Luann Hamilton

Meanwhile, CDOT acknowledges that many West Siders don't want additional Vision Zero policing

The alderman gave multiple explanations, but a former Active Trans director says racism was to blame.

“The [current] timeline is not acceptable,” said SRAM's Randy Neufeld said. “We should be getting up-to-date data like we do with crime.”

A presentation at last week’s Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council meeting indicates that the city has made some progress on the plan and we should be seeing the fruits of their labor soon.

At yesterday's quarterly meeting of the Mayor's Pedestrian Advisory Council, Chicago Department of Transportation commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld mentioned the "somber" statistics that there was a significant increase in Chicago pedestrian fatalities in 2015 compared to previous years.

The quarterly meetings of the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council are a good place to get up to speed on Chicago’s latest bike developments. Wednesday’s meeting was no exception, with updates on bike lane construction, off-street trails, Divvy bike-share, and more. The sessions take place during business hours, but if your schedule allows you to attend, you can get on the mailing list by contacting Carlin Thomas, a consultant with the Chicago Department of Transportation’s bike program, at carlin.thomas[at]activetrans.org.

It may only be August, but snow's already on the minds of the Mayor's Pedestrian Advisory Council. At this week's meeting, the Chicago Department of Transportation owned up to their shortcomings in providing clear pedestrian routes through the city during last winter's polar vortex conditions.

Last night about 30 people showed up to discuss car parking issues on Marshall Boulevard in Little Village, at a meeting hosted by 12th Ward Alderman George Cardenas at the Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy. The redesign of Marshall Boulevard last fall added a protected bike lane on one side of the street and a buffered lane on the other, significantly reducing the incidence of speeding. Confusion about the new parking rules post-implementation soured some residents on the project, however, and CDOT was in a defensive posture last night, promising to add 74 parking spaces to the area.

This February, Steven Vance reported that the Illinois Department of Transportation has been prohibiting the installation of protected bike lanes on state jurisdiction roads in Chicago at least until the Chicago Department of Transportation collects three years of “safety data” on existing Chicago protected lanes. That means the earliest the ban would be lifted would be July 2014, three years after Chicago’s first protected lanes opened on Kinzie. IDOT is not blocking installation of buffered lanes.