Category: News

CTA reveals designs for new Wilson Red Line station which show new entrance on Sunnyside

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In this drawing of the original and current station house at the corner of Wilson Avenue and Broadway, it appears the station’s architectural heritage is preserved and even restored (see what it used to look like).

The Chicago Transit Authority sent out a press release this morning with five renderings of their proposed design for a reconstructed Red Line station at Wilson Avenue in Uptown. The station was voted “crustiest” by Red Line readers three years in a row (it lost this year to the Sheridan Red Line station).

The project is estimated to cost $203 million; construction will begin in the second quarter of 2013. The station will become a transfer point between Red and Purple lines; the nearest points to do this currently are Belmont (three stops south) and Howard (ten stops north). It will also be an accessible station, helping close the gap on the far north side until the Red and Purple Modernization Project receives funding. The nearest accessible stations currently are Addison (two stops south) and Granville (six stops north).

A new entrance will be built conveniently on Sunnyside Avenue for near-direct access to the Wilson Yard Target and Aldi stores. A rendering of that area was not included in the press release.

The CTA is holding an open house in one week, on Thursday, October 11, from 6-8 PM, at Truman College, 1145 W Wilson Avenue. This may be a good time to talk to the CTA about using the station as a model of future energy uses.

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This rendering shows glass canopies of a design that were later nixed from the Brown Line Rehabilitation project.

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The station name over Wilson Avenue is reminiscent of the Morgan Street Green/Pink Line station.

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A glass enclosed station house on Wilson Avenue. The rendering makes the tracks appear over 20 feet high. The Belmont Station tracks are only about 13 feet high.

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A rendering of the bridge over Broadway.

N.B. The business of press releases is amusing. I received it at 5:56 AM with a subject line of “Mayor Emanuel Unveils Designs for Wilson Red Line station”. I’m glad Mayor Emanuel was up at that time unveiling these designs.

Fatality Tracker: Crossing from between cars

2012 Chicago fatality stats*:

Pedestrian: 21 (9 have been hit-and-run crashes)
Pedalcyclist: 4 (1 is a hit-and-run crash)
Transit: 7

Please, please, please do not cross from between cars. The Chicago Tribune reports on a fatal pedestrian crash on Thursday, September 27, 2012:

A 59-year-old West Side woman died after she was hit by a car as she crossed the street near the intersection of 79th Street and St. Lawrence Avenue, authorities said.

Rose Harris, of the 1100 block of North Leclaire Avenue, was pronounced dead at 7:06 p.m. at Holy Cross Hospital, a spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

She was crossing from between two cars when struck by a car whose driver apparently didn’t have time to react, according to police.

Harris was hit about 6:50 p.m. and police said the driver did not flee the scene after hitting her.

The driver, Diedre G. Scott-Johnson, 66, was cited for driving without insurance and without a license, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Robert Perez said. She lives in the 10700 block of South Lafayette Street and is scheduled to appear in traffic court on Oct. 19.

If fatal pedestrian crashes continue at the current rate, we’ll have fewer in 2012 than 2011, a marked difference than New York City’s experience this year.

View 7900 S St. Lawrence in a larger Map. The news story reports the crash happened near this intersection.

Doorings in Chicago and NYC are still a sorry state but one of them is doing something about it

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The decal on a taxi window says “LOOK! For Cyclists”.

I don’t report on doorings as often as I report on non-dooring crashes* but I should as it’s something we can affect with road design, a common theme of my writings. There isn’t much to say about dooring at the moment, but an article published on Wednesday about a new campaign in New York City to reduce dooring incidents between taxi passengers and cyclists caught my attention. Then two other things caught my attention.

New York City awareness campaign

Transportation Nation reported on a new video advertisement and decal being shown in all 13,000 New York City taxicabs in an effort to reduce dooring crashes. All yellow cabs in the city have a small TV for passengers; they’ll soon show a short clip about looking for cyclists before opening the door. A window sticker will say the same thing.

The message not to fling cab doors open without first checking for bicyclists will be hammered home in a video message that will play on all 13,000 Taxi TVs (assuming passengers don’t turn them off first). “Take out a friend,” reads the message on the video. “Take out a date. But don’t take out a cyclist.”

Continue reading Doorings in Chicago and NYC are still a sorry state but one of them is doing something about it

Can Chicago reach 30 miles of “green lanes” before the snow flies?

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Amsden in Amsterdam on a fact-finding trip with U.S. politicians and planners organized by Bikes Belong. Photo courtesy of Bikes Belong.

[This piece originally ran on the website of the Green Lane Project, an initiative that is promoting protected and buffered bike lanes nationwide, sponsored by the national advocacy group Bikes Belong. The term “green lanes” refers to protected and buffered lanes and other innovative bikeways.]

No one can accuse Mike Amsden of being lazy. Amsden, project director with the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) bicycle program, has the job of implementing Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan of building 150 miles of green lanes (110 miles protected and 40 miles buffered) by 2015. This first struck me as a Herculean task, but the CDOT team has made significant traction already and Amsden says that if all goes well, by the end of the year they’ll be on track to meet their target.

The first 150 miles will be part of the city’s grand scheme to create a 645-mile network of various types of bikeways within the decade, which would ensure that every Chicagoan has a route, lane or trail within a half mile of his or her home. The proposal, called the Streets for Cycling 2020 Plan, is the product of a robust public input process, with two rounds of community meetings held on all sides of the city. The final plan should be released in October.

Amsden took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to give me an update on CDOT’s progress installing the lanes, and what’s on the horizon, including the two-way protected lane on Dearborn Street in the heart of the Loop downtown business district that promises to be a game changer.

Continue reading Can Chicago reach 30 miles of “green lanes” before the snow flies?

Red all over: the 95th Street station rehab and other delights

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Double-decker bike racks were added to the 95th Street station earlier this year.

[This piece also appeared in Checkerboard City, John’s weekly transportation column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets in print on Thursdays.]

After sprinting east down Fullerton Avenue on my bicycle, I make it to the turnstiles of the eponymous Red Line stop just before the 4 p.m. bike-and-ride cutoff. As I relax on board with my wheels, the train passes through the Near North Side, the Loop and the Near South Side, then decreases in speed as we pass through slow zones, sometimes decelerating to walking pace. In all, the 15-mile rail trip takes 45 minutes, with an average speed of only 20 MPH.

When we reach the end of the line at 95th Street, the roar of traffic assaults my ears, since the platform sits in the median of the Dan Ryan Expressway. I’m on my way to a CTA open house at the Palmer Park fieldhouse to learn about the 95th Street Terminal Improvement Project. It’s estimated to cost $240 million in federal, state and CTA funds, about half the total bill for Millennium Park. The formal design process is slated for later this year, with construction in late 2014, after the Red Line South Track Renewal Project is completed.

Continue reading Red all over: the 95th Street station rehab and other delights

Fatality Tracker: Woman killed while entering a car

2012 Chicago fatality stats*:

Pedestrian: 20 (9 have been hit-and-run crashes)
Pedalcyclist: 4 (1 is a hit-and-run crash)
Transit: 7

Until we receive more information, this woman’s death in the block of 6500 S Pulaski Road is being considered a pedestrian traffic fatality. The Chicago Tribune has details:

Judith Bramwell, of the 5700 block of South St. Louis Avenue, was pronounced dead about 11:25 p.m. Saturday. Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines said the woman was hit while she tried to get in a car in the 6500 block of South Pulaski Road in the West Lawn neighborhood about 2 a.m. Saturday morning. Charges are pending against the 51-year-old driver who hit her, Gaines said.

* 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.