ChiTown Traffic Tattler

The Tribune’s Jon Hilkevitch has a great piece looking at a study by the League of Illinois Bicyclists that posits that road-widening and reconstruction projects done by local agencies are often superior to work done by state highway engineers.

The difference: An interest in how changes affect everyone who uses a roadway versus a focus on vehicle traffic.

The League of Illinois Bicyclists study — titled “(In)Complete Streets” and released earlier this month — rate 46 recent Chicago area road projects for pedestrian and bicyclist safety.

Hilkevitch reports that “projects managed by the Illinois Department of Transportation on state-maintained roads were among the lowest rated in the study” as they “generally lacked sidewalks and pedestrian crossings, even in locations where the state road was the only travel option.”

You can find the study here and the League of Illinois Bicyclists here.