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Adopted on October 13, 2010, GO TO 2040 is the seven-county metropolitan Chicago region's first comprehensive plan in over 100 years. It establishes coordinated strategies that help our 284 communities address regionwide population growth of more than 2 million new residents anticipated over the next three decades.
This second annual report takes a quantitative approach with informational graphics that describe progress on regional challenges identified by GO TO 2040. The first report last year summarized dozens of GO TO 2040 implementation examples at the local, regional, state, and federal levels. Most of those activities continue and many are referenced in this document. But rather than provide another qualitative summary, this year's report emphasizes data visualizations that help shed light on particular issues addressed by the plan. (With future implementation reports, CMAP's intention is to alternate each year between the qualitative and quantitative approaches.)
The informational graphics and text in this document help demonstrate where the region stands relative to GO TO 2040 goals. In some cases, that means checking the status of indicators that were specified in the plan itself. In other cases -- for example, where it may be too soon after the plan's adoption to assess progress -- this report includes data to illuminate the regional factors that shape residents' daily lives and determine the region's long-term economic success.
A printed poster-brochure complements the full report. Please just let us know if you would like one or more copies -- they would look great on walls across the region.
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Achieve Greater Livability through Land Use and Housing
GO TO 2040 supports reinvesting in existing communities, pursuing opportunities for more compact, walkable, and mixed-use development, and providing a range of housing options. The implementation of these principles will vary across the region, requiring sensitivity to the unique context of each community.
Development decisions are made locally, by municipalities and counties, and local governments are the most important implementers of GO TO 2040's recommendations in this section. Yet because their actions can have significant cumulative effects on overall regional livability and economic prosperity, it is also important for local decision-makers to consider the regional implications of their choices. Regional agencies, nonprofit groups, and state and federal governments can support implementation of this recommendation by providing resources and assistance to local governments to assist with local planning.
Housing and Transportation Costs
GO TO 2040 points to residents' housing and transportation expenditures as an important measure of regional economic prosperity and equity. For all income levels, the region's percentage of household income spent on housing and transportation has been declining recently, from 39.33 percent in 2009 to 37.53 percent in 2011. But lower-income households pay a much higher percentage, and the plan's goal is to reduce that to 45 percent by 2040.
This chart shows that only residents in the $30,000 to $39,000 income bracket saw their combined housing and transportation costs drop nearly four percentage points between 2010 and 2011. Households earning $20,000 to $29,000 saw these costs increase more than three percentage points.
Among other strategies to reduce the combined cost of housing and transportation, GO TO 2040 recommends that the region and its communities establish better links between the location of housing and public transit.
Housing Recovery
Following several years of significant declines that corresponded to the national downturn, housing in our region has begun to show gains in 2012. Closer analysis indicates that recent home value changes have not been even across all market segments. This chart shows the change in the Case-Shiller index for single-family homes in three price points. The lowest tier is the only price tier still below its 2000 base level (100), while the highest tier did not appreciate in value as much during the boom and has not fallen in value as much since the recession began.
In recent years, the housing market has posed difficult challenges for municipalities dealing with vacancies and foreclosures. Homes for a Changing Region -- a partnership of CMAP, the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, and the Metropolitan Planning Council -- provides technical assistance for municipal leaders to develop housing strategies by charting future demand and supply trends
Local Comprehensive Planning
An effective measure of local long-range planning is the extent to which communities across the region have an up-to-date municipal comprehensive plan. In 2010 and 2012, CMAP surveyed municipalities to better understand their local plans, policies, or programs. Among many other metrics, they were asked to confirm the status of their local comprehensive plan. As shown in the chart (based on the 2012 survey), 71 percent of the region's 284 municipalities have adopted new or updated plans in the past decade. That includes 32 municipalities that produced new or updated plans from 2010-12.
Many of those communities have benefited from the CMAP Local Technical Assistance (LTA) program. Now beginning its second year, LTA is helping 70 local governments, nonprofits, and intergovernmental organizations to address community issues at the intersection of transportation, land use, and housing, including the natural environment, economic growth, and community development.
