WBEZ | Transportation

Always, someone else's boat: Photo of the Day - May 20, 2013

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:08:00 -0500

Major CTA rebuilding will affect Chicago commute

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:25:00 -0500

Transit officials say the first rush hour of Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line construction project is going smoothly.

Monday is the first weekday of the $425 million project to rebuild the line on the city's South Side and that means no trains are running along the 10.2-mile stretch between Cermak-Chinatown and 95th Street.

CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase says there's plenty of room on the free shuttle buses running the route. She says there have been no major disruptions.

Some Red Line service will be running in some areas, but it will be rerouted onto Green Line tracks. White Sox fans can use Metra or the Green Line, which has a station a few blocks from U.S. Cellular Field.

The CTA encourages customers to follow @RedLineSouth on Twitter for updates.

Bike culture 101

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:00:00 -0500

Just in time for summer bike season, Walk Score (the company best known for rating the walkability of neighborhoods across the country) awarded Chicago the number 10 spot on its list of most bikeable American cities. Sure, we lag behind Portland, San Francisco and New York, but we beat Austin! Hipsters unite.

Of course, not all Chicago cyclists are hip young people riding vintage Schwinns or fixie conversions with neon aerospokes. Some are newbies (a.k.a the people who had no idea what I was referring to just now), while others are hard-core athletes accustomed to flying down Lakeshore Drive at maximum velocity. We're a diverse bunch, and our many varied bicycle-friendly neighborhoods prove it.

So, what are you waiting for?

Meet up

The Chainlink- an online community for Chicagoland cyclists to share info on bikes, routes, rides and events.

Handlebar- A restaurant/bar that supports bicycle advocacy. Come for the beautiful beer garden, stay for the best veggie brunch in the city.

Chicago Cycling Club- Become a member! Upcoming events include a ride through the 45th Ward (Parks & Burgers) and a Memorial Day 35-mile round trip to Frankfort, IL via the Old Plank Bicycle Path.

Critical Mass Chicago- Group bike rides start at Daley Plaza at 5:30 p.m. on the last Friday of each month. Free, fun and perfect for meeting fellow cyclists.

"Bike the Drive" 2013- May 26. Register for five hours of car-free biking down Lakeshore Drive. Best summer kickoff party ever.

10th Annual World Naked Bike Ride- June 8. If you dare.

Gear up/Tune up

Working Bikes Cooperative (gold star for incredible community service) - Pilsen

Roscoe Village Bikes- in the heart of Roscoe Village

Heritage Bicycles (with general store/coffeeshop) - Lakeview

Boulevard Bikes and The Bike Lane- both in Logan Square

Comrade Cycles- Ukranian Village

Rapid Transit Cycle Stop- Wicker Park and UIC

Ride like the wind

The city's Divvy bike-sharing program launches in June, with 4,000 three-speed bikes painted "Chicago blue" available at 400 docking stations and priced at $7 per day. Hopefully, this new infrastructure will continue to grow Chicago's budding cyclist community and convert more city streets to be bike-friendly to all.

Bike Score didn't take this new program into account when adding up Chicago's "bikeability" numbers, but their methodology did come up with the 25 best neighborhoods for cyclists based on bike parking, on-street lanes and road connectivity:

East Ukrainian Village
Ukrainian Village
Wicker Park
Illinois Medical District
Noble Square
East Pilsen
Margate Park
West Loop Gate
Sheridan Park
Fulton River District
University Village / Little Italy
Tri-Taylor
Bucktown
Palmer Square
Near East Side
Uptown
Ravenswood
Pilsen
Greektown
Streeterville
Buena Park
South Loop
Lincoln Park
Near West Side

Are you as surprised as I am to not see Logan Square on this list? Where are your favorite places to meet, shop and ride in Chicago?

Leah Pickett writes about popular culture for WBEZ. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr.

