The City of Crystal Lake will host a public visioning workshop for the development of a transportation master plan for Crystal Lake on Wednesday, June 24 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Park Place Banquet Facility (406 W. Woodstock Street, Crystal Lake). Please join us and help ensure that Crystal Lake’s transportation system responds to the needs of residents and businesses.

This workshop is a great opportunity to share your vision and discuss the future of Crystal Lake with your family, neighbors, and friends. Visit http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/programs-and-resources/lta/crystal-lake to stay up to date on this project. Together we can create a better future for Crystal Lake!

Please contact Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s Outreach & Community Engagement Associate Ricardo Lopez ( rlopez@cmap.illinois.gov or 312-386-8766) with questions.

Among the information available is this on the Master Plan:

The City of Crystal Lake, located in southeast McHenry County, traces its origins to two separate communities founded around the railroad system that linked residents to Chicago. Today numerous commuters travel via the Union Pacific Northwest Metra rail line and also rely heavily on the City’s streets to get to their final destinations.

Crystal Lake travel constituencies gathered at an open house last summer.

To plan for continued livability, the City’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan seeks to provide a transportation system that safely and efficiently serves current and future land uses, including travel by road, rail, public transportation, bicycle, and foot. In order meet this goal, the City is developing a transportation master plan with strategies to make Crystal Lake streets safe for all users.

With support from CMAP’s Local Technical Assistance (LTA) program, the transportation master plan will be developed through a community-based process that reflects the interests and diverse needs of Crystal Lake. The intent of the plan is to outline the policies and strategies needed to ensure the transportation system serves the needs of all travelers.

It will build upon the community’s assets and identify ways to support goals from the 2030 Crystal Lake Comprehensive Plan, as well as the GO TO 2040 comprehensive regional plan. The 2030 Comprehensive Plan specifically recommends reducing community reliance on automobiles and making transit, bicycling, and walking an easy transportation alternative for residents.

This planning process, which is designed to be completed in approximately 12 months, consists of three main phases.

1. The first phase will involve a thorough analysis of the existing conditions within the community using information gathered through steering committee meetings, one-on-one stakeholder interviews, review of previous studies, and collection of maps and data.
2. During the second phase, initial recommendations will be created and vetted with the project’s steering committee and city staff.
3. The final phase will include plan creation, community feedback, and plan adoption.

Crystal Lake transportation mode choice for work and school.. No one selected Pace.

What has been done so far, can be found here.

Here’s part of the how do people get around Crystal Lake portion:

…participants were asked a number of questions about how they get around Crystal Lake. Figure 6 and 7 show which mode participants use to get around for work/school trips and all other trips.

While driving solo remained the top choice between work-related trips and other trips, carpooling increased significantly for non-work-related trips. Interestingly, walking and biking were selected less frequently for other trips than for work-related trips.

In addition, Metra was chosen consistently between the two options.

Modes of non-work trips.

These are unanticipated results, as one would think that if participants are walking and biking for work trips, this mode choice would also be reflected in non-work trips.

No participant selected Pace bus as an option.

Drilling in on various modes of travel, the following was discovered from among those who attended the Open House last year:

• Driving – Overall, participants identified no areas that were performing well and 28 problem areas… No comments were made about the conditions of the roadway – such as pavement, lighting, or other visibility constraints.
• Walking Overall, participants identified 10 areas that were performing well and 31 problem areas… The specificity of the comments in this section is very detailed, revealing intimate knowledge with the surroundings that can be expected from a pedestrian perspective.
• Biking – Overall, participants identified 6 areas that were performing well and 38 problem areas…The majority of problem area comments focused on building connections between the existing components of the bike network, including entrances to existing off-street trails, extensions of the trail network, additional bike lanes and trails, and improvements to specific intersections that would make it easier to navigate while on a bicycle. Three comments focused on how they felt shared lanes (where markings on the road promote the sharing of a lane between bikes and cars) created unsafe conditions.
• Taking Transit –  Participants identified 3 areas that were performing well and 9 problem areas…Participants identified specific Pace bus routes that were needed to serve MCC, LUREC, Route 14 shopping areas, Randall Road to Elgin, and a connection between the Indian Prairie Neighborhood and the Metra Stations. While existing bus service does exist to MCC, there seems to be a concern about the timing of this service.

Overall, the meeting attendees were older, composed of more women, and more identified as White than the community at large.