The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) is developing a vision for metropolitan Chicago's expressway system. The vision will be multijurisdictional, multimodal, and bold in its approach. It will guide future capital investments, coordinate transportation operations, address growing freight congestion, and provide game-changing public transit options for the existing expressway system in northeastern Illinois.
The aim is to improve the region's competitive edge and drive economic development, while making the system more efficient, reliable, and safe for all users. CMAP is developing the vision at the request of and with funding from the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the Illinois Tollway.
The vision will establish goals for the system's operation and performance. To help meet those goals, it will also identify new investments, strategies to manage traffic with cutting-edge technologies, and innovative options for public transportation. The vision will include recommendations for specific 10- to 15-mile stretches of the expressway system, known as corridors, and tactics to reduce the impacts on communities, businesses, and our environment.
To ensure that the vision is achievable, CMAP will define key implementation steps, including new policy and management strategies needed to advance recommendations. Acknowledging future fiscal and land constraints, the vision will determine what investments are needed to make the existing expressway system better, as opposed to proposing significant expansion.
The vision will include a financial strategy. Expanded tolling is expected to be a part of that strategy.