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Raising ride-hailing fee to fund public transit makes sense

Oct 18, 2017 | by Active Trans

Mayor Emanuel’s proposal to raise fees on Uber and Lyft rides to pay for public transit upgrades is good news for everyone who cares about preserving healthy, sustainable and equitable transportation options across Chicago.The mayor introduced the potential increase in his budget address this week. If approved by Chicago City Council, 15 cents will be added to the current 52 cents per ride city fee in 2018.In 2019, the fee will increase another five cents. All the new revenue generated will be dedicated to public transit improvements.The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) faces a $13 billion backlog of repairs just to maintain current bus and rail infrastructure. The agency has dealt with a series of funding cuts in recent years, including...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Chicago Central, Chicago North Side, Chicago West & Southwest Side, Walking

Ride hailing is increasing congestion

Aug 30, 2017 | by Active Trans

Recent reports out of San Francisco and New York City find that ride-hailing companies like Lyft and Uber are contributing to increased traffic congestion and could be hurting transit ridership.The San Francisco study found that ride-hailing vehicles travel approximately 570,000 miles within city limits on a typical weekday.This accounts for 20 percent of all local daily vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and includes both in-service and out-of-service mileage. Ride-hailing trips are concentrated in the densest and most congested parts of San Francisco, including along major public transit lines, and operated extensively on neighborhood streets.The study authors worked with researchers from Northeastern University to develop software that collected data from the Lyft and Uber applications over time, a work-around due to the lack...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Walking

Better trail connections in DuPage County

Aug 15, 2017 | by Active Trans

Several of our supporters recently attended DuPage County’s public meeting about changes coming to the Illinois Prairie Path. We are happy to report that the county is proposing a new side path called the Eola Connector (see image) to improve trail connectivity between the Aurora Branch of the Illinois Prairie Path and several other nearby paths and destinations.The Eola Connector proposal includes a 10-foot, paved, multi-use path along Eola Road to connect the Aurora Branch to the Batavia Spur, the DuPage Technology Corridor Trail, and Metea Valley High School and its shared-use path. The proposal also includes the widening of the Eola Road bridge over Interstate 88 to accommodate the multi-use path. Once the design is approved, the county will...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Planning, transit, Walking, West Suburbs

More protected bike lanes coming to Evanston

Aug 11, 2017 | by Active Trans

Evanston is on move with installing more protected bike lanes on its streets.Earlier this summer, the City of Evanston began construction of a two-way barrier protected bike lane along a 1.9-mile stretch of Sheridan Road and Chicago Avenue. The bike lane is part of Evanston’s Sheridan Rd.-Chicago Ave. Improvement Project.Phase one of the project included the recently completed protected bike lane on Chicago Avenue. Phase two, which is currently in progress, involves extending the bike lane north along Sheridan Road to Lincoln Street.Expect road closures at several intersections along Sheridan Road between August 7 and 21 while pavement construction is in progress.In addition to the bi-directional bike lane, which will be separated from traffic by a concrete barrier, the project...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, North Suburbs, transit, Walking

1st grade transportation advocates of Summit

Aug 7, 2017 | by Active Trans

First graders from Graves Elementary School in the Village of Summit are on a mission to improve their community and their walk to school. Hundreds of kids in this southwest suburb walk to school every day. While the young students enjoy their commute, they also encounter barriers that need improvement. In April of this year, a first-grade class sent Mayor Sergio Rodriguez a letter (see below) asking for a meeting and requesting that the village work on improving the pedestrian bridge that offers one of the few connections between the north and south sides of Summit, which is separated by railroad tracks. The bridge (pictured left) is used by hundreds of students each day to get to and from school,...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Education, South Suburbs, transit, Walking

Truck safety ordinance is a step forward

Jul 6, 2017 | by Active Trans

UPDATE: The ordinance requiring city contractors to install low cost safety equipment on large trucks was approved by City Council on July 26, 2017. Active Trans commends this step towards making Chicago safer for all._______________________________________Last week, the Chicago mayor’s office announced the introduction of a truck safety ordinance to city council as part of its renewed Vision Zero initiative.The announcement represents the city following through on one of the commitments in the recently released Vision Zero Action Plan to eliminate all traffic fatalities in Chicago by 2026.Contractors will be required to phase in the installation of safety equipment, starting on January 1, 2018, with full compliance required by January 1, 2021. The city is also committing to the same standards...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Chicago Central, Chicago North Side, Chicago South Side, Chicago West & Southwest Side, Planning, transit, Walking

Why Uber won’t replace public transit

Jun 22, 2017 | by Active Trans

Uber hasn’t had a great 2017 so far — what with employee allegations of a culture of sexual harassment, evidence that the company has been systematically deceiving government inspectors, and a lawsuit claiming that it stole autonomous vehicle technology from Google.Nevertheless, the company remains the most celebrated tech disruptor du jour, and its seemingly ever-growing customer base has convinced many people that it represents the future of urban transportation.And in fact, it (or something like it) may have a large role to play for years to come. But it will be as a partner to traditional transit services like buses and rail — not a replacement, as some have predicted.Why? Three reasons: Equity, money and geometry.Perhaps the most obvious objection...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Walking

Vision Zero Action Plan focuses on reducing vehicle speeds

Jun 12, 2017 | by Active Trans

Today’s release of a Vision Zero Action Plan lays a strong foundation for the city to achieve its goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2026.The three-year plan shows the city is serious about preventing crashes and making our streets safer for everyone, especially the most vulnerable people who are walking and biking. Now we need to make sure our elected officials at every level of government provide appropriate funding support for the city to meet its ambitious goals.We're advocating at the local, state, and federal levels for more safe streets funding, especially for infrastructure projects on streets that have long been identified as high-crash corridors. Redesigning these streets will be pivotal to bringing down our unacceptably high numbers of...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Planning, transit, Walking, zero vision

Dedicated bus lanes in Cleveland: a major success

May 23, 2017 | by Active Trans

Speeding up buses in urban areas and attracting more riders is a difficult task if transit vehicles are constantly stuck in traffic.Cleveland learned this lesson nearly 10 years ago and it continues to reap the benefits.In building a corridor that prioritizes bus traffic with dedicated lanes, Cleveland embraced the reality that buses are moving many more people much more efficiently than cars with one or two passengers. That extra street space is extremely valuable in cities like Cleveland and Chicago. The Euclid Corridor, which connects Cleveland’s two biggest employment centers (downtown Cleveland and University Circle), has always been a center of commerce in the city. In 1993, a task force was set up to find better ways to serve public...

Tags: Bicycling, Education, Planning, Walking

Los Angeles ‘signals’ the way to better bus service

May 22, 2017 | by Active Trans

Chicago should look to the West Coast as it considers investing more to speed up local buses.Seventeen years ago, when Los Angeles County decided to give its buses priority at traffic signals, the buses experienced huge gains in speed and reliability. The county has a massive bus system that accounts for a majority of all public transportation trips.Through surveys and communications with bus riders, the transit agency learned that existing local and limited-stop service was too slow and unreliable. The Metro Rapid service (LA’s limited-stop bus service) sought to address these shortcomings through the introduction of service that would improve operating speeds, reduce passenger wait and dwell times, and broaden service dependability. The most beneficial improvement proved to be traffic signal...

Tags: Advocacy, Education, Planning, Walking

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