(Chicago) … Every morning
it starts anew: Workers in suits and ties or steel-toed boots squeeze their cars
onto already teeming streets and highways, trading verbal insults and angry
gestures on the slow, stressful commute to work. Delivery drivers in semis and
vans tap their fingers impatiently on their steering wheels and silently tally
the dollars lost as they encounter yet another traffic backup. Businesswomen
standing at L stations shift from one high heel to another as a train screams
by, too full to let one more passenger board. A freight train from the West
Coast carrying fresh fruits and vegetables brakes to a standstill for what will
be hours spent waiting in the long queue to unload at the overcrowded rail yard.
The picture of
our region’s transportation system can’t seem to get any worse, but it will –
unless decision makers put an end to the business-as-usual approach to planning
and funding transportation investments. On Monday, Oct. 15, decision makers
will connect with global, national and regional transportation experts
at
“Moving the Region in a New Direction:
the Inaugural William O. Lipinski Symposium on Transportation Policy,” a
day-long, invitation-only forum, co-sponsored by McCormick Tribune Foundation,
Metropolitan Planning Council, and Northwestern University, to build consensus
on new ways to plan, manage and finance metropolitan Chicago’s transportation
network in the coming decades.
“Our infrastructure is
failing, state and federal transportation resources are dwindling, and the
status quo approach to investing separately in roads, transit and freight is
slowing the region’s economic growth,” said MarySue Barrett, president,
Metropolitan Planning Council. “
If metropolitan
Chicago is
to remain a dynamic, global region, we must devise new ways to provide access
and move millions of people and billions of dollars of goods
every
day.”
Featured speakers include
U.S. Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), chair, U.S. House Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure; Timothy J. Lomax, research engineer, Texas
Transportation Institute; and Robert Puentes, scholar fellow, The Brookings
Institution.
WHAT:
“Moving the Region in
a New Direction: the Inaugural William O. Lipinski Symposium on
Transportation Policy,” a day-long, invitation-only forum to build regional consensus on
ways to improve
metropolitan
Chicago’s transportation
network
- WHO:
Hon. William O. Lipinski, former U.S.
Representative and former Ranking Minority Member, Aviation, Rail, and
Highways subcommittees
- Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), Chair, U.S. House Committee on
Transportation & Infrastructure
- Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston), Illinois House of Representatives and
Chair, House Mass Transit Committee
- Randy Blankenhorn, Executive Director, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for
Planning
- Edward Hamberger, President & CEO, Association of American
Railroads
- Todd Litman, Founder & Executive Director, Victoria Transport
Policy Institute
- Timothy J. Lomax, Research Engineer, Texas Transportation
Institute
- Hani S. Mahmassani, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Northwestern University
- Daniel Murray, Vice President of Research, American Transportation
Research Institute
- Robert Puentes, Scholar Fellow, The Brookings Institution;
Author, Taking the High Road: A
Metropolitan Agenda for Transportation Reform
- Robert J. Schillerstrom, Chair, DuPage County Board
- Suzi Schmidt, Chair, Lake County Board
- Gunnar Soderholm, Director, Stockholm, Sweden ’s Congestion Charging
Program
WHEN:
Monday, Oct. 15, 2007
8
a.m. to 5
p.m.
WHERE:
W
Hotel, 172 W.
Adams
St.,
Chicago
Attendance at this event is by invitation only. Members
of the media are welcome and may request further information by contacting Mandy
Burrell, Metropolitan Planning Council communications
associate.