Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about CMAP

Revolt Against Illiana Undeterred By IDOT’s Latest Scare Tactic

By Steven Vance | Sep 29, 2014 | 12 Comments

Local advocates are scoffing at the suggestion, made by an Illinois Department of Transportation representative last week, that striking the Illiana Tollway from the Chicago region’s long-term regional plan would jeopardize transportation spending across the entire region. Instead, advocates insist that deleting the costly, sprawl-inducing road would cause at most a brief procedural delay in other […]

CMAP Board Members Will Try to Boot Illiana Boondoggle From Regional Plan

By Steven Vance | Sep 18, 2014 | 11 Comments

After appointees loyal to Governor Pat Quinn muscled the Illiana tollway onto the project list for Chicagoland’s regional plan, it looked like nothing could stop this risky highway boondoggle from getting funded and built. The Illiana may still happen, but not without a fight. Last week, the board of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning […]

Preckwinkle, Environmental Groups Want CMAP to Drop Illiana

By Steven Vance | Sep 9, 2014 | 25 Comments

The Sierra Club and other organizations intend to petition the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning to remove the Illiana Tollway from its regional plan, effectively disallowing the state from building the new highway. The deletion is possible because CMAP, the federally-designated Metropolitan Planning Organization for this region, is finalizing a mandatory update of its GO […]

CMAP Tells IDOT: “To Each Municipality, According to Their Needs”

By Steven Vance | Jul 8, 2014 | 9 Comments

The Illinois Department of Transportation, whose secretary resigned last week after accusations about patronage hiring, distributed $545 million in gas tax revenue to fix streets in almost 3,000 jurisdictions last year. While this sounds like a lot of money, poor road and bridge conditions across the state can attest to the fact that these funds […]

Wicker Park Counts Up Better Ways to Use Its 11,650 Parking Spaces

By Payton Chung | Jul 2, 2014 | 4 Comments

Every Saturday night at dusk, the main streets in Wicker Park and Bucktown seize up. The stalled lines of cars don’t just infuriate drivers — they also stall buses, block crosswalks, and push cyclists into the dangerous door zone. These crowds don’t descend out of nowhere to watch the sunset, or to pile into shows […]

CMAP Plan Update Includes Sobering Look at Region’s Funding Shortfall

By Steven Vance | Jun 17, 2014 | 2 Comments

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s GO TO 2040 regional comprehensive plan has weathered some major ups and downs in its four-year lifespan. CMAP has received several awards for the plan, which required a huge effort on their part to reach out to local residents and overwrite decades of uncoordinated transportation “plans.” Last year, though, the […]

Environmental Groups Charge Illiana Illegally Bypassed CMAP

By Shaun Jacobsen | Apr 25, 2014 | 3 Comments

The Illiana Expressway encountered a potential roadblock in the form of a lawsuit filed last Thursday. Three environmental groups filed the lawsuit: the Environmental Law & Policy Center, representing Openlands and the Sierra Club. The lawsuit [PDF] alleges that IDOT circumvented the proper approval process to get the tollway past a crucial review. On October […]

A Clearer, More Concise Regional Transit Proposal From Senator Biss

By Steven Vance | Mar 20, 2014 | 23 Comments

At least one Illinois legislator supports a unified transit agency, even though RTA board chairman John Gates and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel have declared their opposition. Senator Daniel Biss (D-9th, Evanston, Glenview) published a proposal [PDF] back in November, saying “the CTA, Metra, and Pace should combine into a single new Regional Transit Authority.” That was […]

What Good Chicagoland Regional Planning Looks Like

By Steven Vance | Mar 6, 2014 | 9 Comments

By now, Streetsblog readers know all about how the Illiana Tollway, a proposed highway that will see little use and cost taxpayers $500 million, has messed up our regional plan. Last October, the MPO Policy Committee of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning voted to add the Illiana to the GO TO 2040 plan, allowing […]

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 […]

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