ChiTown Traffic Tattler

Via The New York Times: Using wireless sensors embedded in streets and city garages, a smartphone app now will show San Francisco motorists where there are parking spaces available — in many cases up to the second. The $20 million parking project here, called SFpark, is backed by the Transportation Department and the Federal Highway [...]

Via The Chicago Tribune’s Jon Hilkevitch and the Illinois Tollway Authority: The Illinois Tollway Authority’s website offers a new feature that will allow motorists an easier way to dispute tollroad violations they feel are incorrect. From the Tollway’s news release: Currently, customers who drive through toll plazas without paying cash, using active transponders or using [...]

Via The Chicago Tribune: A measure that wold increase the cost of an annual Chicago city sticker for vehicles that aren’t electric or hybrids was set aside last week. The Tribune reports that the measure’s sponsor — First District Ald. Proco “Joe” Moreno — says the idea remains viable and isn’t meant to punish those [...]

Via The Chicago Tribune: Drivers who run out of gas or have a flat tire on the Illinois Tollway could soon find themselves getting an advertising pitch along with their rescue. Tollway officials announced plans Thursday to sell advertising space on the sides of the Highway Emergency Lane Patrol, or HELP, trucks that assist stranded [...]

Via The Chicago Tribune’s Jon Hilkevitch: While not opposed to collecting data on the number accidents involving bicycles and vehicles that aren’t moving, Illinois Department of Transportation Officials haven’t received many requests to do so, according to a spokesman. Kim Nishimoto, whose son was killed in a dooring accident, said she thinks IDOT’s position that [...]

Via TG Daily: The idea of paying a monthly fee to have your phone limit what you’re able to do seems a bit counter-intuitive, but that hasn’t stopped Sprint from introducing its Sprint Drive First service. The software — once loaded onto your phone — will direct all incoming calls to voicemail, disable text message [...]

More than 8 million motorists drive over more that 2,200 Illinois bridges that are rated as “structurally deficient” and in need of immediate repair. So says a study released Tuesday by a Washington DC organization “calling for more responsible investment of our federal tax dollars” toward the nation’s transportation infrastructure. The study — by Transportation [...]

Just three words can strike fear into hearts of most any North Side motorist that heads southbound for any distance: Lake Shore Drive Reconstruction. And after seven years of major reconstruction projects that bettered lives for commuters on the Edens Expressway, Tri State Tollway, Reagan Tollway, Dan Ryan Expressway, Bishop Ford Freeway, Borman Expressway and [...]

Via TribLocal: Metra officials have nixed a plan for a new train station in Crystal Lake, disappointing city officials who saw it as a convenience for residents and a likely push to development in the area. A public hearing to annex the 17.5-acre site in Ridgefield into Crystal Lake was canceled Tuesday night after being [...]

Via Indiana University: The Hoosier state’s “graduated driver’s license” restrictions have led to a steep reduction in car accidents among young motorists, according to a report titled “Effects of Graduated Driver Licensing on Crash Outcomes in Indiana.” Findings include: Crashes involving young drivers dropped sharply after the state raised the minimum age for getting a [...]

The Chicago Tribune reports that Illinois Department of Transportation head Gary Hannig will step down from his post. From a statement issued by the 58-year-old Democrat: After giving the matter long and serious thought, I have informed my good friend Governor Quinn that I will be retiring from state government effective March 31. I have [...]

UIC has made a collection of photographs available online that depict scenes from a bygone Chicago. The IDOT Chicago Traffic Photograph Collection is housed in the Special Collections Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and contains about 2,300 images from Chicago transportation surveys and projects. Many of the prints appear to have been [...]

A spectacular primer on iPass, via 37Signals, discovered during a trip to a rest stop along the Jane Addams Tollway. The rest stop usually has a booth where you can buy a iPass so you don’t need to stop and pay tolls all the time. During the day the booth is manned by someone to [...]

Via nwi.com: The Macquarie Group, a co-operator of the Indiana Toll Road and Chicago Skyway, has increased its offer price to purchase Redflex, the operator of red light cameras in Chicago and several south suburbs. Of course no one will put in traffic lights on a toll road. But it seems that Redflex needs money [...]

Since July 2010 — when Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law a measure that mandates vehicles must stop for pedestrians waiting to cross or in the process of crossing at non-signaled crosswalks — the Chicago Police Department has issued 1,100 tickets to motorists who were deemed in violation. Via Medill Reports (be sure to check [...]

Think back to the summer of 2008, and then think back to all the economic greatness that came after. Sarcasm implied. Now drive by a Chicago gas station and marvel at the $4 price tag at the pump. Via WGN-TV: The BP station at Lawrence Avenue and Marine Drive in Uptown is charging $4.09 for [...]

A study of bicyclists and their travel patterns throughout Chicago found the city’s bicycling hot spot — at least in 2009. It’s 640 North Milwaukee Ave., where more than 3,000 bicyclists recorded at during the summer and fall of 2009 as part of the of Chicago Department of Transportation’s first-ever bike-count study, the results of [...]

Motorists who use an iPhone will have more information at their finger tips with an update this spring to a navigation app — and more reason to ignore the road. iGo My Way — developed by NNG — is a 3-D GPS app for drivers in the style of Garmin. The upgraded app will be [...]

The frequency at which traffic deaths and serious injuries occur have declined since the early 2000s, according to a Chicago Tribune report that cites a study by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. From the Tribune: The statistics are based on data collected by the Illinois Department of Transportation. The report provides an updated analysis [...]

Illinois Department of Transportation spokeswoman Marisa Kollias has announced she will be leaving the agency. Her last day is scheduled to be Friday. In an email to media outlets, Kollias said she has taken the position of Deputy Director of Communications at Cook County Hospital and HealthCare Systems.