Manage and Conserve Water and Energy Resources
The conservation of energy and water is a top priority for GO TO 2040, as these resources will likely become more constrained in the future. By focusing on resource conservation, our region's businesses, local governments, and residents can avoid future price spikes while saving money in the medium term.
Water and energy conservation brings economic and environmental benefits, and steps can be taken now to give northeastern Illinois opportunities to prosper in a new, greener economy. Furthermore, the more efficient use of energy and water resources will help the region reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, which contribute to climate change.
Water Conservation and Management
The Northwest Water Planning Alliance is a partnership of municipalities mostly in the Fox River valley, but elsewhere in the western and northwestern part of the region as well, that do not use Lake Michigan for drinking water. As research done by the Metropolitan Planning Council shows, NWPA municipalities have varying policies for water conservation, represented here by restrictions on lawn watering. To achieve better, more-consistent outcomes, NWPA is working with these municipalities to adopt a model ordinance for water conservation. As a result, this map's multicolors will become more uniform over time.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Although energy use is not the only source of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), progress in reducing GHG emissions is an effective measure of regional energy consumption and conservation. This graphic shows that electricity consumption is by far the largest source of GHGs, though that amount has decreased from 2005 to 2010. The reason is both that consumption declined and that power sources became "cleaner." Natural gas consumption also decreased during the same period, but the GHG estimate is higher because of other factors. The region's overall emissions have decreased from 131 million metric tons in 2005 to 126 million in 2010.
While implementing GO TO 2040 recommendations regarding transit investments, compact development, and energy use in buildings will positively influence GHG emissions, the plan points out that more-significant reductions will require broader, federal action to address carbon content of fuels, industrial emissions, and other sources.
Expand and Improve Parks and Open Space
GO TO 2040 recommends making significant, criteria-based investments in parks and open space to improve access to parks in developed areas, to protect the most important natural areas, and to connect open spaces together through greenways.
Major benefits will follow from this, including enhanced quality of life and property values, improved public health through the promotion of active lifestyles, and the protection of ecosystem services like water supply, flood storage, and water purification. Our network of parks and natural areas is considered part of our region's "green" infrastructure because of its similarity to the "gray" infrastructure networks that are likewise central to prosperity and livability. Like other forms of infrastructure, it can be managed, restored, and expanded. A top GO TO 2040 priority is to expand the green infrastructure network.
New Land Added by Forest Preserves
GO TO 2040 recommends improving the region's system of parks and open space to provide for recreation, protect ecosystems, and conserve natural resources. Each county in the region is making strides to increase protected acreage, which has grown overall from 99,188 acres in 1990 to 189,523 in 2012. In this past year, Kane County added 530 protected acres, followed by Lake with 352, Cook with 172, and Will with 195.
Greenways
Greenway trails provide functional connections between parks and preserves, using the green infrastructure network as a design concept. The overall regional total of greenway miles has increased from 692.2 in 2009 to 710.1 in 2011. GO TO 2040 set a goal of doubling greenway trails to 1,348 miles by 2040.
Promote Sustainable Local Food
GO TO 2040 recommends eliminating the region's food deserts, increasing local food production and processing, and increasing data and research to support informed investments in sustainable local food. The benefits of local food are numerous and include positive effects on a community's quality of life, health, the environment, and the economy.
As the region's population grows, public policies that influence how food is grown, processed, and transported in our region will affect many other areas addressed in GO TO 2040, especially land use and transportation. The implementation of these principles will vary across the region as local food production can refer to a variety of options from backyard and community gardens to commercial farms and combinations in between.
Greenways
GO TO 2040 recommends support by the region and its communities for local food systems, which hold significant potential for economic development and quality of life. Over the last ten years, regional demand for local food has grown 260 percent, and recent surveys show that three-quarters of Americans care that their food is grown locally. Despite the significant increase in demand, $26 billion in food revenue leaves our region every year. By increasing local food production, metropolitan Chicago could create over 5,000 jobs and generate $6.5 billion a year in economic activity.
