• Here’s Steven Vance’s letter to Ald. Bill Conway (34) asking him to defer the Finance Committee’s vote to fund a huge parking garage on The 78 with no transit investments.

• Turning cargo van driver, 27, failed to yield and struck oncoming SUV, then another SUV, which was pushed into a CTA bus Tuesday around 7:20 PM at Archer/Ashland (NBC)

• Yellow Line service been restored after car driver disregarded gate and was their vehicle struck by train Tuesday around 1 PM at Niles Center Road in Skokie, no injuries (ABC)

• Search for missing suburban man [last seen riding mountain bike] shuts down forest preserve and campground (NBC)

• Metra: “Major track project to impact Milwaukee District North midday service”

• Officials considering options for replacing the Home Avenue pedestrian bridge over the Eisenhower Expressway in Oak Park (Tribune)

• “Sprawling Woodlawn Central Development, Daily News Building Landmarking Get Zoning Approval” (Block Club)

• Manaa-Hoppenworth supports synagogue redevelopment near Red Line after developer agreed to include more family-sized units, public bathrooms, park donations (Block Club)

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According to police, on Saturday, July 19, 2025, around 11:20 p.m., the driver of a silver Jeep struck and killed Herrera, and seriously injured her fiancé, Mauricio Leyva, 21, as they crossed Ashland in a crosswalk at Cullerton Street. The investigation remains open and with no new developments, and family and friends continue to push for accountability.

One year later, “Not one more”

The March for Marcela began with organizers highlighting the story of Herrera and other victims of deadly traffic violence.

“Justice for Marcela looks like youth, hood guys, servers, artists, bartenders, mamas y papas, healers, elders, Pilsen natives and community collectives stepping up when others didn’t,” said Diego Garcia. “It’s a demand and not an ask. We demand street safety infrastructure. We demand an Ashland Avenue made for pedestrians. We demand that undocumented women get to live long, happy lives. We demand that Chicago’s youth can live without the fear of dying.”

The march then traveled down 21st Street to Ashland. Attendees took over the northbound travel lanes on Ashland Avenue, forming a circle in the intersection at Cullerton where Herrera was struck and killed.

There, organizers created a circle of flower petals and candles, Daniel Flores performed a song, and Cristina Puzio led the group in a ceremony facing the four cardinal directions. While gathering on Ashland Avenue, one attendee appeared to faint from the heat and an ambulance was called. The march then return to Dvorak Park along 18th Street.

A tent dedicated to Herrera will also be included in this year’s Tacos and Tamales festival on July 17-19, the same festival Herrera worked on the night of her death.

Concrete plans announced

Last Wednesday, staff from CDOT’s Complete Streets team plans for safety upgrades on the three-block stretch of Ashland between Cullerton Avenue and 18th Street, which includes Cullerton. Staff later mentioned that the presentation had been delayed by six weeks after Riley O’Neil, 35, who had worked on the project, was fatally “doored” on his bicycle near 32nd and Halsted streets in Bridgeport, about two miles southeast of Herrera’s crash.

According to CDOT, the 1,000-foot stretch of Ashland, which already has a pedestrian island on the north leg of its 18th Place intersection, will get another island on the north leg of its Cullerton intersection, where Herrera was struck. A concrete curb bump-out is also planned for the southeast corner of Cullerton/Ashland, and other new concrete bump-outs will daylight corners on 19th Street and 18th Place. These safety improvements will be paid for with aldermanic menu money.

CDOT will also install temporary paint-and-post bump-outs at three corners of the 19th Street intersection. Two corners of 18th Place will also get paint-and-posts daylighting bump-outs with, which CDOT is calling a “Rapid Delivery Improvement.” The intention is to be replaced these with concrete infrastructure next year.

CDOT staff could not confirm a scheduled date for completing the 2026 installations. But they said they hope to finish them before the nearby schools are back in session.

