The Chicagoland vs. Downstate Road Dollar Fight Reignited

by Cal Skinner

The Illinois Legislative Research Bureau is a godsend to Illinois legislators smart enough to use it.

One such person is State Senator Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago).

It appears he has had the LRU replicate the type of cost-benefit study I got in 1999 right before the vote on Gov. George Ryan's Illinois FIRST bonding program was under consideration. (Click to enlarge the table.)

The Research Unit took a look at where money would go for the new projects Ryan proposed versus the ones that were otherwise in the IDOT program.

There was a distinct shift toward Downstate under Illinois FIRST, proving, I guess, that George kept the promises he made on roads in 1998.

How else can you explain a 4-lane Route 67 in Western Illinois, which has less traffic in some places than on Lake Avenue in Lakewood, Illinois (6,500 cars per day)?

The six-county Chicago are got 45% of the road money as a result of a deal cut by State Rep. Bob Churchill when the gas tax was hiked in 1989. Bob caught a lot of heat for sponsoring the bill, but our region's share jumped from 40 to 45%.

The report which Senator Sandoval had prepared should provide ammunition to Chicagoland legislators.

May they use it to guide their actions.

I voted against Illinois FIRST based on the additional money Ryan proposed to divert from the Chicago area.

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Six Degrees of Separation provided the following information in a comment on Capitol Fax Blog:

"This old saw again?

"According to highway mileage of all roads in the system, 24,275 miles or 17.2% of state roads are in Chicagoland’s District 1, and 116,484 miles or 82.8% are elsewhere in the state.

"Also according to the latest stats, District 1 motorists accounted for 58 billion or 55.2% of the total 105 billion vehicle miles traveled in 2008.

http://www.dot.il.gov/travelstats/2008_ITS.pdf

"So, at one extreme we should fund downstate at 82% based on mileage, and at the other extreme 45% based on usage of the system.

"The idealized formula of 55% downstate/45% District 1 seems to strike the right balance between geography and usage. If you are going to attempt to pay for 82% of the system with 30% or 40% of the funds, you had better be prepared to decide which highways and bridges you will close, let go to pot, or transfer to the locals (if they will even take them off the state’s hands)."

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Besides suggesting that folks should look at lane miles in their comments under the Capitol Fax Blog article to which I have linked, let's add some McHenry County traffic counts to the mix.

Route 31 between Crystal Lake and McHenry was repaved last year. I called it the "Valley of the Potholes" in a story before that.

Did the Illinois Department of Transportation widen the road, as it is consistently doing to Illinois Route 59 between Naperville and I-55?

Of course not.

I would note that Route 31 is a major route to the Northwest TOLLway, a concept foreign to Downstaters, about which I have frothed here.

The traffic count is 32,600 just north of Route 176. By the time Route 31 reaches Bull Valley Road, it is down to 20,700.

When I was researching when IDOT thought adding lanes was justified in the late 1990's, what I heard was more than 20,000 vehicles per day justified another lane.

Yesterday, I was told IDOT now thinks that the traffic count should be 24,000 (actually, "24ish" was the exact quote) per day.

The shift, if it represents official IDOT thinking, is certainly a convenient way to withhold highway dollars from the traffic-choked Chicago area.