Congestion due to road construction was so bad between approximately 6-7 AM that 70 people began walking along the shoulder of the expressway to make sure they made their flights.

Chicago Police and Illinois State Police were called out and assisted the expressway pedestrians reach O’Hare safely.

Here’s the full report from Newsradio 780 AM, “Frustrated By Traffic, People Leave Cars And Walk On Expressway To O’Hare.”

It was a short meeting, beginning at 10 AM and gaveled adjourned just after noon.

But a litany of questions from aldermen aimed at the city’s Chief Executive Office Lois Scott and Corporation Counsel Steve Patton, the city’s top lawyer, continued for this third day of hearings.

“Parking Wars” Over Divided Free Sundays Looms Says Aldermen

Perhaps the major concern about the free Sundays proposal is that adjacent wards may have different policies on free Sunday parking.

Patton says under the new proposal, aldermen who don’t want free Sunday parking can opt out. Some aldermen with heavily congested retail shopping districts in their wards are hearing from businesses and area chamber of commerce who are opposed to free parking. These business people say they want turnover of parking spaces to bring in more customers.

But some aldermen worry that it will be confusing for drivers if one area is free to park on Sundays and another is not. This problem would be most pronounced on the boundaries between wards where metered parking on one side of a street is free while the opposite side is not.

Ald. Joe Moreno (1st) said, somewhat jokingly, that parking wars could break out between adjacent wards with different policies on free Sunday parking.

Other aldermen are being told by local business leaders that free Sunday parking would be bad for business.

“My chambers (chamber of commerce) don’t want it,” said Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd). “They’re saying ‘we need the turnover’. When you start with a gimmick like this–and it is a gimmick–without any urban planning it’s going to be a problem.If one side decides to do free Sunday parking and the other side doesn’t, you an have parking chaos. The Mayor’s office refuses to acknowledge this.”

Parking Tickets Will Increase

Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) tried to find out how changes like free Sundays and extended meter hours will have on parking enforcement.

“You’re predicting the city will increase ticket revenue?,” asked Reilly.

“Yes,” said Scott succinctly.

Fear Of Remote Ticketing?

A few aldermen said they were fearful of the new pay by cellphone technology because they thought parking tickets could be issued remotely using GPS and the pay by cell information.

Ald. Lelsie Hariston (4th) was the most vocal on the issue, asking repeatedly if this technology could be used to issue tickets.

Scott and Patton seem befuddled or frustrated with her questions and didn’t actually answer her question but kept on saying drivers were not forced to use this new payment technology but could pay using credit cards or coins.

Hairston also had issues with the 35 cent convenience fee to use the service.

“I’m being penalized 35 cents for paying by phone?”, asked Hairston. “There should be an option to use cash (paper currency). I don’t have this option.”

For more coverage on Friday’s hearings, check out DNA Info Chicago.

Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza just released a new video explaining how year round city stickers will work in 2014.

City sticker sales will remain the same as previous years, but the Clerk’s office will use this year to educate drivers about the changes next year to hopefully make sales next year as painless as possible.

From what could have been a feature story in last month’s edition of Duh! Magazine, the Tribune assigned a reporter to interview drivers and bike riders about the recent boom in protected bike lanes and potential changes to the municipal code which would increase fines for dooring bikers.

Unsurprisingly, the drivers interviewed were frustrated with the behavior of some belligerent bikers, while bikers voiced anger at some overly aggressive drivers.

Here’s the full Tribune story.

Graphic: NTSB

On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board announced its recommendation for states to lower the blood alcohol content (BAC) threshold for DUI from the current 0.08 to 0.05.

The NTSB says research shows that impairment can begin at a blood alcohol level as low as 0.05, although, the NTSB did not name or cite any specific research.

“The research clearly shows that drivers with a BAC above 0.05 are impaired and at a significantly greater risk of being involved in a crash where someone is killed or injured,” said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman on Tuesday.

The organization believes lower the BAC will reduce alcohol related crashes and deaths.

The NTSB says almost 10,000 people are killed in the U.S. every year from crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers and that over a 100 nations worldwide set their BAC level at 0.05.

But reducing the BAC in any state would severely limit drivers on how much they can imbibe. Depending on a person’s weight, this threshold would force driver to either not drink at all or severely cut their alcohol consumption to a drink or less.

