and pop-up lunchtime seating throughout downtown. CLA expects to spend $135,000 on placemaking […]

Eyes on the Street: Windy City Limousine Blocks Downtown Bike Lanes

By Steven Vance | Apr 3, 2014 | 15 Comments

As if bicycling downtown, where there is little space to safely pedal, wasn’t hard enough, private limo bus company Windy City Limousine frequently blocks bike lanes on Franklin Street outside Walgreens and Orleans next to the Merchandise Mart. Brian Elmore bicycle commutes from Madison Street and Wacker Drive to Ukrainian Village by taking the bike […]

Loop Station Consolidation Will Offer Quicker Ride for Straphangers

By John Greenfield | Mar 26, 2014 | 50 Comments

Currently, the Green Line’s Morgan station, with its sleek green glass canopies, has my vote for the most attractive CTA stop. That’s about to change, as the Chicago Department of Transportation gets ready to build a new superstation at Washington and Wabash featuring dramatic undulating awnings, designed by Teng + Associates. The city says the […]

An Ex-Pedestrian Scramble: Jackson/State Markings Are Nearly Gone

By John Greenfield | Mar 11, 2014 | 16 Comments

Yesterday I looked at crosswalks that were installed in November at the Logan Square traffic circle and are already vanishing. This afternoon I dropped by the city’s only pedestrian scramble intersection, downtown at State and Jackson, where X-shaped crosswalks were striped last May and are now almost completely gone. While the Logan crosswalks were marked […]

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