Yellow Brick Road Corridors form a network like the Lakefront Trail or The 606, and the network reaches every neighborhood. Car-centered streets become routes where people walking come first, bikes and small electric vehicles second, and cars can't cut through, though you can still drive to your own home or business. The corridors are built street by street with each neighborhood and paid for by the Chicago Remodel Fund, the voter-approved neighborhood line on the property tax.
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PART OF THE NEW BURNHAM PLAN
CONSTRUCT · ROOMS
Yellow Brick Road Corridors
Yellow Brick Road corridors give people in every neighborhood a new way to get around: safely, peacefully and efficiently.
They form a network of streets like the Lakefront Trail or The 606. You can walk, bike or drive a small electric vehicle with no cars cutting through, and you can still drive to your own home or business.
Take Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago's busiest cycling street and one of the most dangerous places in the city to walk or ride. The city has added lanes, then buffers, then protected lanes, which were upgraded again in 2025. People still get hurt, because a protected lane still puts you a few feet from a turning truck. What removes that risk is removing the through-traffic.
Right now people walking, biking, riding scooters and driving all compete for the same strip of road, and cars win. A Yellow Brick Road Corridor converts some car-centered streets into something closer to the Lakefront Trail or The 606, but running through neighborhoods. People walking come first, then bikes, scooters and low-speed vehicles, then permitted vehicles like city rideshare and deliveries. A low-speed vehicle is a small electric car, like a GEM car: four wheels, a top speed of 20 to 25 mph and under 3,000 pounds. Cutting through by car isn't allowed, but you can still drive to your own home or business and drop off or pick up at the cross-streets. Trucks deliver overnight and early in the morning, the way Brussels does it.
It starts small. A busy intersection becomes a plaza with seating and outdoor dining, with planters or bollards blocking through-traffic at that spot. It's fast, cheap and can be undone. The full conversion follows where the neighborhood supports it. And the boulevards go back to what they were built for. Chicago's boulevards were laid out as green links between the big parks, pleasure drives rather than shortcuts. Every one of them, from Humboldt and Logan to Drexel and the Midway Plaisance, becomes a Yellow Brick Road: some lanes converted, some reserved for buses and Yellow Brick Road traffic only, or a new path alongside where there's room.
Together the corridors make a network you can use instead of a car. They lead to the new neighborhood plazas and connect neighborhoods to each other, so you could get from Pilsen to Logan Square to Bronzeville without touching the Loop. Small electric vehicles need somewhere safe to drive, and these corridors work only if people have something besides a car. Each solves the other's problem. The corridors are built as part of the city's street rebuild, paid for by the Chicago Remodel Fund, the voter-approved line on the property tax that rebuilds neighborhoods block by block.
It's also how we take back our streets without paying for them. In 2008 Chicago leased its parking meters to private investors until 2083, and ever since the city has had to pay them whenever it takes a metered space away. So on a busy street like Milwaukee Avenue, the corridor works this way: the metered parking stays, as a mix of spaces for regular cars and for small electric neighborhood vehicles, and cars can still reach it. They just can't use the street to cut through. Bikes and low-speed vehicles park free on the rest of the street, like any residential block. Every trip on the network is one that doesn't feed a meter.
WHAT IT WON'T DO
It won't close streets to residents. You can always drive to your own home or business.
It won't cut off deliveries. Trucks deliver in overnight and early-morning windows, and cargo bikes and small electric delivery vehicles, including low-speed vehicles, can deliver during the day with a permit.
It won't happen overnight or without the neighborhood. Busy intersections become plazas first, and the full conversion follows where the community supports it.
It won't leave out people who can't walk far. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) rules apply to every new public space, and Chicago Ride, the city's own rideshare service, picks up and drops off at the cross-streets.
It doesn't come out of your city sticker. The sticker now pays for road maintenance; the corridors are built with the rest of the street rebuild.
It doesn't allow driverless vehicles.
How it connects
Nothing in this plan works alone. These are the questions people ask next, and the policies that answer them.
Where does the corridor lead? It leads to the new neighborhood plazas and main streets, called frunchrooms, which give each neighborhood its own downtown.
Complete Neighborhoods: The Frunchroom →
What if I still need to drive short trips? A low-speed vehicle, a small electric car for trips of four miles or less, can drive on the corridors and registers free under the city sticker.
Low-Speed Vehicles →
Who pays for it? The corridors are built as part of the street rebuild paid for by the Chicago Remodel Fund, a voter-approved line on the property tax that costs the median homeowner about $1.75 a day, or $53 a month.