The BAC was changed in the late ’90′s from 0.15 to 0.08.

NTSB recommendations have no legal weight as it would be up to each state’s legislature to decide whether to implement these type of changes.

An old school parking meter from before the notorious Chicago parking meter lease came into being in 2008 adds its two cents.

The early results are in, and the overwhelming consensus is that Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s remix of the infamous Chicago parking meter lease deal is a bad idea.

So far, outside of a handful of politicians, nobody supports the recently announced renegotiation of the 75 year meter lease.

While most voices support the Mayor’s efforts in reducing the payouts to CPM for street closures and alleged changes to the meter system’s value, it seems the Mayor’s free Sunday parking proposal is a non starter.

That’s probably because the trade off is having to feed meters until 10 PM instead of the current 9 PM, while drivers in River North may have to plunk down quarters to park until midnight.

The Chicago Tribune editorial board poses the question, if Chicago Parking Meters, LLC supports the deal, shouldn’t we be worried?

The Trib, speaking directly to city council members, pleads:

Aldermen, you know how badly you served your constituents in 2008.

Do your jobs this time. Ask questions. Lots of questions.

This time, ask questions. Lots of questions. And when you get answers, then decide.

Fool me once ….

Crain’s Chicago Business is definitely not buying what Mayor Emanuel is selling. In fact, Crain’s pulls no punches in the headline of their recent editorial entitled, “City’s renegotiated parking meter deal still stinks.”

Perhaps offering free parking on Sundays in some neighborhoods will help Mr. Emanuel’s chances for re-election. But instead of providing real relief, this renegotiated deal just pushes the slop from one trough to another. The length of the contract has not been shortened by a millisecond. And the absurdly high rates are not one penny lower. This isn’t an improvement; it’s a capitulation.

Of course it’s no surprise 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly is fighting the revised meter deal. That’s because most of his ward will bear the brunt of the proposed free Sunday parking at neighborhood meters. Residents of River North and patrons of the many bars and restaurants there will have to feed the meters an additional three hours until midnight under the Mayor’s plan.

Other aldermen are very skeptical or also opposed according to the Chicago Sun-Times, and ABC 7 News.

Although, according to the Chicago Tribune, a group of 24 aldermen came out publicly in support of the new plan on Thursday. Unsurprisingly, most generally are supporters of Emanuel’s policies.

Under normal circumstances, Mayor Emanuel usually gets his way. But this time, things might be different.

Aldermen won’t vote on the changes until next month.

Vincente L. Alford of Chicago was arrested by Evanston Police for bomb threats made after receiving a parking ticket. Photo credit: Evanston Police Dept.

The man called the police department four separate times threatening to blow up the police station and the Civic Center according to Evanston Patch.

He was arrested that same day.

Evanston Police say he was angry over receiving a parking ticket earlier in the day.

So now, instead of just having to pay a parking ticket, this driver faces potential fines and jail time if convicted.

Here’s Evanston Patch’s full story, “Man Arrested After Bomb Threats to Evanston Buildings, Police Say.“

An old fashioned parking meter from before the meter lease deal was passed in 2008.

Making lemons out of lemonade.

That’s the tone Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel set when he stepped to the podium Monday morning to announce changes to the city’s universally derided parking meter lease deal.

“When I was elected Mayor, I said this was a bad deal, but promised to do everything I could to make improvements on behalf of the taxpayers of this city,” said Emanuel. “So, my administration fought to ensure not one tax dollar was paid that we didn’t need to pay. After thorough and ultimately constructive negotiations, I am proud to say that on behalf of the taxpayers of Chicago, we were able to successfully reach agreement with CPM to make some necessary and positive changes to this contract.”

Emanuel announced changes as result of a settlement with Chicago Parking Meters which includes free parking at meters on Sundays, a pay by cell phone option, and CPM’s agreeing to accept the city’s numbers when it comes to payments tied to street closures. The Mayor claims this will save city taxpayers $20 million a year or a billion dollars over the life of the lease.

“As one resident told me, ‘you shouldn’t have to pay to go to church’,” said Emanuel. “Whether you go to church or not, everyone deserves a break from feeding parking meters in our neighborhoods on Sunday.”

