GO TO 2040
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New County Policy Supports Active Transportation, Lacks Specific Goals
Cook County's new "Long Range Transportation Plan," released last week, is the first such document published since 1940 and is a policy platform that will guide decisions about transportation spending for the next 24 years. To the credit of county officials, the plan voices strong support for improving walking, biking, and transit, which represents a major change for a governmental body that has focused on facilitating driving for many decades. However, I'd argue that the document, called "Connecting Cook County," falls short of being a plan when it come to setting concrete goals for promoting sustainable transportation, and that's a missed opportunity.
July 19, 2016
Will CMAP Stop Prioritizing Increasing Road Capacity in Next Regional Plan?
This is the second post in a two-part series on the upcoming ON TO 2050 regional plan. The first discussed public outreach goals for the new plan, and this one critiques its predecessor, GO TO 2040.
March 10, 2016
CMAP Launches Input Process for ON TO 2050, Chicago’s Next Regional Plan
This is part one of a two-part series about ON TO 2050, the new comprehensive regional plan for Chicagoland.
March 8, 2016
CNT: Funding Not Spent According to Community Plans Has Less Impact
The Center for Neighborhood Technology, a local community planning think tank, said that municipalities and public agencies are failing to follow their own plans. They're investing public funds for the region in economic development and transportation projects in undeveloped areas or away from train stations.
December 4, 2015
Three Transit Campaigns: Do They Compete or Complement Each Other?
As the Chicago region grows in population, we're going to need to provide efficient and affordable transportation options in order to compete in the global economy, and that's going to require more and better transit. People who live near transit pay less in transportation costs as a portion of their household income, and have better access to jobs, compared to those who don't. GO TO 2040, the region's comprehensive plan, calls for doubling 2010 transit ridership levels by the year 2040 as a means to support population growth and reduce carbon emissions.
April 23, 2015
CMAP Seeks Its Own Dedicated Tax For Transit, Green Infrastructure
The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning last week floated its own proposal to fix the region's shortfall in transportation funding. It launched FUND 2040, a campaign calling upon the Illinois legislature to fund sustainable infrastructure through a quarter-cent sales tax across the Chicagoland region. CMAP says this increase would generate $300 million annually, which it would use to advance projects that fulfill the goals of its federally-required plan for the region, GO TO 2040.
November 19, 2014
No Surprise: International Report Says Region’s Transit Not Up to Par
Last month, a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development validated what Chicago researchers, a task force convened by the governor, and millions of customers have all said for years: Transit in Chicagoland is fragmented, inefficient, and far from adequate to serve the region's transportation needs. The OECD, a "club of rich countries" that counts the United States among its 34 members, collects data and publishes research that countries and local organizations can use to understand their economies.
October 6, 2014
CMAP Board Members Will Try to Boot Illiana Boondoggle From Regional Plan
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.
September 18, 2014
Preckwinkle, Environmental Groups Want CMAP to Drop Illiana
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 TO 2040 Plan.
September 9, 2014
Quinn, Rauner Should Get On Board With Region’s Performance Measures
The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning's lauded GO TO 2040 regional plan prioritizes transportation investments based on performance measures, rather than through arbitrary formulas or aggressive politicking. This ensures that the hundreds of millions of federal dollars that CMAP handles are spent on projects selected on need and merit, rather than just because someone important likes the idea – which, sadly, has typically been the case in metropolitan Chicago. Yet the two major parties' candidates for Illinois governor showed only a passing familiarity with the concept when asked about it at a recent event.
September 2, 2014