Articles filed under Pyke, Marni

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  • Chevrolet's 2014 Cruze Clean Turbo Diesel is one of multiple green cars on display at the Chicago Auto Show until Feb. 18.

    A look at the green cars at the Chicago Auto ShowFeb 11, 2013 12:00 AM
    It's easy being green if you read our experts guide to alternate vehicles at the Chicago Auto Show. There are a lot of ways to save money on gas and save the planet, from diesel turbo charged vehicles to hybrids with tax credits to some luxurious electric cars. Thankfully, I've got Chicago Area Clean Cities Vice Chair John Walton to offer some analysis.

     
  • The Chicago Auto Show roars into town Saturday through Feb. 18.

    Stingray not only fish in the sea at Chicago Auto ShowFeb 5, 2013 12:00 AM
    What's hot at the 2013 Chicago Auto Show? Anything that's big and powerful, say experts. Gearheads can rejoice at the resurgence of sports cars like the Corvette Stingray and those on a budget will be interested in some concept cars like Honda's new Urban SUV.

     
  • Toll Collector Debra Jacobson gives change to a customer at the Elgin plaza on the Jane Addams Tollway.

    Fewer collectors, but higher employee costs for tollway Jan 21, 2013 12:00 AM
    The advent of I-PASS is making the job of toll collector an endangered species. With an average salary in the $40,000s that should save personnel costs ... shouldn't it? But even though the workforce shrunk from 1,751 in 2006 to 1,595 this year, spending is still up. In 2006, the authority spent $80.5 million on salaries and wages compared to a budgeted $88.7 million this year (not including sworn state police officers).

     
  • Traffic is heavy in both directions during the morning rush looking east on I-90, east of the Des Plaines Oasis. The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority will widen the tollway during the next four years.

    Readers lament Amtrak delays, baggage bedlam Jan 14, 2013 12:00 AM
    Judging from recent letters, it’s been a season of discontent for In Transit readers stymied in their simple desire to get from Point A to Point B without incident. Columnist Marni Pyke possesses neither an engineering degree nor a cement truck to fix everyone’s transportation woes, but she does provide answers to commuters' questions.

     
  • Argonne chemical engineer Andrew Jansen lines up positive and negative electrodes on a machine called a winder. The two electrodes will be wound together with a separator to create a structure called a “jellyroll,” which is then used to make a prototype lithium-ion battery.

    Battery dream team will spark innovations in cars, grid Jan 7, 2013 12:00 AM
    Can the science wizards at Argonne re-invent the massive, expensive batteries that power electric cars so that you could afford one? That's the hope, say researchers with the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research. “We're pulling together the best scientific minds in the country to look at new ways to store energy,” said JCESR Deputy Director Jeff Chamberlain, a surface chemist who lives in Aurora.

     
  • Will 2013 give rise to cheaper gas and increased flights at O'Hare International Airport after years of scaling back?

    Planes, trains and automobiles: A look at 2013Dec 31, 2012 12:00 AM
    Today we will journey — to the future! Sort of. Four experts have lent their visionary powers to forecast the major transportation stories of 2013, including the deadline for Chicago to resolve a dispute over expansion at O'Hare, better baggage platforms that would make things easier for Metra riders and the Illinois tollway will spend about $412 million for widening the eastbound Jane Addams Tollway (I-90) in 2013.

     
  • Metra commuters with 10-ride passes will pay more in February on the heels of another hike in February 2012.

    Toll hikes, NATO among 2012's top transit stories Dec 24, 2012 12:00 AM
    So what were the top transportation stories of 2012? Higher tolls? Higher Metra fares? Feuding transit agencies? Accusations of racial discrimination? Coffee banned on trains? Turning tollways into freeways? The answer is all of the above. Plus readers - like you - weigh in.

     
  • Metra commuters with 10-ride passes are likely to be socked with an 11 percent increase next year.

    Readers sore over Metra fare hikes, red-light ticketsDec 3, 2012 12:00 AM
    Readers have their say in our InTransit column, sounding off about the latest Metra fare hikes, red-light cameras on Route 12 and more.

     
  • New Metra Chairman Brad O’Halloran says the allocation of funds within the agency must be equitable.

    Will new chairman bring Metra some Irish luck? Nov 26, 2012 12:00 AM
    Can a Southwest Side boy understand the travel needs of the Northwest and West suburbs? New Metra Chairman Brad O'Halloran thinks so. “We can’t even address growth right now,” O’Halloran said. “What we have to do is catch up on the daily maintenance issues." Plus CTA fare hikes, readers' reaction to Metra fare hikes and your gridlock alert.

     
  • Thorndale Avenue will be the future extension of the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway. Now it ends at a “T” intersection with York Road at the western edge of O’Hare International Airport.

    How $2 billion in campaign cash could have been spent on Illinois roads Nov 12, 2012 12:00 AM
    President Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney had spent about a collective $2 billion on their campaigns. What would that kind of money buy if it wasn’t spent on negative ads? For starters: A bunch of railway grade separations to protect drivers and pedestrians from trains and relieve freight congestion in the Chicago region or new buses and train cars for Pace, Metra and the CTA or a completed Elgin-O’Hare Expressway and western bypass around the airport.

