Category Archives: Blog

How local groups energize Chicagoland’s Bike Month

Oct 30, 2024 | by Maggie Melin Czerwinski

Each year in May, Chicagoland celebrates Bike Month with exciting bike-related activities like community rides, educational workshops, and repair clinics. While the Active Transportation Alliance plays a role in organizing some of these events, most are led by passionate grassroots groups and local municipalities. These organizations are the true champions of local biking culture, quietly making a big impact by empowering people with biking skills and confidence right in their own neighborhoods. To help nurture these on-the-ground grassroots efforts, each year we offer small stipends to a number of local groups. The stipends are intended to give their initiatives during Bike Month and throughout the summer a boost, bringing more resources and energy to local communities. While these events are...

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Why lowering the speed limit will make our streets safer

Oct 24, 2024 | by Jim Merrell

The fight for safer streets took a step forward recently when the proposed ordinance to reduce Chicago's default speed limit successfully advanced through the Chicago City Council’s Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety. This significant milestone means that the proposal will now go to a full city council vote. As this legislation proceeds to city council, we want to emphasize that lowering the speed limit is a critical part of a broader strategy to decrease traffic fatalities and build safer neighborhoods throughout Chicago. This initiative is not about increasing ticket revenue; it's about promoting equity and safety across the city by tackling the widespread danger of speeding. To help everyone understand the life-saving benefits of this change, we've put together...

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Empower your community: Apply for a $300 stipend with Project Sidewalk!

Oct 24, 2024 | by Maggie Melin Czerwinski

This fall and winter, cozy up with a cup of hot chocolate and make a difference in your community! The Active Transportation Alliance is teaming up with University of Illinois-Chicago’s (UIC's) Project Sidewalk team to offer stipends for up to 10 volunteer groups and individuals committed to virtually mapping the conditions of their local sidewalks and bikeways. From the comforts of your own home, you’ll get hands-on experience with cutting-edge tools to identify areas in need of improvement, ensuring your community is safer and more accessible for everyone. WHAT IS PROJECT SIDEWALK? Project Sidewalk is a free, online tool that uses crowdsourcing to collect data on sidewalk and bikeway accessibility. Broken, cracked, and missing sidewalks create hazardous conditions that...

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Illinois voters show strong support for a unified transit system

Oct 23, 2024 | by Ted Villaire

Illinois voters have expressed a clear preference for unifying the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), Metra, and Pace into a single agency. A recent poll reveals that this initiative is favored by a 2-to-1 margin statewide, with even stronger backing in the Chicago area. The proposed legislation, known as the Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act (MMA), aims to streamline these four agencies into one cohesive entity. This transformation promises to save up to $250 million annually by eliminating redundant efforts and could lead to increased state investment. By integrating services, the MMA seeks to offer safer, more frequent, and better-coordinated transit options. Imagine a future where a single app and fare system simplifies your journey to work, school,...

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Effort to lower speed limit proceeds to full city council vote

Oct 22, 2024 | by Active Trans

We're thrilled that the proposed ordinance to lower Chicago's default speed limit has passed out of the Chicago City Council's Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety and soon will go in front of a full city council for a vote. Before the vote, we presented a statement (see below) to the committee on behalf of a coalition of 13 Chicago-based organizations. The statement said the measures included in the legislation will save lives and enhance mobility by lowering speed limits, reforming traffic fines and fees, and providing residents with new tools to address road hazards. The letter highlights the urgent need for action, citing CDOT statistics that reveal 136 traffic fatalities in 2023, with speeding and reckless driving involved in...

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Low-stress bikeways are the answer

Oct 21, 2024 | by Ted Villaire

When it comes to keeping people biking safe, some bike infrastructure works much better than others. To understand peoples’ preferences, we asked some participants at our recent Bike the Drive event to let us know what bike infrastructure made them feel most safe. We asked participants to examine a list of bike safety infrastructure improvements and vote for their favorite options (see photo below). As you might expect, people overwhelmingly wanted protected bike lanes — physical separation from fast-moving vehicle traffic. Not far behind protected bike lanes were trails, green painted bike lanes, and traffic calming efforts. Some of the people we spoke to were unclear about the most common types of bikeways and bike infrastructure improvements. As a result,...

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Tell city council: A lower speed limit in Chicago will save lives

Oct 16, 2024 | by Ted Villaire

*Editorial Note (October 4, 2024): After being introduced earlier this summer, the ordinance to lower the speed limit was delayed in advancing due to parliamentary procedures. However, thanks to your advocacy, it has now moved to the voting stage at the Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety. The committee must first approve the ordinance before it passes to the full city council for a final vote. We anticipate both votes will take place in the coming week. Now, more than ever, it’s crucial to make your voice heard! Even if you sent an email to your alderperson earlier this year, we're asking you to please do so again. Thank you for taking action to make Chicago’s streets safer for all....

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Every Street of Chicago

Oct 9, 2024 | by Active Trans

Having previously lived in Chicago for five years and now in Evanston for 13, I’ve ridden plenty in the city while commuting, running errands, or cruising down the lakefront. But something special began brewing in early 2021 when I headed to the Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood to visit Sputnik, a coffee roaster whose beans I had recently bought in an Evanston store. On that ride, I fell in love with exploring more of the city: riding the boulevards, viewing the architecture, talking with people, enjoying the smells from chocolate factories, bakeries, and taquerias. That ride started what has evolved into a three-year project to ride every street in Chicago. Riding 4,265 miles of bikeable roads - including all dead ends According...

Tags: Fundraiser, Safe Streets

A safer Pulaski Road: Southwest Siders demand safety improvements

Sep 26, 2024 | by Miriam Eisinger

When was the last time you attempted to cross a busy road on foot? Picture heavy trucks rushing by, cars running red lights, and numerous vehicles speeding. Imagine trying to gauge how quickly you can run from one side to the other, crossing not just two or three, but perhaps four or even eight lanes. Crossing a busy road in the Chicago region is a dangerous experience that too many people must contend with. Often, it’s life-threatening. Sometimes, it’s deadly. A stretch of Pulaski Road on Chicago’s Southwest Side has become particularly infamous for speeding drivers and dangerous crashes. The wide and busy road, with three to four lanes, cuts directly through the neighborhoods. Safety concerns span the entire corridor...

Tags: Pulaski Road, Traffic safety

Voices united: Rallying for better transit on NDLSD

Aug 19, 2024 | by Ted Villaire

Community spirit and collective determination took center stage as many dozens of people gathered recently to demand that city officials take their foot off the gas with the plan to rebuild DuSable Lake Shore Drive. The event brought together residents, advocates, and elected officials, all united in the belief that the current plans by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) for rebuilding NDLSD fall short of addressing the needs and desires of the community. The rally highlighted the agencies’ failure to adequately incorporate community interests into its plans for the roadway, and specifically their refusal to include dedicated lanes for transit, a desire that has been highlighted time and again in community feedback....

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