Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about CMAP

The Only Problem the Illiana Solves Is a Political One

By Steven Vance | Mar 4, 2014 | No Comments

The Illiana Tollway is a solution in search of a problem, and the Illinois DOT’s final document in preparation to receive federal approval to build the tollway is a case study in backwards transportation planning. IDOT’s playbook went like this: Design a new road, have consultants review traffic patterns on existing roads to find issues to underpin […]

A Look at the Illiana Tollway Boondoggle From Indiana’s Perspective

By Steven Vance | Jan 24, 2014 | 7 Comments

The Illinois Department of Transportation is pushing forward with the risky and unnecessary Illiana Tollway by announcing its “short list” of four finance and construction groups that can build the 35-mile Illinois portion. Streetsblog has reported abundantly from the Illinois perspective — including a look at IDOT’s own analysis showing a net decrease in Illinois jobs as […]

Road Projects Gobble Up Growing Share of Chicago’s “Air Quality” Funds

By Steven Vance | Nov 15, 2013 | 12 Comments

In its upcoming update of the GO TO 2040 comprehensive regional plan, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning needs to take a closer look at the transportation projects it funds with federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grants. In the latest round of these grants, announced Tuesday, CMAP committees have approved funding for nine projects […]

How IDOT’s Bogus Job Creation Claims Fed the Campaign for the Illiana

By Steven Vance | Nov 5, 2013 | 7 Comments

The Illinois Department of Transportation made its case for the Illiana tollway proposal by disseminating half truths and outright lies. At a Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning committee meeting in October where members voted 10-8 in favor of the 47-mile highway, supporters repeatedly referred to IDOT’s claim that the project would create 28,000 jobs. But […]

Metra and Pace Maintain Support for Illiana at the Expense of Transit

By Steven Vance | Oct 18, 2013 | 20 Comments

Yesterday, 11 members of the Metropolitan Planning Organization policy committee, including Metra and Pace, voted to add the Illiana Tollway to the GO TO 2040 regional plan. This enables the Illinois DOT and Indiana DOT to move forward with the project approvals necessary to receive federal funds. It also sets the stage for huge sums to […]

Sprawl Continues With Illiana’s Inclusion In The Regional Plan

By Steven Vance | Oct 17, 2013 | 12 Comments

The Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Committee, part of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s governance, poked a billion dollars worth of holes – the estimated amount of public subsidy ranges between $400 million to over $1 billion – in the GO TO 2040 regional plan today by voting to list the Illiana Tollway as a […]

CMAP Board, Voting Down Illiana, Tells How IDOT Is Witholding Funds

By Steven Vance | Oct 10, 2013 | 12 Comments

After discussion that was heated at times, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning board voted ten to four yesterday against including the Illiana Tollway as a fiscally constrained project in the GO TO 2040 regional plan. This advisory vote precedes the MPO policy committee’s deciding vote, which was supposed to take place yesterday, but was pushed […]

Metra and Pace Vote For Transit-Crushing Illiana Tollway in Advisory Meeting

By Steven Vance | Oct 8, 2013 | 87 Comments

Chicago-area transportation organizations are poised to shoot themselves in the foot and harm the region by allowing the Illinois Department of Transportation Department to squander limited transportation infrastructure funds on the $2.75 billion Illiana Tollway. On Friday the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s transportation committee voted to recommend moving forward with this wasteful, destructive project, […]

As IDOT Postpones Illiana Vote, Planners Say the Region Doesn’t Need It

By Steven Vance | Sep 27, 2013 | 3 Comments

Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider has pushed back a crucial vote about the Illiana Expressway a week to October 17. The vote by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning policy committee will decide if building 47 miles of tolled highway south of the urbanized areas of Chicagoland and into Indiana can proceed. If […]

MPC: Funding the Illiana Expressway Would Be a Big Mistake

By Steven Vance | Sep 5, 2013 | 32 Comments

The Metropolitan Planning Council, a non-profit promoting economic development strategies for Chicagoland, has come out strongly against the Illiana Expressway, a 47-mile highway the Illinois Department of Transportation has proposed for the rural communities of southern Will County and northwestern Indiana. MPC released a statement yesterday highlighting numerous shortcomings in IDOT’s proposal, including vague financing […]

IDOT Prepares to Ram Through Another Expensive Highway Project

By Steven Vance | Aug 20, 2013 | 53 Comments

The Illinois Department of Transportation is again seeking the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s help to build an expensive highway expansion that isn’t included in the region’s planning blueprint. This time, it’s not about a putting a flyover above Halsted Street and a wall in front of people’s homes, like the agency plans to do […]

Metra Headaches Continue While Quinn Forms Committee to Reform Transit

By Steven Vance | Aug 16, 2013 | 29 Comments

A fifth Metra board member gave up his post Thursday after the Chicago Tribune wrote that Stanley Rakestraw no longer lived in suburban Cook County – as required – and the person who appointed him, Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle, asked him to tender resignation. Board members are resigning after allegations of double dipping (for […]

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