[Iabs-talk] Fw: Pace news - Report shows need for transit in Illinois; Route 426
Kelly Doty
kelly at dls.net
Thu Sep 20 15:36:24 CDT 2007
----- Original Message -----
From: Govt Affairs
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 3:15 PM
Subject: Pace news - Report shows need for transit in Illinois; Route 426
Moving into the Future
The Weekly Newsletter from America's Most Efficient
Suburban Transit Agency
Vol. IV, Number 153
www.pacebus.com
September 20, 2007
Pace is the suburban public transit agency for Chicagoland's six-county metropolitan region. As the 13th largest bus agency in the U.S., Pace operates fixed bus routes, vanpools and paratransit services in nearly 250 municipalities consisting of 5.2 million residents. Visit the Route Finder for bus route information.
National report confirms need for transit in Illinois
Chicago has been once again named "The Second City"--although this time it's not being called second-best, but second-worst. A study released Tuesday by the Texas Transportation Institute ranked the northeastern Illinois region second in the nation in "travel time index," a measure of traffic delay. The study also confirms that the average commuter in this region wastes 46 hours per year in traffic, as well as 32 gallons of fuel and $906 per year.
With Chicago's gridlock among the worst in the nation, state legislators have been unable to craft a legislative solution to prevent major cutbacks in transit service.
This report comes as the Illinois General Assembly continues to ponder how to address the funding crisis that plagues Pace, CTA, Metra and RTA.
Pace continues to offer a variety of services that can meet the needs of a diverse suburban population, including 240 bus routes, paratransit services for the elderly and disabled and almost 700 vanpool vehicles, carrying more than 135,000 riders per day system-wide. Yet the agency is still beset by a lack of operating and capital funding, and seeks to influence transportation policy in the region to encourage greater investment in public transit and incentives for commuters to leave cars in the garage and take buses, trains or even Bus Rapid Transit routes in development. "Only with major changes in our priorities and significant investment in public transit can we even make a dent in this tremendous congestion problem," said Rocky Donahue, Pace's Deputy Executive Director.
Researchers from Texas A&M University who produced the report went on to say that, "The low-hanging fruit that hasn't been fully picked ranges from doing a better job coordinating traffic signals to restricting the volume of traffic trying to enter already packed expressways to moving vehicles faster on the road by reducing the number of drivers and increasing the ranks of bus and train customers."
Northeastern Illinois has consistently ranked as one of the most gridlocked U.S. metropolitan regions on all criteria used to measure congestion, travel delays and the capacity to handle more traffic. Gridlock is not just frustrating; it has true economic costs to individuals and the region as a whole, in both time and money. Fully $4 billion is lost annually in the Chicago region in time and fuel costs as a result of congestion, with commuters losing 203 million hours a year in traffic delays and wasting 142 million gallons of fuel annually.
Pace and its sister agencies continue to tout Senate Bill 572 as a reasonable, beneficial and attainable way to begin to address the region's serious transportation problem. The elimination of even one bus route will add dozens of extra cars to clogged roadways, and Pace and CTA plan to eliminate more than 100 by November 4 without additional operating funding. Commuters benefit from transit investment as well, as the cost of round trip service on public transit is much less costly than the combination of car payments, gas and insurance. Congestion reduction aids the economy, as roads are freed to allow trucks to deliver goods and services in a timely manner. The environment is positively impacted with less pollution.
The proponents of Senate Bill 572 seek to make the much-needed traffic improvements that will keep northeastern Illinois at the top of a positive list--one of the world's premier regions. Pace asks the public to continue to contact their state senators and state representative and encourage them to support public transportation.
Pace Route 426 eliminated tomorrow
Pace Route 426 Northwestern University Evanston/Chicago will be discontinued after the last trip on Friday, September 21, 2007. The route travels between the college's two campuses. Effective Monday, September 24, the route will no longer be in operation.
In this period of financial uncertainty, Pace felt Route 426 was duplicative of other existing services and made the choice not to renew the contract with Northwestern. The university plans on maintaining a shuttle between its campuses with at least the same level of service using a private carrier, so riders will have alternative transit options once Route 426 is eliminated. A public hearing to discuss the elimination was held August 20 in Evanston.
This route elimination is unaffected by the system-wide service cuts and fare increases that have been delayed until November 4. On or about that day, Pace plans to eliminate nearly 70 bus routes, and to raise fares on all segments of its family of services. A long-term funding solution from the Illinois General Assembly would allow the Pace Board of Directors to revisit that plan. Pace's budget deficit in 2007 totals $23 million for suburban bus service and $27 million for ADA paratransit operations.
Pace Factoid:
Pace provides nearly 10,000 trips every day to disabled riders, and will impose a fare increase on those riders without a long-term legislative funding solution for public transit.
"Moving into the Future" is a weekly newsletter provided by Pace Suburban Bus to update interested parties on the services Pace provides and the progress it makes to constantly improve. Forward to others as you wish. For best results, please print in landscape format. Please submit feedback or remove yourself from the mailing list by calling 847-228-2421 or e-mail your request to govt.affairs at pacebus.com.
© 2006 Pace Suburban Bus
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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----- Original Message -----
From:
mailto:govt.affairs at Pacebus.com Govt Affairs
To:
mailto:undisclosed-recipients: undisclosed-recipients:
Sent:
Thursday, September 20, 2007 3:15 PM
Subject:
Pace news - Report shows need for transit in Illinois; Route 426
<![if !vml]> cid:007901c7fbc5$e91e61c0$334894ce at KELLY <![endif]>
Moving into the Future
The Weekly Newsletter from
America
’s Most Efficient
Suburban Transit Agency
Vol. IV, Number 153
http://www.pacebus.com www.pacebus.com
September 20, 2007
Pace is the suburban public transit agency for Chicagoland’s six-county metropolitan region. As the 13th largest bus agency in the
U.S.
