Rahm Emanuel

After more than a decade of planning, the Chicago Department of Transportation finally kicked off work on the Navy Pier Flyover, a $60 million project that will solve the problem of the dangerous bottleneck at the center of the 18.5-mile Lakefront Trail. “We at the city have discussed this, we have debated it, we have deferred it for decades, and now it’s time to build it,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel at a groundbreaking this afternoon.

The transit task force Governor Pat Quinn convened last year after the Metra governance scandal continues to discuss the merits of a single transit authority to replace the Regional Transportation Authority and absorb Chicago Transit Authority, Metra, and Pace. Count Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CTA President Forrest Claypool among the opponents of that idea.

Kudos to the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce for taking a stand against free Sunday parking. As reported by DNAinfo, last week the chamber sent its members an email titled, “Call to Action: End Free Sunday Parking at Meters.” The message asks merchants to contact aldermen like Scott Waguespack (32nd), Michele Smith (43rd), and Robert Fioretti (2nd), to show support for bringing paid parking back to their retail districts sooner than later. "Our understanding is feedback from business constituents would help sway those forces that are holding it up," explained chamber spokesman Padraic Swanton.

It looks like the next Chicago Department of Transportation commissioner will be following in Gabe Klein’s progressive footsteps. This morning the mayor’s office announced that Rahm Emanuel has selected Rebekah Scheinfeld, the CTA’s chief planning officer, to fill the vacancy, pending city council approval.

Yesterday morning, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Governor Par Quinn announced that the O’Hare Branch of the Blue Line will receive $492 million in station and line upgrades. At the press conference at the Logan Square stop, CTA President Forrest Claypool called the project “the largest single comprehensive investment in the Blue Line since the Jefferson Park line extended to O’Hare 30 years ago.”

On Tuesday, the Active Transportation Alliance honored several movers and shakers in the local sustainable transportation scene at an awards reception in the Revolution Brewing taproom. Mayor Rahm Emanuel was given the Extra Mile Award in recognition of his role in implementing bike-share, bus rapid transit, the Red Line South rehab, and protected bike lanes.

Today in the Tribune, reporter Hal Dardick implied that Chicagoans should be outraged because, despite Rahm Emanuel's promise that money generated by speed cameras will be invested in traffic safety and violence prevention programs for kids, he hasn't created a separate "children's fund" in the proposed city budget. Dardick notes that any revenue generated by the cams will go into the city's general fund. The newspaper is using this relatively minor budget issue to fuel criticism that speed camera program isn't about safety but revenue. While the Trib has done more data analysis on speeding in Chicago than any other publication, the Trib too often skirts the fact that, around the world, the cameras have been proven to reduce speeding and traffic casualties.

This morning the Chicago Sun-Times published a fairly solid editorial with some interesting thoughts on the task ahead for whomever takes the reigns of the Chicago Department of Transportation after Commissioner Gabe Klein steps down later this month. “Too often in the past the city’s transportation chief has focused more on potholes and snow removal than on a vision of a city in which the streets work for everyone,” the paper states. Actually, Streets and Sanitation handles almost all snowplowing, but the sentiment is spot-on. “Gabe Klein… broke that mold. His replacement should be someone who follows through on Klein’s foresighted initiatives while addressing long-neglected problems.”

At a time when the CTA has been coming under fire for the glitchy launch of the Ventra farecard system, today’s ribbon cutting for the Red Line Reconstruction project was a well-earned celebration for the transit agency, and a love fest for local politicians.