Does every tall truck need to use those underpasses? Are there some overpasses they can take? Are there some at grade crossings they can take? At some time in the past, those low underpasses were not obstacles for industries to grow and survive, why are they so now?

No, actually. Chicago elevated virtually all mainline railroads in the city onto earthen embankments about 100 years ago. Overpasses and grade crossings only exist in the far reaches of the city, in areas that were not within city limits at the time of the grade-separation ordinances. The Bungalow Belt, essentially.

Since the railroads were forced to bear the full costs of grade separation, they obviously did it as cheaply as possible, with very low clearances at underpasses.

Why were all the roads elevated?

Why were all the railroads elevated? Because Chicago had nearly 300 deaths every year from grade crossing accidents. Thousands of short trains moved through the city every day.

In many cases the factories preceded the underpasses. Trucks have also gotten taller. And railroads have lost their interest in "loose-car" railroading and LCL freight.

A hundred years ago, raw materials might be handled a half-dozen times, by longshoremen at both ends of a voyage, by handlers loading the stuff into boxcars, breaking it down for delivery in small trucks, then wrestling it into a freight elevator and out onto the factory floor. Today it goes into a container in the Pearl River Delta and comes back out, already on pallets, in a one-story factory in Oklahoma.

Nothing big but over the past couple of weeks Ventra machines have been installed in numerous stations.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A5_SE3xCMAA97Yg.jpg
CTA pic
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8345/8...0aa38b72_z.jpg
Pic taken by a handsome young man rushing to make the train at Damen brown line, you can see his reflection in the machine.

I saw a Jeffery Jump at the bus stop outside my office on Monroe today. Blurry pic to follow ...

EDIT, added:

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...91461572_n.jpg
pic by me

Looks like they are going to go ahead with the road diet on Lawrence between Western and Ashland. They are replacing the water mains from 1893 and installing new water mains along Lawrence now till December. Then do the streetscaping and road diet thing in the spring.

^ How close to Western I wonder, since that is a pretty giant intersection. Also, will this allow vehicles turning, or dropping off passengers, at Metra to clog up everybody behind them? Or do they do some diet-cheating, just around the viaduct?

Fantastic news. Having used that stretch of Lawrence as both a driver and a pedestrian it really needs the diet to help sort traffic and provide a better environment for the businesses that front it.

They are changing the Lawrence part of the Western intersection to 2 lanes. West of Western Lawrence is already 2 lanes. The left and right turn lanes would be the same as now, but there would only be 1 through lane instead of 2.

Same with Ravenswood the turning lanes would stay the same but there would only be 1 through lane. I'm not sure how many people drop off people at the Metra in the morning. You would have to park at the bus stop area to drop off people. Or turn onto Ravenswoods and park. Otherwise you would block traffic at the Metra stop if you stop in the middle of Lawrence.

You can see the latest street diagram for it here.

http://chicago47.org/wp-content/uplo...AFT_011612.pdf

Yea, overall I think this will make the pedestrian and biking experience along there alot better. Hopefully, more businesses will come in and open sidewalk cafes. I just hope it's not going to be a constant traffic jam along there. That's my only concern about it.

I doubt there's anything that can be done, but I have a question about a parking ticket. Friday night I parked in a metered spot at about 8:40pm. I was unloading equipment for a show, helping a local business and just plain forgot to pay the meter. I owe a dollar at most and I got a $50 ticket for it, which is straight up theft.

I would happily pay $5 or $10, but not $50, it's insane. Does contesting the ticket ever get the fine reduced to a sane amount? Or am I just wasting my time and I should just pay and get it over with?

I don't understand being that blatent with the fines. Now I have $50 to recoup, which means I won't be spending it in Chicago this weekend. What's the benefit of that?

They have to cover the cost of enforcement. Your theory would mean that the City would have to just cover the cost of enforcement and let people disregard meters at will, just paying a fee if they happen to be caught that would still be less than parking in a lot in many parts of the city.

I sympathize but it's not going to be reduced. You violated a parking zone and got a ticket. in all honesty, $50 is already getting off easy.

