At about 4:22 AM this morning the Illinois Senate concurred with the Illinois House on bill SB2111 (PDF), approving a revenues and reform package that will close budget gaps and provide additional funding for the state’s 63 transit agencies. Among the reforms are establishing a new oversight authority that will centralize service planning and fare-setting in Chicagoland and assigning powers to build transit-supportive development, among other major and unique policy changes.
Development around the Naperville Metra station cannot be mandated to provide car parking after SB2111 goes into effect.
Additionally, the bill includes the People Over Parking Act, which was introduced by Rep. Buckner earlier this year and prohibits municipalities from requiring car parking for residential and commercial uses in areas served by transit. The bill, which will go into effect on June 1, 2026 (per House Amendment 4), will also apply in home rule communities. This includes Chicago, which passed its own transit-adjacent parking reform that took effect on September 25, 2025.
Specifically, the ban on parking mandates applies when the following is true:
a development project is for new construction or renovation and that is not a hotel, motel, bed and breakfast, or other transient lodging
the project is located within one-half mile of a public transportation hub (nodes) or one-eighth mile of a public transportation corridor (street segments)
A public transportation hub is a node that includes rail transit stations, a boat or ferry terminal that is served by a bus stop or a rail transit station, and street intersections where two or more bus routes meet and those bus routes have a combined frequency of 15 minutes or less during the morning and afternoon peak commute periods. This means that new housing will soon be able to be developed, at lower cost, within a half mile of the Highland Park Metra station without any parking.
Metra has 168 stations outside of Chicago, and there are also Metrolink rail stations in Illinois communities east of St. Louis, Missouri. That’s in addition to higher-frequency bus service in Champaign and some communities served by Pace bus.
A public transportation corridor is a street segment that has one or more bus routes that have a combined frequency of 15 minutes or less during the morning and afternoon peak commute periods.
Map showing the commercial and vacant properties within a half mile of the Highland Park Metra station.See full map on Chicago Cityscape.
The fine print
Municipalities are still allowed to enact minimum parking requirements for bicycles; and they can establish maximum parking allowances. The act does not apply to existing approved Planned (Unit) Developments but will apply to any amendments or extensions if the amendment or extension will increase the car parking requirement.
In situations where developments are voluntarily providing car parking, municipalities can impose requirements that reserve space for car share vehicles, that some parking be made available to the public, and that parking must be made available for a charge. Municipalities cannot require that parking be made available for free.
I believe that this new law will override Chicago’s requirement that projects in the Downtown zoning districts and projects in transit-serve areas that are served only by Metra obtain an administrative adjustment to build less parking that otherwise required.
Finally, Illinois has existing code regarding electric vehicle charging and sets a standard for how much of the provided parking must be “EV ready”, “EV capable”, and “EV installed” (read the Illinois Electric Vehicle Charging Act) – those requirements are not impacted by the People Over Parking Act.
The Chicago Fire owner, Joe Mansueto, plans to build a soccer stadium on “The 78”, a vacant property in the South Loop. The 78 is a planned development that was approved about six years ago to have office towers and about 10,000 homes in multiple buildings. Since the stadium will significantly alter the approved plan, Related Midwest, the owner of The 78, needs to present the revision to Chicago Plan Commission and gain their approval before also gaining approval from the City Council’s zoning committee and City Council.
Rendering of the stadium, looking north-northeast. Other renderings from the set show the area between the stadium and the riverwalk eventually being redeveloped into buildings and differently-designed outdoor spaces.
Here’s what’s changed
We can see what Mansueto and RM are proposing because they submitted their zoning change application to revise the PD back in July, which was subsequently posted in the City Clerk’s online legislation database. (A zoning change application and a Planned Development amendment are amendments to city law; refer to the approved plan in this PD 1434 document.)
The soccer stadium would be located approximately between 13th and 14th Streets. The rights of way for these two streets would be delineated and “dedicated” to the public.
Metra tracks would remain where they are. At the north edge of the site they enter the site about 185′ west of Clark Street, and then gradually shift to the east to hug Clark Street. The original plan would realign the tracks so that new streets could intersect Clark Street.
For the planners, the PD subareas’ boundaries are reconfigured.
Crescent Park is out of the plan. This central park would follow the historical Chicago River alignment, before it was straightened from Polk Street to 18th Street in 1926.
The riverwalk would be narrowed to 40′ from the currently approved plan for a 75′ wide riverwalk and 25′ “riverfront amenity zone” adjacent to buildings. (City law requires riverwalks to be a minimum of 30′ wide.)
