Category: Chicago

“A Visitor from Chicago” by Wolfgang Scherreiks

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John near Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. Photo by Wolfgang Scherreiks.

Last month while visiting Berlin I met up with local journalist and bike blogger Wolgang Sherreiks near Checkpoint Charlie, the famous crossing between West Berlin and East Berlin during the Cold War. I interviewed him about the local bike scene, and then he asked me about Chicago. The following article originally ran on Wolfgang’s bike culture website, fahrradjournal (“Bikejournal”). Grid Chicago reader Greg Dreyer kindly translated it from the original German.

Earlier this week John Greenfield from the sustainable transportation blog Grid Chicago came to Berlin for a short visit as part of a two-week trip that also includes stops in Copenhagen, Amsterdam and a few other Dutch cities. Fahrradjournal talked to him about biking conditions in Chicago, the so-called “Mary Poppins Effect” and his first impressions of Berlin.

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Fatality Tracker: Three more pedestrian deaths since Sunday’s update

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This photo of two elderly Chicagoans attempting to cross Western Avenue has been featured on Grid Chicago countless times now, but it’s very relevant to the news in this Fatality Tracker update. There have been 10 pedestrian deaths in Chicago this month (so far) and 50% have been people older than 50 years old. Photo by Joshua Koonce.

Pedestrian: 18 (8 have been hit-and-run crashes)
Pedalcyclist: 4 (1 is a hit-and-run crash)
Transit: 6

There are three pedestrian fatalities in this post, bringing the total number (known to us) to 18 deaths in traffic. The original reports come from the Chicago Tribune. 2010 saw 32 pedestrian deaths in Chicago and 33 in 2009. The majority of pedestrian deaths in 2010 occurred in March (6) and May (5). There was only 1 pedestrian death in August 2010 and 2 pedestrian deaths in August 2009. There have been 10 pedestrian deaths in August 2012, so far; five days remain.

Continue reading Fatality Tracker: Three more pedestrian deaths since Sunday’s update

The Berteau Greenway moves forward without traffic diverters

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47th Ward Alderman Ameya Pawar discusses the greenway. Photo by Steven E. Gross.

When I attended a community meeting about the proposed Berteau Street “neighborhood greenway” last March, the following comment was representative of some 47th Ward residents’ panicked reaction to the idea of their street being reconfigured. “It’s going to create havoc and unnecessary confusion and problems and an inability to get in and out of our neighborhoods,” one local woman said to Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and 47th Ward staffers at the assembly. “So I’m asking you to rethink what you’re doing.”

Neighborhood greenways, known as “bike boulevards” in other cities, are residential streets where speeding and cut-through traffic are discouraged through the use of traffic calming devices and/or traffic diverters – bump-outs, cul-de-sacs and other structures which prevent cars from driving down the entire length of the street or making certain turns. Meanwhile, contraflow bicycle lanes allow bikes to travel in both directions on one-way sections, and the traffic diverters have cutouts that permit cyclists to continue unimpeded.

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Fatality Tracker: 5th pedestrian death in 14 days takes place in East Garfield Park


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Looking north on Pulaski approaching Congress.

2012 Chicago fatality stats*:

Pedestrian: 15 (6 have been hit-and-run crashes)
Pedalcyclist: 4 (1 is a hit-and-run crash)
Transit: 6

News of yet another fatal pedestrian crash this morning means that five pedestrians have died in crashes in Chicago within a last 14 days. That’s a third of all pedestrian deaths for the entire year so far, 35 weeks, within only a two-week period.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Alejandro Cruz, 33, was killed by a crash this morning at the 500 block of South Pulaski Road in the East Garfield Park neighborhhod. Cruz, an Oak Park resident, was running across Congress Parkway at 7:55 a.m. when a northbound driver on Pulaski struck the pedestrian with his Chevrolet Impala, according to Police News Affairs.

Continue reading Fatality Tracker: 5th pedestrian death in 14 days takes place in East Garfield Park

Fatality Tracker: 4th pedestrian fatality in 8 days occurs in Little Village

2012 Chicago fatality stats*:

Pedestrian: 14 (6 have been hit-and-run crashes)
Pedalcyclist: 4 (1 is a hit-and-run crash)
Transit: 6

The Chicago Tribune reports on the fourth pedestrian fatality in just eight days, this one occurring in Little Village at 26th Street and Avers Avenue:

Maria Banuelos [79] was hit by a car that turned left onto 26th Street from Avers Avenue about 4 p.m. Tuesday, according to police reports.

Banuelos was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, a Cook County medical examiner’s spokeswoman said.

The driver was cited with striking a pedestrian in the roadway.

Approximate scene of the crash (looking northwest, from the driver’s point of view, turning left onto 26th Street from Avers Avenue). View Larger Map

* The information is only accurate as of this post’s publishing time and includes only people who died in the Chicago city limits. View previous Fatality Tracker posts.

Fatality tracker: driver jumps curb, kills youth counselor in Roseland

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Crosswalk at Roseland Community Hospital with “Stop for Pedestrians” sign.

2012 Chicago fatality stats*:

Pedestrian: 12 (6 have been hit-and-run crashes)
Pedalcyclist: 4 (1 is a hit-and-run crash)
Transit: 6

For the second time in one week, an out-of-control car crash cut short the promising life of an innocent bystander. Last Tuesday a speeding cab in River West killed engineer, grad student and husband Eric Kerestes, 30. Three days later on Friday around 7:05 AM, Albert Charles, 54, lost control of his vehicle outside Roseland Community Hospital, 45 W.111th Street, hopped the curb and killed Kenneth Collins, 43, according to police. Collins, a mental health counselor at the hospital’s juvenile unit, was on his way to pick up a paycheck. Unlike most drivers involved in pedestrian fatalities this year prior to this crash, Charles did not flee the scene. The police department’s Major Accident Investigation Unit is looking into the cause of the crash.

Continue reading Fatality tracker: driver jumps curb, kills youth counselor in Roseland