The Chicago Police Department will host a “Cops And Cars Cruise-In” on the first Thursday of the month throughout the summer from May 4-Sept. 7 in Morgan Park.
Classic cars will take over the east parking lot of the Morgan Park Police Station at 1900 W. Monterey Ave from 6-9 p.m. Participants in the free show are asked to enter at the corner of Pryor Avenue and Esmond Street.
The number of bicyclists injured when the door of a parked vehicle was opened directly in their paths rose about 50 percent, according to data released by Illinois transportation officials.
In 2015, 302 bicyclists were “doored,” according to data released by the Illinois Department of Transportation. That is nearly a 50 percent increase from 2014, when 202 bicyclists were injured by car doors.
The sharp increase in 2015 comes after the number of bicyclists injured by doorings dropped from 2011 through 2014, according to city officials.
Jim Merrell, advocacy director of the Active Transportation Alliance, said it was unclear whether there was actually such a steep increase in dooring crashes in 2015, or whether stepped-up enforcement or reporting contributed to the jump.
However, it is clear that the number of crashes are “unacceptably high,” Merrell said, adding that it was incredibly frustrating to get 2015 data four months into 2017.
The alliance is putting together an analysis of the data to help make recommendations to Chicago officials.
There were 1,644 reports of collision-related injuries in 2015 and 1,720 crashes involving bicycles, according to state transportation data. The number of crashes increased 3 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to the data.
Six bicyclists were killed in crashes during 2016, according to city data.
In 2013, city officials raised the fine for opening a door in traffic and causing an injury from $500 to $1,000 as part of a larger effort by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to encourage more Chicagoans to bike around the city.
After taking office in 2011, Emanuel oversaw the construction of more than 100 miles of new bicycle lanes, which include both protected bicycle lanes — set between parked cars and the sidewalks to keep bicycles away from traffic — and buffered bicycle lanes — which are painted lanes to separate cyclists from cars.
Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld has pledged that city officials will step up their efforts to achieve the city’s goal of eliminating death and serious injuries from traffic crashes by 2026 as part of the mayor’s Vision Zero campaign.
According to state officials, eight bicyclists were killed in Chicago in 2015. However, city data released in March found seven bicyclists were killed in crashes.
Representatives of the Chicago Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to questions about the discrepancy between state and local crash data or the cause of the increase in dooring crashes.
The dooring results were first reported by Streetsblog Chicago.
By Heather Cherone DNAinfo Chicago
Donald Trump promised Americans he would rebuild the country’s crumbling infrastructure, boasting on the campaign trail that he would put $1 trillion of public and private funds into rebuilding roads and bridges. He later drastically decreased that number to $550 billion.
So where is that money going? Not to California, where plans to revitalize the Bay Area’s Caltrain transit system have just been delayed by his administration.
Trump’s newly appointed transportation secretary, Elaine Chao ― who oversees the Federal Transit Administration ― has slammed the brakes on the project, which would change the diesel-powered trains to electric and cost about $2 billion, according to SF Gate.
Last Friday, Chao halted the $647 million federal grant that helps cover the project until an audit can be completed. Caltrain has already selected contractors to get started on construction by March 1. If they aren’t able to get started by that date, the bidding process will begin all over again ― and likely at a much higher cost.
Caltrain, which connects riders from San Francisco to the Silicon Valley hub of San Jose, currently carries approximately 60,000 riders a day. Making the trains electric would increase ridership, save money on operating costs and help the environment, advocates for the change argue.
“For two years, Caltrain worked closely with Federal officials to complete a thorough evaluation of the project including intensive engineering assessments and financial vetting,” Murphy said in a statement.
But on Jan. 24, 14 Republican members of the California GOP sent a letter to Chao, saying the cost of the project was too high and would not attract private financing.
“I never imagined that the electrification of a train would be subjected to such brutal, partisan politics,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) in a statement. “This is not a Democratic project nor is it a Republican project. It is about the modernization of an outdated commuter system that is the spine of the transportation system of the Peninsula and the Silicon Valley region.”