“The tragedy of Marcela, and others of course, is a call for action for all of us, especially intersections where children and families are crossing,” said local representative Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th). The designs are the result of a traffic study initiated at the alderman’s request following Herrera’s death, which included significant outreach to the nearby schools.

“I can’t tell you how many times I have almost probably dislocated (my daughter’s) wrist trying to run across Ashland to get across to school,” said Guadalupe, a parent at the Saint Pius V School, during the meeting. “As you know toddlers are very tiny, they can’t walk fast.”

The project does not include changes south of Cullerton Street, including Ashland’s intersection with Cermak Road and Blue Island Avenue next to Benito Juarez High School. In May 2025 at that complex, five-way intersection, a semi driver reportedly disobeyed his signal while making a turn, and fatally struck a male pedestrian, 44.

Asked why the project did not extend further south, CDOT staff cited the limited budget for the project. Arterial resurfacing funding could be used for a longer stretch of the road, but the federal funding involved in that program would have extended the project timeline.

Organizers of the March for Marcela are circulating a Change.org petition demanding that Sigcho-Lopez and CDOT follow through with building the pedestrian refuge island at ther site of Herrera’s tragic death.

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Reporting on the Moving Archer Forward meeting is by Ellen Steinke, and discussion of the Archer traffic safety project is by John Greenfield.

The final open house for the Moving Archer Forward plan, created by the Chicago Department of Planning and Development and the Regional Transportation Authority, was held last week at St. Mother Teresa Hall in Bridgeport. At the event, residents circulated among poster boards showing possible Orange Line station improvements and equitable transit-oriented development concepts, along with data on crashes, sidewalks and existing land uses.

Many attendees stopped to examine the transit and housing proposals. Others questioned planners about parking, congestion, and whether more protected bike lanes would be added to Archer Avenue. Staff from DPD and the RTA, as well as consultants, repeatedly clarified that the study does not prescribe a new street design for Archer.

“This is kind of a vision plan, a pretty high-level plan,” a representative of Site Design Group, which consulted on the project, told Streetsblog Chicago. “We’re not making recommendations for a road diet here.”

DPD released the draft plan for public comment this month after more than a year of research and community outreach. The study covers 6.5 miles of Archer between Halsted Street and Cicero Avenue, passing through portions of Bridgeport, McKinley Park, Brighton Park, Archer Heights and Garfield Ridge.

The plan focuses on land use, zoning, economic development, public space, and access to the Orange Line and the 62 Archer bus. Its three broad priorities are creating a vibrant and equitable corridor; a safer route that better connects people; and a local and regional destination.

Although Moving Archer Forward calls for safer walking, biking, transit, and driving, the document does not suggest a corridor-wide roadway reconfiguration. Instead, it identifies crash patterns and uncomfortable pedestrian conditions, then recommends a menu of possible improvements. Those include better lighting beneath viaducts, wider sidewalks where possible, upgraded pedestrian signals, shorter pedestrian crossings, curb extensions, traffic calming, trees, planters, shaded seating, and clearer wayfinding.

That fact that Moving Archer Forward does not recommend a full street remix is noteworthy, because the separate Chicago Department of Transportation Archer Avenue traffic safety project has been highly controversial. That initiative, whose goal is to make the corridor between 47th Street and Western Avenue in Brighton Park safer and more pleasant for all road users, has converted mixed traffic lanes and parking spaces to make room for walk/bike/bus infrastructure.

In part because the street redesign has coincided with a massive utility project that has contributed to traffic jams, the safety initiative has faced a backlash from some residents and merchants. This included more than six months of weekly demonstrations during the Monday PM rush near the office of Ald. Julia Ramirez, a project supporter. The protesters included her challenger Claudia Zuno, and were promoted by Zuno’s allies in the Trump-friendly pro-charter school lobbying group Urban Center. However, for the last several months, competing rallies by Complete Streets supporters at that location outnumbered the opponents, who recently stopped showing up.

