For Amy Kite of Gurnee, it’s driving east in the morning on Illinois Highway 176, “the sun in my eyes and bumper-to-bumper, very slow.”
For Jessica Wisner of Libertyville, it’s the intersection of Illinois Highways 137 and 21, where the traffic backs up every morning “for miles and miles.”
For Michael Sandner of Lake Bluff, it’s the trip on Interstate Highway 94 to Chicago that takes 2 1/2 hours through construction zones.
Some drivers say they won’t even use their cars at certain hours because of traffic jams.
Every motorist in Lake County has stories about trips through traffic hell, creating a motoring mood in the county that is turning from road rage to road outrage.
“Traffic congestion is the No. 1 adverse impact on the quality of life in Lake County, and it’s getting worse,” said Dwight “Ike” Magalis, a consultant for the Lake County Transportation Improvement Project, which was launched in March with a series of focus-group sessions.
Preliminary findings present planners with the paradox of an upper-income population that loves cars but wants less traffic, wants better roads but more environmental protection, and wants more public transportation, as long as they don’t have to use it personally.
On public transportation, Magalis said, the response from Lake County residents was: “I’m not going to use it, but maybe we can get somebody else to do it.”
In the first study of its kind in Illinois, the transportation project extends into northern Cook County and eastern McHenry County in search of a regional transportation plan aimed at relieving traffic congestion.
Sponsored by the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, the project proposes to spend $7 million over the next two years. It would craft a plan that could include car pooling, van service from Metra train stations to workplaces, bicycle and pedestrian paths, and Pace bus service between Lake County communities.
The controversial proposal to extend Illinois Highway 53 by 18 miles, from Buffalo Grove to central Lake County, near Grayslake, haunts the project.
If the Illinois 53 extension fails to be part of the Lake County mix, said project co-manager Lidia Pilecky, the transportation improvement project would cease and the two Illinois highway agencies would no longer lead the effort. All transportation providers in the state would then be free to use the research gathered in the two-year period to develop future transportation for the county.
The Illinois 53 uproar triggered the countywide transportation study, Pilecky said of the project, which is being promoted by Hill & Knowlton, a national public relations firm, under a $660,000 contract with the state.
“We have to look at the big picture and see what combination of things can work, and see if Route 53 makes sense and if it is part of the solution,” she said.
Pilecky calls the project “the first of a kind in the region” and “rather unique on the national level as well.”
But don’t expect any magic bullets, Pilecky warned. Roadways and autos loom large in Lake County’s future.
“People drive to work, take their kids to school, drive to the cleaner and work extended hours,” she said. “It is difficult to rely on public transit because you do so many things. I don’t think we will see radically different concepts.”
These habits, however, are exactly why Lake County faces its roadway dilemma as its population and industry grow and two-lane highways carry 20,000 to 30,000 vehicles a day.
The county’s population stands at 582,983, according to the latest census in 1996, and is expected to swell to more than 800,000 by 2020. Employment in the county will nearly double to almost 400,000 in that time.
Such projections add to growing frustrations over traffic congestion.
Discussions between project and local officials were held in North Chicago, Round Lake Beach, Barrington, Deerfield, Libertyville and Antioch in March and showed regional preferences, which included expanding various local highways, traffic signal improvements, new interstate ramps and improved bus and train schedules.
At a May 27 meeting for county officials in which the project was outlined, County Board member Larry Leafblad (R-Grayslake) said: “As long as gasoline is selling for $1.09 a gallon, we’ll never come up with a solution” because residents prefer driving. A $2-a-gallon gasoline tax could dampen the single-occupant-per-car trend and provide money for roads, but Leafblad admitted that would be political suicide.
“I don’t want to spend $7 million studying what roads need to be improved,” said County Board member Diana O’Kelly (R-Mundelein). “Let’s spend $7 million on roads,” adding that “we need more serious road impact fees from developers.”
Board member Pamela Newton (R-Vernon Hills) said some communities prefer bad roads because motorists avoid them and fear that road improvements lead to more development.
At a project meeting, state, local and federal officials complained that available highway funds barely cover maintenance of existing roads.
“One major point is missing–a careful analysis of what the problem is,” complained Lane Kendig, Long Grove Village planner, who attended the meeting as an observer.
Kendig believes that the state’s road agencies are biased in favor of road building.
“What technical information indicates that building more roads will solve the problem?” he asked.
“The people who are long-standing opponents (of road building) have been frozen out of the process by the rules and selection of the study areas,” he said.
The county has been split into six study regions, he said, in a way that ignores concerns of small communities like Long Grove by grouping them with sprawling places like Gurnee.