     
  • Know your signs. This one indicates a divided highway.

    Do you know your driving IQ? Nov 5, 2012 12:00 AM
    Columnist Marni Pyke can't believe she almost flunked the written test when renewing driver's license. There were 805,682 written driving tests given in 2011. Of those, 737,568 were passes, 68,114 were failures. You’re allowed to get six of the 35 questions wrong. Any more, and you flunk.

     
  • Ray Campbell of Glen Ellyn, who uses paratransit, speaks to RTA Chairman John S. Gates Jr. after his public apology this week for earlier remarks referring to paratransit as “federally mandated limousine service.”

    Paratransit advocates still seething over 'limo' commentOct 29, 2012 12:00 AM
    Thanks to the binders full of emails I received on paratransit, I'm turning the column over to you today. But that's not the only hot transportation topic this week. We've also got some feisty comments on red-light cameras, plus IDOT explains why work on Butterfield Road is taking soooooo long. To recap, Regional Transportation Authority Chairman John Gates apologized Wednesday for comments he made to the Daily Herald Oct. 4 about paratransit, the pickup service for riders with disabilities. Gates had compared paratransit to a “federally mandated limousine service.”

     
  • Operating paratransit buses, like this hybrid that operates in Elgin and Schaumburg, is expensive.

    Limo service? RTA chairman laments cost of paratransitOct 15, 2012 12:00 AM
    Regional Transportation Authority Chairman John S. Gates Jr. says paratransit loses "a ton of money" each year. And as ridership goes up for what he says is like a "limousine service," the agency will lose even more. "It's hugely expensive, but it's something we have to do. It's the law. It's a civil right,” he said.

     
  • Has the cooperation train left the station for Metra, Pace and the CTA?

    Funding feud could lead to transit 'Armageddon,' RTA chief saysOct 8, 2012 12:00 AM
    There's hope the feud between the Chicago Transit Authority, Pace suburban bus division and Metra commuter rail over about $184.8 million in discretionary sales tax funds plus a $17 million surplus from 2011 will be resolved, but you never really know. ”Now you have a deal, but the next day — you may not have a deal,” said RTA Chairman John Gates.

     
  • Will the train of transit unity reach the station? Pace, Metra and the Chicago Transit Authority are in a standoff over discretionary revenues.

    Chicago, suburbs at impasse over transit fundingOct 1, 2012 12:00 AM
    Are the CTA, Metra and Pace on a collision course? Is the Chicago versus suburbs feud alive again? And, what fab transportation events can I go to this week? Columnist Marni Pyke answers these and other transportation questions.

     
  • Sara Emerson's house on South California Avenue in Posen is just a stone's throw from the Tri-State Tollway. It's slated to be acquired as part of interchange construction.

    Tollway growth leaves homeowners in bad spot Sep 17, 2012 12:00 AM
    It's bad to live in a neighborhood targeted for a construction project. It's even worse when you have to negotiate prices at a time when the housing market's shot. There's a sadness around the neighborhood where the Illinois tollway is building an interchange with the Tri-State and I-57. ”I don't know what I'm going to do or where I'm going to go,” said resident Sara Emerson.

     
  • Passengers board Pace Route 855 at Wabash and Monroe streets in the Loop Wednesday.

    Transit writer takes ride on wild side — almost Sep 10, 2012 12:00 AM
    I get my kicks on Route 855. It’s my kind of maverick, stick-it-to-the-man Pace bus. Now, if you’ve ever sat stupefied in a Pace bus as it bumbles through suburban traffic, going rogue is the last thing you associate with a Pace commute. But Route 855 is special. Why? Shoulder-riding. On the Stevenson Expressway (I-55).

     
  • There’s still vacant retail at the O’Hare Oases on the Tri-State Tollway.

    Tollway oases still have vacancies, but not weeds Sep 3, 2012 12:00 AM
    Fried chicken. Jewelry. Cappuccino. Tacos. Burgers. Gyros. Vacancies. But not as many weeds. Columnist Marni Pyke hits the road for a trip of a lifetime to seven tollway oases. Notorious for insipid revenues and patronage contracts during the era of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the seven oases have kept a lower profile with a new regime at the agency. Here's what she found.

     
  • Amtrak’s 79 mph is just fine for some readers, who pooh-pooh dreams of high-speed rail at 110 mph from Chicago to St. Louis.

    ‘Waste’ or want? Readers split on high-speed rail Aug 27, 2012 12:00 AM
    High speed rail in Illinois? Not so fast, you say. The idea of spending from $1.4 billion to $4 billion to allow trains to travel at 110 mph from Chicago to St. Louis made some readers’ apoplectic, peeved others and pleased a few.

     
  • Historic levels of snow stopped the region in its tracks February 2011.

    Can our roads weather the storm? Aug 20, 2012 12:00 AM
    Record-breaking heat buckles a railway track July 4, causing a derailment, bridge collapse and the death of a Glenview couple. A freak blizzard Feb. 1, 2011, engulfs Lake Shore Drive in snow. Unprecedented rainfall July 23, 2011, floods the suburbs, shutting down major roadways and intersections. July was the third hottest on record in Illinois. Uncommon weather is becoming common.Can our roads handle it?

     
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