People – Page 5 – Grid Chicago

Ad Men on the ‘L’ train: Aubin and Sorrels Win the CTA Racing Crown

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Moment of triumph: Garrett Sorrels and Chris Aubin (holding smart phone.) All photos taken on CTA property courtesy of Chris.

For those of you who haven’t been following Chicago’s ‘L’ racing saga, here’s a quick summary of all the competitors we’re aware of who have held the record for visiting every CTA station in one day, solely by transit and shoe leather:

– March 2011: UK native Adham Fisher visits all 143 stations in 9:36:33.
– February 2012: Danny Resner and John Greenfield complete the course in 9:30:59.
– Early April 2012: Scott Presslak and Kevin Olsta set a new record, 9:24:05.
– Mid-April 2012: Rob Bielaski and Ben Downey clock a time of 9:08:56.
– Late April 2012: Adham returns to town and goes head-to-head against Danny and John. Our time is 9:08:03; The Englishman wins the race and sets a new record with a time of 8:56:33.
– Summer 2012: CTA opens two new stations: Yellow Oakton and Green Morgan. Since the new station count is 145, Adham’s record for 143 stops is frozen.
– August 2012: RedEye CTA reporter Tracy Swartz visits all 145 stations in 9:17:00, becoming the new overall champ and smashing the ‘L’ racing gender barrier.
– October 19, 2012: Chris Aubin and Garrett Sorrels, co-workers at the ad firm Starcom Worldwide, set the new overall record at 9:12:39.

Chris and Garrett recently met up with Scott, Kevin, Danny and John for the third-ever CTA racer summit at the Skyride Tap, a dive bar below the Loop elevated tracks at 105 West Van Buren. After toasting the new winners’ triumph, we discussed the fact that there are only a few months left to break their record before the south Red Line closes for repairs this spring, putting ‘L’ racing on hold for five months. Here’s Chris’ account of his historic ride.

Continue reading Ad Men on the ‘L’ train: Aubin and Sorrels Win the CTA Racing Crown

Fatality Tracker: Man skateboarding to his car involved in hit-and-run crash a week ago has died

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A memorial for Reggie outside Café Con Leche.

2012 Chicago fatality stats*:

Pedestrian: 22 (10 have been hit-and-run crashes) (the Illinois Safety Data Mart reports 30 pedestrian fatalities today)
Pedalcyclist: 5 (1 is a hit-and-run crash)
Transit: 8 (our last update listed 7)
Skateboard: 1 (1 is a hit-and-run crash)

Reginald “Reggie” Destin died today from injuries he sustained in a crash on October 19 while skateboarding to his car in the 1700 block of North Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park. He was hit by an unlicensed and uninsured driver whose blood alcohol level was 0.188 with a previous DUI; the driver didn’t stay but was quickly caught by police. The Chicago Sun-Times has an obituary:

Destin was well known in the Chicago skating community and often frequented the skateboard shop Uprise, which is a block from the accident. He had jobs working for popular skateboard companies and owned a skateboarding shop called Push near Chicago and State in the late 1990s, Fonseca said.

Grid Chicago apologizes on behalf of the Chicago Sun-Times for their inaccurate use of the word “accident”.

We are classifying this as a skateboarding crash type, even though the Illinois Department of Transportation data will likely classify it as a pedestrian crash as skateboards are not recognized as vehicles or devices (like pedalcycles). Skateboarding is sustainable transportation; if you don’t believe me go to Destin’s crash location on a warm weather day to see people skateboarding to their destinations.

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A skateboarder in Chicago, at Milwaukee Avenue and Division Street – I don’t know his name.

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Skateboarding is transportation. A happy skateboarder at Milwaukee and California Avenues – I don’t know his name either.

* The information is only accurate as of this post’s publishing time. View previous Fatality Tracker posts.

State of the union: Active Trans celebrates 2012 landmarks

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Group portrait of Active Trans members in attendance.

Tuesday night I dropped by the Active Transportation Alliance’s annual member meeting at UBS Tower, One North Wacker, joining dozens of attendees in celebrating this year’s advocacy achievements.

After members elected a new board (Jane Healy is stepping down as board president, Jim Kreps is moving up from VP to president, Bob Hoel is taking over as VP and Susan Levin is joining the board as a new director), Grid Chicago contributor Anne Alt was inducted into the Active Trans Hall of Fame. Director of events Christine Schwartzkopff enumerated Anne’s many contributions to biking, walking and transit advocacy here.