Caltrain officials are asking Trump to intervene and direct the FTA to fund the electrification process of the existing Caltrain system. They say the project would create 9,600 jobs.
There’s little chance Caltrain can meet its deadline now that an audit is required, and the cost penalties could be “so severe that we might not be able to do the project,” Seamus Murphy, the rail system’s chief communications officer, told the Los Angeles Times.
The electrification of Caltrain would be just one element of an ambitious project to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles by high-speed train, reducing travel time between the two metropolises to three hours. California voters approved the entire project in 2008, but the original $40 billion cost is now closer to $64 billion (this sum includes the cost of the electrification of the current Caltrain system).
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is married to Chao, previously panned Trump’s plan to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure, saying such an infrastructure bill would not be a good use of the GOP’s time or resources.
Trump has already promised to waste more than $20 billion on a useless U.S.-Mexico border wall. And it seems unlikely that he would give federal funds for infrastructure to California, a state that limits local law enforcement agencies’ cooperation with deportation efforts and contains many so-called “sanctuary cities.”
The president has already threatened to withhold federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions. “Certainly that would be a weapon,” Trump said of denying funding to states and cities that don’t fall into line with his federal immigration policies.
In a 4 a.m. tweet earlier this month, Trump also floated the idea of cutting off federal funding for the University of California, Berkeley, after violent student protests erupted ahead of a scheduled appearance by right-wing agitator Milo Yiannopoulos.
Part of Yiannopoulos’ “different point of view” was his apparent defense of pedophilia, as the world learned earlier this week. Maybe that will change Trump’s mind about blanket refusals of federal funds. Probably not.
Metra will allow pets that fit into a small carrier to ride weekday trains during off-peak hours beginning May 1.
The six-month trial program is an expansion of the commuter rail service’s existing policy allowing small pets on weekend and holiday trains. The approach mirrors Metra’s rules for bikes on trains in terms of the specific times of day.
Pets will be permitted on weekday trains arriving Downtown before 6:31 a.m. and after 9:30 a.m. and trains departing Chicago before 3 p.m. and after 7 p.m.
“So far, our pet policy has been successful. It just makes sense to test if we can expand it and make travel by train an even more attractive and convenient choice for these customers,” said Don Orseno, Metra’s executive director.
Metra’s written statement issued Wednesday goes on to say that the expanded pet policy could become permanent after the six-month trial period. Additional details include:
• Only small pets in enclosed protective carriers are allowed onboard.
• Carriers will not be allowed to take up seats or seating areas, obstruct pathways on trains or in stations and must be small enough to be carried on by a single person.
• Carriers must fit in a passenger’s lap or under the seat at all times.
• Metra can remove passengers with pets that are noisy or disturb other customers.
• Pet owners are responsible for the behavior and cleanup of their animals.
• Service animals are allowed on all Metra trains at all times.
The expanded pet policy follows a 2013 passenger petition asking that pets be allowed on trains. Metra went on to survey of the policies of other mass transit agencies found that many allowed small pets aboard their trains and buses.
Metra also consulted with its Citizens Advisory Board and surveyed its customers before the initial three-month pilot program began on the Rock Island Line in the summer of 2015.
By Howard Ludwig dnainfo
A local Lincoln Park group is rejecting the latest tweaks to the North Branch Industrial Corridor Modernization Plan and accuses the city of trying to discourage public comment on the need for a major new park.
The board of the RANCH Triangle Community Conservation Association unanimously rejected the latest proposed recommendations on the plan last week, submitted by the business-oriented North Branch Works, saying they didn’t address persistent questions on the need for better transportation and a major new park, according to President Reatha Kay.
Kay said the city’s Department of Planning and Development “seems to be ignoring that there’s a development at Children’s Hospital and a development at Lathrop Homes.” While granting that those are not technically within the North Branch Industrial Corridor, a 3.7-mile area running on a diagonal along the Chicago River basically between Fullerton and Chicago avenues, she added that the thousands of new residents brought in by those impending developments — as well as at the as-yet-unplanned Finkl Steel site — would tangle transportation in the corridor and additionally burden overtaxed city parks, especially in Lincoln Park.
