A bike lane ticketing program meant to make busy downtown streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians has found package delivery giants are among its most consistent scofflaws, news that will not come as a surprise to Chicagoans used to seeing trucks and vans idling throughout the Loop.

The city issues warnings and tickets to bike and bus lane blockers as part of its “Smart Streets” pilot program. Cameras mounted on city vehicles and Chicago Transit Authority buses capture the obstructions, and tickets are issued by the city’s Department of Finance.

Roughly a year and a half since the program’s creation, the city has issued tens of thousands of warnings and citations under the program and has issued nearly $2.6 million in fines to impeders of bike lanes, bus lanes and bus stops, not counting late fees, according to data received via an open records request from the city’s Department of Finance.

Vehicles owned by Amazon Logistics, FedEx and UPS were charged a combined $460,000 for bus stop, bus lane and bike lane violations between November 2024 and early this May, according to the data.

That doesn’t count independent contractors that work with those companies but use their own vehicles, or major firms that contract with the corporate giants for things like last mile delivery. Companies like Trans One Inc. and Northwest Express Inc., which contract with Fed Ex, for example, were fined about $48,000 and $30,000, respectively, for bus or bike lane violations, according to the data.

Smart Streets is intended to cut down on crashes and pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, and to help buses move more efficiently without having to drive around delinquent parked cars and delivery trucks. Launched in the fall of 2024, the program is now slated for a big expansion.

Bike lane tickets increased to $250 after the 2022 death of 3-year-old Lily Grace Shambrook, who was killed in a traffic crash while riding on the back of her mother’s bike in Uptown. The bike lane was blocked by a ComEd truck illegally parked in the bike lane, according to police.

The Smart Streets program also issues fines for some other parking violations, such as for expired parking meters. The Tribune excluded those fines in this analysis.

When asked about bike and bus lane citations given to Amazon-owned vehicles, Amazon said the fines appeared to be linked to its fleet of third-party delivery contractors that sometimes lease Amazon vehicles. Those companies, known as delivery service partners, are responsible for paying the infraction. Amazon works with more than 10 such companies in the Chicago area, which they say employ more than 1,000 drivers.

“Safe and responsible delivery is a priority in every community we serve,” spokesperson Leigh Anne Gullett said in an emailed statement. “Delivery Service Partners are local, independent businesses responsible for their own operations, including compliance with local traffic laws, and we work closely with them to address citations and promote safe delivery practices.”

FedEx spokesperson Andrew Russell said the delivery giant’s “top priority” was “ensuring safe and compliant operations.”

“We expect our couriers and drivers to follow all traffic laws while serving our customers,” Russell said. “Parking limitations in a congested metropolitan area like Chicago present challenges, but we work diligently to comply with local requirements.”

UPS also highlighted challenges of city delivery driving in response to questions from the Tribune.

“Making deliveries in urban environments, including Chicago, poses challenges for companies in several industries because of available parking for commercial vehicles,” spokesperson Karen Tomaszewski Hill wrote in an emailed statement. “UPS drivers are taught to park safely and legally and be as expedient as possible on all deliveries to minimize parking time. ”

Tomaszewski Hill also said UPS helps reduce the number of its vehicles on city streets “by consolidating packages loaded onto our trucks according to delivery time commitments and final destinations” and that it also uses technology that helps drivers choose the most direct delivery routes.

Several vehicle rental companies and car lessors were also ticketed. Enterprise Mobility told the Tribune it either gives the city the necessary information to ticket the renter or driver directly, or pays the violation and then recovers the cost from the renter.

“Fines and fees are there to dissuade people from bad behavior and also to change behavior, right? And really, the bottom line is public safety. If we can get people to stop parking in bike lanes and have fewer bike accidents, that’s the result we want rather than gaining more revenue from ticketing,” said Mike Belsky, the city’s comptroller, in an interview in early June.

Chicago Department of Transportation spokesperson Erica Schroeder said the program is working. “Data suggests the program is encouraging compliance, with most drivers who receive a citation not committing another violation,” Schroeder said.

Before Smart Streets, 15.6% of people who got flagged for illegal bus and bike lane parking did it again within 90 days, Belsky said. As of January 2026, that recidivism rate had dropped to 7.6%.

The city has issued roughly 60,000 zero-fine warnings since the program’s inception, in addition to warnings issued during grace periods at the start of the program, according to the data. That figure, however, also includes things like expired meter warnings and more recently, street sweeping and loading zone violations. Drivers receive a warning notice for their first offense, then tickets after that. In all, the city issued 16,802 tickets for bus and bike lane violations, according to the data.

The city’s Department of Finance said that through July, the number of total violations was closer to 30,000, but it could not provide an immediate explanation for the discrepancy between its internal calculation and the data shared with the Tribune as part of the open records request.

Violators with a significant unpaid ticket balance receive escalating fines and penalties and can eventually be taken to court.

The city’s Law Department has a dedicated collections unit that Belsky said goes after big companies first. If they don’t pay, they could face off in front of an administrative law judge. “If they have a lot of outstanding fines and they need a license or permit to do business in the city, they can’t do it if they don’t pay the fines,” Belsky said, noting the city had gone after FedEx for such violations, which included, but were not limited to Smart Streets violations.

“We have worked with Chicago officials to rectify outstanding violations and will ensure that verified infractions through the Smart Streets pilot program are addressed,” Russell said.

The Law Department was mum on which companies it was pursuing. Spokesperson Kristen Cabanban said in a written statement that the law and finance departments were working closely “to address corporate scofflaws with significant unpaid parking meter, bus, and bike lane violations. We are engaging with these companies directly and fully intend to recover what is owed. The law applies equally to everyone.”

Tickets for standing in a bus lane or bus stop cost $90 or $100, respectively, while bike lane violations are $250.

Aldermen authorized the two-year Smart Streets pilot program in 2023. The pilot started in a smaller downtown area the following year before it was expanded it earlier this year to span an area bounded by Irving Park Road to the north, 26th Street to the south and Ashland Avenue to the west.

According to the CTA, that covers 1,300 bus stops, nearly 8 miles of bus lanes and nearly 70 miles of bike lanes.

The transit agency currently has six camera-equipped Smart Streets buses and will add 46 more cameras to city buses this fall using $1 million in revenue raised by the state’s transit funding and reform bill, the agency said this month.

Enforcement will be focused on the 20 Madison, 36 Broadway and 66 Chicago Avenue bus routes, with plans to expand to the 8 Halsted bus when ongoing construction is completed.

The pilot is set to end in December, after which members of the City Council would need to take action to keep it going. “We look forward to working with City Council on the future of the program,” Schroeder said.

In a statement, acting CTA President Nora Leerhsen said the program “creates system wide benefits for bus speeds and eliminates critical safety hazards.”

And when bus stops are blocked by drivers, bus operators can’t properly deploy ramps for riders with disabilities, Leerhsen said.

“This is not a minor inconvenience — it is a matter of basic safety and civil rights,” she said. “It is the difference between a trip that is possible and one that is not.”

Christina Whitehouse, founder of Bike Lane Uprising — which gathers crowdsourced data on bike lane obstructions — explained that when drivers block bike lanes, cyclists are forced into roads where other drivers aren’t expecting them.

“Oftentimes, you’ll see companies obstructing bike lanes right in front of a ghost bike,” Whitehouse said, referring to the roadside memorials used to mark places where bicyclists have been killed in traffic crashes.

“Whether (drivers are) not paying attention, or just being aggressive, that’s where the dangers happen,” Whitehouse said.

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