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New transportation bill passes: Would an extension of previous bill have been better?

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A Metra train passes over a busy portion of the Kennedy Expressway. Photo taken from Grand Avenue.

The Senate and House of Representatives finished their conference on Friday, June 29, to finalize the new surface transportation bill. The bill is responsible for making it legal for the federal government to collect gas taxes and manage the Highway Trust Fund and its Mass Transit Account, disbursing revenues to road, transit, railroad, water, bicycling, and pedestrian transportation infrastructure projects. The previous bill, known as SAFETEA-LU, was extended for 1,000 days since its original expiration in 2009. The new bill is known as MAP-21 and will expire September 30, 2014, for a total duration of 27 months. President Obama is expected to sign the bill, H.R. 4348, on Friday.

There are many changes, good and bad, between the two bills that have transit, bicycling, and pedestrian advocates disappointed. Continue reading New transportation bill passes: Would an extension of previous bill have been better?

Fatality tracker: Second bicycling fatality in Chicago in 2012 occurs on Independence Day

2012 Chicago fatality stats*:

Pedestrian: 7 (6 have been from hit-and-run crashes)
Pedalcyclist: 2 (both are described in this post)
Transit: 5

Updated July 5 at 0:09: The first bicycling fatality occurred on June 25, 2012. Thank you to reader Jim Krok for pointing this out in the comments. That crash’s victim was 11-year-old Christopher Fonseca, of the southwest part of Logan Square. He died 5 days after the crash happened on June 20, 2012. Moved the Street View map west one block to show the location of the crash according to a commenter who claims to have witnessed the crash. Read the comment below.

I was really hoping that 2012 would see 0 bicycling fatalities. Unfortunately, today, July 4th, an 81-year-old man crashed and side-swiped an automobile today in the Edgebrook neighborhood. He died less than two hours later. The Chicago Tribune reports:

Robert Vanpelt of the 6300 block of North Hiawatha Avenue was pronounced dead at 12:05 p.m. at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The accident [crash!] happened on the 5100 block of West Devon Avenue at 10:40 a.m. as the man was cycling westbound in the middle of the street, said Chicago Police News Affairs officer Veejay Zala.

The bicyclist hit a Toyota 4-Runner SUV and was critically injured as he side-swiped the SUV. No citations are expected in the incident, Zala said.

The Chicago Tribune’s report doesn’t make it clear if the automobile Vanpelt crashed into was moving or parked; the report seems to blame the person cycling for the collision. A look at the Street View shows that there is no street parking and the road has qualities found most often in suburban communities: many driveways, no bike lanes, and no sidewalks (the south side has a sidewalk, though). The wide travel lanes and lack of automobile parking here are probably connected to higher-than-speed limit speeds.

See Robert’s page on Every Bicyclist Counts.

Open Street View in 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.

Halting words: Klein and Smith discuss the new “Stop for Pedestrians” signs

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CDOT Commissioner Gabe Klein and 43rd Ward Alderman Michele Smith. Photo by Steven.

The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) recently began the process of installing hundreds of signs citywide in an effort to educate motorists about the state law requiring them to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. The signs cost $400 each, sited and installed, a relative bargain for infrastructure that will raise awareness of pedestrian safety, calm traffic and possibly save lives.

At a press conference yesterday in Lincoln Park by the Brown Line’s Diversey station, CDOT Commissioner Gabe Klein and 43rd Ward Alderman Michele Smith discussed the benefits of the signs. They also crossed Diversey several times to demonstrate the signs’ effectiveness, with drivers usually, but not always, stopping for them without being prompted. The event was particularly timely because the previous night a young girl named Monet Robinson was killed by a hit-and-run driver on the West Side. Here’s a transcript of Klein’s speech:

Continue reading Halting words: Klein and Smith discuss the new “Stop for Pedestrians” signs

Fatality tracker: 5-year-old girl killed in hit-and-run crash

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“It’s up to you”, an image of a mannequin t-shirt’s pedestrian safety message from fall 2011. It’s hard to tell if this message is directed at people walking along and across the street, or at those who can inflict traffic harm against them. Photo by Kevin Zolkiewicz.

2012 Chicago fatality stats*:

Pedestrian: 7 (6 have been from hit-and-run crashes)
Pedalcyclist: 0
Transit: 5

Be on the lookout for a green, four-door Pontiac Grand Am with extensive damage to the passenger side front headlight that the Chicago Police Department said was involved in a crash with a 5-year-old girl named Monet Robinson, who died at Mount Sinai Hospital less than 30 minutes after the collision (on Monday, July 2). Police officer Daniel O’Brien said that they are searching for a male driver in his 20s, according to CBS Chicago.

The crash occurred in the 1500 S Millard Avenue block in the North Lawndale neighborhood. Below is a Street View image of the block. According to our tracking for 2012, this is the eighth pedestrian traffic fatality, and the sixth hit-and-run pedestrian fatality. In 2010, the last year for which compiled data is available (from the Illinois Department of Transportation), there were 22 pedestrian deaths until July 2, 2010.

At a press conference in Lincoln Park today to highlight new “stop for pedestrians in crosswalk” signs, transportation commissioner Gabe Klein offered his condolences and mentioned that automated speed enforcement cameras might have been able to film the collision. He said that the crash location was between two schools; speed cameras are only allowed to be placed within 1/8 mile of schools and parks.

Huffington Post has additional info, links, and a video.

View 1500 S Millard Avenue in a 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. Updated 16:02 to add the victim’s name, a link to Huffington Post, and a quote from CDOT commissioner Gabe Klein.

Giro de Gerrymandering: pedaling the perimeter of the new First Ward

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Andrew Bayley’s ward map jigsaw puzzle. This and most photos in this post are by Bayley.

[This piece also runs in Time Out Chicago magazine.]

It was a blast from the past when Andrew “Cooter” Bayley, an old bike messenger colleague of mine, asked me to pedal the torturous boundaries of the newly redistricted First Ward with him. Back in January, just after City Council approved the new ward map, Bayley made headlines by using a computerized laser-cutting program to turn the map into a handsome, 50-piece Baltic Birch plywood jigsaw puzzle.

“I thought the new map was ridiculous, so I turned it into puzzle,” explained Bayley, who currently interns at an architecture firm. “Now I want to explore the interaction between this particular form of gerrymandering and the urban infrastructure that defines it.”

Continue reading Giro de Gerrymandering: pedaling the perimeter of the new First Ward

Construction of the 55th Street protected bike lane and road diet began Wednesday

The eastbound bike lane begins at this bus stop at Cottage Grove Avenue.

Erik Swedlund shares these photos taken Wednesday and today of construction on 55th Street between Cottage Grove Avenue and Woodlawn Avenue.

Room for the cycle track is made possible by removing a travel lane in each direction. Elements of this project that are different from previous bike lane projects in Chicago are the mixed traffic areas for right-turn lanes and bus stops. Continue reading Construction of the 55th Street protected bike lane and road diet began Wednesday