“I can’t understand how it can be viewed in a vacuum,” Kay said of the North Branch Corridor. “It’s just astounding to me that they’re not even mentioned.”
The North Branch Industrial Corridor is the first of 26 such city industrial areas getting an updated modernization plan, which will dictate the goals and limits for development in the area for decades. The plan is currently slated for approval by the Plan Commission late next month.
According to Krista Elam, director of economic development for North Branch Works, it held a community meeting in March including several local groups, such as the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce, the Wrightwood Neighbors Association and the Sheffield Neighborhood Association, as well as RANCH Triangle, and gathered the feedback into another document sent back out to the groups. Main issues, she added, were transportation, density of proposed housing and funding, as well as open space. RANCH Triangle, she said, was the only group so far to reject it out of hand.
North Branch Works represents the existing businesses in the North Branch and Addison industrial corridors, and the group has been leery of plans to open up the north and south ends of the area to residential use. “We share a lot of the concerns,” Elam said, including transportation and density of development.
Kay also took issue with what she charged were city attempts to “dissuade” public comments on a major public park, even as the Department of Planning and Development has extended the public-comment period to next month as it prepares the final draft for the modernization plan.
Kay pointed to a department email that went out to local residents Friday that she said set up a straw-man argument to knock down calls for a major new park, a hot-button issue since Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) initiated calls for it to be addressed in the modernization plan late last year.
The department email quotes an unnamed respondent as saying: “If you don’t create a 10- to 15-acre open-space park in the Finkl Steel property … where else in the 43rd Ward could it be created? I cannot fathom why a 10- to 15-acre park is not proposed by the DPD for the Finkl site.”
The email immediately points readers to a Chicago Park District land-acquisition plan and a city open-space inventory map, both of which suggest Lincoln Park is amply served by Lincoln Park itself along the lakefront.
“During the public-comment period, I don’t understand why they’re trying to convince people that open space isn’t needed,” Kay said. “I was disappointed the DPD was trying to dissuade people from making comments about open space.”
Peter Strazzabosco, spokesman for the department, responded that “public comments have been an essential component of the nearly yearlong North Branch planning process, and the city’s efforts to balance the needs of residents and businesses throughout the area.”
Strazzabosco emphasized that the plan is intended to maintain the corridor as “a vibrant, mixed-use business environment.” He added, “The plan calls for up to 60 acres of new open space to be created over the next 15 years. The open-space strategy is focused on public and private improvements that are available to the public year-round; designed for a range of ages and abilities; and enhance the health of residents, workers, the environment, and wildlife.”
City officials have persistently rejected the idea of using eminent domain to seize land for a major public park, as at the former Finkl Steel site, and have pointed to the 60 acres proposed for a riverwalk running down both sides of the river in the corridor, as well as a proposed wetlands park at the so-called turnaround basin at the north end of Goose Island at North Avenue. Strazzabosco echoed that, saying, “Additional refinements to open-space projects will occur through the Planned Development process and detailed project review,” on each independent development as they arise.
Kay dismissed the 60-acre riverwalk, however, saying, “It’s a linear space that really doesn’t invite anything. Who’s going to use it? It’s not going to be parents and children. It’s not going to be people playing sports. It’ll be people riding bikes.” She compared it to the 606, which she said similarly had not addressed the need for a major park in the Wicker Park-Bucktown area to the west of the corridor, which also figures to be directly affected by the North Branch plan.
Strazzabosco insisted, “Lincoln Park is the seventh-most-well-served community in the city in terms of open space per capita” and that the Park District’s planning documents indicate “there is no need to pursue open-space acquisition in this community.”
Kay countered that the city itself has labeled Lincoln Park a “magnet park,” serving residents not only across the city but the suburbs as well, and shouldn’t be considered in standards set for the amount of park space per capita in a given neighborhood. “Having the lakefront park really doesn’t serve the whole neighborhood,” she said.
Kay said she’d sent a letter to the Department of Planning and Development in January laying out the case for a major new park. Although the city claims to be welcoming the comments, she said, it was actually turning a deaf ear to them, as the actual plan has made no substantial changes on that issue in the framework and draft being considered for final submission to the Plan Commission next month.
