Dan Ryan Lanes Open Early!
In some excellent news, the southbound express lanes on the Ryan are opening up a month early! December will bring the northbound express lanes back to their normal state, so for a few months, Ryan commuters will have normal highways!
But alas, all good things must end: by March, construction in the local lanes will shut them down, until a phased re-opening next winter.
Still, good job folks!
Thanks to
The Trib for the story.
Labels: Dan Ryan
Open Roads Alert!!
The same day that the traffic shift causes 90 minute commutes, the Tollway proudly announces an "OPEN ROAD ALERT"!!
ORT Lanes Now Available Systemwide
Now Open: 274 Miles of Road
Waukegan Toll Plaza Marks Final Debut of ORT Lanes
Open Road Tolling is now available at all 20 mainline plazas along the 274 miles of Illinois Tollway. On Sunday, ORT lanes debuted at the Waukegan Toll on the Tri-State Tollway (I-94), making non-stop tolling reality at the final plaza to be converted. Illinois is now the first state to completely convert its mainline road to Open Road Tolling so quickly!
It was less than a year ago that we celebrated the inaugural ORT lanes at the Irving Park Road Plaza on the Central Tri-State. The opening at Waukegan and the addition of the third and final lane in each direction at the 163rd Street Toll, completed the Open Road Tolling project along the entire Tri-State (I-94/294/80-94). Non-stop tolling along our busiest corridor will provide congestion-relief for commuters, vacationers and truckers along the road that links Illinois to its neighbors Indiana and Wisconsin.Just let us know when it will all be done, ok?
Labels: Construction
The Big Lane Shift
Oh, IDOT has got our number, reverse commuters of Chicagoland. They did us real good over the weekend. Recall the
earlier warning about heavy delays expected? They weren't joking.
The outbound Kennedy leading to the toll plaza now makes a dramatic shift to the right, and then narrows on both sides to
TWO lanes. Crikey. And then there's a dramatic "exit" to the left for IPASS users who get to gun it through our beautiful three lanes of open road tolling.
Total damage? Typical rush hour morning, Downtown to O'Hare? About 50 minutes. This morning, the first weekday since the shift? 1 hour, 50 minutes. Yes folks, one extra hour for our troubles.
Will the 10 extra minutes a day we ultimatley save when the plazas are finished offset the extra 30-60 minutes per day that we're getting hit with while the construction happens? Maybe... in 4 years!
Labels: Construction, Kennedy
Be Alert, Heavy Delays Expected
So says the electronic sign this morning, telling us that on the 27th and 28th (aka Friday and Saturday), the WB Kennedy will be undergoing some cash lane configuration changes. So, because drivers take a few weeks to adjust to changes, expect delays.
Don't say they didn't warn ya.
Labels: Construction
Reverse Commuting Costs Us More!
Chicagoist published an
interesting article mentioning
a study commissioned by the (Federal) Center for Housing Policy, which broke down the costs of living in the city versus the suburbs.
For "reverse commuters" - ie, somebody who lives in the city center, and commutes to the suburbs, this cost is becoming increasingly higher than the opposite.
Which all makes sense, if you think about it. Not only do we have higher costs of living in the city, but the "lost money" of sitting in up to 12 hours of traffic each week.
Chicagoist also links to an interesting
Summary of the Study for those who like the filtered version.
Thanks for the links
Chicagoist!
Labels: Politics
Reflections on Existence
Ever wonder to yourself, while stopped on the highway, why you're doing it?
It's quite sad, really. The biggest advantage our highway system has going for it is that it doesn't have stoplights. Not the high speed, efficient travel that it allows hard-working citizens! No, just that there aren't any stoplights or pedestrians.
That's a failed transportation plan, if you ask me. IDOT and CDOT are trying... but really, something is fundamentally flawed here.
Labels: traffic
Rain Rain, Go Away
Seriously, you're killing me. Well, not just me. Everybody. Normal, everyday drivers being uncapable of a little precipitation, traffic has turned into a natural disaster far greater than the steady drizzle we've had for the last couple of days. 2+ hours from O'Hare to downtown? The entire tollway moving at 5mph well past 7pm? This is craziness!
I mean, c'mon! We've got bituminous concrete! We're safe!
Labels: traffic
One More Lane in October?
I'd like to see the project schedule for the Northwest Tollway O'Hare area ORT conversions, because they are undoubtedly running behind schedule. Westbound, their optimistic sign declaring "One More Land by October! Thanks for your Patience!" has disappeared, while that extra lane still remains closed. And Eastbound? The sign is still there, but the lane isn't.
The sticky point seems to be the repaving/rebuilding of the bridge over River Rd. I don't know what they did to it, but it seems to have been completely gutted. It looks like they're getting closer to finishing the work, so that's good news for everyone.
