Connect Illinois Network
Active work

Where we're focused and why it matters now.

Flagship ProgramKane County

Connect Kane

Too many Kane County residents cannot get to work, healthcare, or school because reliable transit simply does not exist where they live.

Connect Kane organizes, advocates, and pushes decision-makers to build the connected transportation network this county needs and deserves.

Read the research

Five documented transit gaps

Gap 1 — No Service: The western half of Kane County — Elburn, Sugar Grove, Maple Park, Kaneville, Big Rock, Virgil — has zero fixed-route transit service.
Gap 2 — Narrow Eligibility: Kane County's only demand-response program is limited by program design to seniors 65+, people with disabilities, and veterans. Working-age residents without a car have no affordable public transit option.
Gap 3 — Patchwork System: Different township agreements with Pace create service inequality based on which side of a municipal line a resident lives on.
Gap 4 — Diverted Funding: RTA sales tax revenue has been directed to roads and law enforcement while transit projects were paused.
Gap 5 — Underfunded Service: Ride in Kane serves over 10,000 registered riders and adds 44 new registrations every month — but temporary ARPA funding is expiring and eligibility restrictions leave the majority of transit-dependent residents without any option.
Policy CampaignKane County

Invest in Kane

We are advocating for Kane County to create a dedicated annual transit grant program — modeled on Cook County's Invest in Cook — seeded with new NITA sales tax revenue arriving in Q4 2026.

In March 2026, a $180,000 Invest in Cook grant funded the expansion of Pace's Northwest Cook County On Demand zone. That's the model. That's what we're asking Kane County to build.

Read the blueprint
The precedent

Cook County has run Invest in Cook since 2017. In its first six years it funded 205 projects totaling $48.7 million. Kane County doesn't need to invent anything.

The funding source

New NITA sales tax revenue begins reaching the collar counties in Q4 2026. This is new money — no existing program is defending how it gets spent.

The mechanism

A $500K–$1M annual fund at the $180K Northwest Cook benchmark funds 3–5 On Demand pilot zones in western Kane County in year one.

The ask

We're asking Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog to champion the creation of this fund in the 2027 budget process.

InitiativeKane County — Launching Soon

Unmet Demand Registry

Traditional ridership data can't count demand where no service exists. The performance-based formula that distributes NITA funding will reward communities that already have service — and leave communities with nothing at zero.

The Unmet Demand Registry counts transit-dependent residents who have no existing service. The waiting list itself becomes the advocacy tool.

Join the Registry

Why this data matters

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The NITA performance formula uses ridership, vehicle revenue miles, vehicle revenue hours, and passenger miles — all four measure existing service.

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Communities with zero service score zero on every metric. The formula punishes the invisible.

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The Unmet Demand Registry creates a fifth data source: documented demand in communities with no service to count.

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Service standards under development by December 2027 must include zero-car households, low-income populations, and disability status as transit propensity metrics — our registry feeds directly into that process.

The context

NITA goes live June 1, 2026. The decisions being made right now will shape regional transit for decades.

The Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act brings $1.5 billion in new annual transit funding to the six-county region. Performance-based funding formulas, Dial-a-Ride expansion, service standards, and board appointments are all being decided now. Connect Illinois Network is in every one of those rooms.