Without such changes, she said, the RANCH Triangle Association would not be likely to endorse the final draft. “I don’t want to speak for the board without having talked with them,” Kay said, “but I can’t imagine that we’d be satisfied and that we wouldn’t continue to raise our concerns.”
The Department of Planning and Development has scheduled two last open houses to gather public comment from 3-6 p.m. Tuesday in Room 1003-A at City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St., and 4-6 p.m. next Tuesday at St. John Cantius Church, 825 N. Carpenter St.
info by dnainfo
Metra will operate on a special schedule Friday to accommodate Downtown commuters looking to get a head start on the Easter weekend.
The modified schedule is meant to help those who get out of work a bit early, as most lines will add trains or shift train schedules to provide more early afternoon departures.
A complete list of afternoon departures can be found on Metra’s website.
“We hope that these early departures make things more convenient for our customers, and help them get a head start on family gatherings and other holiday plans,” said Don Orseno, Metra’s executive director and chief financial officer.
By Howard Ludwig / Dnainfo
The Louisville doctor dragged off a United Airlines flight at O’Hare airport to make room for airline workers who wanted to board the plane has hired a high-profile Chicago attorney.
Tom Demetrio of the Corboy & Demetrio law firm that is routinely in the mix on high-profile personal injury and aviation cases, is part of Dr. David Dao’s new legal team.
Dao also is represented by Stephen L. Golan of Golan Christie Taglia, who issued a brief statement on Dao’s behalf Tuesday — not long after United’s CEO issued an apology for the infamous incident seen around the world.
According to the statement, Dao is undergoing treatment in a Chicago hospital for his injuries.
“The family of Dr. Dao wants the world to know that they are very appreciative of the outpouring of prayers, concern and support they have received. Currently, they are focused only on Dr. Dao’s medical care and treatment,” said Golan.
“Until Dr. Dao is released from the hospital, the family is asking for privacy and will not be making any statements to the media,” both attorneys said.
Demetrio is a partner at Corboy & Demetrio and is a former president of the Chicago Bar Association and the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.
He’s won multimillion dollar settlements in wrongful death cases. According to his bio, Demetrio “has negotiated well over $1 billion in settlements and acquired the largest personal injury verdict ever upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court. He has never lost an appeal.”
Meanwhile, United Airlines’ CEO Oscar Munoz offered his “deepest apologies” to Dao.
Munoz came under fire for his initial responses to the Sunday evening incident, which was captured in several videos that went viral on social media.
Munoz had described the flight’s booted passengers as being “re-accommodate[d],” and in a letter to employees, called Dao “disruptive and belligerent” and said employees had “followed established procedures.”
But in a public apology shared by United on Tuesday, Munoz changed his tone, describing the incident as “truly horrific” and saying United took responsibility.
“The truly horrific event that occurred on this flight has elicited many responses from all of us: outrage, anger, disappointment. I share all of those sentiments, and one above all: my deepest apologies for what happened,” Munoz wrote in the statement. “Like you, I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight and I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard.”
United CEO Oscar Munoz: I’m sorry. We will fix this. https://t.co/v8EPGsiDCipic.twitter.com/eOPiYcagvo
— United (@united) April 11, 2017
Videos of the incident show officers pulling Dao from his chair and dragging him out by his arms. His mouth, chin and cheek are smeared with blood.
The airline asked four passengers to leave the plane voluntarily because four nonworking crew members needed to fly to Louisville, said travelers who wrote about the incident online. When no one volunteered to give up a seat, the airline said a computer would randomly select four people to be removed, a passenger reported.
Dao was among those selected, but he told airline employees he was a doctor and needed to go home to see patients in the morning, according to passenger accounts.
That’s when he was dragged off the plane, according to the passengers.
Other videos show Dao returning and walking up the plane’s aisle, saying, “I have to go home. I have to go home.”
Two videos show Dao bleeding and clutching a curtain in the aisle while saying, “Just kill me. Kill me.”
