Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about West Loop

The Union Station Transit Center and Wilson Station Rehab Are Rolling Along

By John Greenfield | Mar 4, 2016 | 10 Comments

Steven Vance and I took advantage of today’s sunshine to check out the progress of two major transit projects that are slated to wrap up this spring. The $43 million Union Station Transit Center will be a key enhancement to the Loop Link bus rapid transit corridor. Located on Jackson between Canal and Clinton, the […]

Cyclist Arrested by Allegedly Road-Raging Officer Will File Civil Rights Lawsuit

By John Greenfield | Nov 9, 2015 | 5 Comments

[This piece also runs in Checkerboard City, John’s column in Newcity magazine, which hits the street in print on Wednesday evenings.] Picture yourself bike commuting downtown on Milwaukee Avenue, the city’s busiest cycling street. After you turn south on Des Plaines Street, the driver of a silver SUV starts edging into the bike lane as […]

Ald. Reilly Has a Responsible Approach to Off-Street Parking

By Steven Vance | Nov 6, 2015 | 15 Comments

When it comes to parking management in Chicago, there have been a couple of encouraging developments recently. In September, City Council passed a beefed-up revision of the transit-oriented development ordinance, which makes it easier than ever to build dense, parking-lite developments near train stations. And, recently, Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) made some very sensible statements […]

Romanelli Is Right: Randolph Would Be a Better Bike Route Than Lake Street

By John Greenfield | Oct 7, 2015 | 19 Comments

As the old saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day. Streetsblog Chicago readers know Roger Romanelli as the guy who has led the charge against fast, reliable bus rapid transit on Ashland Avenue with his anti-BRT group the Ashland-Western Coallition. He also made headlines for asking Chicago Police Superintendant Garry McCarthy […]

Eyes on the Street: New Buffered Lanes on Halsted Between Fulton and Erie

By John Greenfield | Dec 30, 2014 | 13 Comments

The Chicago Department of Transportation has taken advantage of recent warm spells to do some late-year bikeway construction. In addition to new bikeways on Lincoln, the department recently striped buffered bike lanes on Halsted, between Fulton and Erie in the West Loop and River West. This half-mile stretch, done as part of a repaving project […]

A Real Estate Investor Explains the Value of Bus Rapid Transit

By John Greenfield | Feb 20, 2014 | 14 Comments

Yesterday Blue Cross spokesman Michael Deering told me about how the Central Loop Bus Rapid Transit project will make it faster and easier for hundreds of the corporation’s employees to access it downtown headquarters. This morning I spoke with Peter Vilim, co-chair of the real estate investment firm Waterton Associates, about why his company supports […]

Eyes on the Street: The Union Station Sneckdown — Let’s Make It Permanent

By Steven Vance | Feb 13, 2014 | 6 Comments

A snowy neckdown — or “sneckdown” — is that place in the roadway where the snow sticks around because no one drives over it. Sneckdowns show where there’s too much asphalt that could easily be claimed for pedestrian space and traffic calming. As Angie Schmitt reported for Streetsblog USA, officials in Philadelphia were inspired by […]

Pedaling to All 68 Divvy Stations in One Day Was Fun, Not Frustrating

By John Greenfield | Jul 1, 2013 | 43 Comments

In a hurry? Read a shorter version of this piece at Grist.org, an environmental news website. To hear the Chicago Tribune tell it, people who used the Divvy bike-share system on its first day of operations last Friday experienced nothing but headaches. But on Sunday I rode a Divvy to and attempted to dock at […]

Truck Driver Kills 24-Year-Old Woman Crossing Kennedy Exit

By Steven Vance | Apr 23, 2013 | 22 Comments

The driver of a vegetable oil tanker ran over and killed Catherine Cong Ye, 24, as she crossed a Kennedy Expressway off-ramp along Randolph Street while walking toward the Loop yesterday morning at around 8:30 a.m, reports ABC7. The driver was turning right onto westbound Randolph Street when the ladder on the right side of […]

IDOT Failed to Inform People of Highway Ramp That Will Roar By Their Home

By Steven Vance | Apr 2, 2013 | 16 Comments

The Circle Interchange expansion project that the Illinois Department of Transportation has crammed into the regional planning process is projected to increase pollution and decrease transit ridership, but no one has more reason to be opposed to the project than the 57 families who live at 400 South Green. Until one month ago, IDOT had […]