The Chicago City Council could vote on what the mayor’s office called a “small scale” pilot program as soon as Feb. 1 — less than a month before Election Day.
Traffic
Chicagoans are all too familiar with having to sit in traffic. A recent report shows that the average Chicago-area driver spent 155 hours in traffic last year. That's the highest number in North America and second highest in the world.
The City Council’s Transportation Committee advanced the measure six months after 3-year-old Lily Shambrook died while riding in a carrier on her mother’s bicycle.
Representatives of the city’s Department of Transportation and the Budget Office declined to provide WTTW News with a full breakdown of spending during 2021 and 2022 under the banner of Chicago Works.
Whether you plan to watch the Chicago Marathon from your couch, are excited to join the cheering throng of spectators or just want to steer clear of traffic jams, here's what you need to know.
The proposed merger of freight rail giants Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern – which has faced a swell of opposition – wouldn’t have major environmental consequences, according to a draft environmental impact statement released Friday by the Surface Transportation Board.
The vote capped months of parliamentary shenanigans and came after a concerted effort by advocates for pedestrians and bicyclists to convince undecided members of the City Council the tickets were an effective way to reduce headline-grabbing and heartbreaking crashes.
So-called “sideshows” have popped up all over the city in recent weeks, where hundreds of people gather to watch cars spinning “doughnuts” — sometimes in a ring of gasoline set on fire.
A push to roll back a law hitting drivers who zip past Chicago parks and schools monitored by speed cameras traveling between 6 mph and 9 mph above the limit with $35 tickets is set to get an up-or-down vote by the Chicago City Council on July 20, according to records obtained by WTTW News.
Ald. Jason Ervin (28th Ward) led the push to prevent a vote on the measure Wednesday, using a parliamentary procedure to delay a vote until the City Council’s next meeting, scheduled for July 20. That tactic is often used by members of the City Council to push back an up-or-down vote when the outcome is uncertain.
Authored by Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward) and Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th Ward), the measure would give employees of the Department of Finance — not just members of the Chicago Police Department — the authority to order the vehicle blocking the bicycle lane to be ticketed and towed.
The proposal now heads to Wednesday’s meeting of the full Chicago City Council, where its prospects are uncertain at best.
While the Chicago Department of Transportation encourages residents to submit complaints of blocked bike lanes to 311, “requests sent to 311 are not sent to Administrative Hearings for ticketing,” CDOT said in a statement.
The 10.5% jump over 2020 numbers was the largest percentage increase since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began its fatality data collection system in 1975. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said America faces a crisis on its roads.
The program got the green light from the Chicago City Council in October after two pilot programs in 2019 and 2020 convinced city officials that the motorized two-wheelers will reduce congestion and encourage the use of public transportation throughout Chicago.
If last week’s gas giveaway is any indication, people can expect to be idling in their cars for upwards of an hour or more Thursday as they wait their turn at the pump for Willie Wilson’s $1 million giveaway.
