Last weekend I was in Minneapolis for a wedding, and was blown away by the new Nice Ride bike sharing program. I was particularly impressed with the ubiquity of the program: I saw bikes downtown, in Uptown, in Longfellow, and in several other neighborhoods. I was all set to write a post about it when I got home, but then heard about the imminent launch of Chicago B-Cycle, Chicago’s first bike sharing program. I decided to wait until the details came out and see how the approaches differed. → Continue reading Chicago B-Cycle Launches (Note: potentially unfair and premature judgement enclosed)
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I feel negligent in not mentioning sooner that for those interested in transit funding (and that should be just about anyone interested in Carless in Chicago), Greg Hinz over at Crain’s has been doing a great job covering the latest developments down in Springfield. In his latest blog post, he mentions a topic that [...] This month, Governing magazine (which I used to read a lot more often when I knew their art director) runs an interesting profile of Richard Rodriguez, who currently serves as head of the CTA. I don’t know that much about Rodriguez, but I’m certainly familiar with his reputation as an agency fixer (which he [...] CiC received a nice little write-up from Julie Hunt at Publish Chicago today. For those of you who don’t know, Publish Chicago is a really nice blog dedicated — as the name implies — to Chicago authors and Chicago publishing. It’s a great place to find reviews and information about book-related events around [...] A few months ago, Greg Borzo was nice enough to review a pre-release copy of CiC for Momentum Magazine. A choice quote: This highly readable book is an invaluable guide for those who want to explore their transportation options, whether they are a native or a visitor, carless by choice or by circumstance. It’s [...] Redesigned Metra Homepage It was remiss of me to let last week pass without posting about the newly revamped Metra web site. Beneath the considerable cosmetic update lie a couple of important new features for riders. First, anyone can now purchase passes and 10-ride cards online, without having to go through an application process. [...] Velib bikes in Paris. Photo by the noggin_nogged (Creative Commons) Today’s Tribune has an editorial exploring what’s happened since Mayor Daley proposed bringing a Paris-style bike sharing model to Chicago after a visit to France in late 2007. Long story short: bike sharing is more complicated than the city realized, and the Paris [...] A couple weeks ago, I posted about Zipcar adding I-Pass to all their Chicago cars. Via their Facebook page, I see that I-Go is now on the case as well, starting with their Evanston and Oak Park cars, and soon to the entire fleet. Speaking for myself, I’m quite happy to see this [...] Yesterday’s WIndy Citizen offered an extensive look at the Wilson Station on the Red Line, in honor of it’s selection as the systems “Most Crusty” station in a Red Eye reader poll. (Via Uptown Update.) Courtesy of today’s Getting Around column in the tribune, two updates of interest to CTA riders: The CTA has abandoned plans to convert more rail cars to the “Maxi” configuration with fewer seats and more room for standing passengers. (However, existing Maxi cars, which I believe all remain on the Brown Line, will not [...] The Sun Times published a nifty interactive graphic on its web site this week that gives approximate costs to the various kinds of regular capital expenditures made by the CTA. (I can’t quite determine what article it relates to, but this gives me an excuse to link to the Sun Times’ transportation blog, The [...] Gold Line Proposal It’s not really a new story, but today’s Tribune has a nice write up about the grassroots “Gold Line” proposal to bring better mass transit to parts of the city’s South Side. Much like the earlier “Gray Line” proposal (second item in link), a key component to the plan involves [...] In today’s Chicago Tribune, Jon Hilkevich wades into the CTA’s somewhat complicated fare structure, suggesting that because of recent changes, many riders might want to re-evaluate whether or not switching to a 30-day pass would save them money. Excellent advice, although I ‘d also add that if you regularly use mass transit you should [...] Good news via Zipcar’s Facebook page: As of this weekend, Zipcar’s Chicago vehicles will include EZ-Pass transmitters allowing Zipsters to use automatic tolling lanes and open road tolling (compatible with Illinois I-Pass). The announcement doesn’t specify, but I assume the tolls automatically get added to the reservation invoice. This is a huge convenience; let’s [...] Hot of the virtual presses… Last week I sat down with John Greenfield, who runs the the excellent Vote With Your Feet blog covering green transportation and related issues to talk about the book and why I wrote it. Today he posted a (lightly edited) transcript of our conversation, and amazingly, managed to make [...] |
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