To help implement this recommendation, CMAP created a microsite at www.cmap.illinois.gov/food with a variety of resources to help elected officials, planners, and economic development professionals strengthen local food systems in their communities.
One indication that local food has gained a strong foothold is the number of farmers' markets. Throughout Illinois, they have climbed steadily since 1999, reaching a high of 326 in 2012.
Improve Education and Workforce Development
GO TO 2040 recommends improving education and workforce development by increasing collaboration and alignment between systems, filling information gaps and improving data, and reforming policy that allows for more flexibility in service delivery. The implementation of these principles requires a wide breadth of stakeholder involvement and leadership from government agencies, non-profit and civic organizations, and the business community.
Educational Attainment
To compete in the U.S. and global economies, our region must develop, attract, and retain skilled workers, which for most industries is now more important than a region's geographic location. Over the past few years, the region's population with a high school degree or higher increased from 84.5 percent to 85.5 percent, while residents with at least a bachelor's degree increased from 33.1 to 34.9 percent.
Workforce Participation
Particular emphasis must be placed on facilitating workforce development for jobs that depend on workers who have attended community colleges, whose programs should be highly responsive to the needs of leading regional industry clusters. Industries should be actively engaged in helping to define those workforce-development programs.
Support Economic Innovation
GO TO 2040 recommends supporting economic innovation by improving data and information, ensuring our industry clusters thrive and provide good job opportunities, promoting commercialization of research, targeting investment decisions, and pursuing new funding opportunities, as well as cultivating a culture of innovation.
GO TO 2040 emphasizes that innovation is driven by the private sector, and that the role of government should be to find ways to help spur innovation by supporting ideas, institutions, and relationships. The public sector can also play important roles in identifying and measuring innovation. Other organizations, including civic groups, foundations, and economic development agencies, can also help enhance the region's culture of innovation.
Industry Clusters
While the region enjoys a diverse mix of industries, it also realizes significant gains through its economic specializations. These "industry clusters" create high-quality jobs, spur innovation, and generate growth among numerous interconnected industries such as freight, advanced manufacturing, and biotech/biomed. GO TO 2040 calls for strategically organizing the region around its existing and emerging clusters of specialization to better compete in the national and international marketplace.
As shown in this chart, the region's manufacturing cluster began adding jobs again in 2011, reversing a downward trend begun in 2008. The freight cluster is also bouncing back after losing thousands of jobs in 2009 and 2010.
Research and Development (R&D)
As measured by employment in the R&D sector, our region needs to step up efforts that support economic innovation. The number of R&D jobs grew steadily from 1970 to 1991, and again from 1993 to 2000. But the precipitous decline since 2001 is a troubling indicator for future regional prosperity, confirmed by decreasing venture capital and patent applications as pointed out in GO TO 2040.
With so many world-class universities and federal research facilities, metropolitan Chicago should be performing much better. The region does produce innovative technologies and methods, but not at a rate comparable to other major centers of global commerce. To support technology transfer and innovation, GO TO 2040 recommends improving data and information systems, nurturing the region's industry clusters, and targeting investments to enhance commercialization of research.
Reform State and Local Tax Policy
GO TO 2040 states that tax policy should encourage local decisions that make effective use of land, generate good jobs, and trigger sustainable economic activity. It should set high standards of transparency and predictability for the taxpayer. And it should not create large inequities across households, businesses, and local governments. By reforming state and local taxation, the region would benefit from new policies that help to advance, rather than undermine, GO TO 2040's goal for sustained regional economic competitiveness.
Currently, tax policies frequently distort land use decisions rather than allow markets or quality-of-life factors to guide them. Tax rates are often set very high, and the tax base is overly narrow rather than broad, which further stifles economic competitiveness. Instead, tax policy should encourage local decisions that make effective use of land, generate good jobs, and trigger sustainable economic competitiveness. It should set high standards of transparency and predictability for the taxpayer. And it should not create large inequities across households, businesses, and local governments.
Sales and Property Taxes
The region's sales tax base is narrow, including just 17 services compared to a median of 55 nationally. Also, state and local combined sales tax rates in the region are high – an aggregate rate of 8.5 percent, compared the 6.8 percent national median.