The benefit to the city is that next time you'll pay the meter, and you'll serve as a cautionary tale so that other people also don't "forget" to pay the meter. You see it as $1. They see your tale as preventing dozens or hundreds of dollars in "forgotten" meter payments going forward from not only you, but other people.

Also, this has nothing to do with Chicago transit, so should probably be removed.

Are dropoffs a big phenomenon at Ravenswood? It doesn't necessarily function like a suburban Metra station.

Actually, I'd be really interested to see a study on how people access Ravenswood... how close to the station they live, whether they walk/bike/drive/take the bus, are they commuting to the Loop or the North Shore, etc.

Mode share survey data’s on rtams from 2006:

55% Walked
24% Drive Alone
4% Dropped Off
3% Carpool
6% Bus
3% Rapid Transit
4% Bike
1% Taxi

Nothing I saw on sample size or error bars for those figures. The small share dropped off was pretty surprising to me.

Thanks; I thought rtams might have it, but the site kept crashing on me.

So, apparently, dropoffs will not be a significant problem on Lawrence. :)

The bike modeshare is surprisingly low; I chalk it up to the total lack of decent bike parking.

Yea, during the day the bike racks that are there are totally overflowing with bikes. There aren't enough bike racks at the station for all the bikes.

Yeah, Metra doesn't provide very good bike parking. Even at Clybourn they continue to maintain that small parking lot between the viaducts (which is dangerous due to sight distances). They spent a ton of money on fancy bike racks with canopies that only added 20 spaces or so.

At Ravenswood they should take a few of the angled parking spots and build a bike corral, especially now that Lawrence will have bike lanes.

New Nippon-Sharyo cars for Metra Electric
 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,7262832.story


Richard Wronski

Tribune reporter

1:33 p.m. CST, November 14, 2012

Metra on Wednesday unveiled the first four of its new “Highliner” cars that will go into service later this week on the Electric District Line.

They are the first of 160 cars being built at a new Nippon Sharyo Manufacturing LLC plant in Rochelle, Ill. The cars are replacing ones that date back decades, to the pre-Metra days of the former Illinois Central Railroad.

The new cars feature modern amenities like power outlets for personal electronic devices, upgraded seating and new flush toilets.

Metra Electric Highliner cars

MAPS

151 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
Blue Island, IL, USA
University Park, IL, USA
E 93rd St & S Baltimore Ave, Chicago, IL 60617, USA

Officials dedicated the first car to the late Metra director Elonzo “Lonnie” Hill, who served on the commuter rail agency’s board from 2003 until his death in 2009.

The Electric District Line runs 170 trains a day carrying about 36,000 riders between Milennium Station, Blue Island, South Chicago and University Park.

The new cars will cost $577 million and are being purchased through a $31 billion state bond program.

Eventually, all 145 1970s-era Metra Electric cars will be replaced with the new equipment.

The first 80 car “shells” are being constructed in Japan and shipped to Rochelle for completion. The remaining 80 will be entirely manufactured at the new plant.

Nippon Sharyo had previously outsourced the final assembly of its passenger cars to Super Steel in Milwaukee.

The $35 million Nippon Sharyo plant was dedicated in July.

Officials said the Rochelle facility will give the company greater control over its workforce and will position the company to surpass Buy America requirements, which allows companies to tap into federal incentives through states, municipalities or transit authorities.

Under the requirements, companies have to produce 60 percent of the total value of the rail cars in the U.S. The final assembly must be made by American workers with American-produced steel, iron and manufactured components.

To lure Nippon Sharyo, the state offered an incentives package worth more than $4.7 million in training funds, grants, corporate income tax credits and other incentives.

Nippon Sharyo pledged to create at least 250 jobs in the state and retain 15 workers from its previous office in Arlington Heights.

rwronski@tribune.com

Twitter @richwronski

Not worth your time. Pay it and pay attention next time. The city sees it as theft because they are losing paying customer for that space. Can't tell you how many times we've had to call parking enforcement for people that park in our loading zone not from our building and "forget" about their time and overstay the 30 minute limit. Meanwhile deliveries to our building are delayed.

Umm, the city doesn't get any money from the meters now though. There was that huge parking meter deal under Daley, so they aren't losing any customers. The city still makes money from parking tickets though.