Author: Steven Vance

Grid Shots: Commercial statements

To get this Grid Shots going, I searched our Flickr group for “advertisement” and found only one photo. So I started at the end (the most recent photos) and browsed 10 pages to find this selection of “commercial statements” on our streets. Next week’s topic is “wayfinding”; submit your photos to our group and tag them with “wayfinding”.

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A message to those waiting for the 22/Clark bus in Andersonville at Clark Street and Bryn Mawr avenue says they cannot wait inside the Subway sandwich shop. Photo by Brian Morrissey. Continue reading Grid Shots: Commercial statements

Summary of transportation and transit changes because of NATO summit

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The Lakefront Trail will be closed from Balbo Drive to 31st Street. 

The upcoming NATO summit will greatly alter how people travel in the Loop, South Loop, Museum Campus, and Bronzeville areas May 19, 20, and 21 (Saturday to Monday). Travel on the Kennedy, Dan Ryan, and Stevenson Expressways will be affected. Transit agencies and other news sources have posted all the relevant information, linked on this page. If you are traveling to these areas, or normally travel through these areas, spend time reviewing the below webpages. This post will be updated as information changes.

How will these changes affect you? Continue reading Summary of transportation and transit changes because of NATO summit

The Grid Network is deprecated, but the links page lives on

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The CTA Morgan Green/Pink Line station will open this month. Photo by Seth Anderson. 

I’ve stopped updating the Grid Network page; no new posts since mid-April appear there. I coded the function myself and it was using too many server resources to operate, slowing down the website. The Network was build on top of our Links page, so that lives on.

Here are some of the new links we’ve added:

  • Transport Nexus. A focus on transportation policy as it relates to land use. Very wonky and written by a transit agency employee.
  • Let the Midway Bloom. The author writes about transportation in the Hyde Park area, and promotes small streets as a way to revitalize neighborhoods. He also advocates for dense housing in the Midway.
  • Chicago Streetcar Renaissance. Streetcars can be used as an economic development tool. Chicago was once riddled with tram lines.
  • TRANSPORT/LAND. A Portland, Oregon-based blog about using cargo bikes for disaster relief, coffee delivery, and carrying grandkids on trikes.

What other links should we add?

Visit our different social media outlets, which offer additional ways to find new websites, photos, and videos. 

Chicago transportation to move very far forward with two-year plan

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Looking down Madison Street. Photo by Daniel Butler. 

A new plan for the Chicago Department of Transportation was released today and Grid Chicago got to talk to commissioner Gabe Klein this morning about the Chicago Forward CDOT Action Agenda’s development, strategies, and goals.

I started reading the 100 page plan last night to prepare for today’s interview. After the obligatory messages from Mayor Emanuel and Commissioner Klein (as well as photos of a Brown Line train and the bean), there’s a timeline and a short historical narrative. This plan gives a new mission statement for the department and is the first time a vision statement has been adopted by the agency (which the timeline tells was created in 1992 after a reorganization of the Department of Public Works). The Action Agenda is important to ensure our transportation system (as envious or dubious as you see it) changes in good, appropriate ways. Not only do we know how CDOT will get us there, Chicagoans will be able document change and compare our status in 2014 to where we started in 2012. Continue reading Chicago transportation to move very far forward with two-year plan

CDOT continues roll out of new bike lanes: Division Street today, your neighborhood tomorrow?

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Notice how there is a buffer on both sides of the bike lane. This should encourage people to cycle outside of the “door zone”. Photo by Brandon Gobel. 

The passing rain storms and fog have allowed construction crews to continue building Chicago’s bikeway network, including more buffered and protected bike lanes. We received a photo this morning of a new buffered bike lane going in on Division Street between Western and California. This is especially delightful news because the Division Street bike lane, from its eastern beginning at Ashland Avenue, stopped abruptly at Western Avenue, nine years ago, even though Division Street maintains the same width west of there. John will provide more background on the history of the Division bike lane, and why it’s a big deal that it’s finally being striped, tomorrow. Continue reading CDOT continues roll out of new bike lanes: Division Street today, your neighborhood tomorrow?

New pedestrian and bicycle projects discussed at March MBAC meeting

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Rolling out a green lane at Lincoln Avenue north of Webster Avenue in Lincoln Park. Photo by Grant Davis. 

We don’t have a recap from the March 14, 2012, meeting of the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council (MBAC) because we didn’t receive an event notice. Luann Hamilton at the Department of Transportation responded to our email inquiry, writing, “staff inadvertently missed sending the March meeting announcement to the MBAC listserv, so attendance was light”. She sent additional information about how the “council” part of MBAC will be composed, which we reported on after the December meeting:

Continue reading New pedestrian and bicycle projects discussed at March MBAC meeting