Governor Rod. R. Blagojevich

Office of the Governor

207 State House

Springfield, IL 62706

October 2003

Cc: Secretary of Transportation Timothy W. Martin, Senator Dan Cronin, DuPage County Board President Schillerstrom, IDOT District One Head Engineer John Kos P.E., President Mueller of Lombard and Village Manager Gary Webster of Glen Ellyn

Dear Sir:

This letter is in regard to Illinois Route 53 from Illinois Route 64 to just south of Illinois Route 56, which traverses the communities of Lombard and Glen Ellyn. We ask that you reconsider the argument for a three-lane road design in keeping with the legislation that has been passed starting with the Context Sensitive Design Bill that was signed into law by the Governor of Illinois on August 19^th, 2003. We hope that you will grant our request for reasons that not only benefit homeowners, but will benefit the state and will allow Route 53 to better meet guidelines that the Governor and Legislature feels are in the interests of its citizens.

A DOT can not truly be a CSS organization, regardless of what their policy states, if no public input is reflected in the designs. We believe that IDOT has excellent engineers that could build a safe, mobile, and contextually sensitive Route 53 in the form of three lanes. Engineers that are allowed to stretch and do innovative design will be an asset to IDOT. The Department of Transportation can become a CSS leader through success and achievement. We would like to touch on four main points for why we believe Route 53 would benefit everyone with a three-lane road design.

Route 53 in the project corridor is predominantly a two-lane undivided road. The addition of a two-way left-turn lane will increase the capacity of Route53 to a four-lane undivided road. Minnesota, Iowa, and Washington State for example, build three-lane roads that have good level-of-service and safety with volumes in excess of 21,000 vpd. Washington Lake road in Kirkland, Washington has an access-context similar to Route 53 in Lombard's district two and carries an average daily traffic of 30,000 vpd with level-of-service B. Minnesota has found that, in general, three lanes ARE safer than five lanes. We are including the recalculated study of Howard Preston.

Howard Preston, now with CH2M Hill, did a study of all cross-section types of roadways in Minnesota. In his original study which you have in the packet, he found that five lanes were slightly safer, (0.3 mvm difference) than three-lanes. . He said, based on numerous inquiries about the MN DOT three-lane versus the five-lane safety comparison, Minnesota had reviewed the crash data used in their study and found an error. Their data now shows that the three-lane roadways in Minnesota are safer than five-lane roadways. Please note that Minnesota also has three-lanes in its study with volumes of 23,000 and 26,000 ADT. I'm attaching a copy of the data and new findings.

A three-lane is cheaper on average to build than a five-lane. It is three-fifths the cost of a five-lane in terms of concrete and materials. A three-lane urban road with curb and gutter requires less land acquisition. It will allow for residents to keep their property values thus adding to the tax base of Lombard and the state of Illinois and further will reduce possible future lawsuits regarding compensation concerns by the residents along Route 53.

A three-lane road design for Route 53 would also improve the reception of such a road, which would produce fewer delays from resistance by residents and city boards. Project delays also increase the cost of a project; something the state can ill afford at this time.

According to the Texas Transportation Institute's Urban Mobility Study, Chicago ranks fifth among all large cities in the U.S. for traffic congestion. Increased traffic congestion is a direct result of building large, wide, fast roads and adding lanes. The cost of congestion to the average person living in the region in terms of wasted fuel and time in 2001 was $513. Increasing congestion levels will only increase this annual cost. Currently, Route 53 is the only highway that is moving near posted speed limits at 5 p.m. IL 64, IL 38, IL 56 which are all five and six-lane roads are not. IL 38, for example, is a large, wide road that usually is the type of cross section that invites traffic. This is because of latent and induced demand. Induced demand is when current drivers are attracted off of other parallel routes because of a perceived timesaving. Latent demand is where new drivers are attracted to drive who normally take other means such as mass transit or biking. The concern here is I-355 would be a source of induced and latent demand for Route 53 if widened to a five-lane cross section. Please note that current traffic volumes on Route 53 have not reached their former levels prior to the building of I-355. In fact volumes have stabilized and are not increasing since IDOT did the traffic studies in 1999.

The report also found that to hold current congestion levels steady in the Chicagoland area, 43 new highway lane-miles would have to be built each year. An impossible task and completely unaffordable. Rather, money would be better spent on building fewer large roads and investing instead in mass-transit. What sense is there in spending money on a huge five-lane road project that no one wants and that the state can ill afford?

The Safe Routes to School Bill was passed September 2003 which

Requires the State Board of Education, in cooperation with the Department of Transportation and the Department of State Police, to establish and administer a Safe Routes to School Construction Program for the construction of bicycle and pedestrian safety and traffic-calming projects using federal transportation funds, with construction grants being made available to local governmental agencies. Effective immediately.

The goal of safe routes to school is to improve traffic safety near the areas where young travelers congregate, specifically schools. Route 53 is residential with churches, schools, recreation and native preserves. This is not an industrial or retail corridor. IDOT has a copy of the preferences of School Districts 87, 44 and 89 on this issue. All favor at least 5 foot set backs for sidewalks and a smaller road cross section for safer intersection crossing. Three lanes is one of the safest pedestrian cross sections in road design since a pedestrian only needs to negotiate one direction of traffic at a time and can more adequately judge the speed of a car than cars on multiple through lanes.

Traffic safety fears have dramatically decreased the number of children walking or cycling to school in the last two decades. Health experts are warning of an epidemic of obesity in children, with heart disease, diabetes and other "adult" diseases becoming more common. A three-lane is non-intimidating and a natural traffic calmer. It would go a long way toward promoting biking and walking to school.

According to Pat Pechnick, head of the Bureau of Programming in District One in an email dated September 16^th, 2003, " We will accomplish our mission while making the following principles the hallmark of all our work: Safety, Integrity, Responsiveness, Quality, and Innovation." A well constructed high-volume three-lane is safe, innovative, adds to the quality of the community, calms traffic which adds to the safety and quality of the drive. It is responsive to the needs of the drivers, the citizens and communities who use the route. A three-lane road helps to keep regional congestion levels down. A three-lane road is cost effective in that it increases capacity to nearly that of a four-lane undivided roadway and maintains the level-of-service of a four-lane undivided road at peak demand hours.

Please make the decision to build a truly CSS road on Route 53. Let Route 53 reflect the new IDOT in a three-lane road design.

Sincerely,

The residents of Route 53

End notes:

Research papers to consider when looking at this issue are located:

http://www.ctre.iastate.edu/pubs/midcon2003/KnappConversion.pdf