Riding the wavy highway
I had the occasion to drive 355 S yesterday, and I was reminded how annoying that road must be for someone who uses it regularly. It is very noticeably wavy and bumpy, despite the pavement being in fairly good shape. It just seems that the concrete dried funny or something. Obviously its not a safety issue, otherwise they would have repaved it at the start. Instead, because of a mistake somewhere in the concrete-laying process, people are stuck with the sensation of being in a boat in choppy water. Gotta love it!
And 355, by the way, is a dream compared to the Kennedy. Amazing - a road with enough lanes to handle the amount of traffic it gets!
Labels: 355
Breaking News in Beloit!
The Illinois Tollway really loves sending ***BREAKING NEWS*** emails.
Latest is that there are two ORT lanes open on I-90 near the Wisconsin border. The text of their email is below
Travel between Illinois and Wisconsin just got a little easier! Open Road Tolling (ORT) lanes are now complete at the South Beloit Toll Plaza on the Northwest Tollway (I-90). There are two ORT lanes available in each direction to keep traffic flowing at the border. The Tollway thanks you for your patience during construction--the arrival of ORT should improve travel for locals and reduce delays for summer traffic on the weekend.I think that the operative words here should be "there are two ORT lanes". If their behavior with the Devon and River Road toll plazas is consistent, this means that the Beloit toll plaza will still be backed up, but because of lane shifts and closures rather than funneling everyone through the old-fashioned toll plazas. But, let's hope. I don't make it up to this part of the highway very often, so if you have any reports on it, let me know!
Labels: NW Tollway
The Commuter's Worst Enemy
The rain wreaked havoc on everyone's drive today, with reports of traffic being well over 2 hours on normal commuting paths. 115 minutes to get from downtown to O'Hare! That is crazy!
Why do people get so scared of the rain? Here's where my domino theory of traffic backups comes into play.
People have low visibility (and fear of crashing) due to the rain, and go a bit slower than normal. Other people want to go faster, and bump up near the slower people, causing them to hit their brakes. People behind them, seeing brakelights, hit their brakes, and so on and so forth down the entire road. Couple poor visibility and semi-cautious driving with the usual madhouse of Chicago highway drivers, and there is a recipe for disaster.
Labels: traffic
A Week Off
I'll be out of town for business this week, enjoying my short 5-mile commute from the hotel to my customer's location. Have a good week everybody!
Watch your step!
The NW Tollway/Kennedy toll plaza ORT adventure continues. Now, they have begun literally tearing apart a section of the bridge over River Road while they rebuild the road and barriers there. It's a pretty crazy sight, actually. You can look down onto the road that is passing below you. Those construction workers are proving their nerves of steel by operating heavy machinery next to a GAPING HOLE TO A BUSY ROAD.
In other news, I heard that there was a shutdown of the ramp to 394 (aka, The Kingerley) this evening, but apparently it has re-opened by now.
I also found quite a cool traffic site (well, as cool as a traffic map can be) - much better than the somewhat clunky
GCM travel page -
Traffic.com. It does, however, run a flash application that can lock up occasionaly, and it has ads for Lexus plastered all over it, so, buyer beware.
Labels: Construction
Criminals Beware
I received a scoop from
Craigslist reader Jeff regarding IPASS and usage tracking. He says that the criminal element should be aware that IPASS does indeed track your usage statistics. Really, how else could it work? You can verify this by logging into your
IPASS Management Page and seeing your usage activity. While the authorities may not have this information immediatley on hand, it would certainly be subpoena-able.
Jeff also has this advice for small business owners:
The IPASS management screen... "Is great for doing taxes for IRS as the Self employed can add up all tolls for the Schedule C form at end of year."Thanks Jeff!
Labels: Politics
Out-of-town report
I spent the weekend visiting the venerable
Cedar Point, and got to sample the lovely Indiana and Ohio Toll Roads. Both were in sparkling shape, for the most part, but then again, I don't imagine that they get nearly the traffic of our beloved chicagoland.
I also drove on the Dan Ryan for the first time since construction began. It wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined, actually. Even so, the Stoney Island route to avoid it is definitley the better option on the weekend, especially if coming from Lake Shore Drive. Just gotta watch out for Museum of Science & Industry traffic!
Labels: Dan Ryan
What is a Reverse Commuter?
Reverse commuting is not a Chicago-specific phenomenon; it seems to occur in any big city that had gone through a large period of urban sprawl and has a downtown that is still inhabitable (eg, not Detroit). It, summarized, is someone who lives in the city center, and works in the suburbs (or, exurbs).
Some cities seem to be better at handling this phenomenon than others. Chicago has done a pretty decent job with it, probably helped by the fact that O'Hare was built in Des Plaines and Daley made sure that there was a highway to get out to it. And the
Eisenhower had enough space around it to widen the highway, allowing people to commute from the central parts of the city to the western suburbs relatively easily.
It seems that the Kennedy is getting a bit crunched for space, and there's no easy solution to it. The population has grown since it was originally built in the 50s, yet there is just no room to widen the lanes, without tearing down houses (or converting the Blue Line into a subway).
