Planning Programs and Projects

The RTA is assisting Pace to prepare a corridor study examining South Halsted St. between the Pace/Metra Harvey Transportation Center and the Pace Chicago Heights Terminal. Goals of the study are to increase transportation resilience, encourage transit-oriented development (TOD), and improve pedestrian accessibility, sidewalks, crosswalks, access to developments, and connectivity. The study will include coordination with Harvey, South Holland, East Hazel Crest, Homewood, Glenwood, and Chicago Heights.  The study will also offer strategies to prepare the corridor for Pace Pulse service and will identify future high frequency service station locations.

This study was conducted by the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference in cooperation with DuPage County. The DuPage Area Transit Plan included both a short term and long range transit plan for the County. Throughout the development of the plan stakeholders from the county including elected officials, county and local community staff, and area residents were engaged through an extensive grass roots public involvement process to provide input into the plan. This process resulted in the identification of quality of life issues with respect to the provision and availability of transit service in the County.

This project funded construction of covered bicycle parking at both the Congress Park and Brookfield Metra Stations. Twenty-four racks were installed at Congress Park and 12 at Brookfield. These improvements leverage Brookfield's existing bicycle facilities and support the annual Bike Brookfield event.

Lake County combined three separate dial-a-ride services, operating in the Central Lake/Shields township area, into one service. The project initially calls for Shields Township to operate separately while the Fremont and Central Lake partners (Fremont Township, Libertyville Township, Villages of Libertyville and Mundelein) are combined. The service provides expanded dial-a-ride transportation in Lake County to seniors and individuals with disabilities residing in Central Lake County. Five municipalities and Lake County sponsor the project.

This project will construct bicycle facilities along 124th Street to better facilitate safe access between bus transit services along Halsted Street to the Ashland Metra station at Ashland Avenue. Additional improvements include completing a sidewalk gap on 124th Street between Laflin and Bishop Streets and pedestrian improvements to the intersection of 124th Street and Laflin Street.

This project will add multi-modal access improvements to multiple Pace Routes on the Washington Street corridor. Route 572 is the primary route that serves the corridor, although Route 562 also serves portions of the corridor and four others connect to it (561, 565, 566, 569). Improvements include bus shelters and concrete pads, wayfinding to important destinations, curb extensions at the intersection with the Robert McClory Bike Path, crosswalk improvements along the project area, and bike parking at the Metra station.

The City of Chicago, in conjunction with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), looked at three elevated train station areas (Berwyn on the Red Line, 43rd Street on the Green Line and a potential infill station near Cermak on the Green Line) and developed comprehensive land use (urban design) and transportation plans for each station. This study was an important first step in the citywide effort to strengthen the relationship between land use and transportation, plan for neighborhood growth and enhancement, inform future development and redevelopment decision-making, and guide public and private investment in three station areas.