Transportation

Distance to Work

With the exception of Stephenson County, most Northwest Illinois counties have a significant portion of their residents working outside of the county in which they reside. This can result in longer commutes. Ogle County, which has the highest percentage of residents working outside of the county, also has the longest mean travel time to work. Jo Daviess County, which borders both Iowa and Wisconsin, has the largest share of residents who work outside of Illinois.

Transportation Type

In the BHRC region, most residents drive to work in a vehicle alone.  Larger households tend to have more vehicles.

Transit Use

Transit in Northwest Illinois is mostly limited to demand response, which is a type of transit that does not have a fixed route or schedule but transports passengers in response to calls. The sole exception is the Lee-Ogle Transportation System (now Reagan Mass Transit District), which operated a deviated fixed route to Kishwaukee College until COVID sent students home in 2020.

COVID hit all transit use hard starting in 2020, and losses continued into 2021. The exception is Carroll County, where trips have been growing since 2018. Carroll County has also seen the largest increases in vehicle revenue miles. Use began to recover in the other counties in 2022.  

• Unlinked (passenger) trips - the number of passengers who board public transportation vehicles; passengers are counted each time they board regardless of how many vehicles are used to travel to a destination

• Vehicle revenue miles - miles that vehicles are scheduled to or actually travel while in revenue service

Condition of Bridges

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, as of 2022, 79.25% of Illinois' roads are in "acceptable" condition. This places the state 32th in the nation. While there is no county-level data on the status of roads, the Federal Highway Administration does have information on bridge conditions. The below dashboard shows both the number and deck area (the surface of the bridge that vehicles travel on).  141 bridges are in poor shape.  Lee County has 46, accounting for approximately 1/3 of the region's bridges that received a rating of poor.