RELATED: New Video Shows Bloodied United Airlines Passenger Saying ‘Please Kill Me’
A Chicago Aviation Department security officer who helped remove Dao from the plane has been suspended “pending a thorough review,” officials said. The security officer’s identity has not been released.
“The incident on United flight 3411 was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure, and the actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned by the Department,” said Karen Pride, a spokeswoman for the Aviation Department.
According to United’s “Contract of Carriage,” or set of policies: “If a flight is oversold, no one may be denied boarding against his/her will until UA or other carrier personnel first ask for volunteers who will give up their reservations willingly in exchange for compensation as determined by UA. If there are not enough volunteers, other passengers may be denied boarding involuntarily in accordance with UA’s boarding priority.”
Those who are the least likely to be denied boarding or deplaned due to overbooking are children traveling alone and passengers with disabilities. Other factors considered by the airline when deciding whom to remove include: a “passenger’s fare class, itinerary, status of frequent flyer program membership, and the time in which the passenger presents him/herself for check-in without advanced seat assignment.
@united @CNN @FoxNews @WHAS11 Man forcibly removed from plane somehow gets back on still bloody from being removed pic.twitter.com/njS3nC0pDl
— Tyler Bridges (@Tyler_Bridges) April 10, 2017
#flythefriendlyskies @united no words. This poor man!! pic.twitter.com/rn0rbeckwT
— Kaylyn Davis (@kaylyn_davis) April 10, 2017
#flythefriendlyskies my husband was on that flight. Screw you United!! @unitedpic.twitter.com/4EcxrMy5jZ
— Kaylyn Davis (@kaylyn_davis) April 10, 2017
#flythefriendlyskies @united my husband had to deboard because of the blood pic.twitter.com/AMywCaPlnC
— Kaylyn Davis (@kaylyn_davis) April 10, 2017
United CEO response to United Express Flight 3411. pic.twitter.com/rF5gNIvVd0
— United (@united) April 10, 2017
@united @CNN @NBCNewspic.twitter.com/gk7oPOSmQe
— Emily Powell (@Powell_Emily) April 9, 2017
@WHAS11 Kids were crying people are disturbed. Also after being removed the bloodied man somehow ran back on the plane repeating-I have to get home
— Tyler Bridges (@Tyler_Bridges) April 10, 2017
@United overbook #flight3411 and decided to force random passengers off the plane. Here’s how they did it: pic.twitter.com/QfefM8X2cW
— Jayse D. Anspach (@JayseDavid) April 10, 2017
@USAnonymous Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave ^MD
— United (@united) April 10, 2017
Milwaukee Avenue Street Resurfacing Underway In Norwood Park: IDOT – Norwood Park – DNAinfo Chicago
Workers on Monday kicked off a roughly three-month street resurfacing project targeting the 0.7-mile stretch of Milwaukee Avenue between Albion Avenue and Elston Avenue in Norwood Park, state transportation officials announced.
While work is underway, drivers should expect “temporary daytime lane closures” during “non-peak travel times,” with a narrower supply of on-street parking spots, according to the announcement released Monday.
In addition to re-paving Milwaukee, workers will repair “existing curb and drainage structures” and update pedestrian crossings to ensure that they’re accessible to people with disabilities.
The project is set to be finished this summer, officials said.
The city is expected to release a plan this month detailing how to better protect pedestrians, unveiled amid a nationwide surge in deadly crashes between pedestrians and cars.
A report from the Governors Highway Safety Association estimates pedestrian deaths rose 11 percent around the country between 2015 and 2016. Chicago itself saw 44 pedestrians killed in 2016, higher than the average of 38 annual deaths since 2010, and crashes have affected thousands of people walking, riding a bike or driving, according to a February report from the Mayor’s Pedestrian Advisory Council.
The city hopes to end crashes that cause death or serious injury by 2026 with its Vision Zero campaign. Various city departments and advocacy groups have been working together to create a three-year action plan in line with Vision Zero’s goals, said Kyle Whitehead, the government relations director at the Active Transportation Alliance, a bicyclist advocacy group that has worked with the city on the action plan.