Is reverse commuting ideal? No commuting is ideal. If it was up to me, I'd bike to work in the spring, and take the train in the winter. But it's tolerable. Thank goodness for
NPR though!
Labels: Politics
Breaking: Another Rollover Semi Destroys Rush Hour Traffic... Again
These Semi Trucks really need to get their act together! Just over a week after a rollover semi shut down the Dan Ryan, another two semi collision shut down the eastbound NW Tollway this morning. It was an eerie sight, seeing the NW Tollway and most of the inbound Kennedy completely abandoned, until arriving at Elmhurst, where a 3 mile backup began. People were stopped and getting out of their cars, because the situation was dire.
Cops were re-directing traffic on the tollway to Arlington Heights Road, but everything before and after that was packed solid.
Radio reports indicate it was some sort of fuel spill which is what is taking so long to clean up. I can confirm by witnessing them spreading the proverbial kitty litter all over the highway.
One truck was more beat up than the other - the above photo is that of the rolled over truck, and here's a photo of the second truck. It appeared to sustain some damage to the front passenger side.
Labels: NW Tollway
Why Construction Workers Have More Fun at Their Jobs Than Us
With mainline construction on the Ryan underway in some parts, it got me thinking; how exactly do they tear up the road so effectively, so quickly? So, I asked around a bit, and got not exactly the answer I was hoping for (dynamite), but something almost as fun.
First off, a bit about what the highways are made of. They have a base layer of concrete, which is then covered by asphalt. We drive on the asphalt, not the concrete, except in the stages of construction that makes it necessary (ie, the current state of the Kennedy).
In the case of a major rebuild like the Dan Ryan, they really gotta tear things up. This is a three stage process:
First, there are machines that rip the asphalt apart and haul it away. I can only imagine this to make a helluvalot of noise, but it goes relatively quick.
Next, they
SAW into the concrete, sectioning it off.
Finally, they take a backhoe and just pound on it. The sawing makes sure that the concrete breaks apart in an orderly fashion. The backhoes are followed by hauling trucks, which get the noble task of hauling away the concrete (and hopefully not dropping it on unsuspecting cars on the highway!). If there are enough trucks, the process moves pretty quickly.
All that scraping, cutting, and pounding - what a way to make a living!
Labels: Construction
Bituminous... that sounds dirty
I took a break from the reverse commute yesterday, but I feel that an update on the roadwork is warranted.
Inbound Kennedy re-paving with fancy bituminous concrete is getting pretty close to completion, as far as I can tell. And the manhole covers that were
destroying BMWs? Well the victimized driver must have been driving outside of the yellow line, because after making a careful examination of the road this week, I didn't see a single manhole that was actually in the line of traffic. Not that it forgives IDOT for messing up some cars, but still... you gotta stay between the lines people!
Labels: Kennedy
IPASS Having an Unexpected Negative Effect on Construction
Since the Tollway doubled tolls for cash users in January 2005, the rate of IPASS adoption has gone up dramatically. The
IPASS website indicates that 54% of tolls (as of Feb, 2005) are collected by IPASS. My friends in the civil engineering community tell me that the IPASS toll collection rate is now in the 90% range. This is having a dramatic effect on the Tollway's ability to run projects, unfortunately.
The
Southern 294 widening project that is underway, is finding ways to cut corners. Latest to get the axe, are the lighting on the tollway. Instead of regular lighting throughout the new road, lights will only be limited to overpasses. This is a direct result of funding shortfalls, as a result of lower-than-expected toll revenue.
unfortunately, the only way that this situation is going to change is by increasing tolls for IPASS users. It's inevitable. And honestly, is it that terrible? $0.40 each way is a steal compared to other major cities. Let's take a look:
- Holland Tunnel - Manhattan, NY to New Jersey - free outbound, but $6.00 into NYC
- Queens Tunnel - Manhattan to Queens, NYC - $3.50 each way
- GW Bridge, Manhattan to New Jersey - free outbound, $6.00 into NYC
- Golden Gate Bridge - $5.00 or $4.00, inbound into San Francisco Only
- Bay Bridge, Oakland to San Francisco - $3.00 each way
- Los Angeles Toll Roads - between $0.50 and $4.75, depending on distance
Compared to those, our $0.40 - $3.00 worth of tolls will allow you to drive throughout the entire Chicago region for much less money than many other large cities. It's certainly not perfect, and every city and region has different funding structures, but one has to admit, we get a great deal of bang for the buck with the Illinois Tollway. If raising rates (even doubling them) could benefit the consumer, I'm all for it.
Labels: Politics
Semi accident shuts down inbound Dan Ryan during rush hour
Ouch!
At 3pm today, two semi trucks collided on the inbound Ryan (near Roosevelt Rd) and shut down all lanes of traffic for most of the afternoon. IDOT began a several-hour shutdown effective at 7:30pm to investigate the accident. Two deaths were reported; it is unknown how many collective years were removed from commuters' lives as they endured another multi-hour commmute on the Dan Ryan.
Read more at
NBC5.com.
Labels: Dan Ryan