I'm fixated on the Kennedy/Northwest Tollway for a couple of reasons. First off, it's my road. I drive it every day, twice a day (at least). I've put close to 30,000 miles on my car on that road alone. But, home turf notwithstanding, it seems to remain the biggest challenge to the area. The Kennedy has an ever-increasing number of people commuting both directions on it, yet has no space for lane expansion. And the NW Tollway has to deal with the explosive growth of the far-Northwestern Suburbs, which are apparently pushing its capacity well beyond its original design.
Are highways our best solution? Heavens no. I'd love to take a train to my office, which (ideally) would be situated in an office park with a central train station, shops, and restaurants, making a car unnecessary for most people. That's my 'utopian' ideal. Our society is becoming more and more suburbanized, which creates the disturbing phenomenon of suburban sprawl. Which will, in turn, lead to more traffic, then more roads, then less nature. Our "Oak Parks" and "Wood Fields" will remain strictly relegated to shopping environments. And that would truly be a tragedy.
Labels: Construction, Kennedy, NW Tollway
Winter Has Begun
And, here we have it. The first snowfall of the season.
Commuters everywhere, prepare yourselves! Traffic backups! Salt-crusted roads! Severe shortages in street parking! And the occasional moments of beauty that snow in Chicago brings us.
We're entering a new phase of traffic for the year. The summer - defined by 20 mile backups due to Cubs games; is now over. We had a few weeks respite while school was in session, and the roads were left to the locals. And now, the roads belong to the locals; but now we have the unwanted visitors of snowfall and salt trucks to contend with.
Welcome to winter, reverse commuters!
Labels: traffic
Traffic Spillover Disaster
I've gotta mention this tidbit of Chicagoland traffic news, just because it is near and dear to me, adding nearly 10 minutes of commuting time to my voyage home, almost every day.
The picture to the left is of one of the biggest messes in the area, that rarely gets any attention. It is at the merger of IL-53 and the NW Tollway, just south of Algonquin Road, in Schaumburg. What happens every day is this:
The traffic on the westbound NW Tollway backs up so badly, that the people trying to get onto it, are forced to come to a stop on the entrance ramp. This has a couple of negative effects. First, the people trying to get on the Eastbound Tollway are unable to get in the lane, because of the ingenious compressed cloverleaf that we've got going on there, making the entrance ramps barely 1/10 mile apart. Second, the ramp to get onto Southbound IL-53 from Algonquin Rd, gets backed up, because the ramp merges with IL-53 at the
exact same point the Westbound Tollway ramp begins.
This creates a barely-moving wall of cars in the far right lane that the merging ramp is confronted with, and then a high-speed lane of cars one lane over with the people who are just trying to go South on 53. A very dangerous situation. Making matters worse, this backup routinely causes traffic on
Algonquin Rd to get backed up beyond the stoplight there!
It's a case of one merge having a disastrous effect on both local and highway traffic, and presents a very dangerous situation to anyone trying to navigate it.
What's the solution? I'm not sure. Certainly, alleviating the pressure on the WB Tollway is critical. But root-causing it, we see that the merger of 3 ramps within such a short amount of time is the real problem here. Why the traffic engineers decided to put these ramps right on top of each other is beyond me.
I'm sure that IDOT is aware of the issue (due to their maintenance station right off the ramp there) but when it'll be fixed... who knows!
Labels: NW Tollway
The Night Time is the Right Time
... For turning highways into one-lane roads, that is!
unbeknownst to most commuters, unless (like me), you're in the habit of flying into the airport at midnight, the DOT has been using the wee small hours of the morning to finish up their work on the Kennedy. From the taxi on Sunday night I spied ramp work at least 3 exits happening, as well as some resurfacing near the Cumberland merge.
This has been going on for a couple months now, actually, but this was my first chance to witness it. Inbound was much better than outbound, however - on Sunday night, the Bears equipment bus was getting police escort out to their headquarters, causing the rest of traffic to come to a grinding halt. However, after their victory, I imagine that people didn't mind!
Labels: Construction, Kennedy
Happy Birthday, Kennedy ORT Construction!
It's been a full year now since the Kennedy ORT project has been underway. I remember it quite vividly, because on the 2nd day of construction, I received a $375 speeding ticket while my cruise control was set at a very reasonable 60mph, just for there being some Orange Barrels setup on the left shoulder.
And, as the latest Illinois Tollway email bragged, it really has been a remarkably fast change... they've converted most of the system to ORT in some form or another in less than 2 years. Color me impressed!
I'm still all for the doubling of tolls, if in exchange, we get zero traffic backups... can you do that for us, civil engineers?
Labels: Construction, Kennedy
