Promoted

On a frigid #GivingTuesday, the Active Transportation Alliance held its annual member party to celebrate the organization’s 2024 advocacy wins, and announce priorities for the year ahead. Well over 100 members gathered in the cavernous Revolution Brewing taproom – fittingly situated along new curb-protected bike lanes on Kedzie Avenue in Avondale. Attendees mingled for the first hour, sipping beers and scarfing down pizza from Dimo’s and chicken from Nando’s Peri Peri. Full racks in the coat-and-bike room proved that cold-weather cycling is alive and well in Chicago.

Yesterday I discussed the brouhaha over a proposal to extend the two-way protected bike lane on Evanston's Chicago Avenue south about two miles to the city of Chicago border. A total of 62 merchants and "avid cyclists" signed two different letters opposing the new bikeway because it would involve converting 66 of the corridor's 250 car parking spaces – only about a quarter of them. However, more than 250 business people and residents have signed another letter from the Evanston Transit Alliance in favor of the initiative.

While an article in the Evanston RoundTable suggests that most residents are opposed to the project, hundreds of people signed a letter to support it.

By J. Niimi

Sadly, last week, an SUV driver struck and killed a 44-year-old male man in Chicago's North Lawndale community and fled the scene.

This has been a big year for Chicagoland sustainable transportation issues, but there are greater challenges ahead in 2025.

Update 12/2/24, 1:15 PM: Evanston's Chicago Avenue Corridor Project, including the protected bike lane extension proposal, will be discussed at a community meeting on Tuesday 12/10, 7-9 p.m. at Robert Crown Community Center, 1801 Main St. in Evanston.

Tragically, a hit-and-run sedan driver fatally struck Tanja Annzionetta Safforld, 54, last Wednesday, November 20, in the Chicago Lawn community.

Last Thursday, the grassroots sustainable advocacy organization Better Streets Chicago held its third annual gathering to celebrate recent accomplishments, and raise funds for future campaigns. The nonprofit was launched at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic by Kyle Lucas, Brittney Lane, Jim Hodapp, and former Streetsblog Co-Editor Courtney Cobbs. Recent efforts included a rally to protest plans to rebuild North DuSable Lake Shore Drive as an eight-lane highway with no bus lanes, lobbying the City to lower the speed limit to 25 mph, and pushing for funding of the #PlowTheSidewalks pilot.