Sponsored by: • Block Club: “Mayor sticking with embattled CTA boss for now as Gov. Pritzker calls for ‘new leadership’ • Sun-Times: “CTA touts its ‘Second Chance’ program for ex-offenders, but few end up with permanent jobs” • Driver dies after they Barrington Toll Plaza Plaza on I-90 and car was engulfed in flames (NBC) • Speeding driver crashed into home at Westmoor/Greenbay in Winnetka, fled on foot and was taken to hospital (CBS) • Hoodline: Urgent search for missing Chicago teen Samuel Gonzalez, last seen on CTA • Op-ed from UIC prof: Passing an Idaho Stop law in Chicago, allowing b ..read more

This post is sponsored by Ride Illinois. In the last three days, there’s been an increased focus on the policy failures of CTA President Dorval Carter. And there’s been growing pressure on Mayor Brandon Johnson to improve the region’s largest transit provider by replacing Carter.  Specifically, under Carter’s leadership, the CTA has not explained why the Yellow Line was closed for 50 days after a collision last January. It hasn’t justified why a bus driver who passed out and died in her operator’s chair was not noticed for nearly an hour, even though her bus hadn’t moved and had miss ..read more

This post is sponsored by Keating Law Offices. Metra is significantly boosting weekend service on the BNSF Line, Metra’s busiest line. In a first for the railroad, the schedule will be the same for Saturdays and Sundays. The changes will take effect on Monday, April 29. Under the new schedule, the BSNF will run 18 trains in each direction during the weekend, 20 percent more than it currently runs on Saturdays (15) and 80 percent more than it presently runs on Sundays (10). For the most part, the trains will run once an hour, with consistent headways for local trains. Metra is also tinkeri ..read more

Sponsored by: Get national headlines at Streetsblog USA. • CTA: Blue Line Forest Park branch service to be temporarily impacted by April 26-9 construction work (FOX) • Driver charged with DUI in I-57 crash in Dixmoor that killed 2 passengers (FOX) • One killed in fiery crash at Jane Addams Tollway plaza in Hoffman Estates (CBS) • Block Club: ‘Green Alleys’ help prevent flooding, but vulnerable neighborhoods Must Wait in Line (Block Club) • Urban Planner Joshua Wood: “Conveniently Unsustainable: Driving Everywhere” • DuSable Lake Shore Drive construction will Close Sout ..read more

This post is sponsored by the Active Transportation Alliance. By now Streetsblog readers are well aware of the Clark Street kerfuffle. In a nutshell, a car-free Expanded Outdoor Dining district was created during the COVID-19 pandemic on the three-block stretch of Clark between Grand Avenue and Kinzie Street in River North. It made the public space safer, more environmentally friendly, and more profitable, and a 2023 survey conducted by local alderperson Brendan Reilly showed the pedestrian-friendly zone was very popular with residents. A pie chart of Ald. Reilly’s survey asking residents ..read more

• Lawmakers, alderpersons demand IDOT safety measures for deadly stretch of Pulaski Road on Southwest Side (ABC) • Eric Zorn: Blocking the expressway to O’Hare and making people miss their flights is “no way to win hearts and minds” to end the Israel-Hamas war • After someone was photographed biking on the shoulder of the Ontario feeder ramp to I-90, IL State Police warn: Don’t wind up dead on the Kennedy (NBC) • Out of the frying pan attack on Red Line ‘L’ windows, into the fiery attack on the Grand station: Why are people trashing CTA infrastructure? (FOX, CBS) • WTTW: “Who decides which Chi ..read more

This post is sponsored by The Bike Lane. For almost three decades, San Francisco has influenced my perspective on how sustainable transportation might function in Chicago. Back in 1996 when I was working as a bicycle courier in the Loop, I traveled to SF for the Cycle Messenger World Championships and rode in Critical Mass, the global bicycle parade/protest/party that was first launched there. The following year, Chicago cycling advocates started monthly Critical Mass rides from Daley Plaza. I’ve been particularly impressed by how San Francisco essentially banned private cars from Market ..read more

Sponsored by: • Block Club: “Death behind the wheel: How the CTA failed a driver in crisis” • Driver who fatally struck Miguel Duran Monday around 2:30 AM on Route 38 near Pearl Road in West Chicago charged with DUI (Daily Herald) • Hit-and-run driver critically injured student Monday around 3:20 PM near Fenger High, 11220 S. Wallace (ABC) • 5 injured after driver hits 71 71st South Shore bus Tuesday around at 100th/Commercial (CBS) • 3 people hospitalized after hit-and-run driver ran red and struck another vehicle around midnight on 1300 block of East 75th in Grand Crossing (FOX) •  ..read more

This post is sponsored by Boulevard Bikes. It’s been almost seven decades since the construction of Chicago’s Eisenhower Expressway, aka I-290, began in 1955, disconnecting West Side communities and accelerating white flight. Today the City of Chicago announced that it has been awarded $2 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods program. The grant is intended to help Chicago respond to the damage that 20th Century highway construction caused to urban neighborhoods, particularly communities of color. “This funding will support the City ..read more

This post is sponsored by Ride Illinois. As frequent Streetsblog readers know, the Chicago Department of Transportation recently installed a stretch of curbside protected bike lanes running 1.8 miles through the Pullman community area, in the 9th Ward. The PBLs curved between 100th Street and Woodlawn Avenue near Olive Harvey College, and 111th Street and Doty Avenue near a Walmart Supercenter. The bikeway is located on the other side of Lake Calumet from Big Marsh bike park. The former location of the Doty/Woodlawn protected bike lanes, the long green stripe between Olive Harvey and ..read more