16033 S. 94th Avenue Telephone (708) 349-6666 Facsimile (708) 349-1358 Orland Hills, Illinois 60487-4623

Village of Orland Hills

August 19, 2013 Mr. Doug Ferguson Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning 233 South Wacker Drive, Suite 800 Chicago, IL 60606

Re: CMAQ FY14-18 Public Comment Pace CMAQ Proposal: Pedestrian Infrastructure Improvements

Dear Mr. Ferguson, On behalf of the Village of Orland Hills, I am writing in support of Pace’s CMAQ project which will fund pedestrian infrastructure improvements along Pace bus routes 350, 352, 364, 572, 529, 381, 395, 877, and 888. This project consists of implementing pedestrian-friendly infrastructure (concrete pads and connecting sidewalks) at Pace bus stops in various communities. Through this project, Pace seeks to enhance existing public transit service by improving its facilities, and by doing so, create mode shift from driving alone to public transportation. This project will benefit our community and will increase ridership in our area. As ridership increases, we all feel the benefits: fewer cars on the road due to a mode shift, reduced congestion, reduced pollution, and faster more efficient service. I would like to once again show my strong support for this project. Thank you for this opportunity to express comments. Should you have questions, please do not hesitate in contacting me at 708-349-6666 or by email at jdaly@orlandhills.org. Respectfully,

John A. Daly John A. Daly Village Administrator cc: Mayor Hastings

( F:\USERs\DalyJ\Documents\Oh2013\LTR-CMAP-supportPaceCMAQappl-2013-0819E.doc)

August 26, 2013

Mr. Doug Ferguson

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning

233 S. Wacker Drive, Suite 800

Chicago, IL 60606

RE: CMAQ FY 14-18 Public Comment-Pace CMAQ Proposal: Regional Rideshare

Program

Dear Mr. Ferguson:

I am writing in support of Pace’s CMA Regional Rideshare Program.

PaceRideShare.com is a free carpool/vanpool matching website for residents of

Northeastern Illinois. Commuters who work or live near each other can form their

own carpool/vanpool, or be matched to an existing carpool/vanpool, saving them

significantly on their commuting expenses.

This project will provide additional commuting alternatives for commuters in the

Chicago area. The Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) works closely with Pace on

promoting Pace RideShare.com as part of the Commute Options Program.

Participation in Pace RideShare.com promotes reduced traffic congestion, reduces

air pollution, and increases mobility options in areas lacking public transportation.

As PaceRideshare.com’s services promote MPC’s 2013 Work Plan Objective of

“Increased options for quality housing and accessible transportation, within

proximity to employment centers, to benefit the region’s residents and businesses”

we encourage you to support this project.

Thank you for this opportunity to comment.

Sincerely,

Peter Skosey

Executive Vice President

cc: S. Rushing, Pace

August 26, 2013 ATTENTION: Chicago Metropolitan Planning Commission CMAQ FY14-18 Public Comment 233 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 800 Chicago IL 60606 VIA EMAIL: info@cmap.illinois.gov On behalf of America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), I applaud the Chicago region for its efforts in pursuing alternative fuel development projects. Representing North America’s largest independent natural gas exploration and production companies, ANGA works with industry, government and customer stakeholders to promote increased use of our nation’s abundant natural gas resource for a cleaner and more secure energy future and to ensure its continued availability. The cooperative effort of regional governments in Chicagoland to maximize 2014-2018 CMAQ funding to the benefit of the region is impressive. Today, we are honored to add ANGA's voice to these efforts by respectfully asking that favorable consideration be given to project DR01143928, CDOT Chicago Area Alternative Fuel Development Project, Phase 3. Specifically, that compressed natural gas (CNG) is considered as a large portion of the project including funding for public natural gas filling stations and/or vehicles. The CMAQ Program has a legacy of funding natural gas vehicle deployment projects, due in part to the many benefits the vehicles afford, including emission reductions that benefit the community