Proposed open space plan
The stadium would have these pedestrian and bicycle access points:
Wells Street, south from Polk Street
Wentworth Avenue, north from 18th Street
A newly built LaSalle Street, south from the elevated Roosevelt Road. This is also where transit riders from the Roosevelt ‘L’ station or any of the buses that use Roosevelt or Clark would access the site.
There would not be access from Clark Street and points east; some of the Dearborn Park and Burnham Station residents may prefer this, given how some of them reacted when a new CTA Red Line station was proposed at the existing substation on the east side of Clark Street at 15th Street. RM eventually moved the proposal to be within The 78.
The proposed site plan also shows a publicly owned parking structure in phase one, below the Roosevelt Road elevation.
Site plan showing the stadium and a publicly owned parking structure
What’s next
Expect another 3rd Ward town hall, in September before the next Plan Commission meeting on September 18. The Plan Commission agenda hasn’t been set so it’s not confirmed that the development team will present on September 18.
The plan can also change again, between now and the Plan Commission meeting. What’s presented at Plan Commission will be what is presented to City Council.
Steven’s note: I originally drafted this post in December 2016, for Transitland (my contract employer at the time). Here’s the original (archived) post on Transitland’s website.
Photo of a Russian-built tram in Saint Petersburg by Hans-Rudolf Stoll.
We [TransitLand] recently added the feed for surface transit in Saint Petersburg, Russia. ORGP is the transport organizer’s name in the Latin alphabet. ORGP website is a central source of information for the various municipally- and privately-operated ferry, bus, and tram routes.
St. Petersburg (SPb) also has trolley bus routes, which drive using electricity they collect from an overhead wire. These buses can only deviate from their route where an intersection between wires is available.
There are 1,066 routes in the SPb feed.
5 ferry routes
48 tram routes
51 trolley bus routes
Remaining are bus routes using conventional buses.
I couldn’t find ridership information for these routes, but the statistics on the Wikipedia article say that a much higher proportion of SPb residents ride the subway each weekday than people in Chicago ride the ‘L’ in my hometown. The ‘L’ runs mostly on elevated track, but has some subway and at-grade sections.
Speaking of the subway in SPb, we don’t have their GTFS feed yet and we could use your help. If you know the URL to the SPb’s subway feed, submit it on this form.
The Transitland connection
One of the features in Mapzen’s new Mobility Explorer, launched in late November, is to drill down into the transit routes, stops, and operators in a city – all of that data is based on what’s available in Transitland. It visualizes this data quickly and easily; think of it as an expansion of what Transitland’s Playground does.
Once you’re in Mobility Explorer, search for “Saint Petersburg, Russia” and click on the result. On the left sidebar, click on “show routes” and you’ll see that all of the routes in SPb will appear in the same color.
Click “style by: mode” to distinguish the subway, ferry, bus, and trolley bus routes in different colors.
A great feature of Mobility Explorer is that it tells you the Transitland API call to get the data in the current map view. You’ll find this link under the main “Show [xyz]” buttons in the left sidebar.
It’s very common see regular length buses with three doors in Europe, while buses in North America often have two doors. Articulated buses often have 3-4 doors, 1-2 more than their counterparts in the United States.
I visited Big Marsh Bike Park with a friend three weekends ago to ride mountain bikes on the single track, check out the park’s campsite, see if people were still drag racing on Stony Island Avenue (they were), and finally, try to get a sense of where the access trail from Pullman in the west will cross over Lake Calumet by viewing the “land bridge” from the air.
According to the “preferred alignment” map below, the future bike trail will cross the lake at the shortest opening where the spit is on the left. The photo is facing due west.
While researching the proposed multi-use trail, boardwalk, and bridge, I decided to look up historic aerial photos to try and understand when and where the land around the lake was filled in. (I think the Illinois International Port District is the proposer.)
Renderings and map by Epstein.
The Lake Calumet diptych I made shows two aerial photos – taken from airplanes – of Lake Calumet in 1970 and 1995. The images come from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s collection of three decades of 6,300 aerial photos across the six country region.
In the 1995 image you can see the Harborside International Golf Center built on landfill (also in 1995), additional slips for ships, and other land and water feature additions and subtractions.
The two photographs were taken slightly offset from each other but I scaled and adjusted their alignments to match each other as best as I could.
This is an especially long travelogue and reflects everything I did in about 12 hours in Oslo.
I left the hotel and headed over to Fuglen (which means “bird”) to get a pastry and caffeinated beverage. My friend told me about this place and he said that they have a location here and one in Tokyo.
