The Ripple Effect of Accidents
On the way home yesterday, I witnessed another example of the problem with the NW Tollway and Kennedy's ridiculously high traffic density.
A couple of people had gotten into a fender bender, who consequently rippled the fender bender 3 cars down until there were 5 cars involved in the extremely minor accident. This can probably be attributed to the fact that around 4o'clock on a friday afternoon, cars are traveling down the highway in extremely close proximity to each other.
So we had this 5 car fender bender pulled off to the side, which caused traffic behind it to get even TIGHTER. And guess what happens? Another fender bender! This one only had two cars involved in it, thankfully.
So they pull off to the side, and traffic on the NW Tollway proceeds to back up for MILES, just while people gawk at the situation on the shoulder. I wouldn't be surprised if there were another two or three accidents caused on the road yesterday afternoon because of this.
I don't even know what else to say, other than the continued sentiment of "WHY IS THIS SO BAD? AND WHY DO WE PAY TOLLS TO DRIVE ON THIS ROAD?!"
Be careful out there, folks.
Labels: accidents, NW Tollway, traffic
It's Summer Gas Time!
We're approaching the heat of summer, and we're already experiencing some of the joys of it - in the form of high gas prices. Chicago is averaging around $3.35 for a gallon of 87, which,
according to NBC 5 is near the nationwide high of $3.49/gallon in San Francisco.
On the bright side, we've also switched to "Summer Gas" as of a few weeks ago. This tends to improve the fuel efficiency and is also less smog-producing. What is it exactly?
Slate has a nice article explaining it, but here's the gist of it - they blend in more ethanol and butane.
A more technical writeup can be found
Here, at
The Oil Drum.
Labels: gas prices, mpg
What's New in Chicagoland Traffic News?
Well, the Dan Ryan is back under construction...
The Red and Brown Lines are now officially operating on reduced capacity...
The Peterson exit off of NB I-294 is closed...
The River Road Toll Plaza work goes on...
The Tollway Authority has put up "Sorry for the Inconvenience" signs...
And last but not least, baseball season has begun, creating an interesting test of who actually uses the IPASS lanes on the Kennedy! We'll see how it works... I predict major backups in the cash lanes spilling over to the IPASS lanes, eliminating the benefit of the distinction between the two. Bummer.
Labels: 294, Dan Ryan, Kennedy, NW Tollway
Use The Old Highway System to Beat the New Highway System
Once upon a time, before O'Hare was built, the best way to get from the City to the NW Burbs was either Higgins Road, or Northwest Highway (aka, Rte 41).
Then, R. J. Daley built the Kennedy.
40 years later, the Kennedy is not so good. There aren't enough lanes to handle all the traffic, and the people who live near it don't want their houses blown up (not to mention those pesky bridges that would have to be expanded).
So, what do we do? Like Aragorn of Aragon, we must take the road less traveled - re-opening the paths of the dead; yes, that's right - take Higgins Road and NW Highway!
These two roads remain relatively high-flowing, especially when compared to the terrible Kennedy. NW Highway in particular is amazing, due to its relatively low number of stoplights.
I've been doing it for the last week or so on my drive home, and it's averaging at least 15 minutes faster home - plus a 2mpg improvement in fuel efficiency. Funny how your car reacts to not being in stop-and-go all day!
I recommend looking at these local roads as an alternative to your daily commute home. Best of luck!
Labels: Kennedy, traffic
Dan Ryan Construction Starts Again Soon
Weather permitting, the construction on the Dan Ryan will begin again this week. Halfway there!
In other Dan Ryan news, a 14 car pileup was caused this weekend by people getting pelted by snow from a plow truck driving the opposite direction. Great fun!
Labels: Dan Ryan
The River Road ORT Conversion is a Failure
Dear Highway Engineers,
What time does one need to leave the Northwest Suburbs in order for the 13 mile drive to the Lawrence exit on the Kennedy to last less than 60 minutes? I've tried 5:30. I've tried 6:00. I've tried 6:30. None work. Maybe 8:00pm? Why not? It's like we've got anything better to do than sit in traffic.
