ChiTown Traffic Tattler

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 [...]

The guys at Google have nearly made your GPS obsolete after an announcement Monday that it’s Android Google Maps Navigation application has added real-time traffic re-routing. Of particular note… the app is free for Android users, something that can be said about comparable iPhone apps, let along Tom-Tom and Garmin. Via Google’s the Official Google [...]

Chicago-area gas prices have increased by about 37 cents over the last 30 days, the Chicago Tribune reports. U.S. gas prices have increased for 13 days in a row, rising nearly 34 cents in that time, the second-biggest price jump in the history of the gasoline market, the publication reported. Lowest Gas Prices in Chicago Chicago [...]

The Illinois Department of Transportation plans two more meetings in March to gather public input and comments on expanding high-speed rail between Chicago and St. Louis. Comments can be submitted online until March 18. IDOT plans a second series of meetings this summer, and is scheduled to complete a study of high-speed rail options late [...]

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 [...]

According to a report from the Texas Transportation Institute, motorists across the country in 2007 combined to spend the equivalent of 175 million days in traffic and purchase an extra 2.8 billion gallons of fuel due to congestion. The 2009 Urban Mobility Report, which the institute released in July, states the figures actually represent a [...]

According to WBBM 780′s Bob Roberts, Chicago and the Chicago Transit Authority are working on a way to help speed the commute for those who don’t use public transportation. Each CTA bus now has a GPS transponder that is used for the bus tracker program, and Roberts reports that the transit agency will share the [...]

What do the Stevenson Expressway, Interstate 80, Ill. 59 and the Kennedy Expressway have in common? They are among a group of highways that cause Chicago commuters the most pain, according to the “Commuter Pain Index” released on Friday by IBM. In Friday’s Chicago Tribune, Jon Hilkevitch’s story on the study nails the symptoms to [...]

I say sorry to the unions, but the idea to privatize snow plowing might make sense — with one caveat courtesy of Garrard McClendon: Let it only be on side streets. McClendon on his Chicago Now blog was one of the first to say we should all get in the “Yes” line. “I’m going to [...]

Jon Hilkevitch in Monday’s Tribune answers a question I have been dying to ask — what’s with these folks hanging around the new pay boxes that line the Lincoln Square and North Center streets these days. Turns out the folks in the bright green T-shirts are temporary workers hired by LAZ Parking, the company managing [...]