Matt McCabe
Matt McCabe
@mmccabe.bsky.social
Working to make things more equitable, peaceful & humane. Currently: Nonprofit strategy + Bike Bus leader! Prev: AmeriCorps & teacher, ed leader, Booth MBA Civic Scholar, Obama campaign + appointee. Usually posting about Chicago, safe streets, or #Sixers
2.1K followers784 following720 posts
Matt McCabe reposted
Help fund Better Streets Chicago's Action Fund to empower more sustainable transportation wins in Chicago.
We've been hard at work building our next chapter – and we need your support! Help power our work for another year at our annual fundraiser, and learn about how we plan to build a more powerful movement with you. 🗓️ November 12th @ 7pm 📍 Pilot Project (2140 N Milwaukee) 🎟️ Tickets available now!
Honestly, ditto license plates! Sooo many expired, printed on white paper license plates taped to the back of cars without front plates either.
A truly abhorrent number of cars in Chicago don’t have city stickers on display. I biked from Lakeview to Logan Square and noticed that a clear majority of parked cars didn’t display the city sticker, which pays for transportation.J never wanna hear about fare jumping again.
UChicago's To and Through project released the most recent year of data. If you care about Chicago, children in Chicago, or Chicago Public Schools, very worthwhile read. Before you click, test your priors: if 100 9th graders start w/in CPS how many will have a college degree 10 years later?
Matt McCabe reposted
Matt McCabe reposted
There's still time to complete NITA's 2027 budget survey! It closes at 11:59pm tonight, so you have a few hours to still make your voice heard!
Tomorrow is the LAST DAY to fill out NITA’s 2027 budget survey! This will play a big role in shaping the future of how our transit dollars are allocated — be sure to let them know you want frequent, reliable, modern, and connected service. And maybe…#BuildTheTunnel!
Matt McCabe reposted
@andrefor40th.bsky.social discussed passing the Smart Streets bill. "We owe it to the memory of people like Matthew McCallum, Riley O’Neil, and Lily Shambrook to get serious about expanding and enforcing the policies that we know protect cyclists and pedestrians." chi.streetsblog.org/2026/10/14/v...
This is awesome and sent me down a rabbit hole looking at Chicago-Milwaukee train schedule. Maybe everyone already knew this but holy crap there are almost 10 trips a day, most under $30, and it's faster than driving! No pressing reason to go to Milwaukee, but now I'm thinking about it!
OMG! Wisconsin train Wisconsin train 🎉🌎🚂 www.tmj4.com/news/local-n...
Matt McCabe reposted
Sun-Times has a good write-up on the SNP this morning chicago.suntimes.com/transportati...
Metra’s not saying #BuildTheTunnel yet… but they’re getting close assets.metra.com/s3fs-public/...
Matt McCabe reposted
Housing and affordability are two of the most pressing issues in upcoming elections, including Chicago’s mayoral race. The upcoming mayor will have to go beyond mere promises of “streamlining” and take tangible steps. citythatworks.substack.com/p/confrontin...
Matt McCabe reposted
Great news and great policy for Chicago. 80%+ of drivers who received a warning didn't park in a bus/bike lane again. 60%+ of the drivers who got a ticket (after a warning) never got a 2nd one. A VERY small percentage of drivers are making our city slower and less safe - this will change that.
Approved, unanimously:
Matt McCabe reposted
Matt McCabe reposted
Matt McCabe reposted
📢 Public Hearing: Proposed Weber Spur Trail 🚲🚶 The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and Alderman Nugent invite residents to a Public Hearing about the proposed Weber Spur Trail. 📅 Wednesday, October 14, 2026 🕕 6:00–8:00 PM 📍 NEIU Student Union Building www.chicago.gov/weber-spur-t...
How is this not an immediate call from the mayor to CPD brass? Or from alders at the press conference (linked in the thread below) to the mayor saying, call CPD leadership now?
New: We obtained witness videos and surveillance footage showing ICE parking their cars, arresting an observer, and transferring detainees in parking lots across 4 of Chicago's police districts. Local officials have tried banning ICE from city property. But incidents in the lots keep stacking up:
Matt McCabe reposted
Open road toll the Jane Byrne when?
Even outside of Manhattan, congestion pricing has created opportunities like this one in western Queens, where there are fewer cars on the road. DOT should proactively find other streets where public space might be reclaimed for people, and act with haste to redesign them.
A worthwhile read! A shame current #edusky? #chied? doesn't have the breadth of engagement that 2010s twitter did but curious what other folks think here - of the underlying solutions presented, of the researchers' perspectives etc.
