After reading and discussing the article, The CTA’s Blue Line has a big problem, I’ve decided I need to weigh in on this. Because, guess what, the Blue Line does not actually have a big problem – in fact, it’s a victim of its own success! That doesn’t mean there isn’t any problems that can’t…
The North Branch Trail, which has been planned for over 10 years, will finally be opening this week (well, Phase I anyway. Phase II is under construction until next year). Extending the existing eastern trailhead from Caldwell Avenue and Devon Avenue in Edgebrook is essential to making the trail easier to access by bike, as…
Over much of the past year I have had a real education in the power of community organizing around an idea or a vision. It started with my campaign running for president of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association. I had only recently joined in January 2015. I joined because I didn’t understand the opposition that…
Loop Link, the new bus service with some bus rapid transit amenities, is already having a large impact on the urban streetscape in downtown Chicago in advance of its opening this past Sunday. Even if you don’t ultimately use the transit system part of Loop Link, as a cyclist and/or pedestrian, Loop Link already has…
Complete Streets is a great thing – a real sea change in designing our streets for people rather than cars. But, unfortunately, sometimes we still get the engineering mindset when it comes to deploying complete streets policy: In West Allis, a working-class Milwaukee suburb, the state proposed adding bike lanes to a six-lane highway that…
My employer not long ago received a license for Remix, one of the coolest data visualization and transport planning tools I’ve seen. Essentially, Remix is used for planning of bus routes overlaid on a geospatial platform, similar to a GIS, but internet based. What I like most is the ability to call up a transit provider,…