Inconsistent property taxes place a higher tax burden on businesses in Cook County, which impedes economic development. High tax rates can keep new businesses from locating in a community, which causes its tax base to grow more slowly than the cost of public services -- leading to even higher tax rates for businesses and residents alike. Eliminating Cook's property-tax classification system could break this cycle and encourage redevelopment in communities that need it most.
Regional Tax Base
To address the GO TO 2040 recommendations for reform of state and local tax policy, CMAP created a Regional Tax Policy Task Force to identify connections between tax policies and development decisions that shape the regional economy. Among issues CMAP continues to study are the efficiency and equity of the tax system.
For example, most local governments depend on property and sales tax revenues. As this map shows, the economic base in some areas increases their capacity to generate tax revenue. Conversely, communities that cannot raise sufficient revenue to provide basic public services have difficulty attracting residents and businesses. This hinders the economic growth of the region as a whole.
Improve Access to Information
GO TO 2040 supports government transparency and intergovernmental data sharing as preconditions for efficient governance. Public policy coordination and regional problem-solving require comprehensive, current, and accurate information. The benefits of information sharing outweigh the costs, despite legitimate concerns about the limited staff capacity and resources available to local governments.
More-Informed Decision Making
Access to information helps local officials make better choices about how to target resources. MetroPulse facilitates access to current data on more than 100 indicators, many of which are updated throughout the year.
MetroPulse Jobs
CMAP has created MetroPulse Jobs (www.metropulsechicago.org/jobs) to help identify important workforce needs, opportunities, and challenges in the region.
Pursue Coordinated Investments
If GO TO 2040 is to serve as a sustainable roadmap for the region's future, this will require changing the way in which major investment decisions are currently made. Many of our most pressing problems — in the areas of transportation, housing, climate change, economic vitality, and environmental quality — cannot be solved solely by the actions of any single level of government. These issues transcend individual government agencies and cross jurisdictional borders, and their solutions demand coordinated investment by all levels of government.
Performance Based Funding
Coordinated public investments for transportation depend on transparency for effective decision making and for monitoring of progress according to established goals. Since before the adoption of GO TO 2040, CMAP has strongly advocated for improving the accountability of public spending by better linking investments to outcomes.
The new, two-year federal transportation legislation (called MAP-21, or Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century) contains extensive language on performance measurement and targets and makes strides toward the regular, public reporting of performance data. The law also seeks to improve the accountability of federal spending by requiring states, regions, and transit agencies to report on progress made toward performance targets and by requiring these agencies to incorporate performance measures into their broader planning processes. But because MAP-21 does not generally link these performance measures and targets to funding decisions, the law should be viewed as a first step toward a larger performance-based funding system.
Invest Strategically in Transportation
Our transportation infrastructure is key to the region's prosperity, yet it has fallen behind other industrialized parts of the world, many of which have invested significantly to create and preserve modern, world-class systems.
CMAP urges the federal government, the State of Illinois, transit agencies, and local governments to develop innovative financing to support a world-class transportation system for this new century. The "costs of congestion" are real and serious, and include lost time and fuel, decreased productivity, inefficient freight movements, and pollution.
Regarding expenditures, GO TO 2040 recommends that funds for transportation need to be allocated more wisely, using performance-driven criteria rather than arbitrary formulas. Transportation implementers should prioritize efforts to maintain, enhance, and modernize the existing system, and expensive new capacity projects should be built only if they yield benefits that outweigh their costs. Examples of enhancements and modernizations that should be pursued include more attractive and comfortable buses and trains that improve the passenger experience, better traveler information systems, targeted transit extensions and arterial improvements, and multimodal approaches such as integrating bicycling and pedestrian accommodations in roadway design.
Congestion
The Metropolitan Planning Council has pegged congestion's annual cost in our region at $7.3 billion. Performance of our region's transportation system can be measured by tracking highway congestion. While this chart shows a promising trend, it is largely attributable to the economic slow-down, and our region remains one of the nation's most-congested. Congestion must be reduced by implementing GO TO 2040's recommended land use pattern and the plan's targeted improvements, expansions, and other strategies for managing traffic.