Which street will look like this in Chicago in 5 years?
Is it Amsterdam? Copenhagen? No, it's Paris! After years of investment, the French capital has one of the best problems a city can have: bicycle congestion. So if Paris has done it, why wouldn't other cities follow? 📸 Such an amazing photo by @jbpssx.bsky.social
Feels like we're in this video - www.ted.com/talks/derek_... - and we're past the first few people joining in and dancing... and if we can build the infra safe enough, connected enough and quickly enough we'll hit a tipping point
8 Urban Arrows, 2 Cannondale long tails, and a few other cargo bikes hauling kids this AM along my roll down Leland the 🧞♂️ is out, we can not allow this trend to stop when you build, even middling, bike infrastructure people use it Alders Martin, Clay, Vasquez, Hoppenworth should be commended
Matt McCabe reposted
Divvy has become an essential part of how Chicagoans move through our city, and this contract extension is about making sure the system continues to work for more people in more neighborhoods.
Thousands of new bikes and scooters will be added to Chicago's streets as part of the new contract, the city announced Wednesday.
Induce the demand!! Also, anyone know if they updated designs to make sure the turns will be able to handle cargo bikes? do we need to up the advocacy on that or did they take the feedback after the first public meeting on it?
🚨 City council will vote on a $21.5 million line item in a TIF to build the 606 extension over the river! news.wttw.com/2026/09/22/k...
Matt McCabe reposted
The "bike bus" idea is simple: Once a week, a group of kids and parents bike to school together. It's an idea being embraced in neighborhoods around Chicago as a way to socialize and push back against car-centric culture, parents say.
You! You reading this right now! Start one! The world instantly gets a tiny bit better when you do, it's like magic.
The "bike bus" idea is simple: Once a week, a group of kids and parents bike to school together. It's an idea being embraced in neighborhoods around Chicago as a way to socialize and push back against car-centric culture, parents say.
Matt McCabe reposted
"Instead of driving to school, more kids are taking the 'bike bus.'" @wbez.org @activetransportation.org @rideillinois.bsky.social @bikegridnow.org @betterstreetschicago.org @chicritmass.bsky.social @chifamilybiking.bsky.social
Not the point of the video but "Don't forget I have your binder" is one of the more relatable things I've seen recently 😂
So much fun serving as the caboose, or sweep, on the Bike Bus! I loved making sure no one was left behind and everyone made it to school safely. And seriously, how awesome is Peter?! 🚲🚌💛 #BikeBus
Things I'm also noticing: - the presence of pedestrians made the street safer for everyone, forcing the truck to at least slow down a little - parking protection ends well before intersection but no other hardened infra through the intersection (bump out etc.) means truck is able to cut it sharp
How @emilylip.bsky.social nearly got "right hooked" by a truck driver in Queens last week — days before a girl was killed by a truck driver in Manhattan pulling a similar maneuver. youtube.com/shorts/0xjbt...
Matt McCabe reposted
Hey! Learn some stuff before you vote in the (fully elected!) school board election this fall: chicago.suntimes.com/elections/20...
Matt McCabe reposted
Chicago, where we at? Feels like we're in the upper right corner of the gray "dare" box? Maybe *just* into the able box?
READ more about the “Dare, Able, Invite” framework, which was developed by NS’ Mark van Hagen and Goudappel’s Bas Govers, who applied the Dutch Railways’ pyramid of customer needs to cycling policy: www.scribd.com/document/438...
Matt McCabe reposted
Matt McCabe reposted
Matt McCabe reposted
Matt McCabe reposted
We've got some big updates to the ChiWhoBike ward map! (chiwho.bike/map) First, citywide stats. You can now view stats for the whole city, which we had calculated before, but there was no way to view it! You can also hover or click each lane type to view just bike routes of that type.
Matt McCabe reposted
Matt McCabe reposted
The alders' letter references a 2025 report produced by the Equity in Enforcement working group. There's one particular table from the report worth revisiting, reproduced here. The chart is my own approximation, but it shows that a small # of drivers are responsible for a large % of the violations.
Aldermen call for traffic safety action in wake of city employee’s bike death
Matt McCabe reposted
Since the Smart Streets Pilot Program launched, we’ve been able to improve traffic safety throughout the 34th Ward. It’s common sense to expand this successful program citywide. blockclubchicago.org/2026/09/15/a...
Literally millions of rides every month on Divvy alone, Chicago has a duty to keep its residents safe.
“Divvy had a record-breaking summer, and it’s exciting to see more Chicagoans choosing biking as a convenient way to get around our city,” Johnson said in a statement. blockclubchicago.org/2026/09/15/c...