The Chicago Tribune released poll results this weekend showing suburbanites think transit investment is more important than money for roads. Among the key findings:
- When asked whether improving or building expressways and tollways or improving and adding to mass transit should be a greater priority, public transit wins by a nearly 2:1 ratio in the six-county metropolitan area.
- In the suburbs alone, a 52-percent majority sides with public transit, compared with 32 percent for expressways, including 55 percent of suburban Cook residents and 50 percent of collar county residents.
- Support is highest in Chicago, where 76 percent favor more investment in mass transit.
MPC President MarySue Barrett was interviewed for WGN-TV's accompanying story. Watch the video.
MPC’s research also reinforces these findings. While conducting outreach for the just-released report The Road Less Traveled: Exploring Congestion Pricing on Illinois Roads, the study team – consisting of MPC, Illinois Tollway and Wilbur Smith Associates – surveyed 1,976 Chicago-area residents through an online questionnaire to gauge current and future travel habits. Only 40 percent of respondents said that they were able to access a sufficient number of transit routes from their neighborhood.
The Road Less Traveled focused on congestion pricing, which gives people options: to ride free, pay extra for a faster ride, or take transit. The paper reported the results of a federally funded, two-year study that explored how congestion pricing could work on the Jane Addams Tollway (I-90), Stevenson Expressway (I-55), and Kennedy Reversibles (I-90/94). It showed congestion pricing can be an effective way to reduce congestion, improve the environment, and expand transportation choices to meet people’s needs – if complemented by enhanced transit services funded through revenues generated by new fees. Indeed, local stakeholders told the study team that reinvesting any revenues into transit infrastructure and operations was among the most important benefits of a congestion pricing system.
The Tribune’s poll represents a marked shift in public opinion from just over a decade ago: In 1999, the newspaper polled suburban residents and found 42 percent favored investments in expressways and tollways compared with 34 percent for public transit.
This paradigm shift is not unique to northeastern Illinois. Across the country, people are tired of wasting time and money sitting behind the wheel with no real alternatives to driving. The 2010 Future of National Transportation survey by Transportation for America bears striking resemblance to the Tribune’s data: From small towns to big cities, 59 percent of Americans want to improve public transportation, compared with 38 percent who said we needed to build more roads. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) said they “have no choice but to drive as much as” they do, and 57 percent would like to spend less time in the car. Perhaps most telling is that 58 percent said more money should be allocated to public transportation.
These numbers illustrate the public’s desire for more transit. A distinct glut of data establishes the need for transit investments:
- In 2008, MPC’s Moving at the Speed of Congestion study found northeastern Illinois loses at least $7.3 billion every year in wasted time, fuel, and environmental damages — enough money to fund a Red Line southern extension on the CTA, the Elgin-O’Hare and West O’Hare Bypass, a new West Loop Transportation Center, and new lanes on Interstate 80.
- The study also shows every driver spends an average of an extra two-and-a-half days stuck in traffic each year. In dollars and cents, the average “congestion tax” in the region is $1.58 per person.
- In June 2010, the Regional Transportation Authority announced it would cost $24 billion over the next 10 years to repair the region’s existing transit system. Of that $24 billion, $13 billion is for backlogged improvements.
- On July 21, 2010, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced it will take $77.7 billion to bring the nation’s bus and rail transit systems to a “state of good repair”’ – one of five system-wide goals included in U.S. Dept. of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s proposed Strategic Plan. The FTA also estimates $14.4 billion a year is needed to maintain the systems.
- And in April, FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff announced the availability of $775 million through a competitive “State of Good Repair” funding program that will invest in the nation’s bus and bus facilities. FTA received approximately 400 project applications and more than $4.2 billion in requests for the $775 million.
In Chicagoland and across the nation, people want solutions to avoid traffic snarls, and they’re evermore willing to pay for it. Quality of life and regional prosperity demand investing in safe, reliable public transportation systems, including buses, bus rapid transit, and trains.
That’s why MPC remains committed to exploring strategies that better manage existing infrastructure and policies that guide future infrastructure investment – and it’s why we were heartened by the Tribune’s poll results showing the Chicago-area public agrees policy and investment reforms are not only needed, but wanted.