Trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds working on projects worth more than $2 million would have to start installing side guards and convex mirrors in January and finish within three years, Emanuel announced.

“Chicago is using a data-driven approach to improve traffic safety, and the data shows we can save lives and prevent serious injuries by installing this type of safety equipment,” Emanuel said in a statement that noted that after officials in the United Kingdom required the guards, the number of pedestrians killed in side-impact collisions with trucks dropped 20 percent while the number of fatal bicycle accidents dropped 61 percent.

Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld said the safety measures would lower the risk of crashes and make the impact of the crashes that do occur less severe.

“Side guards greatly mitigate the severity of side impact crashes, especially those involving pedestrians and bicycles,” Scheinfeld said. “And convex and crossover mirrors reduce blind spots for large vehicles.”

The measure, which is expected to be considered by the City Council next month, will also direct Fleet and Facilities Management Commissioner David Reynolds to begin installing the safety measures on city trucks.

In September, the Active Transportation Alliance told city officials there was “an urgent need to address the disproportionate threat these large vehicles pose to people biking and walking” after six bicyclists died after being struck by commercial vehicles.

Kyle Whitehead, the alliance’s government relations director, said Thursday he was pleased with the ordinance, although it won’t fully be in place until January 2021.

“Changes like these tend to take longer than anyone would like,” Whitehead said, adding that the group would continue to work with city officials to encourage private firms to install the guards and convex mirrors.

City officials have vowed to eliminate death and serious injuries from traffic crashes by 2026 as part of the mayor’s Vision Zero campaign.

Dee Palagi, 27, said she was relieved the city will require its trucks to have side guards — even though that wouldn’t have prevented her from suffering serious injuries when she was struck by a semi-truck while riding her bicycle near Roosevelt Road and Wood Street in September 2016.

Palagi, whose leg was amputated after her foot was pinned under the truck, said she hoped that the effort would prevent others from being injured or killed.

“This should have already been in place,” Palagi said. “But it is a good thing moving forward.”

The first phase of the project will rebuild four of the oldest Red Line stations on the North Side while rebuilding the structure that supports the track as well as the Belmont flyover, which officials promise will unclog the bottleneck created by the intersection of the Red, Purple and Brown lines.
“In Chicago, the strategic and extensive investments we are making in our city’s infrastructure are investments in our residents, our neighborhoods and in our economic future,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement. “As the CTA ‘L’ turns 125 years old this week, we’re always looking to the future by modernizing to create a world-class transit system that will better serve Chicagoans today and for decades to come.”

The project includes plans to rebuild the 100-year-old embankment that supports the track between Lawrence and Bryn Mawr avenues, making it possible for six to eight more trains per hour to travel from Howard to 95th streets on the Red Line.

The Chicago & South Side Rapid Transit Railroad Co. built the first elevated tracks from Congress and State to 39th, with trains of wooden passenger cars pulled by small, coal-burning, steam locomotives.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel hopped aboard a 94-year-old train car this morning to ride down that initial stretch of track to the city’s oldest station still standing at Garfield Boulevard.

“The investments we’re making today will reinforce that it will be around for the next 125 years,” said Emanuel, who himself takes the train to work twice a week.

The proposal would bring train service closer to the wait times of CTA buses and trains, which south lakefront residents have wanted for at least 10 years.
Metra will do a round of community meetings in late June to get feedback on the compromises that will need to be made to increase train service for Hyde Park.

Among those trade offs would be the elimination of nine train runs on the Blue Island Branch and nine on the South Chicago Branch of the line

“Many of these trains carry only one to two customers per day,” the Wednesday announcement said. “Taken together, these trains carry an average of fewer than 10 passengers per day.”

Those cuts would allow Metra to more than double the number of trains serving the three Metra stations in Hyde Park. The number of inbound trains would increase to 18 from nine and outbound trains would increase to 18 from seven between 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on weekdays.

To facilitate that increase, stops between 63rd and Kensington would see midday waits for a train drop to an hour from two hours currently. Stops between 75th Street and 111th Street would also see three new inbound and three new outbound trains on weekdays.

Metra Executive Director Don Orseno said the change is to try to halt a 14 percent drop in ridership on the Electric Line over the past six years.

“We need to do something to stem the loss of ridership on the Metra Electric Line, which has been declining for years despite the fact that the line has the newest cars and most scheduled trains on our system,” Orseno said. “This new schedule is an effort to make the best use of our existing resources by scheduling our trains in a more efficient way and enhancing service without impacting our budget.”

The majority of the train system’s lost ridership is happening on the Electric Line, with 1.4 million fewer rides on the line in the past six years, according to Metra.

Hyde Park is the area with the most growtn on the Electric Line, with ridership at the 51st/53rd Street, 55th/56th/57th Street and 59th Street stops increasing by 7.6 percent over the past three years as more housing is built nearby.

Metra will host four community meetings from 4-7 p.m. along the Electric Line before the changes go into effect.

The meetings include:

• June 19, South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. South Shore Drive

• June 20, Flossmoor Village Hall, 2800 Flossmoor Rd., Flossmoor

• June 21, Blue Island City Hall, 2434 Vermont St., Blue Island

• June 22, Polsky Exchange, University of Chicago, 1452 E. 53rd St., 2nd floor

The interstate-style guardrail, which hugs the curve as Leland swoops toward Western Avenue, is set to be replaced with planters, and the sidewalk, which tapers to a choke point around the bend, will be widened to provide more room for pedestrians.

Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th) has earmarked $100,000 in aldermanic menu money to fund the project.

Work could start in the fall but more likely will get underway in spring 2018, according to Jim Poole, 47th Ward chief of staff.

The Chicago Department of Transportation has some engineering work to do first, including relocating drains and streetlights, he said.

“It’s going to look a lot better, but it’s not a drastic change,” Poole said.

Though the main purpose of the project is to improve the pedestrian experience, Poole said the planters may send a visual cue to motorists that Leland isn’t a highway.

“It probably calms traffic a little bit,” he said.

A more significant alteration to the curve, in the form of a pedestrian “island,” was considered and dropped, in large part because of concerns that trucks would have serious difficulties negotiating the island, he said.