Ruter app warning me that my 24-hour pass expires in nine hours.all of the downspouts drip onto spillways built into the sidewalksA chocolate scone and ice matcha from Fuglen
I bought a 24-hour pass the day before via the Ruter app, and it expired at 6:59 PM today so I took a tram partway to the coffee shop and after leaving Fuglen I took transit partway back to the city center. I headed to the opera building, which is designed to allow walking up the inclined roof to two balconies from which to see the harbor – the south balcony – and the city – the north balcony. I could also see the new “Barcode” office district, which flanks the south side of the Oslo Sentralstasjon train station platforms.
Barcode seen from the opera rooftopAnne-Cath. Vestlys plass (plaza) in the foreground and Christian Frederiks plass in front of the white building
I took another tram over to the other set of piers in the harbor (they are separated by Akershus Festning, the city fortress) and boarded the privately-operated ferry from Aker Brygge to Bygdøy, a peninsula in the city where there are several museums. The Ruter transit pass doesn’t cover this trip. I bought it on website of Norway Yacht Charter for 67 NOK as there is a 12 NOK surcharge for tickets purchased on board.
One of the museums here is Fram where Nansen’s polar expedition is explored. Upon arriving here I changed my mind and decided to head directly to the Norsk Folkemuseum (Norwegian Folk Museum), an open air – outdoor – museum which has over 100 rebuilt, relocated, or recreated buildings from all over the country. To get there I hired the Oslo Bysykkel bike share for 25 NOK for a single ride because the walk to the open air museum was going to be long. The bicycle enabled me to also visit a beach and park in another area and see some of the suburban houses. I’m glad it wasn’t raining during the ride.
The bikes are kind of small and I wouldn’t want to ride one more than about two miles at a time. There are also e-bikes but they cost more and there weren’t any available where I started the ride.
Ruter app telling me it’ll take 5 minutes by bike to go from Fram museum to Folk museumOslo Bysykkel bike-share bike
The Folkesmuseet was rad! The most popular attraction is the Stave church, which I think is pretty famous and you may recognize it. It’s much larger looking outside than inside and appears to be able to hold only 20 worshippers inside. There are also entire farmsteads that have been recreated by assembling buildings of different purposes in good condition from around Norway to represent the traditions and methods of the country. There is also a small active farm going, with roosters, a couple of sheep, and two horses. There are also guided tours, demonstrations, and activities for children.
I stayed at the open air museum for one hour and decided I wanted to ride more of the city’s public transport. I caught the route 30 bus from outside the museum towards the city center and disembarked near the Skøyen train station. I stopped at the Kiwi grocery store to grab some snacks. I was hoping to find a drinkable yogurt that I like to get in the Netherlands but the only options were too large for a snack and the hotel doesn’t have a refrigerator in which to store the rest.
A four-door articulated bus is the norm in OsloInside the busthe sad bus stop where I disembarked in order to walk over to the Skøyen train stationIn Europe, people pushing prams (strollers) and people with disabilities board from one of the rear doors where they can more easily access the larger area dedicated for them.
From the Skøyen station I took commuter train line L1 eastbound through and past the city center to Bryn station because I noticed that was near a T-bane (metro) station and I hadn’t ridden the city’s subway lines yet. If I had known or seen how poorly the two were connected I would have ridden to the next station. Anyway, I walked five minutes between Bryn commuter station and Brynseng metro station.
I boarded one of the four T-bane lines (I don’t recall which and all of them had service going back to the city center) and disembarked at Stortinget station, since that was near the small IKEA on one of the pedestrian shopping streets. I haven’t been to a city center IKEA store yet and this was my chance. I had seen in the news that the Swedish home furnishings company opened a store in Vienna. After I posted about this visit on Twitter people replied that there is now a city center IKEA in San Francisco. I would like the company to open one in Chicago – there are several vacancies along the Magnificent Mile!
The smaller-format store has a tiny café and food market on the upper level while the stock of furnishings and furniture displays are in the basement. It’s possible to buy kitchen cookware and utensils, pillows and sheets, and view desks, tables, and chairs to order for home delivery.
My hotel was one of the few Citybox locations in Europe and I chose it largely because of its location (I wanted to be as close to the central station as possible because the train was leaving at 8:25 and I’m generally a late riser). I walked three minutes from IKEA to the hotel so I could take a break, rest my feet, fast charge my phone, and do some research as to what I wanted to do for the rest of the day. It was 15:40. The bulk of my research was about taking one of the ferries so I could see more of the Oslo fjord – the ferry to Bygdøy didn’t scratch this itch and I also love being outdoors on ferries.
