More Evidence of Wasted Tax Dollars

Every time I drive by the Park & Ride Lot at Route 31 and Virginia Street Road, I am amazed at the lack of predictability by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

How many cars have you seen parked there?

Last week when I drove by, there was one.

One!

One car was diverted from traffic by the Park & Ride Lot.

It is easy to get a photo of the park and ride lot without a car in sight.


Comments

More Evidence of Wasted Tax Dollars — 3 Comments

  1. Per https://m.lith.org/community/page/park-and-ride-lot-lake-hills

    “The Park and Ride lot in Lake in the Hills is located at the corner of Illinois Route 31 and Virginia Road. The purpose of the 105 space parking lot is to offer area residents a place where they can meet up with other people who want to car pool to areas such as the major employment centers in places like Schaumburg and Chicago. For years, areas residents have been using roadsides and shopping center parking lots to fulfill this need. This parking lot offers a free, convenient, secure, lighted location to leave vehicles while people are car pooling. The park and ride lot also offers a bike rack to accommodate those users who may want to access the park and ride lot via the
    shared-use path which is planned to connect the Prairie Trail parking lot near the Village of Algonquin Public Works facility to the existing shared use-path in front of the Crystal Lake Walmart at Illinois Route 31 and Rakow Road.

    By encouraging car pooling, we can help ease congestion on our area roadways by getting more vehicles off of the road, which in turn helps improve air quality. The design and construction of park and ride lot was made possible by federal funds secured in partnership with McHenry County, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and the Illinois Department of Transportation. These funds paid for 100% of the design and construction costs for the park and ride lot.”

    Anybody know if there is data on daily use, quantity of vehicles that parked there? What is original cost to put in this parking area including land acquisition? What are the yearly maintenance costs including plowing of snow and periodic sealcoating? If these costs AND the daily usage is known, then a cost per vehicle per day can be determined for this FREE PARKING space.

    In the meantime, in recent years, Americans are moving away from small efficient compact and sub-compact cars toward huge vehicles – Full size pickup trucks and large suvs. Americans, including Crystal Lakians, might well prefer the freedom to ride alone in their vehicles rather than car pool.

  2. Two cars and a trailer were parked on the lot at 10:25 this morning.

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