Chicago Remodel Fund →
How does it fit the rest of the street plan? Paved Paradise rebuilds each street once, from the pipes up, and the corridors are built as part of that rebuild.
Paved Paradise →
What happens to the parking meters on a corridor? Dibs On Our Streets keeps those spaces metered and in service, with some turned into paid parking for low-speed vehicles only, so the street can close to through-traffic without the city paying the investors who lease the meters.
Dibs On Our Streets →
How do I get around if I can't walk far? Chicago Ride, the city rideshare started under Chicago Human Economy, picks up and drops off at the cross-streets.
Chicago Human Economy →
FISCAL IMPACT
Investment Cost
RENOVATION STEP
Construct · Rooms
SHOW THE FULL POLICY DETAILS
01
Where it ranks
OUR PRIORITIES
#15 of 33
HIGH
55 / 100
Daily life
Long-term future
Reach
Unlocks
PROMISING It turns streets into routes built for people instead of through traffic. People walking come first, then bikes, and cars can't cut through, though you can still drive to your own home or business. The routes link neighborhoods so you can walk, bike or drive a low-speed vehicle (a small electric vehicle for short trips) safely.
When you'd feel it: Year 2.
See all the priorities
How I set them
02
How it works
A trail network through the city
Today people walking, biking, riding scooters and driving all compete for the same strip of road, and cars win. A Yellow Brick Road Corridor converts some car-centered streets into a network like the Lakefront Trail or The 606, but reaching into every neighborhood. It's a new street classification: people walking first; bikes, scooters and low-speed vehicles second; permitted vehicles like Chicago Ride (the city-chartered rideshare service) and deliveries third. Cutting through by car isn't allowed. The street stays the same width; what changes is who gets priority on it.
An alternative transit network
The corridors lead to the frunchroom plazas, the free public plazas at the center of each neighborhood, and connect neighborhood centers to each other, so people can walk, bike or drive a low-speed vehicle across the city on streets with no cars cutting through. Where a frunchroom exists or is planned, its approach streets are natural corridors.
You can still get home
Driving to your own home or business is allowed. You can drop off and pick up at cross-streets. You can't drive the length of the corridor as a shortcut. Most of the car access the street used to carry moves to the alleys.
Through traffic out, parking stays
On a busy commercial street like Milwaukee Avenue, a corridor works like a Barcelona superblock, where through-traffic is kept out of a group of blocks: cars can still reach the parking, the shops and the homes, but can't drive the length of the street as a shortcut. The metered parking stays, as a mix of spaces for regular cars and spaces for low-speed vehicles, so the city isn't paying the parking meter investors to give the street back. Bikes and LSVs park free on the unmetered curb, like any residential street. Every trip made on the network is a trip that doesn't end with someone paying a parking meter.
Three tiers
Tier 1 converts a whole corridor. Tier 2 turns a busy intersection into a plaza: bollards or planters block through-traffic at that spot only, and the space fills with seating and outdoor dining. It is fast and cheap to set up, and it can be undone. Tier 3 is a protected bike lane, kept only as a fallback for wide streets that aren't ready for more.
Where corridors go
Corridors go where they're easiest to convert with the least disruption, and each one is picked with the neighborhood. Good candidates include a street like Milwaukee Avenue, the city's busiest bike lane, Chicago's historic boulevards, and quieter streets that aren't major arterials, especially those leading to a planned frunchroom. Many corridors will likely run on mostly residential streets. Whatever the street, the rule is the same: no through traffic except people walking, bikes, scooters, low-speed vehicles and permitted vehicles. People who live there can still drive to their homes. Each corridor starts the same way. Phase One blocks through-traffic at major intersections and fills the space with dining and seating, with no major construction. Phase Two adds permanent paving and a wider walking surface where Phase One's results and the neighborhood support it.
The boulevards, back to their purpose
Chicago's 26-mile boulevard system was built as a ribbon of parks and pleasure drives: places of leisure that stretched the parks out between the big parks, not shortcuts. Every historic boulevard is treated as a Yellow Brick Road conversion, subject to community engagement and a city review. Depending on its width, a boulevard gets lanes converted to Yellow Brick Road, lanes limited to buses and the Yellow Brick Road, or a new path built alongside where there's room. Cars can no longer cut through, and the boulevard becomes a park you can travel along.
