We were joined on May 28 by former Evanston City Council member Jane Grover, who is a Principal with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP). We learned a wealth of information about CMAPs role in the allocation and prioritization of transportation funding and being organized to receive billions of dollars in federal funds to support transportation. There are 8.5 million residents in the Chicago Metropolitan region, which includes 284 municipalities. Two-thirds of Illinois residents live in our region. We have more than 20,000 miles of roads, traveled by 165 million vehicles per day, and our region is considered the “center of the universe” for national shipping, as half the nation's intermodal trains move through Chicago. Ms. Grover discussed CMAP's strategic visioning for the region, including transitioning transportation to a self-driving-vehicle model and encouraging pedestrian friendly communities, taking steps to help preserve and protect our water sources, dealing with climate change, and balancing housing supply and demand.