The Mayor had been battling CPM over bills from street closures–bills the Mayor had refused to pay. The Mayor’s Office says the $49 million in bills for street closures got reduced to just $8.9 million.

These changes in the settlement between CPM and the City will be documented in a city ordinance as amendment to the original lease deal, and be voted on by the Chicago City Council.

“The City of Chicago announced today that a settlement agreement and amendment to the Chicago Parking Meter Concession Agreement will be introduced to City Council on May 8, 2013. CPM is hopeful that the City Council will ratify both agreements,” reads a statement from CPM. “In the best interests of the people of Chicago, CPM collaborated with the administration and believes that our willingness to work with the City demonstrates our desire to provide the most efficient and technologically advanced parking meter system possible for the City of Chicago.”

While Sunday parking will be free in the neighborhoods, meters will still have to be fed in the Central Business District which is bordered by Lake Michigan, Roosevelt, Halsted and North Ave.

In addition, meter hours will be enforced an additional hour Monday through Saturdays. Parking meters which need to be fed until 9 PM will now extend to 10 PM. And in some areas of the city directly surrounding downtown, meters will have to be fed until midnight-an additional three hours. Meters which stop at 6 PM will stay the same.

While 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack is supportive of the city’s ability to monitor CPM billing for street closures, he’s not convinced there’s a net benefit to the proposed changes to the hours of enforcement.

Waguespack says the extended hours of parking may end up costing drivers more in the long run.

“It’s essentially going to be a wash or we’re going to be paying more,” said Waguespack.“Restaurant patrons, bar patrons, they’ll all be paying more. That would probably make them (CPM) a lot more (money).”

Waguespack is also critical of the mixed messages the Mayor is putting out. On one hand the city was fighting the bills from CPM, but on the other, the city didn’t join a lawsuit questioning the legality of the agreement filed by a group of Chicago citizens.

“If he believes the True-Up costs (street closure costs) are wrong why not go to court and fight the whole thing?” Waguespack asks.

The pay by cell phone option will not be available until summer of 2014 and will require users to pay a $0.35 convenience fee per transaction.

“Lets be clear here, this doesn’t solve our parking meter problem,” said Emanuel. “That’s just not possible. I’m trying to make a little lemonade out of a big lemon. We can’t make this bad deal go away or make it into a good one. But I do think we made it a little less bad for the next seven decades.”

The original meter lease deal was rushed through the city council in late 2008. Although alderman were given only 72 hours to read the hundreds of pages of the agreement and vote, the measure passed overwhelmingly 45-5.

The deal gave control of the parking meters to a consortium of investors organized by Morgan Stanley for a $1.16 billion up front payment for 75 years of control and meter revenue. Parking meter rates nearly quadrupled since 2008 and company revenue skyrocketed.

That’s what the City of Evanston is saying to drivers who owe on unpaid parking tickets according to a recent press release.

Evanston is willing to waive all late fees on parking tickets issued in the seven years between September 30, 2005 and September 30, 2012.

Scofflaws must pay their ticket debt in full by June 30, 2013 in order to qualify.

The city says it’s a one time offer. Otherwise, Evanston plans reinstating the late fees and using the Illinois Local Debt Recovery Program to get their money.

Much like Chicago, and other municipalities, towns can submit the debt to the Illinois Comptroller’s office which will subtract the outstanding debt from your state income tax refund.

The city says about 40,000 accounts are eligible for this program with fines totaling about $2.7 million.

Hat tip to Evanston Patch.

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

NBC 5 investigates Chicago’s parking meter lease deal.

They discover, to the shock of everyone, that Chicago Parking Meters, LLC, the company which won a 75 year contract to operate the meters by paying $1.16 billion in 2008, is making a ton of money.

What a surprise.

Marin interviews 32nd Ward alderman Scott Waguespack, who led the fight against the meter lease deal, who essentially tells NBC 5 viewers in his low key way, “We told ya so.”

The piece does reveal CPM generated $109 million in parking meter revenue in 2011. It is a gigantic number which means the company is on track to recoup their $1.16 billion investment in about 10 years.

That’s great news for CPM because they can spend the remaining 65 years of the lease essentially generating several billion dollars in pure profit.

Here’s NBC 5′s full piece, “Parking Deal a Windfall for Private Company.”