The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) launched a website this month to demonstrate how northeastern Illinois would benefit from adding express toll lanes – one form of congestion pricing – to five area expressways.
Where We Stand
CMAP
MPC, a strong proponent of congestion pricing thoughtfully deployed, applauds CMAP for smartly demonstrating how drivers, transit riders and the public would benefit from express toll lanes, and how this new tool would enhance five expressway construction projects recommended by the GO TO 2040 comprehensive regional plan. With express toll lanes, motorists would have an option they currently do not: to pay extra for a predictable, quicker ride – between 31 and 66 percent faster during the morning rush, according to CMAP’s computer-modeled analysis. MPC’s 2010 analysis for the Tollway supported CMAP's findings, and showed that a morning rush commuter on the Jane Addams Tollway (I-90), traveling between Illinois Rte. 31 and Illinois Rte. 53/I-290, would see their travel time plummet from 59 minutes to 12 minutes in a priced lane.
Speed isn’t the only benefit. With fewer traffic snarls, area expressways could carry more cars, squeezing greater capacity from taxpayer investments. Reducing jams and bottlenecks also means less pollution from idling motors, fewer automobile crashes, and faster delivery times for businesses and their customers. What's more, congestion pricing provides opportunities to enhance transit service, by allowing busses access to the same lanes for free.
Project Progress Report
Water
When you’re stuck in traffic, hit a pothole, or ride your bike down a street without bike lanes, the need to invest in our transportation network is pretty obvious. But how often do you think about what it takes to bring clean water to your tap? Perhaps it’s because pipes and sewers and pumps are “out of sight, out of mind” that many people – and many communities – don’t consider their declining condition until it’s far too late for a small, inexpensive fix.
Fortunately, that mentality seems to be changing: Last week, local mayors cheered when Ill. Gov. Patrick Quinn announced the state’s new
Clean Water Initiative, which makes available $1 billion in loan financing to allow communities to invest in water infrastructure improvements. Earlier this year, when the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) put out a request for proposals for its 2013 Local Technical Assistance Program, many of the applications came from northeastern Illinois communities that are realizing they need to make water supply and stormwater planning a higher priority. To meet as many of these requests as possible, CMAP is looking to MPC’S water experts for assistance. Since 2004, MPC and its colleagues at Openlands have been helping community and regional decision makers develop plans and policies for water supply and stormwater management, to ensure we’re managing our water assets in productive, responsible ways that allow for regional growth. In partnership with CMAP, MPC worked in 2012 with the northwest suburban community Lake Zurich to inform the village’s development of an integrated water resources plan. In addition to continuing work in Lake Zurich in 2013, MPC will support CMAP’s technical assistance to the Ill. Dept. of Natural Resources on water loss management, Northwest Water Planning Alliance on drought management and strategic planning, and DuPage Water Commission on water conservation.
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