, Pace operates fixed bus routes, vanpools and paratransit services in nearly 250 municipalities consisting of 5.2 million residents. Visit the http://www.pacebus.com/sub/schedules/default.asp?ptype=RF Route Finder
for bus route information.
National report confirms need for transit in Illinois
Chicago
has been once again named "The Second City"--although this time it's not being called second-best, but second-worst. A http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/congestion_data/tables/chicago.pdf study
released Tuesday by the http://tti.tamu.edu/ Texas Transportation Institute
ranked the northeastern
Illinois
region second in the nation in "travel time index," a measure of traffic delay. The study also confirms that the average commuter in this region wastes 46 hours per year in traffic, as well as 32 gallons of fuel and $906 per year.
cid:007a01c7fbc5$e91e61c0$334894ce at KELLY
With
Chicago
's gridlock among the worst in the nation, state legislators have been unable to craft a legislative solution to prevent major cutbacks in transit service.
This report comes as the http://ilga.gov Illinois General Assembly
continues to ponder how to address the funding crisis that plagues http://www.pacebus.com/ Pace
, http://www.yourcta.com/ CTA
, http://www.metrarail.com/ Metra
and http://www.rtachicago.com/ RTA
.
Pace continues to offer a variety of services that can meet the needs of a diverse suburban population, including http://www.pacebus.com/sub/bus_system/default.asp 240 bus routes
, http://www.pacebus.com/sub/paratransit/default.asp paratransit
services for the elderly and disabled and almost 700 http://www.pacebus.com/sub/vanpool/default.asp vanpool vehicles
, carrying more than 135,000 riders per day system-wide. Yet the agency is still beset by a lack of operating and capital funding, and seeks to influence transportation policy in the region to encourage greater investment in public transit and incentives for commuters to leave cars in the garage and take buses, trains or even http://www.pacebus.com/sub/vision2020/bus_rapid_transit.asp Bus Rapid Transit
routes in development. "Only with major changes in our priorities and significant investment in public transit can we even make a dent in this tremendous congestion problem," said
Rocky Donahue
, Pace's Deputy Executive Director.
Researchers from http://tamusystem.tamu.edu/ Texas A&M University
who produced the report went on to say that, "The low-hanging fruit that hasn't been fully picked ranges from doing a better job coordinating traffic signals to restricting the volume of traffic trying to enter already packed expressways to moving vehicles faster on the road by reducing the number of drivers and increasing the ranks of bus and train customers."
Northeastern Illinois has consistently ranked as one of the most gridlocked
U.S.
metropolitan regions on all criteria used to measure congestion, travel delays and the capacity to handle more traffic. Gridlock is not just frustrating; it has true economic costs to individuals and the region as a whole, in both time and money. Fully $4 billion is lost annually in the
Chicago
region in time and fuel costs as a result of congestion, with commuters losing 203 million hours a year in traffic delays and wasting 142 million gallons of fuel annually.
Pace and its sister agencies continue to tout http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=572&GAID=9&GA=95&DocTypeID=SB&LegID=28401&SessionID=51 Senate Bill 572
as a reasonable, beneficial and attainable way to begin to address the region's serious transportation problem. The elimination of even one bus route will add dozens of extra cars to clogged roadways, and Pace and CTA plan to eliminate more than 100 by November 4 without additional operating funding. Commuters benefit from transit investment as well, as the cost of round trip service on public transit is http://www.pacebus.com/sub/vanpool/cost_of_driving.asp much less costly
than the combination of car payments, gas and insurance. Congestion reduction aids the economy, as roads are freed to allow trucks to deliver goods and services in a timely manner. The environment is positively impacted with less pollution.
The proponents of Senate Bill 572 seek to make the much-needed traffic improvements that will keep northeastern
Illinois
at the top of a positive list--one of the world's premier regions. Pace asks the public to continue to http://www.pacebus.com/sub/vision2020/support_letter.asp contact their state senators and state representative
and encourage them to support public transportation.
Pace Route 426 eliminated tomorrow
Pace http://www.pacebus.com/sub/schedules/route_detail.asp?RouteNo=426 Route 426
Northwestern University Evanston/Chicago will be discontinued after the last trip on Friday, September 21, 2007. The route travels between the college's two campuses. Effective Monday, September 24, the route will no longer be in operation.
In this period of financial uncertainty, Pace felt Route 426 was duplicative of other existing services and made the choice not to renew the contract with Northwestern. The university plans on maintaining a shuttle between its campuses with at least the same level of service using a private carrier, so riders will have alternative transit options once Route 426 is eliminated. A public hearing to discuss the elimination was held August 20 in
Evanston
.
This route elimination is unaffected by the system-wide service cuts and fare increases that have been delayed until November 4. On or about that day, Pace plans to eliminate nearly 70 bus routes, and to raise fares on all segments of its family of services. A long-term funding solution from the Illinois General Assembly would allow the Pace Board of Directors to revisit that plan. Pace's budget deficit in 2007 totals $23 million for suburban bus service and $27 million for
ADA
paratransit operations.
Pace Factoid:
Pace provides nearly 10,000 trips every day to disabled riders, and will impose a fare increase on those riders without a long-term legislative funding solution for public transit.
"Moving into the Future" is a weekly newsletter provided by Pace Suburban Bus to update interested parties on the services Pace provides and the progress it makes to constantly improve. Forward to others as you wish. For best results, please print in landscape format. Please submit feedback or remove yourself from the mailing list by calling 847-228-2421 or e-mail your request to mailto:govt.affairs at pacebus.com. govt.affairs at pacebus.com.
© 2006 Pace Suburban Bus
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