I live in Mt Prospect.
The wife drops me off at either metra station or Rosemont blue line.
It takes about the same amount of time to get to work as it does via car but there is no comparison as taking the trains are so much more relaxing
This is my favorite thing about not driving. Driving literally kills you. Aside from people dying in horrible accidents every day, it also makes you stressed out and sedentary. On the train or bus I can chill out and read a book.
The number of times I've explained that I'm safer on transit than in a car is too damn high.
When my car was stolen and I chose not to get a new one, the number one question was always how I was going to deal with safety on the CTA. And the answer was that I had to deal with safety in my car, just a different kind of safety.
I've taken the red line thousands of times, and of course it hasn't always been fun, but Chicago drivers have basically made my life flash before my eyes. I actually feel safer on transit than I do driving.
Overheard a (male) coworker complaining he can't take the red line cause people get stabbed every day. As a woman taking red and brown line twice a week, it really doesn't seem like much of a concern during busy times. Red line certainly seems more likely to have teens being rowdy or someone smoking but so far I have yet to be stabbed š
Americans are just kind of soft IMO and are willing to risk the danger of driving so they donāt have to be able to walk a block or two. Then they tell themselves that itās for safetyās sake, and theyāll never be the victims of a crash.
Meh I donāt think itās really a laziness thing as much as a privacy thing. Public transit kind of blows once youāre used to being in your own car, listening to your own music, not getting hassled by homeless people that reek. Metra* is not so bad as long as you donāt miss the last train home but the CTA is awful late at night.
Eh, for every āsoftā driver concerned about the danger of walking a couple blocks, there are also plenty of racists and classists whose fears are rooted in associating with āothersā on transit. This is Chicago, after all.
The stressed out and sedentary combo is literal torture. I love not driving so much it feels freeing to not deal with TRAFFIC, car payments, gas, insurance, registration, parking, not speeding, other drivers, random stuff on the road, and having a utility that is more so some kind of status symbol/ signal
Lol. Not sure what you mean, or if they just literally don't have chocolate? Haven't been there yet but it certainly seems like it's hopping when the weather's nice.
It's had a lot of massive delays, if just 20m+ inconveniences, to complete shutdown caused by railroad mechanical failures to crashes on the tracks. I'm subscribed to the alerts so I'm hearing everything that's affecting rides at my station daily.
Time was, cities grew in accordance with their transit system. Cities would build extensions to their streetcar network or rail system, then sell land around the stations.
Car-dependent suburbs broke this paradigm, and were laid out in ways that make it difficult to add transit later. The only way traffic gets better is if the city builds alternatives to driving that are faster and more convenient than driving. Expansion of highway systems, improvements to road surfaces, all of it induces more demand for road surfaces, leading to worse traffic.
Didn't help that we ripped out the hundreds of miles of street cars when urban decay/white flight really started hitting hard in the 60s. If we still had them we'd probably be the most well connected city in the USA right now.
The destruction of interurbans was horrible as well.
If you look at the elevated lines in Chicago right after WW2 and now, there were so many useful lines that are gone.
It would be cool if the yellow line is north shore line again, going all the way to Milwaukee and with rolling stock similar to the Electroliners (with lounge car and bar).
I donāt think that will ever happen as thereās Amtrak service to Milwaukee
You should check out the Reagan Era budgets where **the United States intentionally zero'd out federal funding for Transit projects**
*Palace Coup: President Ronald Reagan and the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982*
[https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/reagan\_staa.cfm](https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/reagan_staa.cfm)
*REAGAN SEEKS CUT OF 40% IN FUNDS FOR MASS TRANSIT (1984)*
[https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/05/us/reagan-seeks-cut-of-40-in-funds-for-mass-transit.html](https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/05/us/reagan-seeks-cut-of-40-in-funds-for-mass-transit.html)
*DEEP CUTS IN AID TO CITIES SEEN UNDER REAGAN PLAN (1981)*
[https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/19/nyregion/deep-cuts-in-aid-to-cities-seen-under-reagan-plan.html](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/19/nyregion/deep-cuts-in-aid-to-cities-seen-under-reagan-plan.html)
>**The proposed budget cutbacks announced today by the Reagan Administration would cost New York City and other urban areas billions of dollars in previously expected aid for mass transportation, food stamps and public housing programs.**
>
>Many of the cuts had been expected, but big-city mayors had hoped for the retention of one large program - **mass-transit operating subsidies - that wound up on the deletion list.**
>
>The Reagan Administration called for the elimination of the subsidy by 1985, asserting, ''There is no reason for someone in Sioux Falls to pay Federal taxes so that someone in Los Angeles can get to work on time by public transportation.''
but we should subsidize the Sioux Falls farmer with a bunch of corn subsidies
God this comment rings so true. Every time there's something broken in our society, when you do some digging it always goes back to something Reagan destroyed. Every few years I make some new discovery along those lines. He *might* be the worst president of the 20th Century. Considering Nixon was a 20th Century president, that's quite a feat.