A Moving Archer Forward consultant said the debate over the Brighton Park project affected feedback on the new plan, even though the two efforts are separate.

The document itself notes that Archer is controlled by different transportation agencies along different sections. It calls for stronger coordination between DPD, CDOT, the Illinois Department of Transportation, the CTA, the RTA (which will be replaced by the Northern Illinois Transit Authority on September 1) and other partners. The goal is for future safety, streetscape and transit projects follow a more consistent strategy.

The most detailed transportation drawings focus on the Pulaski, 35th/Archer, Ashland, and Halsted Orange Line stations. Illustrations show possible plazas, murals, landscaping, painted crosswalks, shaded seating, weekend markets, and more welcoming paths between buses, trains, and nearby neighborhoods.

At Ashland, the plan envisions improved access between the station, Archer Avenue, and a future South Branch River Trail. At Halsted, it suggests a formal transit plaza, a relocated bus stop, and multilingual signs. Concepts for Pulaski and 35th/Archer include additional greenery, pedestrian safety measures, and spaces that could host community events.

The renderings are illustrative and do not represent funded construction projects. The plan’s implementation section says progress will depend on agency capacity, partnerships, timing and available funding.

Beyond transportation, Moving Archer Forward identifies 31 possible sites for equitable transit-oriented development, totaling about 13 acres. The plan estimates that development on those sites could support about 800 homes, 1,200 residents, 280,000 square feet of retail and 835 jobs over the next 10 to 20 years.

The examples include apartments above shops near bus stops and larger mixed-use buildings near Orange Line stations. Illustrations incorporate affordable and market-rate housing, public gathering spaces, green roofs, permeable surfaces and ground-floor businesses. They are intended as development models, not proposals for specific properties.

The City says more than 2,600 people participated in the planning process, including 865 survey respondents. Outreach also included three public events, 18 community pop-ups, four advisory-group meetings and a small-business focus group. Residents repeatedly identified traffic, speeding, unsafe bicycling conditions, narrow sidewalks, vacant properties, and a lack of trees and gathering places as concerns.

Although the document does not authorize or fund construction, it is intended to shape later City decisions. Its implementation section calls for incorporating street, sidewalk, and lighting needs into future capital planning, revising zoning that limits mixed-use and “missing middle” housing, promoting potential eTOD sites, and establishing regular coordination among agencies. It also calls for periodic public updates on the plan’s progress.

Whether those ideas produce visible changes will depend on later zoning decisions, development proposals, agency priorities, and public or private funding.

For now, Moving Archer Forward offers a longterm framework rather than a final street design. At the open house, that distinction left some attendees without the answer they were seeking about parking or bike lanes. But it also clarified what the plan is meant to do: establish shared priorities for housing, transit, public space, and safety while leaving the details of roadway decisions to future transportation projects.

Public comments are open through August 6, after which DPD expects to seek adoption by the Chicago Plan Commission.

Check out the Moving Archer Forward Plan here.

Submit feedback on the plan here.

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• “Illinois Secretary of State warns about high-powered e-bikes, launches safety campaign” (NBC)

• Bike rider was reportedly assaulted after taking photos of the plates of a truck parked in a protected bike lane on Milwaukee in Logan for Bike Lane Uprising (Reddit r/chibike)

• Video: Bystanders intervene after man on bike reportedly attacked another bike rider for accidentally bumping into him while riding on the Lakefront Trail (Facebook, NBC)

• Mass Transit: “CTA secures funding for West Side transit improvement design, construction”

• “As Council’s finance committee delayed a vote on a sale of the meter rights to private equity, Ald. Jason Ervin… floated a new deal for the City to get them back.” (Block Club)

• …Op-ed by Ervin in Tribune: “We should vote no on the parking meter transfer for the sake of a better investment policy” (Tribune)

• “First public hearing held on proposed toll hike tied to $26.5 billion road improvement program” including road widening (CBS)