Four corners, four gas stations

Fri, 17 May 2013 05:00:00 -0500

I grew up near a landmark intersection, though I didn’t realize it at the time.

The year is 1961. Montrose Avenue, meet Austin Avenue. 4400 north, 6000 west.

Four corners. Four gas stations. What better monument to the American car culture of the mid-20^th Century?

The Standard station on the northwest corner came first. Then, going clockwise around the intersection, there was Texaco, Mobil, and Pure. I’m not sure in what order these other stations were built.

(There was actually a fifth gas station a few hundred feet east of the intersection. A tiny Sinclair station stood on the southeast corner of Montrose and Mason. Grandpa Price said it had been there since the 1920s. By 1965 it was gone.)

Next to the Mobil station there was a vacant lot where we played baseball. Like most Chicagoans, we called it "the prairie." Other than that, I had no connection to the four gas stations on the four corners, and no stories to tell about them. They were simply part of the neighborhood.

During the 1970s, with gas prices rising, four stations became redundant. The Texaco was the first to go, converted into an auto clinic. The Standard became a bank branch. The Pure was an Arco for a while, and then a fast-food drive-thru. Today there’s only one gas station at Montrose and Austin.

Chicago had a few places where three gas stations crowded the four-corner intersections. Montrose-Austin was the only place in the city where I ever saw four stations on all four corners, though I suspect this might have happened in the suburbs.

Were there any other four-corner intersections within the city limits that had four gas stations at one time? I'd be interested in learning where they were.

South Red Line closures just around the corner

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:04:00 -0500

The South branch of the Red Line closes Sunday for five months while it undergoes renovation. Chicago Transit Authority officials say nine stops, also known as the Dan Ryan branch, are in desperate need of repair. The CTA will provide a few backup solutions for the more than 80,000 people who ride each weekday. Other groups like PACE, Metra - even the White Sox franchise - are also lending a hand.

Starting Sunday, service will be shut down between 95th/Dan Ryan and Cermak-Chinatown. According to CTA spokesman Brian Steele, construction crews will rip everything up -- like ties, rails and ballasts - and rebuild the tracks and all but one of the train stations. Steele says the 95th/Dan Ryan stop is scheduled to receive a separate facelift beginning in the first half of 2014.

“Remember that the Red Line South opened in September of 1969, just two months after Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon,” Steele said. “It’s seen, literally, millions of train trips in that time, and has really served the CTA well.

Steele says the Red Line has been patched and fixed over the years, but it’s to the point where the only way to ensure effective operation of the line is to completely rebuild it.

That’s going to take some time - five months, to be exact. Steele says they looked at other options, like closing down only on the weekends, for example, but he says the five-month plan was the most efficient and cost-effective way to complete the project. Steele says once completed, the trackwork will provide faster and more reliable service.

To ease riders’ headaches, the CTA will provide a number of backup options. The CTA website has been upgraded with a trip planner that calculates rerouted directions for commuters. CTA is also offering express buses from four of the closed Red Line stations (95th/Dan Ryan, 87th, 79th and 69th) that will go directly to the Green Line Garfield station. Steele said Green Line service and local bus routes will also provide additional service during peak times.

For riders who think Metra or Pace might be the best option, the three transit agencies are offering a joint fare pass. Riders can buy the cards at stores like CVS or Walgreens. They provide five days of unlimited rides on CTA/Pace and 10 rides on the Metra. The cost of the pass depends on which Metra zone the rider travels to and from.

According to Metra spokesman Michael Gillis, the agency isn’t expecting an influx of riders during the Red Line closures, but says there will certainly be a “settling-in period” as riders figure out which new route works best.

Even the White Sox are chipping in to help potentially disgruntled commuters, as the Sox/35th stop is one of the stops getting a makeover. The team is offering fans discounts on some tickets to the May 20th, 21st and 22nd games against the Boston Red Sox.

