The Center for Neighborhood Technology
www.cnt.org
August 2003
OVERALL CONCERNS WITH
CATS' 2030 REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN
The 2030 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) does not satisfactorily meets the explicit
expectations of the taxpayers. There are three major problems with the draft RTP: the
financial allocatio ns; the emphasis on facilitating highway travel; and the health and
social impacts of the investment decisions. The fundamental flaws include:
·
Reduction in regional commitment to existing infrastructure, from 80% to 77%, a $1.8
billion drain of resources from existing communities.
·
Refusal to "flex" funds; persistent use of the old 60/40 highway/transit split, in spite of
overwhelming public support for more transit and almost universal controversy on major
highway projects.
·
The use of project "readiness" as a criteria to determine which infrastructure to fund,
rather than the benefits of a project or the regional priorities addressed by a project.
·
No discussion of the great degree of controversy surrounding some of the expressway
and arterial projects proposed.
·
Failure to provide a dedicated revenue stream to transit service integration/coordination,
which was universally desired in all types of public involvement processes.
·
Failure to conduct real alternatives testing; no indication which strategies from
"alternatives" were chosen to form the final plan.
·
Refusal to meaningfully incorporate NIPC Evaluation Measure scores. Use of a
"composite" score for projects, without showing individual scores, is ineffectual and
uninformative.
·
Fails to address environmental justice (EJ); substitutes the production of tables on income
and race for meaningful expenditures targeted to disinvested communities.
o
Reduction of $1.8 billion for existing communities is a related burden on EJ
communities.
o
Amassed all of Cook County suburbs into one category, disguising the wide
variations between north and south Cook County.
·
Fails to specify a share for pedestrian and bicycle improvements or for general bus
expansion. Agreement to "retrofit" environments where highway infrastructure creates
hostile conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists only applies when the road is undergoing
major construction.
·
Forces all modes using arterials to compete with the road interests for the $5 billion pot
for "Strategic Recommendations," a competition destined to favor the road lobby and to
obscure the amount of funding used for other modes.
·
Casts doubt on the commitment to Context Sensitive Design and multi-modal use
because increased speed, freer traffic flow and reduction in the number of traffic signals
are explicit priorities.
·
Retreats from "Universal Design" to special treatment for marginalized populations like
"seniors and the disabled." Fails to account for wide usage of Universal Design by
others, like parents with children in strollers/on bikes, people temporarily using crutches,
or shoppers using carts.