• “Rosemont mall keeps parking fees despite shopper decline” (Daily Herald)

• “Wicker Park’s Car-Free ‘Meet Me On Milwaukee’ Events Return In August” (Block Club)

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• A truly awful parallel. On 6/5 a driver “doored” Chicago planner Riley O’Neil, 35, while he was biking home from work, and he went under the wheel of a semi and died…

• On 7/9 a trucker struck and killed Boston planner Louisa Gag, 36, while she was cycling to work. (StreetsblogMass)

• “Court monitor dings city for lacking fully compliant accessible crosswalk signals for impaired pedestrians” (Sun-Times)

• Tribune letters: “E-motos, scooters should be regulated!” (They will be.) “It’s too pricey to park my car downtown after driving from Wilmette for Bike the Drive!” (Really?)

• “Metra and Union Pacific agree to station rents, but track contract remains elusive” (Evanston Roundtable)

• “West Loop TIF funds to back infrastructure around Chicago Fire FC stadium” including a a 1,220-space, publicly-owned parking garage (Crain’s)

• “Federal Funding Cuts For Permanent Housing Could Leave More Chicagoans On The Streets” (Block Club)

• “Edward Keegan: A new Goldilocks urban apartment building for South Chicago” (Tribune)

• Chicago 2100 Urbanism has the perfect rebuttal to the refrain “Why is Chicago spending all that money on protected bike lanes? I never see anybody using them.”

• Equiticity is promoting The State of Equity: A Mayors Transportation Roundtable on 8/25, and “The State of Equity: Justice in Motion” 9/18-9/19

Streetsblog Chicago is on a light publishing schedule today, probably just running Today’s Headlines, and will resume full publication on Tuesday.

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• RTA: “Largest Access to Transit program will bring $11 million investment to transit stations around the region”

• “Johnson reveals why City Hall abandoned its $3.2B bid for parking meters” (Crain’s)

• CBS: “Stats show crime is down on CTA, but many riders still don’t feel safe”

• “CTA to Deliver Major Upgrades to the Division/Austin Bus Turnaround”

• Elevated Chicago: “From NITA to the Red Line Extension, Major Milestones Reached for ETOD in Chicago”

• “Pilsen Intersection [21st/Ashland] Where Bride-To-Be Was [Marcella Herrera, 22] Killed To Get Safety Improvements” after lobbying by loved ones (Block Club)

• Disability Rights Advocates press release: “Monitor Reports on Chicago’s Compliance with Accessible Pedestrian Signal Court Order Outlining Successes and Areas of Concern”

• Active Trans: “After persistence and refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer, advocates are celebrating a safer crossing” for Great Western Trail at County Farm Road that is planned

• “Mount Greenwood Neighbors Rally To Save Baby Ducks Trapped In Sewer” (Block Club)

Streetsblog Chicago will be on a light publishing schedule on Friday and Monday, probably just running Today’s Headlines, and will resume full publication on Tuesday.

If you appreciate Streetsblog Chicago’s livable streets reporting and advocacy, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support our work. Thank you!

Wednesday’s July CTA board meeting was the first regularly scheduled hearing since Mayor Brandon Johnson announced his picks on Tuesday for the four new Chicagoland transit boards mandated by the Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act. The new boards, including a new set of CTA directors, will launch on September 1. But none of the current CTA board members acknowledged the impending change.

Yesterday the board approved several agreements and contracts. Most notably, they signed off on a design services agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation for long-discussed improvements to Blue Line’s Forest Park Branch. They also exercised an option to buy 48 Automated Bus Lane Enforcement bus-mounted traffic cameras. Acting President Nora Leerhsen reported a continued decline in crime rates. And she and the board expressed condolences to family and friends of CTA employee Kevin Barlow, who was fatally shot during a carjacking on the night of June 29 outside the 98th Street rail maintenance facility.