In late 2012, CMAP began a campaign urging Governor Quinn and leadership of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the Illinois Tollway to implement congestion pricing to manage traffic on five new expressway projects approved in GO TO 2040. Already used by 10 other states, congestion pricing gives travelers the option of an express toll lane that ensures reliable travel times. Express tolls rise and fall based on demand at various times of day, and drivers choose when to use the lanes based on variable cost. See cmap.illinois.gov/congestion-pricing.
Transportation System Condition
As recommended by GO TO 2040, smarter investment should lead to a more-modern transportation system that is moving toward a state of good repair and maximizing performance. Making smarter, more targeted investments can help move the region toward these goals. One measure for whether the system maintains a state of good repair is the deficiency rating of bridges. In 2007 the FHWA National Bridge Inventory rated 66.4 percent of the region's bridges as "not deficient." In 2010, that rose to 67.3 percent (see chart, broken down by county).
Bridges classified as "deficient" are further categorized based on the reason for the deficiency rating, with the most severe category being "structurally deficient." Please note that, according to FHWA, even "structurally deficient bridges are not inherently unsafe."
Increase Commitment to Public Transit
GO TO 2040 calls for improvements to the region's transit system. This requires attention to not just how transit operates, but how it is perceived. The region clearly needs transit services that function well, with on-time, frequent service and seamless transfers, but also must address the issues of perception that make transit the option of last resort to many people.
A strong transit system benefits the region's economy, environment, and quality of life by providing residents with transportation choices and helping to lower congestion. However, transit use has not kept pace with the region's growth, and ridership is actually lower than it was 20 years ago. Decades of underinvestment have left the region's transit system with aging infrastructure in need of basic maintenance and improvements, as well as demands for expansion to areas that do not have transit service today.
Strengthening Transit
With a strong transit system, residents have more choices concerning where they can live and work and how they travel, and can avoid the harmful effects of congestion. Using transit is less expensive for an individual than owning and maintaining an automobile, and transit systems provide important travel options for lower-income residents.
GO TO 2040 set ambitious goals of 2.3 million transit trips per weekday by 2015 and 4 million by 2040. As shown in this chart, the number of transit trips increased somewhat in 2011 after two straight years of slight decline. Because these goals are a central strategy for reducing congestion, enhancing livability, improving air quality, among other important regional objectives, we need a renewed regional commitment to making sure that transit is the first option for more residents to get around, rather than the last.
Population and Jobs with Transit Access
GO TO 2040 seeks to improve transit access so more people may live and work within walking distance of these services. Since the plan was adopted, three new rail stations have opened, increasing connectivity between transit system assets and enhancing mobility for residents of the region:
Metra Rock Island District 35th St. Station. Opened April 2011, in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, just east of the Dan Ryan Expressway. Easy access to the Illinois Institute of Technology and U. S. Cellular Field. Close proximity to the CTA's Green and Red Lines.
CTA Yellow Line Oakton St. Station. Opened April 2012 in Skokie. Provides an important intermediate stop between the existing termini at Dempster and Howard. Close proximity to Oakton Community College. Through the Howard station, the Yellow Line connects passengers to the Red and Purple Lines, which serve high-demand destinations such as the Loop, Wrigley Field, and U. S. Cellular Field.
CTA Green and Pink Lines Morgan St. Station. Opened May 2012 at Morgan and Lake streets in Chicago. Located about half-way between the existing Ashland and Clinton stations, which are nearly 1.3 miles apart. Provides increased access to the thriving West Loop.
Create a More Efficient Freight Network
Metropolitan Chicago's freight system links the region's industries and consumers to global markets. Highways, railroads, waterways, and airports all provide important connections to the world. Yet each of these modes of transport is intertwined with the livability of the region. Therefore, planning for an efficient, regional, multimodal freight system is a key priority of GO TO 2040.
