Bill Text: IL HR0816 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Congratulates Pace, its Board of Directors, and its employees on providing 40 years of safe, equitable, efficient, and environmentally responsible transportation in the six-county region of northeastern Illinois. Wishes the suburban transit provider continued success in the decades ahead.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Passed) 2024-05-22 - Resolution Adopted [HR0816 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HR0816-Introduced.html

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HR0816 LRB103 40739 LAW 73552 r
HOUSE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
Representatives wish to congratulate Pace, the Suburban Bus
Division of the Regional Transportation Authority, on the
occasion of its 40th anniversary; and
WHEREAS, Pace was formed by legislation passed by the
Illinois General Assembly in 1983, and it officially began
operations on July 1, 1984; and
WHEREAS, At its founding, Pace's new leadership inherited
responsibility for operating hundreds of suburban bus routes
that had previously been operated by financially struggling
municipal and private bus companies throughout northeastern
Illinois; and
WHEREAS, Pace consolidated and modernized those various
operations into a unified, streamlined, and efficient transit
agency while also closely coordinating with its partner
agencies Metra and the Chicago Transit Authority under the
oversight of the Regional Transportation Authority; and
WHEREAS, Pace became responsible for operating ADA
Paratransit services in Chicago as well as the suburbs after a
change in State law in 2005, leading to vast improvements in

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customer satisfaction and greater ridership on that service;
and
WHEREAS, Pace buses were authorized to use the shoulder of
Interstate 55 in the southwest suburbs due to a change in State
law in 2011, resulting in tremendous improvements in travel
time and on-time performance on that corridor and a subsequent
600% ridership increase in the first seven years of the law's
enactment; and
WHEREAS, Pace launched its Pulse rapid transit program
with an initial line on Milwaukee Avenue in 2019 and a second
line on Dempster Street in 2023, with three more lines now in
development, leading to faster travel times and greater
ridership on those corridors; and
WHEREAS, Pace, as the operator of a fleet of more than 700
buses, recognized its responsibility for pollution reduction
and committed itself to converting its entire fleet to
zero-emission vehicles by 2040, a goal that they are on
schedule to meet; and
WHEREAS, Pace has proven to be a consistent reformer,
ensuring its services meet the needs of the commuting public,
as evidenced by the Vision2020 program of 2001, during the
COVID-19 pandemic, and this year's ReVision project; amidst

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the COVID-19 pandemic, the suburban transit provider
especially demonstrated both how essential it was to
transit-dependent commuters in northeastern Illinois and how
compassionate its leadership was while navigating the evolving
crisis to ensure public health and safety; and
WHEREAS, Pace has emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic with
a renewed spirit of reform by implementing many new programs,
including VanGo, a reservation-based service providing public
transit where and when it is needed, while also ensuring
taxpayer funding is utilized efficiently; and
WHEREAS, Over its 40-year history, Pace has been a
national leader in innovation and technology through
implementing a number of initiatives, including the Vanpool
program, the Intelligent Bus System (IBS) for real-time
tracking of buses, the On Demand service, the TripCheck
tracking system for paratransit customers, the Mobility as a
Service (MaaS) program on the Transit mobile app, and the new
Rideshare Access Program; and
WHEREAS, In a recent study concerning the future of public
transportation in northeastern Illinois, Pace remains more
efficient when compared to peer agencies across the country;
and

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WHEREAS, Pace's responsiveness to its stakeholders in
northeastern Illinois continues to ensure that public transit
riders in the six-county region will be well served for the
next 40 years; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
we congratulate Pace, its Board of Directors, and its
employees on providing 40 years of safe, equitable, efficient,
and environmentally responsible transportation in the
six-county region of northeastern Illinois, and we wish the
suburban transit provider continued success in the decades
ahead; and be it further