Board member Roberto Requejo, one of the two mayoral appointees who weren’t renominated, was absent. So was member Neema Jha, a gubernatorial appointee. Board member Pastor Michael Eaddy, an influential West Side clergy member and a mayoral appointee whom Johnson re-nominated, attended remotely due to a family emergency. 

Infrastructure projects

As someone who covered the West Side for Austin Weekly News for many years, I know all too well just how slow the Blue Line’s West Side slow zones are. In her report to the board, Leerhsen acknowledged many riders take the Green Line instead simply because, even if doing so means you need to walk farther or catch a bus, that’s still often faster than taking the Blue Line.

Just two weekends ago, I rode the Forest Park Branch to an event at BUILD Chicago, 5100 W. Harrison St. in Austin. That’s not far from the Blue Line’s Cicero Station. But I was reminded why, if I’m traveling to anywhere in South Austin, I usually take Green Line/bus combination instead. 

The CTA’s intergovernmental agreement with IDOT won’t address the issues right away. Bill Mooney, the CTA’s chief infrastructure officer, told the board that around $28.2 million in federal funds will be used to do engineering design for track replacement. He said IDOT is currently in the process of applying for federal funds to cover the majority of the costs of actually replacing the tracks, 

In her report, Leerhsen said that other improvements will include improving drainage and making the stations fully ADA-compliant. 

CTA Spokesperson Maddie Kilgannon said the agency doesn’t have a timeline for when engineering will be completed. 

Neither Leerhsen nor the board mentioned that the NITA Act mandates restoring the Blue Line’s Central Station and reopening Cicero Station’s western entrance on Lavergne Avenue. The legislation originally required the CTA to do both by the start of 2029, but the trailer bill that was passed at the end of May shifted the deadline to the start of 2031.

Safety updates

Leerhsen started her regular board report with a short tribute to Barlow, describing him as a long-time employee who meant a lot to his friends and family. “We’re thinking and praying for his family, his loved ones and his co-workers,” she said.

She then praised CTA employees for keeping the system running during extreme heat, extreme rain and the busy Chicago Pride and Independence Day weekends. 

As usual, Leerhsen prefaced her crime update by saying that “one single crime is too many” and the CTA will not rest until the numbers are down to zero, but she still felt it was important to highlight the progress that has been made. She said that, according to Chicago Police Department data, this June, major crime was down 45 percent compared to June 2025. Violent crime saw a 58 percent drop compared to last year, On the Red Line, crime was down 47 percent, and violent crime was down 70 percent. She said it’s likely more off-duty officers, as well as the introduction of crisis intervention workers, helped push the numbers down.

Leerhsen said the Forest Park Branch “is the place where we lost riders because of the slow zones.” So she is glad to see some movement on getting speeding up Blue Line service. 

The board approved the option contract for the bus lane enforcement cameras without any discussion, voting to approve all major expenditures in a single motion. But Leerhsen described the bus camera purchase as just as important as addressing slow zones. 

She stated that the contract is expected to increase the number of bus-mounted cams from six to 52. “Even with the six cameras we have in place right now, we’re already seeing the impact,” she said, adding that they resulted in “nearly 2,200 warmings and citations.” Leerhsen said the cameras will be deployed on bus routes 8/Halsted, 20/Madison, 36/Broadway and 66/Chicago by fall. 

The bus camera purchase is funded through a portion of the new transit funding all four transit agencies are expected to get thanks to the 0.25 percent RTA Sales Tax increase that agency’s board approved at the start of June. In May, the RTA board approved the budget amendments for how to spend some of the extra revenue, which included $1 million for bus cams. 

Board members’ remarks

In their comments after Leerhsen’s report, board members offered condolences to Barlow’s loved ones. Board Chair Lester Barclay echoed Leerhsen’s comments, saying that he appreciated the progress on reducing crime in the system, while repeating that “one crime on the CTA is one crime too many.”

“Our goal is to be the safest mass transit system in America,” Barclay said. “Our riders and our employees deserve to feel safe, and they should never feel unsafe.”

