Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Loop

Tour Bus Driver Fatally Struck Professor Who Was Walking to an Art Exhibit

By John Greenfield | Nov 30, 2015 | 1 Comment

Hiromi Hosono, 42, an agriculture professor from Japan, was killed earlier this month by the driver of a trolley-themed tour bus who failed to yield while making a right turn. Hosono, who was serving as a visiting professor at Cornell University, had been touring dairy farms in the Midwest when she decided to visit Chicago […]

Norway or the Highway? Oslo’s Car-Free Plan Should Inspire Chicago

By John Greenfield | Nov 24, 2015 | 11 Comments

[This article also runs in Checkerboard City, John’s transportation column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets on Wednesday evenings.] “I think we should look to countries like Denmark, and Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they’ve accomplished,” socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said recently. That statement surely gave the Republicans hives. One area […]

Pritzker Park Sale Is a Chance to Create New Transfer from ‘L’ to Subway

By Steven Vance | May 8, 2015 | 37 Comments

There are several pros and cons of the city’s controversial plan to sell the Pritzker Park site for development. One important and urgent aspect is that it would be an unparalleled – and potentially free – opportunity to create the first enclosed, wheelchair-accessible transfer between the CTA’s Loop elevated lines and the Red and Blue Line subways. […]

Loop Alliance Credits Activate Alley Parties With Spurring $400K in Sales

By John Greenfield | Apr 16, 2015 | No Comments

Once again, the Chicago Loop Alliance is rolling out a full slate of placemaking initiatives in an effort to boost downtown retail and promote the arts. The centerpiece of the campaign is Activate, a series of pop-up art parties held in alleys, which the downtown chamber of commerce says led to hundreds of thousands of dollars […]

CDOT Tweaks Randolph/Michigan, But It’s Still Dysfunctional for Pedestrians

By John Greenfield | Dec 10, 2014 | 43 Comments

When you build a fabulous new attraction in the center of a bustling metropolis, you obviously want to maximize pedestrian access to make it easy for large numbers of people to walk there, right? That’s not what happened with Millennium Park. A month after the music and art venue opened in the summer of 2004, […]

Eyes on the Street: Goodbye to “Lake Kluczynksi”?

By John Greenfield | Dec 4, 2014 | 3 Comments

The Dearborn protected bike lanes are one of the gems of Chicago’s bikeway network, but ever since the two-way route opened, poor drainage has been a major fly in the ointment. Two years ago, the bike lanes were installed curbside, on existing asphalt that had some rough spots. From the get-go, rain and slush accumulated […]

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 […]

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