Greetings from the Windy City

 

Today I am in Chicago with Mayor Richard Daley, where I am announcing the city has been chosen to receive a $153.1 million Congestion Reduction Grant that will cut traffic, improve transit, and reduce pollution.  Under the terms of the agreement, USDOT will help fund four new bus rapid transit routes along heavily congested corridors in downtown Chicago, and the City will implement a high-tech, variable pricing system for all on-street parking to reduce congestion associated with circling cars and underpriced parking.

    

This partnership is a great example of the kinds of bold solutions to decades-old problems we at the Department of Transportation are so excited about.  Mayor Daley has taken an aggressive approach to Chicago’s traffic and congestion concerns, and has embraced innovative financing in exciting ways.  With the Chicago Skyway and Grant and Millennium parking facilities already serving the city through public-private partnerships, Mayor Daley and his city are leading the way in our transportation revolution.

    

View the press release for more information on today’s Congestion Reduction announcement, and the plan it will help fund.

    

-Secretary Peters

Comments

[Karl Aber]

Dear Secretary Peters,

While you are talking with Mayer Richard Daley, how about asking him to re-open Meigs Field to help eliminate air traffic delays and congestion within the Chicago area airspace!

[Jesse]

Congratulations on your partnership with Chicago to combat congestion. I'm glad to see that public transit will not be neglected in this project. Many people do not drive (due to personal preference, income, age, or ability) so it is critical that we provide multi-modal options to driving. Pedestrian and bike travel are one of the most efficient ways to get around and we should focus more on this if we hope to reduce congestion, oil consumption, and air pollution.

Looking forward to reading your next blog! :-)

[Mike longtin]

I would like to hear Mayor Daley's ideas regarding motorcycle parking within the city limits, it seems most parking lots do not allow motorcycles to park in them. With gas costing in the 4 dollar region motorcycles will become a large population of transport in the near future.

[Catherine Huth]

I agree with Jesse about everything including consideration for bicyclists! We need a bike path along Brookpark Road in front of Cleveland Hopkins Airport and no one seems interested around here. Any support out there? It's only a mile or two long and there is a gravel/grass treelawn that can be paved or shaved - anything to get us bicyclists off the road for that stretch.

[James Anderson Merritt]

If I recall correctly, at one time, a Chicago suburb was considering Personal Rapid Transit: a network of elevated guideways, along which electrically-powered pods, holding up to 4 people each, would travel under automatic control direct from origin point to destination point. A system like this is now being readied for public use at Heathrow airport in London, at a cost that is significantly lower than I recall was the case for the Chicago-suburb project (which I believe was ultimately shelved due to cost overruns).

PRT has been considered in my town of Santa Cruz CA also. Our leaders here estimate that a 10 mile starter system, similar to that being finished at Heathrow, with all rolling stock and infrastructure, could be constructed for around $150M (which is, I note, about the size of the grant that Chicago received today). The "starter system" would connect our local university campus with our downtown and the city's Beach Boardwalk Amusement park, with the potential to circulate tourists, students, and downtown businesspeople and shoppers between those areas at the rate of several thousand per hour at peak times. I would imagine that such a system would be more flexible, convenient, and cost-effective than even a bus rapid transit system, and would have the dual advantage of not competing for space on the regular roads, or even needing expensive, regular roads on which to operate. If the Heathrow PRT is successful (which we should know by sometime in 2009), might Chicago and DOT give this alternative transportation mode a bit more attention and serious consideration in the near future?

Is DOT currently doing anything to investigate/support PRT?

[Murray Bodin]

Secretary Peters:

It is nice to have someplace where my comment will be read!

Please ask that the STOP sign be updated to be uniform with the EU STOP sign, which has a wider border and the letters S T O P in a standard font, not an elongated font. The US STOP sign is the only US sign with a weird font.

Thank you.

[David E. Stein, Managing Partner, Travelers Marketing]

Secretary Peters,
This forum will undoubtedly improve the flow of ideas across a myriad of organizations working to improved transportation. Increasingly the public sector is seeking to harness the private sector to achieve policy objectives. I am hopeful that widespread stakeholder discussions might not only inform policy makers but also shorten the process time.
Thank you for opening up this pathway.

[Publia Padena]

I hope you enjoyed Chicago. If you took a car from O'Hare to Chicago you saw first hand the enormous delays. We badly need more parking lots along the expressways to take people out of their cars and onto public transportation. As our geographic area grows, there is very little thought given to expanding public transportation. Our CTA "rapid transit" system is ONLY rapid when compared to the horse-drawn streetcars with which they once competed. It takes one hour to go 15 miles from Wilmette to Chicago. Our light commuter rail increases the time it takes to reach downtown Chicago by a few minutes each year. Public transportation is in real trouble here and we need to address getting to the city,

[Jim Ball, MetroCount USA, Inc.]

Secretary Peters-

What a wonderful idea this Blog is! I will read it often.

I am wondering where the picture of you on the motorcycle were taken.

On May 5, I was at FHWA's Turner-Fairbanks Center in McLean for the Motorcycle demonstration. We vendors were there to demonstrate our capabilities in detecting/counting motorcycles. Much was accomplished as we all learned from each other, vendors, riders and State DOT personnel alike.

Mssrs. Harshad Desai and David Jones of FHWA put together a terrific day for the riders, vendors and others that were there to share information.

So my question is: Did you sneak in on your motorcycle to assist us in collecting data?

:>)

Thanks again for this site- I'll be back often!