City Announces Ambitious Transportation Plan

By Chuck Sudo in News on May 11, 2012 2:00PM



Image via The Expired Meter

The Chicago Department of Transportation unveiled a two-year, wide-ranging transportation plan yesterday that covers everything from pothole repair to increasing access trips to O'Hare and Midway Airports. (The 100-page report can be read here, as a PDF file.)

The main priority of the plan is safety, according to Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein, with a goal of eliminating all pedestrian, bicycle and overall traffic crash fatalities within 10 years.

You read that right. Klein believes it's possible.

“Some people might look at that and say, ‘Is that a realistic goal?’ We spent a lot of time thinking about that and we absolutely think it’s a realistic goal,” Klein said.

To accomplish that goal, the city plan on installing countdown pedestrian signals at 300 intersections this year and, funding permitting, another 100 next year; alter stoplights at 100 intersections this year to give pedestrians an extra three seconds to cross the street; and fill all potholes before the next winter starts and set a goal of filling reported potholes within 72 hours.

Other projects the plan calls to address include: