blog.zolk.com - A Blog by Kevin Zolkiewicz

Streetsblog Chicago’s John Greenfield sat down with representatives from the CTA and CDOT yesterday to get more details on the agencies’ newly-announced plans for Bus Rapid Transit on Ashland.

If the city manages to pull this off, we’d be home to the country’s first “gold-standard” BRT line at a cost of just $116 million for the first segment. That’s pretty cheap when you consider that a single elevated heavy rail station can run up to $203 million.

Chicago Tribune’s Peter Nickeas:

Two people were hit by an SUV under the Fullerton CTA train station about 11 p.m. Saturday, police said. 

No mention of the driver anywhere in the article as of this morning. But don’t worry, CPD’s Major Accidents Investigations Unit is on it.

Reuters via Crain’s:

Walgreen Co. is getting behind the “green” part of its name, as it aims to build what it believes will be the first store in the United States to produce at least as much energy as it consumes.

Just pay no attention to the car-centric design that requires pedestrians to walk across a parking lot to access the store.

Walgreens deserves credit for their recent pedestrian-friendly stores in the city that have limited or no parking, but they’re back to their typical suburban format here. Evanston might be a suburb, but it’s not Schaumburg. I understand that they see a business need for having parking, but at least build the store up to the sidewalk and give pedestrians a first-class experience.

CTA’s switch to the open fare Ventra system may not result in fare increases, but it will result in new fees for some users. Some are more understandable, such as a $0.50 production fee for one-time use cards that include RFID chips. But the $5 “dormancy fee” for transit accounts on both Ventra-branded and personal credit/debit cards certainly makes CTA sound like a greedy bank.

After the story regarding the F rating for the company running the debit card portion of Ventra cards, I’m sure the press will have a field day with this news.

I don’t know why the cars didn’t get LED interior lights rather than fluorescents from the beginning, but better late than never. LEDs do have a rather significant impact on the brightness and appearance of the cars. A few years ago, CTA retrofitted a pair of 3200-series cars with LEDs and the difference is immediately noticeable. They even make the beige interior look slightly less ugly.

In related news, Streetsblog Chicago recently published my thoughts on what CTA should do for their upcoming 7000-series railcar order.