GO TO 2040 strongly supports increased investment in the region's freight system. Investment will be required primarily by the private sector in the normal course of private business enterprise, but public investments will also be necessary to promote the economy, public health, safety, and welfare. The two goals of this increased investment should be to improve the economic competitiveness of industry in metropolitan Chicago and to reduce the impacts of freight operations on local communities, addressing travel delay, pollution, and safety.
Create
The Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) program is a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Transportation, the State of Illinois, the City of Chicago, Metra, Amtrak, and the nation's freight railroads. Together, the partners identified and prioritized strategic rail infrastructure improvements to reduce congestion, especially grade-separation projects that help freight move efficiently and keep it from impeding travel by cars, trucks, and commuter rail.
Funding for future projects will continue to be a challenge, but four new CREATE projects were finished in 2012, bringing the overall total of completed projects to 16. Significant work is left ahead for the partnership, with 54 yet to be built from among a total 70 projects. Of the remaining projects, 21 are underway in various stages of design or construction.
Highway-Rail Crossing Delays
Railroad delay at highway-rail and rail-rail grade crossings is a major issue affecting highway users, passenger transport, and the freight rail industry itself. In addition to the economic impacts of delay and travel time reliability, grade crossing delay can be an issue for community emergency responders. Regionally, delays at highway-rail crossings have decreased significantly since 2002, driven by reductions in all counties -- especially in Cook.
Major Capital Projects
While the primary transportation emphasis of GO TO 2040 is to maintain and modernize the system, the plan recommends several major capital projects that will maximize regional benefits of mobility and economic development.
Of the many potential investments in the transportation system, only a small number of projects are large enough to be considered major capital projects. Such projects demonstrate a significant effect on the capacity of the region's transportation system and include extensions or additional lanes on the expressway system, new expressways, or extensions and expansions to the region's heavy rail system.
New Projects or Extensions
Central Lake County Corridor
This project saw significant progress in 2011-12 as the Illinois 53 Blue Ribbon Advisory Council issued its final report to the Illinois Tollway, reflecting a solid consensus on extending IL 53 into central Lake County, beyond where it currently ends at Lake-Cook Road. Meant to ease congestion that has resulted from rapid development of central Lake County in recent decades, this project will improve access and mobility in the county and region as a whole. GO TO 2040 calls for a "modern boulevard" with a small footprint to minimize project impacts on the natural environment and character of nearby communities. In 2013, CMAP's LTA program will work with the Tollway and affected communities to develop land-use plans -- an important step forward on the project. The Tollway is hiring a consultant to conduct engineering work, consider capital and operating costs, and develop funding and financing options.
CTA Red Line South Extension
The CTA Red Line South Extension will extend the Red Line from its current terminus at the 95th Street Station four stops to 130th Street. The Red Line is currently the CTA's most heavily used rail line, and the 95th Street station has its highest ridership outside of downtown Chicago, due to extensive bus-to-rail transfers at this station. CTA has received $8.4 million in federal funding for efforts to prepare the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which continued in 2012. Through its Local Technical Assistance program, CMAP collaborated in 2012 with the Developing Communities Project (DCP) and the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) on a livability report in support of the extension.
Elgin O'Hare West Bypass
The Elgin O'Hare West Bypass (EOWB) project will relieve congestion and improve accessibility around O'Hare Airport, a major economic driver in the region. It consists of 1) a western expressway bypass of O'Hare Airport, 2) an extension of the Elgin O'Hare Expressway from I-290/IL Route 53 to the Western O'Hare bypass and West O'Hare Terminal, and 3) an additional lane in each direction of the existing Elgin O'Hare expressway. The Tollway's Elgin-O'Hare West Bypass Advisory Council strongly supported the project and identified goals, guiding principles, and recommendations regarding economic impact, financing, sustainability, and diversity. The final Tier 2 EIS was released in October 2012.
I-294/I-57 Interchange
The I-294/I-57 Interchange project calls for a full interchange at the juncture of these two interstates for improved accessibility to and from the south suburbs and also for improved north-south regional travel. The Illinois Tollway and IDOT are sharing the cost of this project. CMAP's LTA program is helping municipalities near the proposed interchange plan together for land use and economic development.
