Cyclist and pedestrian safety advocates rally for change after two toddlers are killed by drivers on Chicago streets.

The walk-and-roll rally on Sunday began at Leavitt Street and Eastwood Avenue in Lincoln Square, where 2-year-old Raphael “Rafi” Cardenas was struck and killed by a driver June 2 while he was crossing the street on a scooter. At last report, the driver has not been cited.

On Monday, he got off at a stop on the Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line when he noticed a nearly unconscious man on the electrified third rail of the tracks. He jumped down onto the tracks and pulled the man to safety.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said America faces a crisis on its roads. The safety administration urged state and local governments, drivers and safety advocates to join in an effort to reverse the rising death trend.

Efforts to rethink the policy and spur development on the South and West sides while preventing long-time residents from being displaced from the Northwest Side are starting to pay off, symbolized by the grand opening set for Friday of an apartment complex near the CTA Blue Line Logan Square station, Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara told WTTW News. 

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.

The city’s commitment of $6 million to the Englewood Nature Trail is part of a total of $15 million announced by the mayor to jump-start a number of “green infrastructure” projects throughout Chicago.

An ordinance introduced in the city council in February would mandate that rideshare drivers make a minimum rate per trip, per mile, and per minute. And it would prevent rideshare companies from taking a commission of more than 20%.

Starting Monday, Metra has added five train trips – 91 up from 87 – to its popular BNSF Line, which runs between Aurora and Chicago along stations including Downers Grove, Hinsdale and Brookfield.

At a virtual meeting of the task force working on the overhaul, members of the Redefine the Drive team outlined a study of how the different potential layouts would affect travel times for transit passengers and drivers under different weather conditions during morning and evening rush hour. 

Canadian Pacific covers much of the U.S. Midwest and is a large shipper of potash and fertilizer for agriculture. It also carries grain from the U.S. to its northern neighbor for domestic use and exports. The railroad serves the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri and other states.

In a Tuesday filing with the Surface Transportation Board, the federal agency overseeing rail companies, Metra argued the board shouldn’t let freight giants Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern combine operations. 

Designed to ease congestion on the Kennedy Expressway around O’Hare Airport, the new tollway will connect Interstate 90 and Interstate 294.

Suburban officials are worried the proposed merger of two major rail companies would mean more frequent freight trains, which they say could take as long as 10 minutes to clear an intersection.

While the U.S. isn’t experiencing the same upheaval as Canada, trucking advocates say the industry still faces huge challenges, many of which predate the pandemic.