The suburbs have won the first round of a political struggle that ultimately could determine how many commuters have to give up their cars to clean up the air.
The next round is likely to occur in the state legislature this spring.
At issue is a new state law being drafted to enable the Chicago metropolitan area to comply with the federal Clean Air Act of 1990 and reduce air pollution by 15 percent by 1996. The biggest component is to cut rush-hour auto commuting by 25 percent by mandating such things as carpools, staggered work hours and fines against companies for failing to comply.
A task force of the Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS), a planning group designated to recommend what the new law will look like, voted 16-11 Friday to recommend a plan favored by the suburbs. The proposal now goes to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to draft the law.
The dispute between Chicago and suburbs was over a crucial technicality, the base numbers of existing auto occupancy that will be used to calculate whether the area meets the 25 percent reduction by 1996.
The average vehicle use in Chicago, which has a large transit system, exceeds 2 people a car. In the suburbs it is as low as 1.1 people a car in some areas.
Suburban business organizations successfully sought to have Chicago treated as a separate zone to calculate car use.
However, Neal de Snoo, assistant to Mayor Richard Daley, said Chicago`s existing high level of mass transit does not give city industry the flexibility to easily reduce auto use further.
The recommendation made by CATS Friday calls for Chicago to increase its morning rush-hour average auto occupancy to 2.6 by 1996. In the suburbs it will have to be 1.58.
As a practical matter, that means for each 100 spaces in corporate, school and local government parking lots in Chicago, only 38 could be used in 1996 from 6 to 10 a.m. In the suburbs, that number would be 63.