West Loop Transportation Center
The proposed West Loop Transportation Center between the I-290 Eisenhower and Lake Street in Chicago would improve transfers between intercity rail, potential high-speed rail, commuter rail, rapid transit, and bus services. The City of Chicago is conducting a Master Plan Study of Union Station, whose capacity would be increased by the proposed center. The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) is also working on two shorter term projects: to implement Bus Rapid Transit service to Union Station, and to convert a parking lot next to Union Station for use as a public transit bus station and turnaround that will improve transfers between rail and bus.
Managed Lanes and Multimodal Corridors
I-55 Managed Lanes
The I-55 Managed Lane project consists of an additional managed lane in each direction between Weber Road and I-90/94. As a step toward managed lanes on I-55, IDOT has implemented a Pace bus-on-shoulder demonstration project to determine the safety, effectiveness, and usefulness of bus-on-shoulder transit operations. Engineering work is underway, with an environmental study document anticipated by 2014. In fall 2012 IDOT conducted an I-55 Managed Lane Survey of travelers' experiences on the corridor.
I-90 Managed Lanes
The I-90 Managed Lanes project consists of an additional managed lane in each direction between I-294 and I-39 near Rockford. To develop a consensus, the Tollway created an I-90 Corridor Planning Council with representatives from the transit agencies, business and environmental groups, county boards, legislators and mayors. Its April 2012 report recommends implementation of "congestion-priced, managed lanes as part of the planned reconstruction." A 2011 study by the Tollway and RTA determined that express bus service would be a cost-effective way to accommodate transit on the proposed I-90 managed lane, and transit in the corridor will be implemented through a CMAQ grant of $38.4 million to Pace. Widening, bridge, and utilities work has begun on the western section between Elgin and Rockford in preparation for the additional lane to be done in 2013. Work continues on creating a complete interchange at I-90 and IL 47.
I-290 Multimodal Corridor
The I-290 Multimodal Corridor project will expand expressway capacity between Mannheim Road and Austin Avenue. Under consideration are an additional managed lane in each direction and multi-modal solutions. In spring 2012, IDOT sought early feedback from community representatives on preliminary interchange concepts within the I-290 study area, which were presented in June to the I-290 Corridor Advisory Group that consists of community and regional transit representatives, along with others who have technical expertise in transportation, engineering, land use and environmental topics. Currently, only funding for Preliminary Engineering and Environmental Studies (Phase I) is available. Phase I is anticipated to be completed by spring 2014.
Transit Improvements
CTA Red Line and Purple Line Improvements
The CTA Red Line and Purple Line Improvements project mainly includes reconstruction on the lines' shared right-of-way between the Addison and Howard stations, as well as on the Purple Line between the Linden and Howard stations. In November 2011, the State of Illinois and City of Chicago announced that they had identified $1 billion in funding for Red Line improvements from various state and federal sources. The work will be completed over the next four years. The CTA and the Federal Transit Administration are preparing a Tier 1 Red and Purple Environmental Impact study, building on the North Red and Purple Line Vision Study in 2010. CTA held public open houses about the project in February 2012.
Congestion
The Metropolitan Planning Council has pegged congestion's annual cost in our region at $7.3 billion. Performance of our region's transportation system can be measured by tracking highway congestion. While this chart shows a promising trend, it is largely attributable to the economic slow-down, and our region remains one of the nation's most-congested. Congestion must be reduced by implementing GO TO 2040's recommended land use pattern and the plan's targeted improvements, expansions, and other strategies for managing traffic.
In late 2012, CMAP began a campaign urging Governor Quinn and leadership of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the Illinois Tollway to implement congestion pricing to manage traffic on five new expressway projects approved in GO TO 2040. Already used by 10 other states, congestion pricing gives travelers the option of an express toll lane that ensures reliable travel times. Express tolls rise and fall based on demand at various times of day, and drivers choose when to use the lanes based on variable cost. See cmap.illinois.gov/congestion-pricing.