and taxpayers at lower costs than other clean alternatives. NGVs are a proven technology used in transit agencies and municipalities across the country in everyday operations, allowing for significantly lower operating costs and measurable impacts on the environment. More than 18% of our nation’s transit buses now run on domestic natural gas, and major fleets such as Waste Management, Frito Lay, UPS, Ryder Trucks, and AT&T are making significant investments in natural gas operations because natural gas makes economic and environmental sense. Natural gas buses and trucks can provide an extremely cost-effective emission reduction solution for the citizens of the Chicagoland region, offering long-term cost savings compared to many other commercially available alternative and conventional fuel technologies. CNG vehicles and investments in CNG infrastructure also offer the opportunity to transition to other emerging advanced CNG technologies in the near future that have very favorable taxpayer cost-per-mile impacts versus other alternative fuels. The increase in CNG infrastructure, such as growth in access to CNG filling stations, is especially important since the dearth of these in the region is one of the main inhibitors to growth. The following table shows the emissions from several transit technologies, prepared by the Southern California Gas Company (a Sempra Energy Company) in April 2012. This analysis demonstrates that CNG currently has the lowest lifecycle cost per mile for clean transit fuel operations. While zero emission options like battery electric and fuel cells can offer some emission benefits, these vehicles are all achieving near-zero emissions with widely varying taxpayer cost impacts.

The cost per ton of emissions reduced assumes a 2010 diesel bus as the baseline. The total cost per mile includes: the capital cost of the bus with a simple amortization over the FTA required 12-year/500,000 miles of the bus, fuel cost over 500,000 miles, and maintenance costs over 500,000 miles. The fuel costs of CNG and hydrogen includes the cost of the fueling station amortized over 12 years. The battery electric emissions reflect the California energy mix (7.5% coal 43.3% natural gas, 15.4% renewables, 9% nuclear, 8.3% hydro, 16.4% other), whereas the Chicago region’s energy mix for power-generation would lead to higher impact from electric vehicles’ upstream emissions of NOx, GHGs and PM (i.e. greater emissions). In addition, natural gas engine technology continues to get cleaner. In California, several proposed projects aim to demonstrate a natural gas engine that is 75% - 90% cleaner on NOx emissions than the current EPA 2010 emissions standard. At these levels, natural gas engines will be able to provide emissions that are equivalent to EVs when accounting for the local power generation needed to support EVs. Hence, natural gas provides a very low emission solution today with a potential for even lower emissions in the future. Industry leaders like Frito Lay and UPS have adopted a diverse portfolio of advanced vehicle technologies including EVs, natural gas, propane, and a variety of hybrid technologies. There are many reasons for this approach, including the recognition that no single technology provides the best solution to all types of operations. By allocating funding to more than one vehicle technology, including CNG, the Chicago region would align its vision with the approach

taken by these industry leaders and offer a more diverse set of options so that fleets can select the technologies that are best suited to their needs. Additionally, current investments in CNG infrastructure will pave the way for integration of cost-effective near-zero emission CNG technologies for the long-term. Thank you in advance. I know you will give this request to include CNG as part of this CMAQ project due consideration as the Chicagoland region continues to lower emissions and improve transportation and infrastructure options. Sincerely,

Amy Farrell Vice President for Market Development

August 26. 2013

Illinois Coalition to Clean Up Diesel Pollution c/o Respiratory Health Association 1440 W. Washington Chicago, IL 60607 CMAP ATTN: CMAQ Public Comment 233 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 800 Chicago IL 60606. Dear CMAP Transportation Committee: We write in support of the diesel emission reduction projects submitted for your approval by Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) staff to the five year FY 2014-18 Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) program. These reflect the list of proposed projects submitted by the CMAQ Project Selection Committee. In our view, the key reason for CMAQ funding is the benefit it provides area residents by preventing death and reducing human sickness and suffering due to air pollution in metropolitan Chicago. Fine particulate matter found in diesel exhaust is a clear cause of premature death, increased cardiac risk, asthma attacks and breathing difficulties which have all been well documented by peer reviewed scientific analyses. Most recently, federal studies have also tied diesel exhaust inhalation to increased risk lung cancer as well. Over 600,000 people in the Chicago metropolitan area alone already live with lung disease. In fact, diseases like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are still increasing. COPD recently become the third leading cause of death in America. And the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has said that nationally from 2001 to 2009 the asthma prevalence rate for African-American children increased a heart-wrenching 50 percent. Asthma previously hindered breathing for one in nine African-American children; the number of those afflicted is now one in six. Clearly the effects of fine particulate matter on human health are well established, and are a prime reason EPA has tightened the allowable level of PM2.5 in the air and why it has set strict emissions limits for new diesel trucks, diesel non-road equipment, locomotives and marine diesel engines. Yet while the health danger is recognized and actions have been taken to ensure that new vehicles and engines do not worsen air quality, the fact remains that diesel engines are extremely durable and the erosion of our local air quality from older diesel engines will continue for decades unless abated by additional action. The diesel emission reduction projects proposed for your approval address the problems caused by older diesel engines in the region that lack appropriate modern pollution controls. CMAQ projects are evaluated on a cost-effectiveness basis for good reason. We know that CMAQ funds are limited and as a region we need to maximize the effectiveness of the federal dollars we get in the region. It should not matter whether filthy diesel engines being cleaned up or replaced are in privately-owned or publicly-owned vehicles. Whether a garbage truck is owned by a municipal government or a corporation does not matter to the members of the public being forced to breathe the emissions coming from such a machine. That a project is extremely cost effective and therefore a wise use of local federal

