By the end of the decade, automobiles carrying at least two or more passengers will be able to hop in their own special lane on the Stevenson Expressway and fly past the inching traffic of people sitting all alone in their cars, state officials announced Tuesday.
The Chicago area’s first-ever carpooling lanes have the potential to revolutionize the way people commute to work each day, as it has in metropolitan areas nationwide, including Los Angeles, Washington and South Florida, where the tool has been used to reduce congestion and air pollution and to encourage ride-sharing.
The project came a mile marker closer to reality Tuesday when it was included in the Illinois Department of Transportation’s five-year road improvement plan. That plan earmarks $1.3 billion in federal, state and local funds for road projects to begin in July, and for the first time in years does not include the reconstruction of a major expressway. But crews will be busy resurfacing 600 miles of roads severely damaged by the worst winter weather in 10 years, officials said.
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The road plan also includes short-term work on the Stevenson, some resurfacing on express lanes on the Dan Ryan Expressway and more than $8 million to paint expressway bridges in Chicago.
By far the most intriguing amid the standard cement-and-asphalt projects of the five-year plan is the concept of carpooling lanes.
“High-occupancy vehicle lanes let you get a time savings because you’re not sitting in traffic and it encourages people to have fewer cars on the road,” Illinois Transportation Secretary Kirk Brown said Tuesday. “We think we have a good opportunity here.”
Specifically, he said, there’s an opportunity to improve air quality in the region by at least 2 percent, sharply decrease travel times and pull hundreds of drivers out of their cars.
The carpooling lanes would be part of a $450 million reconstruction of the Stevenson Expressway slated to begin in 1997 or 1998.
The idea for the lanes emerged from a 14-agency task force of transportation planners, and would include one lane in both directions for the 14 miles between the Tri-State Tollway and the Dan Ryan Expressway.
Only buses, vans and cars with at least two people-and the minimum may even be raised to three-would be allowed to commute in the lanes. Certain hours would be established for required carpooling, and police would ticket drivers going solo.
The Stevenson is the best candidate for the special lanes, which would be set apart from regular traffic by a 4-foot-wide painted median, because there already is plenty of right-of-way to make room for the extra lane, Brown said.
The Kennedy Expressway, for example, does not have enough right-of-way to accommodate the lanes, Brown said. But more significant is that IDOT doesn’t want the carpooling lanes to compete with mass transit such as the rail lines that share the right-of-way along the Kennedy.
“HOV lanes have been used in a lot of different places, but we don’t have many here because we have the ultimate HOV lanes: mass transit,” Brown said.
Nonetheless, engineers are studying the feasibility of installing carpooling lanes along the Eisenhower Expressway from Austin Boulevard to the East-West Tollway, Brown said. And suburb-to-suburb carpooling lanes are also possible, depending on the success of the Stevenson plan.
But success in other parts of the country has been spotty.
In Los Angeles, home of the ultimate commuter nightmare, transportation officials first converted two regular lanes on the jammed Santa Monica Freeway into carpooling lanes in 1976. The result was more traffic backup than ever, since the carpooling lanes were taken from regular lanes.
The project was so unpopular, in fact, that a federal judge ordered the lanes reinstated for normal traffic usage.
But there have been success stories as well. And transportation planners say such lanes are an important in an overall plan to reduce traffic congestion.
After January’s major earthquake, the Los Angeles region’s transportation agency reinstated some of the Santa Monica Freeway’s carpooling lanes, and the project has met with great success.
Other states also have found carpooling lanes worth trying. New Jersey, Washington, Minnesota and Florida, to name a few, have all instituted the special lanes, and officials say the lanes work best in states such as Texas, where there is little mass transit.
In the short term, the Stevenson will see $515,000 worth of patching work from Wolf Road to Western Avenue.
And Stevenson users can expect interruptions next summer when work begins to repair the bridge over Pulaski Road. The $9 million project also includes ramp repair and new lighting, all part of the preparation for the massive rebuilding of the expressway in years to come.
Dan Ryan users got a reprieve from construction this summer because of the extensive winter damage to other state roads that demanded immediate attention. But next summer, IDOT will spend $3.6 million to resurface more than four miles of express lanes, from 35th Street to Marquette Road.
The plan also includes $5.1 million to paint bridges along the Dan Ryan from the Tri-State to 31st Street and $3.25 million to paint the Chicago Skyway bridge from the Dan Ryan to the Indiana state line.
The road plan includes resurfacing of the Kennedy Expressway from the Edens Expressway to River Road, but that work will begin just after the fiscal year starts in July and will be finished by the fall. To minimize backups, most of the work on that leg of the project will be done at night.
“At the end of this construction season, you’ll be able to drive from downtown Chicago all the way to O’Hare on good pavement, and we won’t be back for many years to come,” said Duane Carlson, an IDOT district engineer.
To the south, a $1 million patching project will take place on notoriously bumpy Interstate Highway 80, from Harlem Avenue to the Tri-State Tollway.
Elsewhere in the south suburbs, IDOT will repair the bridge from the Calumet Expressway to Thornton Lansing Road and will resurface Cicero Avenue from 147th Street to 159th Street.
In the north, almost 3 miles of Devon Avenue in Lincolnwood and Chicago will be resurfaced.
In the west suburbs, a stretch of 47th Street will be resurfaced from the DuPage County line east into La Grange at a cost of $742,000.
