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West Cook County
May 4, 2002
Our Forebearers Set the Stage
Western Cook County's earliest inhabitants were
Chippewa, Potawatomi and Ottawa Native Americans
who settled along the Des Plaines River. In 1673, the
French explorers Louis Joliet and Father Marquette
made history with their portage from the Chicago River
to the Mississippi River via the Des Plaines and Illinois
Rivers. Transportation later became a primary
commercial activity.
Chicago residents migrated to the communities of West
Cook County after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. The
Elevated train was extended to Oak Park in 1895. The
Prairie Path was once a successful commuter rail line
traversing Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin, though the route
closed when Interstate 290 opened. Achitecture plays a
role in much of the area's history. Frank Lloyd Wright
built masterpieces from 1889 until 1913 in Oak Park,
Riverside and River Forest. The village of Riverside
was designed in 1869 by famous landscape architects
Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the same
landscape architects who designed New York's Central
Park. In 1970, the entire village of Riverside was
designated as a National Historic Landmark.
Nature lovers and recreation seekers enjoy the Illinois
Prairie Path, which begins in Maywood and leads to
Aurora, Wheaton and beyond. Various paths offer the
opportunity to explore hidden natural assets by linking
various parks, rivers and communities. Another popular
destination is the Brookfield Zoo, which opened its
doors in 1934 and has since then achieved international
recognition for its conservation and research programs.
Cultural icons like Ernest Hemingway and McDonald's
founder Ray Kroc have also called the region home.
Today the area pulses with major industrial and job
centers located near Schiller Park and Franklin Park, as
well as O'Hare International Airport, the Rosemont
Convention Center and the Allstate Arena. Cicero is
the tenth largest city in Illinois and the seventh fastest
growing. Western Cook County is economically and
racially diverse.
Who We Are and How We Get Around
We met on a Saturday morning at the Living Word
Christian Center, which is in a converted shopping
mall in Forest Park. We were brought together by
our concerns for safe, accessible travel options that
reduce congestion and offer job accessibility. We
currently use a variety of modes to travel, with single
occupant cars being the most frequent mode. In
succession, our next likely travel choices are: transit,
walking, travel in a car with others, and biking. Of
the 38 households surveyed at our summit, 31 own
cars. Twenty-three of us walk to accomplish errands
each week, averaging seven trips per week. Half a
dozen of us are wheel chair users.
Almost all of us live near a bus stop and over 80% of
us live near a train station. Nearly three-quarters of
us benefit from transit service more than twice an
hour. Routhly 90% of us took transit in the last
month, for an average of 22 transit trips each. About
one third of our group report having children under 14
in their household. The children are more likely to be
driven to schools than to walk or take a bus, although
some families use multiple modes.
Our participants are fairly evenly divided between
males (55%) and females (45%). The great majority
of attendees (97%) are over 30 years of age. About
three-quarters of participants are white, 21% are
African American and 5% are Hispanic.
We are united in our desire to have more choices in the
way we travel within and beyond our communities.
We realize this will require a dramatic shift from the
current "auto-centric" culture. We are firm in our
belief that "automobile mono-culture," a term one of us
used to describe current priorities, will only get worse
unless we take forceful steps to reverse the trend.
Changing the Paradigm
We would begin by implementing a range of marketing
and educational initiatives. Drivers need education
about bicyclists' rights if cycling is to be a safe
alternative. The appeal of bicycling and walking as
transportation choices should be marketed to make
them more common and viable forms of getting
around. School age children should be educated on
alternatives to driving, including the health and
environmental impacts of excessive driving.
"Drivers' Education" should be redesigned as
"Transportation Education" to include cars,
bicycles, pedestrians and transit. High schools
should set an example by reducing parking, rather
than expanding it. Transit employees need better
training to accommodate riders with disabilities
efficiently and courteously.
We are very excited by the degree of consensus at
our summit, in spite of our diverse backgrounds
and interests. We question whether some of the
public funds spent on multi-year studies of
transportation projects could be saved if we used a
community-based planning model. Our summit is
evidence that the public does want to be consulted
about these decisions. We have a holistic
approach to transportation, emphasizing the many
small innovations that would improve travel as well
as larger projects. We find it noteworthy that with
the exception of some road and rail grade
separations, no one suggested highway
improvements as a solution to our transportation
dilemma. Several of us recommend equal
subsidies for all transportation options or increases
in gas prices to reflect the real costs of driving.
