Northeastern Illinois needs to invest in maintaining and enhancing its roads, transit systems, bikeways, and sidewalks to keep up with demand and promote regional economic vitality. The public deserves safe and reliable transportation. As North America’s freight nexus, our region’s transportation network has long been our strategic advantage. Yet much of the system is in dire need of repair. Investing in it will provide residents with more options and reliability to get where they are going, and move goods more efficiently and safely through the region.

The State of Illinois approved a capital package in 2019, which increased funding for transportation through a number of revenue sources, including increasing the state’s motor fuel tax and indexing it to inflation. However, due to years of underinvestment, the need for repair, replacement, and modernization of just the existing system in northeastern Illinois remains significant. To guide discussions on transportation funding solutions, CMAP’s Board adopted principles for sustainable transportation funding:

• We need a long-term solution that can adapt to emerging trends.
• Costs should be paid by those who derive the most benefit from the system.
• Revenue sources should consider the ability of users to pay.
• Project selection criteria must be used to fund the projects of greatest benefit to the public. 
• Funds must be allocated to all modes of transportation to achieve a well-integrated multimodal system.

ON TO 2050 recommends fully funding the region's transportation system with a variety of reliable sources over the long-term:

• Make better use of existing dollars by applying performance-based programming, including expanding cost-effective asset management practices.
• Starting with a pilot program, modernize transportation revenue collection with a road usage charge.
• Expand the sales tax base to additional consumer services.
• Implement a federal cost of freight service fee to support a multimodal freight transportation program.
• Implement tolling on the region's expressways, as well as other innovative-user based revenue options.
• Create a regional revenue source.
• Expand priced parking to raise revenues and achieve local goals.
• Implement transportation user fees at the local level to fund infrastructure improvements.

ON TO 2050 recommends that the region both fully fund the transportation system and leverage it to promote inclusive growth. To support these goals, as well as the sustainable transportation funding principles adopted by the CMAP Board, CMAP conducted its first comprehensive analysis of how transportation fees, fines, and fares impact residents with low income. The report, published in April 2021, assesses these impacts and recommends policy changes to improve equity.

CMAP guides the allocation of federal funds for transportation in northeastern Illinois by managing the following programs:

Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ). CMAP administers CMAQ, a federally funded program of surface transportation improvements. To help implement ON TO 2050 through the CMAQ program, CMAP helps reviewers prioritize proposed projects based on how they support the goals and action areas of the regional plan.

Surface Transportation Program (STP). Through the regional Shared Fund its subregional Councils of Mayors (COMs), CMAP administers the region's local STP. COMs are defined by specific geographic boundaries, with six in suburban Cook County and one for each of the five collar counties. Each Council of Mayors receives an annual STP allocation and is responsible for programming those funds. Council projects must meet all federal eligibility requirements, including being located on a federal-aid eligible route, and must be sponsored and implemented by a local community within the council.

Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP). The locally programmed TAP is a federally-funded program of surface transportation improvements designed to support non-motorized transportation. CMAP uses a competitive process to select and fund bicycle facility projects that help complete the Regional Greenways and Trail Plan.

Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). As metropolitan Chicago's agenda for surface transportation, the TIP lists all federally funded projects and regionally significant, non-federally funded projects programmed for implementation in the next four years. The TIP helps both the transportation community and the general public track the use of local, state, and federal transportation funds in support of implementing ON TO 2050.

Pavement management plans. As part of CMAP’s efforts to collect data on all federal-aid local jurisdiction roads in the region, the agency established a pilot program to offer engineering services to municipalities and townships to either initiate or update a local pavement management system. A pavement management plan can assists agencies to find the most cost effective way to address pavement needs and achieve pavement condition targets. Learn more about the pavement management program.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). CMAP promotes the use of ITS, which include a wide range of technologies that improve the movement of people and goods. The goal of ITS deployment is to make our transportation system more efficient and effective through strategies such as increasing traveler safety and reducing congestion.