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* Traffic nightmare in works

And now, from the folks who brought us subway breakdowns, doomsday budgets and fulsome fare increases, get ready for 100 miles of “dedicated bus lanes.”

* Dixon mayor declines to speak at firefighters memorial service…

Burke, slated to speak at the memorial, backed out late Friday, citing political arrogance on the part of the Blackhawk Firefighters Association for inviting 14th Congressional District Republican candidate Jim Oberweis, and not extending a similar invitation to his opponent, U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Geneva, to speak at the event.

* LaHood leaving Congress, not political work

The Republican from Peoria said he will seek to continue his political career as a national committeeman for Illinois, representing the state party at the Republican National Convention.

* LaHood to run for RNC committeeman

* UPDATE: IlliniPundit: Former State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger, a lobbyist working for Rod Blagojevich’s largest campaign fundraiser, wants to be Illinois’ next Republican National Committeeman.

* Heated words in 11th District

* Congressional Candidate Jill Morgenthaler’s New Website Up In IL-6

* Durbin Addresses Gas Prices and Profits

* State should pass bill, lift charter school cap

We support a bill in Springfield to allow for additional charter schools, which admit kids by lottery and, in Chicago, serve mostly low-income, minority kids. Currently, state law puts a cap of 60 charter schools in Illinois, with just 30 in Chicago.

* It’s time Illinois requires videotaping

Illinois has been slow to join the ranks of other states that require videotaping in all child abuse cases. We think that needs to change. In the meantime, however, we applaud suburban counties where videotaping is taking place.

* New state task force will focus on quakes

* Stroger names finalists to oversee hospitals

* Stroger’s health board picks praised

* City council’s most power alderman releases ethics statement

* What’s your alderman’s side job?

* Updated…Burt’s back: Natarus now lobbying City Hall

posted by Kevin Fanning
Monday, May 5, 08 @ 9:17 am

Comments

I moved to IL from Northern California — where I had a lot of friends who carpooled ONLY because of the carpool lane on the freeways. Today they might react to the price of gasoline; back then it was about time savings. (I took the company shuttle myself, which dropped me off at the train station.)

Comment by RBD Monday, May 5, 08 @ 9:31 am
The bus lane thing is part of a broader program to get people on public transit. They also are increasing the tax on parking, and of course the cab fare increase has the same impact.

For what it is worth, it worked on me. I just bought my first CTA card in five years.

I’m usually first in line to bash Daley, but on this issue, he has the right idea.

Comment by Skeeter Monday, May 5, 08 @ 9:47 am
Kevin, broken link after “Stroger names finalists”

pls delete this comment, thsnks

Comment by BannedForLife Monday, May 5, 08 @ 9:52 am
Skeeter, get your employer to enroll in the RTA/CTA Transfer Benefit Fare Program. You can deduct up to $115 a month pre-tax to pay for transit. Can save you up to 40%. There’s not much paperwork for your boss and they get a small tax break, too.

We need to wrap our minds around the fact that the demand for public transporation is going to increase substantially in coming years. Gasoline will never be “cheap” again. China and India are just starting to come online the petroleum market in a big way — and they’re not leaving. Fortunately, the return on investment for public transportation, from green to jobs, is substantial.

The gas tax holiday is a dog. Less income for infrastructure, less pressure on bringing down demand, insignificant savings for the consumer. Credit to Obama for not playing the fake-populist like Clinton and McCain.

Finally, with $6 corn, time to revisit ethanol subsidies, and ethanol, period.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, May 5, 08 @ 10:27 am
The cab fare increased should have been approved only if the cab companies were required to post their fares, on each side of each cab, in numbers that are at least 3″ tall. If they did that, the customers would be able to quickly read the fares, compare prices, and ride in the cheapest cabs. That would increase competition and ensure that prices would remain low.

Comment by PhilCollins Monday, May 5, 08 @ 10:32 am
McCarron has no idea what he is talking about in his Trib article. He should read the press releases from the City and the DOT before commenting. Case in point - he complains about delivery trucks, yet the press releases clearly state that there will be a new delivery truck system to cut down on the congestion they cause. And he speculates at the routes of the new bus system without any basis in fact.
The article was a hatchet job. Typical.

Comment by Radical Moderate Monday, May 5, 08 @ 10:36 am
wordslinger,

My company does participate in this. For me, the issue was that by cab my commute is about 5-10 minutes each way, while by bus it is closer to 1/2 hour each way.

With the CTA at $4 total, I used to be able to justify $12 per day to save roughly an hour of commute time, when it went up to $15 I still could barely justify it, but now that we are talking roughly $18, I decided to limit the cab trips to when really necessary.

Phil,
You sound like somebody who doesn’t take too many cabs. How many people are going to wave any cabs by, much less do so to shop for fares? I wave them on only if they do something stupid and dangerous to pick me up (cut across three lanes of traffic? Sorry, you can give somebody else a ride).

Competition in most fields is great, but cabs should have uniform rates.

Comment by Skeeter Monday, May 5, 08 @ 10:43 am
Re: the income of aldermen… I checked out a couple of them and 95% were filled out as N/A. Either the questionaire isn’t asking the right questions, or aldermen really don’t make a lot of money. Anyone know off the top of their head what an alderman makes?

Some of them seem really unbelievable to me…

Comment by Bill S. Preston, Esq. Monday, May 5, 08 @ 10:47 am
Kevin–any word on why the governor now thinks he may like to close Pontiac Prison. I’ve been hearing it since Saturday but no details. I thought Pontiac was were Blago was going to send the prisoners to from Stateville, now that he’s not closing that, Pontiac goes?

Comment by Princeville Monday, May 5, 08 @ 2:22 pm
If you artificially increase the costs to those who do not use public transportation, then it is natural that public transportation ridership will rise. As with all this we try to manipulate, there is the law of unintended concequences.

Just of the top of my head, each net rider to the public transportation system will need a public donation larger than the fare they pay since the CTA fails to achieve to operate at a 50% operating expense ratio. (100,000 new daily riders will require mored than $250K per day of new subsidy dollars, 50 mil per year)

Secondly, all the taxes lost from the independent commuter will result in increased taxes on the captive residents who cannot stop commuting.

It’s like the fable where a genie ir required to grant three wishes. Each wish is granted, but not in a way intended by the wisher.

I used to live in the city. I loved all the things that were available, but when I look a parking costs or the time to get into offices, I was forced to exclude any business in the city. (Using public transportation made for a 3 hour round trip). I am down to about 2 vists a year. Corporations will look around some day and evaluate whether they need to be in the city and if they will leave as well. Who will pay the taxes then?

Comment by Anonymous Monday, May 5, 08 @ 4:36 pm