Following is a list of projects over $300,000 scheduled for the next fiscal year in north, south and west Cook County:
– Stevenson Expressway, patching from Wolf Road to west of Western Avenue. $515,000.
– Stevenson, bridge construction at Pulaski Road. $9 million.
– I-57, resurfacing and patching from Halsted Street to I-80. $3.6 million.
– I-80, patching from Harlem Avenue to the Tri-State Tollway. $1 million.
– I-80/I-94, engineering from the Tri-State to Indiana state line. $600,000.
– Kennedy Expressway, resurfacing from River Road to the Edens Expressway. $6.7 million.
– Kennedy, engineering from the Edens to Hubbard’s Cave. $4.7 million.
– Kennedy, bridge work from the Edens to Montrose Avenue. $19 million.
– Chicago Skyway, bridge painting from Dan Ryan Expressway to Indiana state line. $3.25 million.
– Dan Ryan, bridge painting from the Tri-State to 31st Street. $5 million.
– Dan Ryan, express lane resurfacing from 35th Street to Marquette Road. $3.6 million.
– Calumet Expresswayy, bridge repair at I-80/I-294 to Thorton Lansing Road. $2.6 million.
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– U.S. 12/U.S. 20 (95th Street) through Hickory Hills, Palos Hills, Worth and Chicago Ridge, resurfacing and median removal. $1.8 million.
– U.S. 12/U.S. 20/U.S. 41, resurfacing from 99th Street to the Indiana state line. $567,000.
– Lake Street in Northlake, resurfacing from North Avenue to Mannheim Road. $482,000.
– Lincoln Highway in Matteson, resurfacing from Harlem Avenue to Cicero Avenue. $1.2 million.
– Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, resurfacing from U.S. 41 to Lawrence Avenue. $927,000.
– Halsted Street in Harvey, intersection reconstruction at 155th Street. $2 million.
– Halsted Street in Harvey, widening, resurfacing and lighting from 159th Street to the Tri-State. $4.25 million.
– Waukegan Road in Glenview, Niles and Morton Grove, resurfacing from Woodlawn Road to Oakton Street. $773,000.
– Harlem Avenue from Burbank to Palos Hills, resurfacing from 78th Street to Southwest Highway. $1.4 million.
– Cicero Avenue in Midlothian and Oak Forest, resurfacing, bridge and signal work from 147th Street to 159th Street. $2.5 million.
– North Avenue in Chicago, resurfacing from Central Avenue to Cicero Avenue. $567,000.
– Archer Avenue in Summit, intersection improvements from 55th Street to 63rd Street. $3.2 million.
– Archer Avenue in Summit, bridge replacement. $2.5 million.
– Movable bridges in Chicago, bridge painting. $2.7 million.
– Ashland Avenue in Chicago, resurfacing and signal timing from Cermak Road to Archer Avenue. $722,000.
– Ashland Avenue in Blue Island and Dixmoor, bridge work over Little Calumet River. $2.5 million.
– Landscaping for Chicago boulevards. $1 million.
– Canal Street in Chicago, resurfacing from Roosevelt Road to 28th Street. $618,000.
– Central Avenue in Chicago, widening, resurfacing and improvements from 47th Street to 63rd Street. $4.3 million.
– Cermak Road in Chicago, resurfacing from Ashland Avenue to King Drive. $824,000.
– Church Street in Skokie and Evanston, resurfacing from Gross Point Road to Dodge Avenue. $876,000.
– Dempster Street in Skokie, resurfacing from Gross Point Road to Keystone Avenue. $515,000.
– Devon Avenue in Chicago, resurfacing from Central Avenue to McCormick Boulevard. $670,000.
– Green Bay Road in Evanston, resurfacing from Isabella Street to Livingston Street. $361,000.
– Handicapped-accessible sidewalks in Chicago. $1.6 million.
– Main Street in Lemont, resurfacing from Illinois 83 to Illinois Street. $590,000.
– Museum of Science and Industry parking garage engineering. $3.5 million.
– Pfingsten Road in Deerfield and Northbrook, resurfacing from Lake-Cook Road to Keystone Road. $515,000.
– Ridge Boulevard in Chicago, resurfacing from Howard Street to Devon Avenue. $599,000.
– Sauk Trail in Sauk Village, resurfacing and intersection reconstruction from Torrence Avenue to Lincoln Highway. $2 million.
– Sheridan Road in Highland Park, Glencoe and Winnetka, resurfacing from Deere Park Drive to Tower Road. $721,000.
– Shermer Road in Northbrook, additional lanes and lighting from Meadow Road to Techny Road. $2.8 million.
– State/Dolton Avenue in Calumet City and Burnham, widening and reconstruction from Torrence Avenue to Indiana state line. $2.8 million.
– Talcott Road in Park Ridge, widening and resurfacing from Oakton Street and Dee Road. $2.2 million.
– Touhy Avenue in Niles, resurfacing from Milwaukee Avenue to Caldwell Avenue. $299,000.
– 47th Street in Hinsdale, Western Springs and La Grange, resurfacing from DuPage County line to Eberly. $742,000.
– 87th Street in Chicago, Hometown and Evergreen Park, resurfacing from Cicero Avenue to Damen Avenue. $979,000.
– 131st Street in Palos Park and Orland Park, bridge replacement. $1.7 million.