Honestly. The "Open Road Tolling" lanes are completely clogged with traffic at any afternoon rush hour. What's the point of them, then? Wouldn't we have been better off had they stayed the way they were, and we didn't have the EXTRA commuting time added throughout a year and a half of construction? Because the end result, during "rush hour", is the exact same.
What is it going to take for the DOT to wake up?
Labels: Kennedy, NW Tollway, traffic
New Highways Coming?
There are now a few proposals floating around the area for some new highway work in the area.
First, and most exciting, is Mike Madigan's renewed proposal for the long-discussed
Crosstown Expressway. This would be a highway that runs along existing train tracks near Cicero on the Southwest side, connecting the Dan Ryan to the Kennedy at the monster juction, and thus allowing traffic to bypass the downtown area.
This sounds like a good idea; indeed, it's been discussed for nearly 30 years, with the biggest hold up being the inevitable displacement of homes and businesses. The worst part about this, to me, is the prospect of another highway feeding the already hellish Kennedy/Ryan/294 Junction that occurs just east of O'Hare. I'm not sure if it could handle the extra capacity.
Speaking of O'Hare, the City and the Airport Authority are
planning on making it easier to drive into the airport. They're talking about widening 190, elevating Mannheim Road over the existing 190 ramp, and creating a bypass to allow easy access to 294.
I say: go for it. As anyone who's driven into O'Hare at, well, basically anytime can say, it can get pretty messy around there.
Finally, the Indiana legislature has
passed a bill allowing for the building of a new tollway, connecting I-57 (in Illinois) to I-94, in Laporte county.
All of this construction news - maybe the President's promise of money to help fix highway congestion is actually going to go somewhere!
Labels: Construction, Politics
Know Your Highway Names
Chicagoist
did a post today that I have been meaning to do - explaining the stories behind all of the names of our highways in Chicagoland.
It's a confusing subject, especially for a non-native like myself. I always found the fact that the Stevenson was named after
Adlai Stevenson funny, if only because of his name. Not to mention his failed bids at the White House.
So, Chicagoist, good job on the scoop!
Labels: Politics
At Least We've Only Got Cars On The Road
I'm currently out in San Diego on business, and driving around today, I heard three separate traffic reports mentioning debris on the road: some cardboard (ok), some buckets (huh?), and a couch (WTF?). All of which had at various points throughout the afternoon fallen onto the freeway.
And then, in another radio piece, I heard a story talking about a traffic jam in New Dehli, India, caused by an Elephant that was being stubborn about crossing the road.
So, Chicago has a simple problem of too many cars. We don't have the complicated problems, like stray couches or stubborn Elephants.
Labels: traffic
The Honeymoon of Open Road Tolling is Over
January's Illinois Tollway Newsletter bragged about the success of Open Road Tolling, claiming that since they were completed (in mid December), people are reporting an average of 10 minutes saved every day in their commute. Awesome, huh? And for a while, it looked like that would stick. The commutes around Christmas and the week or two after New Year's were indeed smoother - sometimes 15-20 minutes faster each direction!
Alas, all good things must come to an end. Now that we're out of the holiday season, and traffic is back to its (presumably) normal levels, the ORT conversions on 294 and the Northwest Tollway have proven to be fruitless. They're snazzy technology, that's for sure, but commutes are just as long as before the construction. The NW Tollway to inbound Kennedy trip has seemingly gotten even slower - the last two days have seen commutes of well over an hour from O'Hare to Downtown - and that doesn't even consider the 30 minutes it has taken me to get through the Devon Toll Plaza.
What's behind this? Are more people driving? Are cars immobilized by the cold and incapable of driving at normal speeds any longer? Are people so blinded by their salt-encrusted windows that they drive extra slow?
I honestly have no idea. But I do know this - our fancy open road toll booths are pretty much pointless when you're creeping through them at 1mph.
