Illustration by David Hine. It all began with a napkin. The international food-processing company Archer Daniels Midland was paying $250 per shipping container to transfer its goods between two railroads in Decatur, and they were looking for a way to cut that cost. Scott Fredericksen, ADM’s president of transportation, and Mark Schweitzer, then the company’s […]
transportation
Posted inOpinion
Back on the roads again
PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER W. HOLMES – INSTAGRAM @CHIGUY79 It is unclear exactly where Illinois’ new CEO wants to take this state, but we have indications in his proposed budget how he would like us to get there. If approved, his budget would spend slightly more of the public’s money on motorcycle safety and on new […]
Posted inOpinion
Lane changes
South bound bike lane on Second Street between Edwards and Cook Streets. PHOTO BY DAVID HINE It isn’t quite ISIS crossing the Mexican border, but from the way that some people reacted to it, you’d have thought that the arrival of bicyclists on Second Street threatened our American Way of Life. Which it did, if […]
Posted inOpinion
Getting there from there
South MacArthur Boulevard is a lot like a heart attack patient. It might recover its former vigor, but it will never thrive in the ways it did before it got sick. It will be able to survive at all only if it makes a whole bunch of smallish changes – the urbanist equivalent of quitting […]
Posted inOpinion
Has another public project gone off the rails?
We’ve all seen it dozens of times in movies. A railroad train is barreling down the tracks. There might be enough time – just – to bring the lumbering machine to a halt before it crashes, but that’s the only way to avoid disaster, because it’s a train, and trains can’t change direction once they […]
Posted inOpinion
Bus-age wonders
While I was coming of age in central Illinois in the 1960s, the motor vehicle that figured daily in my life was not a car – I didn’t have one – but the bus. I rode buses to school, I rode buses to visit friends away at college, I rode buses to and from an […]
Posted inNews
SMTD sees change ahead
Janice Smith of Springfield says the public bus system is her lifeline. She rides buses all over Springfield to work, to shop and to visit friends – in short, everywhere. She’s on a bus almost every day of her life, except on Sundays, when the buses don’t run where she needs to go. “On Sundays, […]
Posted inNews
Springfield goes to Washington
As lawmakers in Washington, D.C., debate a far-reaching transportation funding measure that could mean jobs for Springfield, government and religious leaders here are making their voices heard in the nation’s capital. The U.S. House will likely vote on a five-year transportation bill this month, which could increase the number of transportation-related jobs for minorities and […]
Posted inNews
Green for governor
If you knew where to look you might have seen him – bearded, bespectacled and biking through Springfield. Looking more like a college professor than a politician, the Green Party candidate for governor, Rich Whitney, spent May 20 through 28 riding his bike and various trains on a 650-mile tour across the state to promote […]
Posted inNews
Car guys go for the X Prize
In a garage-turned-workshop south of Divernon sits what could be the future of personal transportation. Surrounded by spare parts and power tools is a made-from-scratch car that looks like something a science fiction writer in the 1930s would have dreamed about. The outside of this deceptively-classic “teardrop” car looks like a cross between a Volkswagen […]
Posted inNews
Auditor uncovers millions in misspent state funds
A series of audits released last week reveal a rash of problems among state agencies and programs. Performed by the office of Illinois Auditor General William Holland, the audits expose millions of dollars of undocumented spending, lax enforcement of inventory and spending controls and poor staff training that resulted in inaccurate financial records. An audit […]
