Trouble at intersection of funding and safety

The Chicago Tribune’s Jon Hilkevitch posted an update to his March story about the lack of safe, non-motorized ways for suburban children to get to school. According to the May 18 article, the U.S. government has already issued $8.3 million in funding to Illinois for the Safe Routes to School initiative, but the project has stalled. The article raises questions about the importance of transportation initiatives in Illinois.

Filed under: Urban Planning, Blagojevich, Safe Routes, schools

A better way to get to school

On March 6, Gov. Blagojevich announced the Safe Routes to School program. The program is “designed to encourage walking and biking; promoting a healthier, more active lifestyle for children in grades K-8″.

The announcement came on the heels of a Chicago Tribune article by Jon Hilkevich highlighting the side effects of unsafe walking routes to school in the suburbs. Some suburban schoolchildren are being bused distances as short as a few blocks, due to a lack of safe pedestrian crossings at busy roads.

What options do children and parents have to ensure safe passage between home and school? Here are three that come to mind:

Filed under: Urban Planning, Blagojevich, bus, pedestrians, schools, smart growth, walking

Speaking of the Community Forum: A listener’s perspective

Yesterday, I recapped the logistics of the Lake County Community Forum that I attended. Today’s theme is “seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

Filed under: Urban Planning, Community

Community Forum or ‘For Us’? A few thoughts

Were the Lake County Community Forums worthwhile to attend? Depends on what you wanted to get out of them, or what you put into them.

Filed under: Urban Planning, Community

Getting the roundabout on Route 120

Wednesday night’s Route 120 Land Use Planning Workshop was held after rush hour, all the better for westbound motorists to get a feel for the issue at hand: figuring out how to get all those people where they need to be, without damaging the community in the process.

As someone who had only seen scraps of information about the Route 120 bypass until [somewhat] recently, I was excited that progress was being made and information being shared.

Filed under: Urban Planning, Grayslake, Gurnee, Hainesville, Lakemoor, Libertyville, Park City, Round Lake, Route 120, Volo, Waukegan