She’s president of the Chicago Cycling Club and secretary of Friends of the Major Taylor Trail, as well as a member of the Beverly Bike Club and a supporter of the Major Taylor Cycling Club. Anne also co-led the Southwest Side community advisory group for the Streets for Cycling Plan 2020 and regularly attends Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council meetings. In addition she spent fifty hours in the saddle scouting out streets for the last edition of the Chicagoland Bicycle Map, and she helped research routes for Active Trans’ Four Star Bike Ride.

Continue reading State of the union: Active Trans celebrates 2012 landmarks

Fatality Tracker: Why we do it, and bringing transit up-to-date

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2012 Chicago fatality stats*:

Pedestrian: 22 (10 have been hit-and-run crashes)
Pedalcyclist: 5 (1 is a hit-and-run crash)
Transit: 8 (our last update listed 7)

This is a special Fatality Tracker post. There were no pedestrian, pedalcyclist, or transit fatalities in Chicago recently. This post brings our transit number up-to-date as it was missing one person. I also wanted to explain why we publish Fatality Tracker.

On March 2, 2012, a man was struck by a CTA train at the Grand Red Line subway station. “Fire Department officials said the unidentified man was pinned under the trains at the station at 521 N. State at 5:45 p.m.”, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The article quoted Thank you to Tracy Swartz for helping us ensure that we were aware of all the fatal incidents.

Why Fatality Tracker?

I answered the question myself in April, but it’s useful to give others’ perspectives on the reasoning behind the sorrowful task of making a list of how and when people died. The following blockquotes are reader responses to an anonymous commenter on a post from September 2012 about the cab driver whose car killed Eric Kerestes.

There is a very real downside to transportation in this city in that sometimes people die. And far too often, these deaths could be prevented. We can not and should not sweep incidents like this under the rug. It needs to be made known, so we can see the current reality of transportation and discuss what needs improvement. Ignoring it in favor of pretty pictures and feel-good stories won’t make it go away. -BlueFairlane

That’s why.

GridChicago exists to fill a very clear void in local transportation reporting; in terms of ped-transportation-death tracking as well as a wide assortment of other non-private-motorized transportation matters. -Kevin M

That’s why.

It’s purpose is to bring to light the dangerous situations walkers and bikers face in Chicago on a day-to-day basis. This blog would certainly love to never post another entry to the fatality tracker, but the sad reality is that people are getting killed far too often by crazy, unsafe motorists. -Adam Herstein

Again, that’s why we do it.

* The information is only accurate as of this post’s publishing time. View previous Fatality Tracker posts. Overhead photo of the ‘L’ by Clark Maxwell.

Fatality Tracker: Senior woman killed in hit-and-run, driver not yet apprehended

2012 Chicago fatality stats*:

Pedestrian: 22 (10 have been hit-and-run crashes)
Pedalcyclist: 5 (1 is a hit-and-run crash)
Transit: 7

Bessie Manning, 85, was crossing Division Street, southbound on Waller Avenue in the Austin community area, when she was struck by a “dark-colored” car and likely died immediately. Police are looking for the driver of the car. The Chicago Tribune has more details.

As a reminder, the speed of a motor vehicle involved in a crash with an unshielded human (i.e. a pedestrian or bicyclist) is the greatest determining factor of injury or death in that crash (the speed of the vehicle in this crash hasn’t been reported but now is as a good a time as any to publicize it). Simply put:

20 MPH at crash impact: 5% chance of fatality
30 MPH, 37-45%
40 MPH, 83-85%
50 MPH, nearly 100% chance of fatality

View Waller Avenue and Division Street 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.

Community planning meets technology and the web at Metropolitan Planning Council discussion

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Ted Nguyen who works for the Orange County Transportation Authority, but was representing himself, said, “My version of E=MC2 is ‘Everybody is a media company times 2.” Photos by Ryan Griffin-Stegink.

The Metropolitan Planning Council hosted a roundtable presentation and discussion on technology’s role in community planning. You can watch the video recording below. The speakers represented a diverse range of occupations:

Frank Hebbert, director of Civic Works at OpenPlans, a technology urban planning non-profit based in New York City
Ted Nguyen, manager of public communications at Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA)
Ben Fried, editor in chief of Streetsblog, which is part of OpenPlans
Thomas Coleman, mobile app developer for Parsons Brinckerhoff, Chicago office

John recorded some key quotes from the speakers:

Frank: “It’s tempting to say that [online] tools make it easier to do community planning, but they don’t make it trivial. They make it easier to add your voice and become more deeply engaged.” Continue reading Community planning meets technology and the web at Metropolitan Planning Council discussion