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• Hit-and-run driver blew traffic light Wednesday around 11:40 PM at Monre/DLSD near Taste of Chicago and seriously injured man crossing the drive on foot (ABC)

• “Logan Square Cyclist Wants Driver Who Hit Him Found As He Recovers From Injuries” (Block Club)

• Bike Lane Uprising (not a 501c3): “A candidate that’s gone above and beyond the call of duty to make biking in Chicago safer is 30th ward Alderperson Ruth Cruz.”

• …No shade on BLU, but it’s worth noting that Cruz signed on as a supporter of ordinance to lower default speed limit from 30 to 25, but didn’t vote for it. Here’s Cruz’s explanation.

• “Chicago Police Torture Survivors Break Ground On Monument: ‘More Work To Do'” (Block Club)

• Equiticity is “looking for volunteer bike marshals to serve on Squad for ‘The Pedal for Change Ride’, Sat. 9/11, 11/12 AM at Humboldt Park basketball courts (Bluesky, Twitter)

• Active Trans: “The 1st Ward is looking for volunteers to help out at Meet Me on Milwaukee this year. If interested, fill out the form below.”

Streetsblog Chicago will be on a light publishing schedule on Friday and Monday, probably just running Today’s Headlines, and will resume full publication on Tuesday.

If you appreciate Streetsblog Chicago’s livable streets reporting and advocacy, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support our work. Thank you!

Check out People For Bikes’ 2026 City Ratings report here.

Check out their 2026 ratings for Chicago here.

Here at Streetsblog Chicago, we’ve gotten used to the Boulder-based, bike industry-funded nonprofit People for Bikes ranking our hometown near the bottom of the barrel of large U.S. cities for bicycling in their annual City Ratings. It’s happened in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

This year, PFB really went for the gold by ranking us in last place, tied with El Paso, TX, as the very worst out of 73 American cities with at least 300,000 people. They also put us in 2,919th place out of 3,019 cities around the globe.

I didn’t get any word on what percentage of these thousands of cities the nonprofit’s researchers actually rode bikes in before finalizing their critiques. While I exchanged several emails with People for Bikes’ PR person recently, I never succeeded in scheduling an interview.

To address the elephant in the room, yes, Chicago needs to make major improvements in order to become a truly bikeable city. Tragically, that fact was laid bare last month when a driver fatally “doored” Chicago Department of Transportation Complete Streets Planner Riley O’Neil, 35, as he was riding home from work in a paint-only bike lane. Among other issues with cycling here, we need more protected bike lanes, which would have prevented that deadly crash.

It’s no secret that Chicago has many distracted, reckless, and intoxicated motorists, and the O’Neil case was just one of the five bike and e-scooter fatalities that have happened on our city’s street this year, along with at least 13 pedestrian deaths. That’s in part because we still have too many wide, multi-lane roads, plagued by speeding and crashes. While CDOT continues to build protected lanes – often facing backlash from residents, merchants, and politicians – we’re still far from having a citywide grid of low-stress cycling routes.

People for Bikes justifiably docks points from Chicago for having a bike network that’s not completely cohesive. That’s especially true when it comes to protected lanes and Neighborhood Greenways, bike- and pedestrian-priority side street routes, which are concentrated on the North and West sides, but sparse on the South Side.

But the main reason our PFB City Rating is so low is that the nonprofit gives disproportionate weigh to posted speed limits, and Chicago gets heavily punished for our default 30 mph signs. Don’t get me wrong, Streetsblog loudly advocated for an ordinance to lower our speed limit to 25, which has been proven to save lifes in peer cities like New York. Frustratingly, the City Council voted down that initiative in February 2025, and we haven’t heard much about that effort since then.

Years ago, a People for Bikes staffer told me Chicago’s rating would be near the top of the rankings if we lowered our posted limit by 5 mph. This PFB chart from last year makes that clear: While in 2018 our city was tied with Portland, OR, our score plummeted in 2020, when the nonprofit increased it’s emphasis on speed limits.

