Local residents voiced concern at a public forum Monday over the 70 to 80 trains that rumble each day through the intersection at Fourth Street and Lincoln Highway.

The DeKalb-Sycamore Area Transportation Study, a metropolitan planning organization, hosted the forum to give DeKalb, Sycamore and Cortland residents a chance to voice transportation concerns.

Pedestrian safety was on many residents’ minds after a man was hit and killed by a train two weeks ago at the same intersection.

The goal of the DSAT study is to create a 25-year transportation plan to improve the way people and goods move through DeKalb, Sycamore and Cortland.

The DSAT study began in April and is in the beginning stages of collecting citizens’ input. The study will last until the year’s end.

DeKalb city planner Ray Keller said it is always hard to get the public interested in these projects because they do not see immediate results.

About 40 people went in and out of the meeting; many were concerned with area train traffic.

Jim Henricksen, the project manager of the DSATS, said downtown DeKalb could be nicer were it not for the constant train traffic.

During the first hour-and-a-half of the meeting, eight trains passed through the downtown area.

The constant stream of trucks further aggravates the complicated intersection, Henricksen said.

With DeKalb’s population estimated to increase by 800 dwelling units a year, 75 percent of that growth in metropolitan areas, the absence of public transit sparked another discussion.

“It is a huge problem,” said county board member Steve Slack, D-3.

County board member Julia Fauci, D-9, voiced concern over how the absence of public transportation affects the elderly population.

“We have an aging population and a whole section that can’t afford a car,” Fauci said.

The elderly will need reliable transportation, and if people struggling to maintain a car could ride public transit, they would have more money in their pockets, she said.

There are no plans to extend Metra service to DeKalb, but by 2006, construction will be completed at Elburn’s Metra station, 20 minutes east.

Laurie Hoogeveen, DeKalb’s transportation planner, said the younger demographic is more interested in public transit. DeKalb, with its aging market, is not a sound investment, she said.

Janet McCarthy, a DeKalb resident, disagreed and said there should be a bus to Sycamore “a couple of times a day.”

DSATS will host another forum today from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Sycamore Municipal Building, 308 W. State St., Sycamore.

Keller encourages all local residents to e-mail study participants at: [email protected].