Promoting a regional transportation system that is safe, efficient, and accessible while sustaining the region’s vision related to the natural environment, economic and community development, social equity, and public health is CMAP’s goal. Among CMAP's transportation programs are:
Northeastern Illinois has a number of agencies engaged in the development of transportation plans and programs, but CMAP builds upon the strengths of these agencies through a number of mutually beneficial cooperative agreements. The Illinois Department of Transportation, the Regional Transportation Authority, and the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority are a few examples of our affiliate planners.
The CMAP staff is utilizing models and forecasting tools that will present a more complete understanding of the interaction among regional conditions for land use, socioeconomics, transportation, and environment. By establishing strategic principles and funding criteria, CMAP can identify and promote real regional transportation priorities and develop incentive-based transportation planning and programming consistent with the regional plan.
In January 2007, CMAP launched the Travel Tracker Survey, a comprehensive study of daily activities and travel patterns in the greater Chicago region. Enlisting the participation of more than 15,000 household from the Chicago area, this survey gathers information including daily activities, the origins and destinations of travel, travel times, modes, etc. CMAP and regional decision makers will use the results of this survey to plan needed transportation improvements, helping to make wiser decisions and efficiently prioritizing development of our region’s transportation system.
CMAP’s strength is that it can augment its own planning efforts by becoming full partners in efforts such as those of IDOT and the RTA, while also providing a regional, multi-disciplinary perspective. Northeastern Illinois is among the top five intermodal ports in the world, and getting busier; CMAP’s versatility and experience in this discipline will be essential in the years to come.
Quick Facts on Transportation:
- For more than 11 hours daily, more than 20 percent of our regional highway system is congested. The U.S. DOT estimates the expense of this congestion as $11 billion annually, which includes direct costs of delay, productivity losses, environmental impacts, crashes and injuries, and freight handling.
- While only three days are required for freight traffic to arrive here from the west coast, the average time spent in Chicago is two days.
- One-third of the nation’s rail and truck cargo moves to, from, or through the Chicago region.
- More than 70 percent of people living in the Chicago region drive alone to work.
- Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport has the second highest yearly volume of passenger traffic: 76,282,212 people in 2006.
- Miles of Chicagoland Highway in 2007: 26,728. Projected by 2030: 27,796.
- Miles of Chicagoland Bus Service in 2007: 5,683. Projected by 2030: 9.930.
- Miles of Chicagoland Rail in 2007: 6,115. Projected by 2030: 8,186.