Bus Priority Zones Get Moving in Chicago

"In recent months the city has started to follow through on that promise with the CTA and the Chicago Department of Transportation’s $20 million Bus Priority Zones program, which seeks to eliminate bus “slow zones” caused by bottlenecks along the city’s busiest corridors," reports John Greenfield.

The program will eventually pull from a suite of options for improving bus priority on Chicago streets, like "red bus-only lanes, overhead signage, special signals at intersections that give buses a head start before private vehicles get a green light, and/or pedestrian improvements like sidewalk bump-outs."

One such street design feature is already in place on the downtown Loop Link corridor, but Greenfield says modest speed improvements are the fault of lax enforcement. "[Mayor Lori] Lightfoot hopes to help pass state legislation to legalize camera enforcement of bus lanes, which already exists in New York City.

The program is funded with a portion of the revenue generated by Chicago's new ride-hailing fee, approved by the City Council last week.