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we care about in the region.
Ever wonder how the Active Transportation Alliance got its start? Well, Suzan Pinsof can tell you firsthand. The retired urban planner and bicycling advocate was instrumental in creating the nonprofit organization that evolved into Active Trans more than 30 years ago, laying the foundation for the nonprofit’s bicycling advocacy and its success in creating safer conditions for people walking, biking, […]
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When COVID-19 cases and deaths were rising in Chicago in March and April, the pandemic hit communities of color on the South and West Sides of Chicago at disproportionate rates. People in communities of color were already facing disparities in income, employment, health, traffic safety, and economic disinvestment before the COVID-19 outbreak. When the pandemic hit, Black people started dying […]
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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of what we perceive and know about mobility and transportation. In recent months, Active Trans met with more than 100 stakeholders who are invested in our work. We spoke with community partners, elected officials, department of transportation and transit agency officials, and residents across the city and suburbs. As part of this process, […]
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Active Trans Campaign Organizer W. Robert Schultz III, a 31st Ward resident, provided testimony at a Chicago City Council hearing on the city’s infrastructure needs on August 18. The following is an excerpt of his remarks. I have lived in Belmont Cragin, Logan Square, and Uptown. Over the 30 years that I lived in Chicago, I have worked in nearly […]
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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of what we perceive and know about mobility and transportation. In recent months, Active Trans met with more than 100 stakeholders who are invested in our work. We spoke with community partners, elected officials, department of transportation and transit agency officials, municipal staff, and residents across the city and suburbs. As part of […]
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The following is an organizational statement from Active Transportation Alliance Executive Director Amy Rynell. For more on the shutdowns, see Lynda Lopez’s blog post, The needless harm done by shutting down public transit. Public transit provides access to opportunities for thousands of working-class Chicagoans. Buses, trains, paratransit, and bike share connect people to their jobs, healthcare appointments, grocery stores, and […]
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Active Trans’ Bus Organizing Fellows Rylen Clark and Jamaine Alberto Gooding submitted comments to Chicago Transit Authority August board meeting. Rylen provided oral comments before the board while both Jamaine and Rylen submitted written comments. You can read Rylen’s full comments here and below and Jamaine’s full comments here. You can watch the entire CTA board meeting recording here. ________________________________________________ […]
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As I read tweets late Sunday night about the looting happening in the Loop amid the shooting of a young Black man by police, one of my first thoughts was resignation in thinking that transit would once again be shut down and the bridges once again raised. I have seen social unrest in Chicago throughout my life here, but some […]
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As Chicago’s Divvy bike share system goes through two big changes this summer, leaders must make sure these transformative investments provide the greatest benefit to Black and Brown residents living in high-need communities. WHAT’S HAPPENING In mid-July, city officials kicked off a multiyear expansion of the bike share system starting on the Far South Side with 66 new stations. The expansion — which will bring Divvy to every Chicago […]
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The Active Trans Bus Organizing Fellows recently sat down with State Senator Robert Peters of the 13th District and 47th Ward Alderman Matt Martin to talk about transit justice through times of a pandemic and a corresponding economic crisis. Bus Organizing Fellows Rylen Clark and Jamaine Alberto Gooding devised questions to ask the elected officials, and they posed questions that […]
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