On April 17, 2013, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) released the FY 2014-19 Proposed Multimodal Transportation Improvement Program , its annual update of the five-year highway transportation program.  As a component of that program, IDOT plans for $9.5 billion in highway spending over the next five years.  According to IDOT, funding for the highway program will... Read More

Roughly once every ten years, the State of Illinois provides a capital funding package for transportation and other infrastructure projects.  The most recent packages, Jump Start and Illinois Jobs Now! , were both enacted in 2009 and are often referred to as a “$31 billion” package to support investment in transportation, schools, and other public facilities.  About half of that... Read More

With just seven weeks left in session, the Illinois General Assembly met again in Springfield this week.  CMAP has been tracking over 350 bills this session, but only a fraction of those are still active.  Friday, April 19 marks the next deadline for pending legislation in the Illinois House of Representatives -- bills that originated in the House must pass third-reading deadlines.... Read More

On April 10, 2013, President Obama released his budget proposal for federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2014.  Over the next ten years, the budget would increase revenues by about $1.1 trillion and cut ten-year spending by $265 billion, thereby reducing the federal deficit by $1.3 trillion compared to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) baseline projections.  CMAP is monitoring the... Read More

On April 13, 2013, the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) released its new Complete Streets Design Guidelines .  The “complete streets” movement emphasizes designing roadways for use by all modes, including transit, bicycle, and pedestrian. The guidelines contain four key themes to institutionalize complete streets into CDOT’s activities.  The first theme... Read More