The Illinois Prairie Trail Authority (IPTA) requested that its 600 mile off-road trail network and plan be included as a map in the 2020 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) update and presented as the regional network. IPTA is a government entity comprised of the forest preserve districts in the five collar counties. The plan draws from the 1997 Greenways and Trails Plan developed with NIPC and Openlands.

Currently, the RTP includes existing and committed facilities from sub-regional (which generally includes municipal) and regional plans; no regional network has been identified to date. This was decided during the 2020 plan process to allow councils and municipalities to make more progress on their plans.

IPTA’s request prompted discussion around questions such as:

• Would the inclusion of IPTA’s off-road trail system make it more competitive for funding? If so, should this particular project and implementing agency get that advantage?
• Should the implementation of a regional off-road network be of higher priority than local projects?
• Should a regional bikeways network be entirely off-road, or should it include both on and off road facilities?
• If IPTA’s plan is included, should everyone else’s be included?
• What standards are being used in the development of IPTA’s system?
• If planned projects and a method for prioritizing projects are not included in the update, when and how will they be?
• Should the bike/ped section of the RTP go beyond listing policies and describing the progress that has been made in the region?

Actions:

• Defer the question of whether to recommend planned facilities in the map to the July 12 meeting.
• Call for the development of a regional bike/ped plan during the 2030 plan process. Discuss possible scope of such a project at the July 12 meeting.
• Direct CATS staff to include more details in the table that describes the status of bike planning in northeastern Illinois and to distribute maps for review before the July 12 meeting.
• Carry over other agenda items to the August 16 meeting.

Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force Meeting Overview, July 12, 2000

This meeting was called to discuss in more detail recommendations to the RTP committee. The RTP committee had met since the last bike/ped task force meeting and indicated that it did not feel planned facilities should be included in the map but that the RTP should include a strong statement of intent to develop a regional bike/ped plan during 2030. However, many of the members present felt the issue of including planned facilities, specifically IPTA’s system, should be addressed.

This meeting revisited many of the issues brought up in the June 21 meeting and explored several others:

• How should urgent needs be balanced with careful, inclusive planning?
• In what direction should this region’s bike/ped planning process evolve—"top down," bottom up," or a combination?
• What should the scope of a regional bicycle and pedestrian plan be? What kinds of specific goals and implementation strategies should be addressed?
• How should regionally significant bikeway facilities be defined?
• What changes should and can be made in the RTP update to show a strengthened and more specific commitment to bicycle and pedestrian planning and implementation?
• What progress is being made on the policies that have already been adopted? What implementation efforts should be occurring within the framework that already exists?

Actions:

• Passed a motion to add the following language to the RTP: A regional bicycle and pedestrian plan, including planned facilities, will be developed as part of the 2030 RTP planning process.
• A motion to include existing regional, subregional and local plans as an appendix failed.
• A motion was passed to revise the policy that stated bicycles should be accommodated on transit where feasible to: Accommodate bicycles on transit.
• Examples were added to the data and missing links sections.
• CATS staff was directed to prepare a proposal for what kind of information and resources CATS can make available on its website.