Labels: Kennedy, NW Tollway, traffic
President Bush Gets Into the Congestion Debate
President Bush's latest budget proposal includes grants for state and local governments to experiment with strategies to combat traffic congestion. This includes ideas like raising tolls during rush hour, and "cordon" tolls - which charge people as they enter and exit a metropolitan area (such as those in London).
In the
WSJ Article covering this subject, I find a couple of quotes signifigant:
Congestion pricing "is a lot cheaper than the way we're paying now ... with time, unreliability, psychological hell," said Tyler Duvall, DOT's assistant secretary for policy. Amen, brother!
Even a 5% reduction in traffic jams can increase traffic speeds by as much as 50%, says Mr. Duvall. DOT officials figure a typical big-city traffic jam can be cleared with tolls of as little as $2 to $2.50 a day, if all lanes on a big highway are charged. But on some Southern California highways where fees are charged only for the former high-occupancy lanes, prices at the peak of rush hour have reached $8.50.The 5% number is interesting - but the estimates that $2.50 a day in tolls will remove congestion? That's a stretch. People still queue up by the hundreds to pay the "double toll" of $0.80 at most plazas in the area. I have a hard time believing that they wouldn't still queue up for $1.60 tolls.
That being said, I'm all for toll increases, if it will reduce the numbers of travelers, and improve road conditions. But that's always the question - nobody can guarantee results. We could just end up with increased tolls, but the same congestion problems.
Thanks
Chicagoist for the link.
Labels: Politics, traffic
Where'd My MPG Go??
As everyone has no doubt noticed, in our recent frigid temperatures, fuel economy goes absolutely down the tubes. I have personally noticed close to a 3mpg decrease in my already reasonably efficient Volkswagen - that's over 10%!
My intention in this post is to inform you a little bit about why this happens. It is a result of several factors, but the most influential has to do with the "cold start": in this cold weather, your fuel doesn't vaporize as efficiently when the car first starts, because it has been sitting there in the cold. As a consequence of this, the engine runs "rich" - (too much fuel mixed with the air).
Exacerbating the problem, the freezing cold air has less moisture in it - meaning there are more Oxygen molecules packed into the average sample of air than in the springtime. This, in turn, causes the engine to combust faster, because more O2 burns quicker! The oxygen sensor and the ECU in the car try to compensate for this, but their main concern is keeping the engine running smoothly and well, not necessarily keeping the MPG at its optimal point.
So, the basic thing to keep in mind to keep your fuel efficiency up in this weather is to drive conservatively, because you have the environment working against you. Idling your car in the morning to warm it up probably won't help much - but it could keep your butt warmer!
Labels: mpg
High Speed ORT Lanes?
You've got to love these Open Road Tolling lanes! They really are helpful while you're sitting underneath them at 0mph, during the tail end of rush hour!
Labels: NW Tollway, traffic
What Happened on the NW Tollway this Morning?
Abby Ryan told us all about the "Crash on the Westbound NW Tollway" - but that didn't explain exactly what us reverse commuters saw around 8:30 this morning. There were a total of about 15 cars pulled over to both sides of the road, for about a mile east of Arlington Heights Road, to at least another half mile past the exit. One fire truck, one ambulance, and a bunch of smashed up cars. Many of them had flat front tires.
I seriously am befuddled. The only possible thing that I could think of is that there was a big crash that shattered glass all over the place, which then punctured tires of the cars behind them - causing them to smash into others? That might make sense - except the two furthest along cars were silver Lincoln Town Cars with Livery plates, both undamaged!
Anyone witness it?
Labels: NW Tollway, traffic
Who's Cramming The Roads?
This
New York Times Article discusses (and dispels) some of the common myths surrounding New York City traffic. Perhaps the most surprising, is the fact that 35% of all government workers in the city drive to work - due to the incentive of free parking.
I wouldn't be surprised if a similar statistic was happening in Chicago. Just drive on the highway (or Lake Shore Drive, for that matter) during a federal or bank holiday! It's amazing how much smoother it is. Government - maybe you're the problem!
Link via
Freakonomics BlogLabels: Politics, traffic
