Speaking up on Transportation Options

Regional planning predicts trends in transportation and housing.

Attendees at the May 15, 2018 Evanston Bicycle Club membership meeting had an opportunity to express their opinions about mega trends such as transportation in the Chicago area using electronic polling.  Jane Grover, Outreach Principal at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) brought a voting system with individual clickers to collect opinions and share results gathered from other communities. 

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CMAP represents the 7 county region from Wisconsin to Indiana and is the official comprehensive regional metropolitan planning agency.  They do long term planning, provide planning expertise, and are a source of funding for congestion mitigation, air quality, intersection and signaling improvements, bike lanes, and bus service.  Long range plans must be done every 8 years and is a 3 year process.  The On to 2050 plan is due in Oct. 10, 2018..
Some of the macro trends or alternative futures they have identified are:

• Changed climate
• Walkable communities
• Innovative transportation
• Constrained resources
• Transformed economy

In the area of transportation, EBC members agreed with other communities in not wanting to be dependent on a car and to be able to use other modes of transportation such as walking and biking.  Based on this shift there is a need to align planning with these expectations to allow communities a chance at prosperity.  Walkable communities offer the opportunity for less reliance on cars, more economic activity, and will impact housing supply and prices, and change the terrain of streets and accommodations for parking. 

Besides survey data, some indicators of a shift in transportation include technology such as the ability to summon rides, track congestion, autonomous vehicles, magnets in pavements, and sensors in phones.  Current cars are 85% autonomous and it is predicted that self driving technology will be available to buy in 2 years.
Ways to learn more about the planning being done and provide input are:

• Email comments at onto50@cmap.illinois.gov
• Subscribe to the CMAP Weekly Update at www.cmap.illinois.gov
• Follow CMAP on social media