Deliveries
Standard trucks deliver in overnight and early-morning windows, with the hours set by ordinance. Cargo bikes, cargo e-bikes and small electric delivery vehicles, including LSVs, can deliver during the day with a permit, which gives delivery companies from Amazon to DoorDash a reason to switch to LSVs. The model is the delivery windows in Brussels and in Mechelen, Belgium.
What's a low-speed vehicle?
It's a small electric car built for neighborhood trips, like a GEM car. Under federal rules it has four wheels, a top speed of 20 to 25 mph and weighs under 3,000 pounds. Chicago already allows them on streets posted 30 mph or less, and they get a free city sticker under this plan.
Who else rides it
Chicago Ride is the authorized ride service on the corridors, picking up and dropping off at cross-streets. Low-speed vehicles are allowed at up to 25 mph; they aren't allowed inside the frunchroom plaza (the free public plaza at the center of each neighborhood), which is for people on foot only. Accessibility rules under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) apply to every new public space. Driverless vehicles are not allowed.
A street type in Paved Paradise
Yellow Brick Road corridors are one of the street types in Paved Paradise, built to Yellow Brick Road standards. Heated lanes follow Paved Paradise's free-heat rule.
03
What it costs
Phase One intersection activations
$2–6M planned from existing CDOT capital
After Phase One
Fully funded by the Chicago Remodel Fund, as part of its citywide rebuild work
Phase Two corridor conversions and the boulevards
No estimate yet
Parking meters on a corridor
Kept, as a mix of regular and LSV-only metered spaces, instead of removed
The Chicago Remodel Fund, the voter-approved neighborhood fund on the property tax, pays for the corridors after it pays for the frunchroom zones and the block-by-block rebuild spreading outward from each zone. The corridors no longer come out of the Chicago Mobility Fund (the city sticker), which now pays for road maintenance; the 35% share of sticker money that used to go to the corridors is retired.
04
What it takes to make it happen
MAYOR AND TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT (CDOT)
The mayor issues a Day One executive order adding the classification to the city's street types. CDOT picks the first 10 intersection plazas near planned frunchroom sites, reviews which boulevards qualify, and folds the corridors into Paved Paradise's Year 1 lake network plan.
CITY COUNCIL
Pass traffic rules for the corridors: who may drive on them, the delivery permit system and the delivery hours, which the policy says are set by ordinance.
CORPORATION COUNSEL
Review the LSV-only metered spaces before the first corridor converts.
CTA
Plan bus routes on each corridor before it converts.
VOTERS
No referendum for the corridors themselves. The Chicago Remodel Fund that pays for them goes to voters on the March 21, 2028 primary ballot.
SPRINGFIELD
No new state law is needed.
05
Timeline
DAY ONE
The mayor issues an executive order creating the classification. CDOT starts choosing the first corridor with the neighborhoods, finds the first 10 intersection plazas and reviews the boulevards. CDOT and Corporation Counsel identify which metered spaces on candidate corridors become LSV-only.
YEAR 1
Phase One work at intersections begins on the first corridor. The 10 intersection sites go to community engagement. The delivery permit system goes out for public comment. Community engagement starts on the first full corridor conversion. Some of the first corridor's metered spaces become LSV-only after Corporation Counsel, the city's law department, reviews them, and bikes and LSVs park free on its unmetered curb.
YEAR 2 AND AFTER
Phase Two conversion happens where the neighborhood's response supports it. The first boulevards are designated. More intersection plazas open citywide. Chicago Ride service grows with the network. Each new corridor keeps its metered parking, as a mix of regular and LSV spaces.
06
Where it's worked
Chicago today
An Illinois Answers and Block Club Chicago investigation counted 50 reported crashes and three deaths in the Milwaukee Avenue bike lane from 2020 to late 2022, and called it Chicago's busiest bike lane.
SOURCE: ILLINOIS ANSWERS PROJECT, NOVEMBER 29, 2022 ↗
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Chicago today
In September 2025 the city finished upgraded protected bike lanes on the 0.8 miles of Milwaukee between Chicago Avenue and Kinzie Street, a stretch that has had protected lanes since 2013.
SOURCE: STREETSBLOG CHICAGO, OCTOBER 1, 2025 ↗
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What counts as a low-speed vehicle
Federal rules define a low-speed vehicle as a four-wheeled motor vehicle with a top speed of more than 20 and no more than 25 mph on a paved level surface, and a gross vehicle weight rating under 3,000 pounds.
SOURCE: 49 CFR 571.3, DEFINITIONS (ECFR) ↗
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