Daily Herald opinion: Bicycling-pedestrian plans are in the works; more just has to get done

The Active Transportation Alliance has taken issue with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning's latest list of priority projects in its updated "On to 2050" regional plan, arguing that the list is too focused on expanding major roads and not enough on alternatives to automobiles, such as public transit, bicycling and walking. It's worried about crashes and fatalities, and it argues the roads will simply become as congested as they were before because of "induced demand" - basically, if you build it, they will come.

We get the alliance's point. A big part of its mission is getting ahead of projects and asking questions like, "Can you expand a train line rather than the road, or make sure there are bike lanes when you do rebuild the road - not only for the sake of the environment and exercise, but because it can be life and death?"

Soon after Daily Herald transportation writer Marni Pyke described the alliance's objection, she reported on the July death of emergency room nurse Nancy Nozicka, who was killed after she was struck by an errant driver while she was bicycling just a few miles to Libertyville on St. Marys Road from her Green Oaks home. Pyke pointed out that as of Oct. 6, 30 people had died in bicycle/vehicle collisions in 2022, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. That compares to 34 for all of 2021, 27 for 2020 and 12 in 2019.

A year ago, we said in this space that we're happy to see plans for the Patriot Path, a 5.5-mile east-west trail along Route 137 from Libertyville to North Chicago to facilitate bicycle and pedestrian commuting - joining a similar path along Route 176. It so happens that St. Marys Road would connect both paths, but there's only a tiny shoulder on it for bicyclists. The need for links to create continuous non-auto transportation all over is endless.

Unfortunately, the Active Transportation Alliance's campaign is like a cyclist facing a nasty autumn headwind. CMAP's charge is broad and massive, addressing transportation, infrastructure, development, equity in all of those things for underserved populations, and the environment. Would traffic really not come if roads weren't improved and expanded? It's a terribly difficult balance.

And, CMAP hasn't exactly ignored the need for bicycling and pedestrian options. It long has had goals now summarized on its "walking and bicycling" Web page. One article there touts Algonquin's efforts to make its downtown more pedestrian-friendly. Smaller agencies have gotten help from CMAP, like the Northwest Municipal Conference. Did you know, for example, that it has tried to find a way for cyclists to traverse basically the whole of Northwest Highway without actually riding on that dangerous road?

So salute to the Active Transportation Alliance for keeping alternatives top-of-mind. Salute, too, to CMAP, the Northwest Municipal Conference and, really, countless other agencies and governments for working on options. Now many more projects actually have to get done. Not only a better lifestyle but also livelihoods and even lives are at stake.