It that seems that after Streetsblog pointed out this discrepancy year after year, this time People for Bikes may have felt a little sheepish about that. This year’s graph starts in 2020, so someone who hasn’t been following the saga might assume PFB has always rated Chicago as a terrible place to bike.

Similarly, because of our 30 mph speed limit, PFB’s Bike Network Analysis tool colors just about every street in our city red to classifying them as “High Stress” Here’s a screenshot of their map, which gives us a BNA rating of 11 out of 100.

Meanwhile, Tampa, FL, which few people consider to be a cycling paradise, gets a BNA of 42, and almost all of it’s streets are colored blue as “Low Stress,” simply because that car-centric city happens to have a 25 mph residential speed limit. People for Bikes’s skewed ratings of Chicago and Tampa, and other more car-centric cities that are ranked far above ours, are all about the speed limit sign numbers.

CDOT’s perspective

After the 2026 People for Bikes report came out, I asked for CDOT’s response to the claim that Chicago is tied for the worst large U.S. city for biking.

“Here are a few data points and examples that show Chicago is a great biking city and continues to become an even better one, with more people riding and continued investments in safer, more comfortable infrastructure,” responded spokesperson Erica Schroeder. Here’s a list of bullet points she sent (CDOT’s words.)

• Last year, Chicago’s bikeway network surpassed 500 miles
• Since 2021, nearly two-thirds of all new bikeways installed have been low-stress (protected bike lanes and Neighborhood Greenways)
  • 136 miles of low-stress bikeways since 2021, a 249 percent increase.
  • More details on the breakdown of PBLs, greenways, etc. are available here (note this doesn’t include projects that are currently under construction)
• Chicago’s Divvy bike-share system is the largest by area in the United States and continues to set ridership records. Chicagoans took a record 6.8 million Divvy trips in 2025 and are on pace to surpass that total again in 2026.
  • This post from Divvy’s general manager has some cool stats about record ridership days this year.
• Divvy is continuing to be more convenient, reliable, and affordable (as outlined here.)
• Chicagoans also took 6.1 million Lime scooter trips in 2025, demonstrating continued growth in micromobility as an everyday transportation option.
• Replica mobility data shows Chicago has the fastest-growing bicycle mode share among the nation’s 10 largest cities.

“In addition to this, Chicago also supports programs that make bicycling more accessible, affordable, and welcoming for residents of all ages and experience levels,” Schroeder added. She provided a couple more bullet points (CDOT’s words.)

• Our “Bike Chicago” distribution program provides free bicycles, helmets, and locks to income-eligible residents, with the program nearing its goal of distributing 5,000 bikes.
• Our popular Learn to Ride program offers free classes for riders of all experience levels, helping hundreds of Chicagoans each year build skills and confidence.

So that’s CDOT’s side of the story. Next week I’ll share some thoughts from Chicago civilians about the People for Bikes rankings, and the state of cycling in our city.

Check out People For Bikes’ 2026 City Ratings report here.

Check out their 2026 ratings for Chicago here.

If you appreciate Streetsblog Chicago’s livable streets reporting and advocacy, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support our work. Thank you!

• More discussion of Mayor Johnson’s choices for the new transit boards (Tribune, Crain’s)

• “Mayor Brandon Johnson says aldermen’s provisions in budget $130 million short” (Tribune)

• “Metra UP-West service stopped after train hit person near Lombard” Monday evening (NBC)

• “Surveillance video shows man wanted in shooting death of CTA worker” (NBC)

• Here’s video of CDOT’s recent presentation on Complete Streets at ATA’s Advocacy Connect webinar. We’ve added it to our writeup.

• Day 6 of series of letters about protected bike lanes: “Aldermanic prerogative stands in the way of a better bike lane network in Chicago” (Tribune)

• …We totally agree with that sentiment!

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