Lauren Chooljian is WBEZ’s Morning Producer/Reporter. Follow her @laurenchooljian

Lift: Photo of the Day - May 16, 2013

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:38:00 -0500

LL Roll Ave: Photo of the Day - May 9, 2013

Thu, 09 May 2013 10:19:00 -0500

Midway control tower spared overnight closure

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:07:00 -0500

A U.S. congressman says the air traffic control tower at Chicago's Midway International Airport no longer faces possible overnight closure under federal budget cuts.

Midway's tower had been on a list of 72 air traffic control facilities where overnight shifts could be scrapped as a result of budget cuts forced upon the Federal Aviation Administration under sequestration.

U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, a Democrat representing parts of Chicago, has urged the FAA for months to pull Midway off the list.

He said in a statement Tuesday night that the agency will now keep Midway tower open.

An FAA spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Last month, Congress approved legislation freeing up funds that could help keep control towers open. The legislation also ended FAA staff furloughs.

Inbound Varnish: Photo of the Day - May 6, 2013

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:49:00 -0500

Breaking OPEC, and maybe the climate, with wood alcohol

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:36:00 -0500

America has become the “Saudi Arabia of natural gas,” according to President Obama, and one former director of the Central Intelligence Agency would like to use that fossil fuel war chest to break our ties with imported oil, an addiction that costs the nation $1 billion per day.

R. James Woolsey, former CIA director and self-proclaimed energy hawk, would like another option at the gas pump: methanol.

He said last week at the Chicago Club that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has so tight a grip on global gasoline prices that the U.S. will never drill or conserve its way out of funding Middle East petro-states. But with natural gas at a fraction of the price of oil, it may have another way out.

Woolsey, who has solar panels on his farmhouse and owns two electric cars, said methanol, also known as wood alcohol, could replace gasoline with relative ease. Oil processing facilities take in crude oil and break it down into gasoline that can be burned in cars. But it’s also possible to synthesize methanol and other fuels from less valuable components. Until fracking helped plunge the price of natural gas to less than a third of the price of oil, that method was too costly to be worth it.

“Right now we have a mandate from OPEC and the car companies that we only use oil-based fuels,” Woolsey said.

A 2011 report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found producing methanol to be an attractive end-use for natural gas. The report also said it would cost auto manufacturers less than $90 per car to retrofit vehicles so they can burn methanol.

Woolsey said that's less than the cost of a seatbelt.

Add that to estimates of how much it would cost to build or retrofit refineries and fueling stations that would be capable of supporting a system like the one Woolsey envisions, and the MIT study says methanol would cost roughly $2 per gallon of gasoline equivalent.

Ernest Moniz, who chaired that study, is awaiting confirmation as President Obama’s next secretary of energy. He has taken heat for failing to disclose that some of the study's researchers had already accepted positions with gas companies when they offered the report, which was bullish on the future of U.S. natural gas production.

Coming from the CIA, Woolsey’s main interest in methanol was as a means to defund dictatorships who use oil revenue to placate and suppress their people. Methanol can also be made from coal, biomass or even CO₂.

As a way to tackle climate change, however, methanol may not be so attractive. Moniz’s MIT study estimated natural gas could be converted to methanol with about two-thirds efficiency, which leaves it with a greenhouse gas footprint close to gasoline.

The climate impact of natural gas production has already been called out for methane leakage problems, a scientific debate that roars on even as the U.S. drills tens of thousands of new wells each year, and states like Illinois move to open more.

There’s another scarce resource in play: time. Retrofitting all the infrastructure it would take to produce and pump methanol into a new fleet of American cars would take years. President Obama has seized on figures that the U.S. may have 100 years of natural gas, but declining production in some areas has called that claim into question. Even if cheap gas lasts only 20 years — though it might not be long enough to overhaul transportation infrastructure — it could be long enough to put us over a climate threshold for "dangerous" climate change. Many environmentalists would rather see that time spent deploying renewable energy.