Overview
Illinois’ transportation system is in trouble. We’re wasting millions of hours each year on congested roads—many of which are in increasingly poor repair. Our addition to oil is a major contributor to global warming pollution and gas prices are hurting Illinoisans everywhere. At the same time our lawmakers waste millions of taxpayer dollars on wasteful projects that should go to basic maintenance, modernization and investment in better transportation choices. As a result our world class transit network is being allowed to crumble.
It’s time to move toward a new transportation future for the 21st century.
We have an opportunity to do so as state lawmakers consider a capital investment plan for transportation and Congress begins debate on the federal transportation spending bill that will determine the direction of transportation spending for the next decade.
Illinois PIRG is working to build support for adequate capital funding for transportation and reform the way we spend tax dollars. Our 21st Century Transportation Platform will do three things:
• First, we need to spend in ways that address the long term problems facing our transportation network, like congestion.
• Second, we must fix the crumbling infrastructure that has fallen into disrepair before spending more on expansion. This is especially true for transit, which, unlike our highways, has been without capital funding for several years and led to a $10 billion hole in funding just to keep the system in good working order.
• Finally, we need to ensure that future spending on expansion projects are done wisely by requiring objective criteria to prioritize the projects most in need to serve the people of Illinois.