I walked over to the Rådhusbryggene (city hall pier) at 16:30 to hop on the B1 ferry to Hovedøya via the roundtrip route. The route stops at Hovedøya first and then several more islands before coming back to Hovedøya and returning to Radhussbrygge. The ferry dropped me off at 17:46. I have until 18:46 to explore the island; that’s the next ferry and I don’t want to be here for more than an hour because I need to get dinner soon. The trip is included in the Ruter pass and I highly recommend it.
tram stop outside the Citybox HotelSign: “you are not depresso, you just need espresso”Christian IV’s glove (sculpture)City hall in the background
P.S. many of the public transport ferries are electric. I learned about this on a podcast interviewing a transit agency executive, forgot about it, and then was reminded when I saw this machine moving and realized that it was a battery charger that worked much like those on CTA’s electric buses.
Many of the islands appear to be popular during the summer as they have parks and small beaches with extremely calm water. The weather was 65°F and overcast yet two women disembarked the ferry at the same time I did and used the small beach on the far side of Hovedøya. I, on the other hand, took a look at the cloister ruins and a restored artillery battery at the top of a ridge that overlooks the Oslo fjord.
Cloister ruins on Hovedøyaa beach on Hovedøyaartillery on HovedøyaSummer cottages on Bleikøya island, one of the stops that the B1 ferry makes every hour
After getting returning to the mainland, I decided I would eat at Lorry. This restaurant came up in multiple searches for Norwegian food, moose, fish, and reindeer. I had moose patties for dinner the night before – which were very, very good – and I thought this time I would try seafood. I walked there from Rådhusbryggene and passed through the Royal Court and Slottsparken where there was a small area containing sculptures designed by children who won a contest and fabricated by established artists.
sign describing the sculpture park in the Slottsparken
At Lorry I sat outside under the large awnings, even though it was raining, and ate baked salmon with cabbage and potatoes. I had a Nøgne Ø (brewery) saison beer. The food was fine and the beer was good. Eating out in Oslo is expensive! The meal was about $45 which included a five percent tip! (For reference, the average salami, tomato, and pesto sandwich I bought at a convenience store before the train on Wednesday morning was about $8 and a small premade mango-yogurt smoothie was over $4).
For dessert I walked over to McDonald’s on Storgata to get a McFlurry. I love that ice cream snack and it’s a personal tradition to try the local flavor in every country I visit. On the way there I was following the walking directions from Google Maps and I passed a neat-looking park built into the side of a hill so I deviated from the route and passed through the park and took notice of the wide, steep steel slides that looked like a lot of fun. I also walked through the Oslo Metropolitan University campus which has a nice central plaza ringed by tall buildings and meeting spaces.
Given the prices I paid for everything else I was shocked to see that the McFlurry is cheaper in Oslo than in the U.S. For the record, I got “Non Stop” (which is like M&Ms) as the mix-in with Daim as an add-on.
Wanting to return to my hotel, but not ready to call it a night, I walked towards the central station to check out some infrastructure I had seen twice earlier. North of the station are two or three hotels, including one that has a high-rise portion adorned with the signs of the shops inside – reminiscent of Tokyo zakkyo buildings! (I recommend the book where I learned that name, Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City, by Jorge Almazán and Joe McReynolds.
Youngstorget (plaza)a tram headed towards Oslo Sentral stationFree Palestine artwork in OsloOslo City mall with illuminated store signs arranged like if it was a zakkyo building in Tokyo, across from Oslo Sentral station
Continuing east past the station I walked through a small above-ground shopping center that abuts the Oslo Bussterminal; again, this reminded me of Asian shopping centers that surround transportation stations. There are dozens of gates in the bus terminal but not that many people were waiting at 21:30 at night. Also reminding me of Tokyo and other Asian cities, like Bangkok, were the elevated pedestrian walkways and bridges.
on the pedestrian bridge over the train tracks east of the stationthe tracks and platforms at the Oslo Sentral train station at night, as seen from the pedestrian bridge
I found the infrastructure: it was a pedestrian bridge over the 20 or so train tracks. This breaks up the long distance until the next way to cross the tracks. The bridge reminded me of the one at the Utrecht Centraal station in the Netherlands. The bridge has a tall glass wall leaning inward to the bridge that inhibits people from falling or jumping onto the tracks as well as throwing debris. It also makes taking pictures of arriving and departing trains a bit harder. My height has an advantage though: I can easily hold my phone over the top of the wall.
That concluded the day. I walked back to the hotel, less than 10 minutes away. See on the Bergensbanen railway tomorrow!