We recognize that consensus, education and
common sense can only go so far. The physical
world needs to be restructured, as well as our
thinking, if we are to succeed in overcoming auto-
dependence. We found ourselves in remarkable
agreement about the changes we would make to the
transportation system in our region.
Rail is the Backbone of Our Region
We would devote significant resources to develop-
ment of new rail transit and extension of existing
lines. Demand for extension of east-west CTA
service is universal among us, with the most empha-
sis on continuing the Forest Park Line along I-290
into DuPage County. Extension of the Cermak
Branch and of the Green Line were also seen as
viable alternatives. Most of our group also ex-
pressed a strong desire for north-south or circumfer-
ential service, with a variety of corridors proposed.
Among the preferred corridors are: 1) the Inner
Circumferential with connections to all existing
Metra and CTA lines; 2) a line along I-294 with a
major transit hub at the I-290/I-294 junction; 3) new
lines north and south from the Forest Park extension,
linking O'Hare and Midway; and 4) a circumferen-
tial line in Western Cook County (with stops at both
airports) that has Hyde Park and Evanston as its
two end points. An extension of the Orange Line
along I-55 to I-294 is also proposed. We place less
emphasis on Metra expansion. Some new stations
are proposed and service increases on the Metra
Heritage Line are recommended. CTA service is
seen as more flexible than Metra in terms of sched-
ules and ability to reach destinations in Chicago
other than the Central Business District. We expect
all transit service and stations to accommodate
riders with disabilities in the most comprehensive
manner possible. We are in clear agreement that
expansion of transit options will provide alternatives
to congested travel and reduce support for the
expansion of I-290 .
In most of our communities the population density is
sufficient for transit. We would expand bus service
as well as rail, with a great deal more emphasis on
flexible services like trolleys that can serve rail
stations and accommodate movement within
individual communities. Bus service was also
recommended to improve north-south access to the
airports, with a link to both branches of the Blue
Line. While north-south service is perceived as the
greatest gap, increased east-west service is also
desirable if we are to have a comprehensive transit
network.
Better coordination of transit systems and increased
frequency of service would make existing transit
more efficient. Reliability of service is a problem,
particularly for buses that must travel congested
roadways. Other amenities, like bus shelters and the
return of conductors to CTA trains, would
encourage transit use.
Pleasant and accessible train stations, linked to
nearby services and stores, are essential to a
comprehensive transit network. Participants
suggested many possible new rail lines, and offered
a great number of potential locations for stations.
Recurring ideas included transit hubs and new transit
stations along the extended Blue Line (see
Recommendations for more information).
We see train stations as an attractive way to
generate economic development in our communities.
Parking lots are necessary to encourage transit use.
We would build parking lots at the endpoints of the
new extensions.
Pedestrian and Bicycle Choices are Basic
We concur that there is no excuse for failure to build or
maintain pleasant, ADA-compliant sidewalks
throughout the communities of our region. This minimal
investment provides maximum benefit, especially for
seniors, the disabled and children. Curb cuts should be
installed at every single pedestrian crossing, including
temporary curb cuts during construction projects.
Access to transit should be improved with
comprehensive pedestrian infrastructure linked to
stations and stops.
We would like to increase our use of bicycles in our
communities, on paths along the waterways and on
designated lanes on roadways (not shared lanes).
Many of us wish to access transit by bicycle. Bike
racks at transit stations and bike-friendly policies on
transit should be the norm, not the exception.
We are aware of the environmental and public health
benefits of encouraging more biking and walking, and
wonder why the planning community seems to dismiss
individual and regional health. Our region should strive
to reduce the pollution, and the respiratory diseases,
caused by excessive driving and congestion. We could
do a much better job of preserving precious open space
and healthy wildlife habitat by providing more options
for biking and walking. We could reduce damage to
local and regional waterways by reducing polluted run-
off from roadways. We could do all these things for
less cost than what we spend now for roads, which
immediately become gridlocked with new traffic.
Our Vision
We look forward to a day when well-planned transit
stations are an economic asset to our communities,
encouraging growth in existing areas. Walkable
neighborhoods are highly desirable, improve quality
of life, and provide the best value for the
expenditure of public tax dollars. Greater public
involvement in transportation planning will result in
a shift of resources away from the automobile
dependent culture that limits our choices to a more
robust menu of options for travel. We would like to
do many more of our trips locally and need a better
mix of local amenities reachable by pedestrian, bike
and transit modes. With greater transportation
alternatives, our region will begin to improve air
and water quality and make efficient use of existing
infrastructure by reusing and rebuilding areas that
have deteriorated.