funds - maximizing the clean air benefits achieved by those funds - should be sufficient to warrant funding. Funding the most cost-effective projects will reduce the most pollution possible given limited funds, helping the greatest number of people breathe cleaner air and live longer healthier lives. Some of these projects, such as the Illinois EPA/ Indiana Harbor Belt Railway project, deserve special note for having a higher than the minimum 20 percent match required for CMAQ projects, making it an especially wise use of limited federal funds. This project will help reduce air pollution across a broad swath of the south side of Chicago, an area already facing a higher than average risk of asthma prevalence as well as greater negative outcomes from asthma episodes. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), African-Americans are nearly three times more likely to wind up in the emergency room or to die from asthma compared to Whites. Proportionally more people in this project area have asthma and those people are more likely to suffer more severe asthma episodes. The burden of asthma in these communities is among the highest in the region, if not the country. Consequently, this project should provide significant emissions reductions precisely where they provide the maximum health benefits. CMAQ projects should be funded on such merits. We urge the transportation committee to approve the CMAQ project selection list as proposed by the CMAQ Project Selection Committee staff and continue to urge the committee to maximize the reduction of air pollution going forward by continuing to fund diesel engine exhaust reduction projects, both through CMAQ and other transportation funding mechanisms. Sincerely, Brian Urbaszewski Faith Bugel Director, Environmental Health Programs Senior Attorney Respiratory Health Association Environmental Law and Policy Center Chicago, IL Chicago, IL Ellen Rendulich Jennifer Walling Director Executive Director Citizens Against Ruining the Environment Illinois Environmental Council Lockport, IL Springfield, IL John Paul Jones Jodi Dart Director Associate Executive Director Sustainable Englewood Illinois Public Health Association Chicago, IL Springfield, IL Kathy Chan Jean Hill Director of Policy and Advocacy Executive Director Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition Imagine Englewood IF Chicago, IL Chicago, IL Bob LeSuer Linda Gibbons President Executive Secretary Southeast Environmental Task Force Illinois Association of School Nurses Chicago, IL Western Springs, IL

NORTHWEST MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE 1616 East Golf Road

Des Plaines, Illinois 60016 (847) 296-9200 Fax (847) 296-9207

www.nwmc-cog.org

A Regional Association of Illinois Municipalities and Townships

Representing a Population of Over One Million

August 23, 2013 Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning ATTN: CMAQ Public Comment 233 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 800 Chicago IL 60606 To Whom It May Concern: On behalf of the Northwest Municipal Conference (NWMC), I am writing to comment on the proposed Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) FFY 2014-2018 Program. The NWMC is a council of governments serving the north and northwest suburbs of Chicago, with a membership of forty-two municipalities and one township, representing over 1.3 million Illinois residents. The NWMC encourages CMAP to consider programming additional projects into the multi-year program. As discussed by the CMAQ Project Selection Committee, the total proposed program leaves un-programmed funding for anticipated cost increases, deferred projects and future calls for projects. Given the history of delayed CMAQ projects, the region’s unobligated balance and unfunded regional priority projects like the Skokie Valley Trail, the NWMC recommends that CMAP consider programming additional projects in the FFY 2014-2018 program. The Conference appreciates your consideration of our comments and looks forward to working with CMAP and municipalities to accomplish CMAQ funded projects. Sincerely,

Mark L. Fowler Executive Director Northwest Municipal Conference

MEMBERS Antioch

Arlington Heights Bannockburn

Barrington Bartlett

Buffalo Grove Carpentersville

Cary Crystal Lake Deer Park Deerfield

Des Plaines Elk Grove Village

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Hoffman Estates Kenilworth

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Wheeling Wilmette Winnetka

President

Sandra E. Frum Northbrook

Vice-President

Elizabeth B. Tisdahl Evanston

Secretary

Tom Rooney Rolling Meadows

Treasurer

Wally Bobkiewicz Evanston

Executive Director

Mark L. Fowler