We’re definitely concerned about [pedestrian fatalities],” Whitehead said. “When you’re looking at statistics like this, we always want to be careful to [not] read too much into a single change or fluctuation from year to year. What we try to pay attention more to is longer-term trends, and when you look longer-term our numbers have been going down in Chicago.
“We think every one of those crashes is preventable and every loss of life is tragic. We as advocates continue to work until those numbers are reduced to zero.”
Active Trans has pushed the city to reduce speed on streets, especially large “arterial” roads like North Avenue, Irving Park Road or 79th Street, as a lifesaving measure, Whitehead said. The group doesn’t have a “specific ask” on what the speed limits on those major roadways should be, but Whitehead said it wants to city to significantly reduce speed limits “across the board.”
Active Trans has also pushed for lanes to be removed or narrowed — which can be done by adding a bike lane or a pedestrian “refuge island” — so drivers have less space, which causes them to “naturally drive slower,” Whitehead said.
“Those are the types of projects that we would really like the city to pursue on some of these corridors,” Whitehead said.
Chicagoans should also be encouraged to use alternate means of transportation, like walking or riding a bike, instead of driving, to help prevent fatal crashes, Whitehead said.
“When more people are using those modes, not only is our city more healthy and sustainable, it’s also safer,” Whitehead said. “Within the city, if we can get more people walking and biking, you’re going to see fewer of these crashes, and we could have fewer people driving.”
A Department of Transportation spokeswoman said more information about what the city has done and what it intends to do is expected to be released this month, but details were not immediately available.
Kelly Bauer dnainfo
Rental Bikes Are Back At Dan Ryan Woods And North Branch Bike Trail – Beverly – DNAinfo Chicago
Rental bikes have returned to Beverly’s Dan Ryan Woods and the North Branch Bike Trail in Forest Glen, according to officials with the Forest Preserves of Cook County.
The bike rental stations work similar to the unmanned Divvy rental locations throughout the city. Users can rent a bike hourly, daily or with a season pass through a vendor called Smoove.
The company supplies bikes to the Forest Preserve via Bike and Roll Chicago. It costs $7 per hour, $28 per day (4 hours) or $60 for a year-long membership. Members receive the the first hour of each rental for free — then regular rates apply.
Rental Bikes Are Back At Dan Ryan Woods And North Branch Bike Trail – Beverly – DNAinfo Chicago
The bike rental season began Saturday and runs through Oct. 31. The station at the Dan Ryan Woods at 87th Street and Western Avenue regularly has 4 or 5 bikes, said Stacina Stagner, a spokeswoman for the Forest Preserves.
In fact, the station at the Dan Ryan Woods experienced a glitch in system just ahead of activation. It should up and running by Friday, she said.
The 257-acre Dan Ryan Woods offers access to the Major Taylor Bike Trail. The trail, named for an African-American bicycle racer and civil rights advocate, starts at the eastern edge of the farthest north parking lot of the Dan Ryan Woods.
Rental Bikes Are Back At Dan Ryan Woods And North Branch Bike Trail – Beverly – DNAinfo Chicago
The paved trail runs along the edge of the preserve for about 1½ miles to 91st Street. The trail continues southeast for another 5½ miles and is routed on city streets from 95th to 105th streets. It eventually connects to Whistler Woods near the Little Calumet River.
Meanwhile, the North Branch Bike Trail boasts approximately 20 miles of paved trails beginning at Caldwell and Devon avenues in Chicago and continues into Lake County. It winds along the north branch of the Chicago River and the Skokie Lagoons.
As part of the three year agreement with Bike and Roll, the Forest Preserves will receive an annual fee of $1,500 for each bike rental location as well as five percent of gross sales, according to a previous statement from the Forest Preserves.
“Our goal is to attract more users and provide a fun experience for them once they arrive,” said Arnold Randall, general superintendent of the forest preserves. “Bike rentals are a great way for people to explore nature and engage in physical activity.”
Rental Bikes Are Back At Dan Ryan Woods And North Branch Bike Trail – Beverly – DNAinfo Chicago
