ROLE OF PUBLIC TRANSIT
The attendees of the 2013 Lake County Partners Annual Meeting were asked what
must happen for Lake County to become a magnet for young talent. The results:
43 percent called for improvements to transportation (including public transit and
Route 53 extension)
37 percent cited better jobs
20 percent said the economy
13 percent said entertainment
Lake County has a broad spectrum of transportation access, one ranging from formerly
rural areas with scarce infrastructure and no transit to established industrial areas with
aging infrastructure and a legacy of public transit. All areas of Lake County have in
common the traffic and infrastructure demands resulting from growth in the number of
residents, homes, jobs, and cars.
The 470 square miles of Lake County are slow to traverse by car, difficult to cross by
bus, and inaccessible by train from east to west. Interstate 94 travels from north to
south and bisects the county, but it has no perpendicular equivalent to help residents
move rapidly from east to west or vice versa. Although traveling long distances across
Lake County—by means other than rail or highway—can be challenging, strides are
being made to “reduce congestion and improve transportation systems,” one of Lake
County’s current strategic plan goals.
Following the hub-and-spoke pattern common to commuter rail systems focused on the
traditional commute downtown from bedroom communities, three Metra commuter rail
lines (and a fourth one with a stop near Lake County’s southwestern corner) dissect
Lake County into uneven slices. While the lakefront Union Pacific North line runs in a
straight line all the way to Wisconsin from downtown Chicago, Metra’s newer North
Central Service and Milwaukee District North lines both fall west of Interstate 94 and
even cross each other when one spoke bends west to Fox Lake, near the border with
McHenry County. Metra’s 2006 onboard survey found that the “traditional inbound
commute to Chicago is very strong. This market is about 90 percent of rail trips
produced in Lake County.”17
17
Cambridge Systematics, Inc., “Lake County Transportation Market Analysis Final Report,” p. 7 9.
http://www.lakecountyil.gov/Transportation/ProgramsPlansStudies/Pages/LCTMA.aspx
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APPLIED REAL ESTATE ANALYSIS, INC.
LAKE COUNTY, ILLINOIS