The Chicago Metropolis Freight Plan -- (Ch.7) Assessing The Economic Impacts Of Congestion Reduction Alternatives

The Greater Chicago region is a center of freight activity with nearly $1 trillion in freight flowing annually on roads in the Chicago region. Like many urban areas, it has been facing increasing traffic congestion, which has raised concerns about implications for future freight movement and economic competitiveness. Chicago Metropolis 2020, an organization of business and civic leaders, embarked on a series of research efforts to identify the impacts and options for addressing this problem. The group engaged Economic Development Research Group to analyze the expected economic impacts of potential road improvement and toll pricing strategies to reduce traffic congestion in the metropolitan area.

EDR Group applied its transportation economic development impact system (now referred to as TREDIS) to evaluate how changes in traffic levels, speeds and costs would affect logistic costs for the area's industries and subsequent regional economic growth. The analysis by EDR Group estimated metro-wide economic impacts in terms of jobs, earnings, and business sales. The analysis built upon scenarios for regional road improvements developed by staff of Chicago Metropolis 2020, and the Metropolis Transportation Model developed by Smart Mobility. Findings from the work by EDR Group are published by Chicago Metropolis in the Technical Report, Chapter 7. There is also a Summary Main Report on findings.

The Final Report is titled: The Metropolis Freight Plan: Delivering the Goods, published in 2004 by Chicago Metropolis 2020.