The West Cook County Connecting Communities summit participants came as individuals and as members
of groups. Some of the groups that helped plan the summit include:
Faith in Place
Progress Center for Independent Living
The Citizen Transportation Plan is a project of the Chicagoland Transportation and Air
Quality Commission, part of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, 2125 W. North Ave.,
Chicago, IL 60647, 773-278-4800, ext. 2030. Visit us on the web at www.cnt.org/2030.
Friends of the Chicago River
Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization
League of Women Voters of Illinois
Metro Seniors in Action
Metropolitan Planning Council
Mid America Institute on Poverty
Sierra Club
Sustain
Connecting Communities Regional Partners
Business and Professional People for the Public Interest
Chicago Design Consortium
Chicago Metropolis 2020
Chicago Rehab Network
Chicagoland Bicycle Federation
Citizen Action-Illinois
Council for Disability Rights
Environmental Law and Policy and Policy Center of the Midwest
Faith in Place
Recommendations
Significantly Increase Rail Transit Interconnectivity. Reduce highway congestion and preserve communities by increasing rail transit
options. Widening I-290 will merely cause more congested travel, more emissions and more destruction of community assets. Cancel plans to
widen the Eisenhower, and extend the Forest Park Line Forest Park branch of the Blue Line to Oak Brook instead. Build north-south or
circumferential service in West Cook County. Extensions of the Cermak branch of the Blue Line, the Orange Line along I-55, and the Green
Line to Mannheim Road should also be considered as a means of maximizing transit connectivity throughout Chicagoland and to its airports.
Use existing freight rail lines or right-of-way along the I-294 corridor for north-south rail service.
Build new transit hubs (superstations) at the junction of I-290/I-294 and at Mannheim Road. Provide ADA accessible train stations at other
points on the new lines, including Bellwood, Maywood, Oak Brook, Broadview, Melrose Park, Franklin Park, Justice, LaGrange, McCook,
Northlake, and Summit; build the Blue Line stations first. Refurbish older stations to bring all into ADA compliance.
Improve Access and Coordination of Transit. Increase the use of rail transit by improving access and linkages. Ensure that the areas
around all transit stations and bus stops are safe, pedestrian friendly, and accessible by bicycle. Increase bus service on north-south and
east-west routes, to provide a comprehensive grid of service. Increase paratransit options and link to mainline service wherever possible.
Institute trolley or other flexible service within communities to facilitate easy access to shops, services and rail stations. Replace existing
buses with high-efficiency, clean energy models.
Provide parking lots for commuter use at Oak Brook and Hillside. Coordinate land use around stations to create transit oriented development.
Improve transit amenities to be safe, quiet and comfortable. Transit could be improved through making stations ADA accessible, ticket sales
at all stops, rider surveys to determine public needs, conductors on all trains and frequency improvements. Coordinate scheduling and
signage between the three service providers to increase transit usage.
Provide More Options for Walking and Cycling. Stop strangling our communities with cars and substantially increase public investment
in sidewalk improvements and bikeways. The modest investment required will pay immediate and long-term dividends, in contrast to road
construction projects that create new congestion. Immediately retrofit all curbs that are without curb cuts to ADA standards. Create
pedestrian overpasses over I-290. Improve or build bikeways along the Des Plaines River and the creek systems in our communities.
Create more access points to parks and forest preserves. Provide safe, separated bikeways along expressway corridors and provide marked
lanes along arterials like Ogden Avenue and North Avenue. Build overpasses for the Prairie Path over the Blue Line and the Maywood
Court House. Bus shelters should also be made accessible to cyclists by providing protected bicycle parking.
Planners Must Heed the Public's Will
Our enthusiastic and informed participation in transportation planning proves that the public is ready, willing and able to offer sensible
advice, combined with visionary thinking. We propose practical changes such as grade separations at several sites, especially along Harlem
Avenue, 1
st
Avenue and Lake Street, to relieve road and rail conflicts since increasing freight traffic and High Speed Passenger Rail will mean
more trains running through our communities. We propose visionary ideas like better use of the waterways, with commuter boats along the
canal and river system offering an alternative to congested highway travel. If we begin to plan today according to the public's wishes, we will
recoup immense savings by focusing on comprehensive but inexpensive infrastructure for walkers and cyclists and investing the savings in
the more expensive transit investments that are needed.