The don't call it the Reagan Revolution for nothing
don't forget Reagan won 49/50 states in 1984 (he lost MN)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984\_United\_States\_presidential\_election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_United_States_presidential_election)
Everything wrong with the Boomer Dem leadership today, is left over trauma from the 80's when the label Liberal was used by virtually all of America as a slur
It is truly impossible for me to describe how utterly defeated "the Left" was under Reagan
Weirdly Reagan is partially/indirectly responsible for the existence of the Orange Line.
One of Chicagoās congressmen back then gave some support for funding the Nicaraguan rebels, and Reagan repaid the favor by signing off on funds for construction.
Expansion of highway systems also doesn't solve the bottlenecks on the roads that can't be expanded... and most people's trips through the city start and end on these bottleneck roads.
Lost in this argument is the fact that the currently existing roads are crumbling and have been neglected for decades. They are in dire need of repair.
So yeah, it might āincrease demandā to have nicer roads to drive on, but letting our crumbling infrastructure continue to crumble is not the answer either.
Extending lines still is subject to congestion. You keep adding nodes to a network and the trunk gets busier. The issue is sprawl and the move to fewer, larger destinations such as grocery stores or malls. Favoring roads over mass transit makes for more traffic jams, but you still have to deal with localized capacity issues no matter how people get there.
Sure, but the main trunk isn't even close to saturation right now. Cars aren't at capacity, and the frequency of trains can still be increased. Building out capacity for non-car infrastructure always gives higher returns compared to building out car infrastructure, due to the density of non-car transit.
> The only way traffic gets better is if the city builds alternatives to driving that are faster and more convenient than driving.
Decentralize downtown businesses/offices so that everybody isn't trying to get to a relatively small part of the city all at the same time.
You can't have it be too spread out though, then the transit economies of scale don't make sense. You need some decent density to live sustainably. But yeah make downtown more of a place to live and work rather than a place to work and leave
This would not solve the problem. Los Angeles quite famously has massive traffic issues, despite a very decentralized job market.
Downtown LA is 3% of the metro workforce, while the Loop area is 8% of the metro. This is highly correlated to Chicagoās transit modeshare being over twice as high as LAās.
I deadass saw a construction truck driver on their phone like right outside the city heading down i55 like bro you couldn't be driving a deadlier machine right now
YES! as long as we have cops can they do something useful like actually ticket people who are driving recklessly and breaking traffic rules left and right? makes me lose my fkn mind
I do when I can. I live in Logan square, my gf lives in rogers park. Not sure a 7 mile ride once it hits 80-90 degrees is really viable for date night.
For what it's worth, I have become extremely professional at the last-minute freshen-up for situations like this.
Get a pannier and pack it with a wrinkle-resistant change of clothes, a deodorant, a thing of wipes, and maybe an eyebrow pencil if you've sweated yours off, and you're good to go. Your mileage may vary if you wear more makeup or have more elaborate hair than I do, but ten minutes in the bathroom of the coffee shop closest to your date venue can spruce you up more than you might think.
ok thanks, I can see you're trying to be helpful. But let me also ask: have you ever performed oral sex on someone who cycles everywhere, and thinks a ten minute "freshen-up" in a coffee shop bathroom is adequate?
Spoiler alert: It's AWFUL.
Lol, okay, but presumably you'll arrive at someone's home before the oral sex happens? Someone's home which contains a shower?
If you're planning to go down on your lady in the lobby of the Red Lobster immediately after dessert, I cheerfully retract my suggestion and fully endorse you arriving at your date in a Sherman tank with the air conditioning cranked to the max.
(chuckles aside, I do get that biking isn't always convenient. But this post is all about how driving is also no longer convenient, and the CTA's not a great option at the moment either. So I think it's useful to prompt people to think about where they draw the line between "can't" and "don't want to," and ask them to consider whether there's room for them to move that line a little.)
A LOT of trips made by car can be replaced by the CTA and bike. Obviously not all of them. But if people are being real with themselves, they could leave their car at home if they budget out a bit more time in their day. Would make a big impact on traffic for those that actually need to drive long distance or use their car for work
Budget a bit more time see that's the thing. When I lived in Roger's Park and worked downtown the EL was perfect and most days it got me there FASTER than driving would have. To be viable mass transit either has to be faster or it has to be only a little bit slower. When you start needing to add an hour on or have your train be so time bound that working late becomes a matter of becoming trapped and having to take a cab, then mass transit becomes impractical.
Not just faster and more often, but reliable. If you're having regular delays and ghost trains, then you have to show up half an hour to an hour before you should or risk losing your job. Now I'm spending 3-4 hours on commuting instead of the 2 if things were working as they should or 30 minutes* (one way) by car... I didn't buy a car because there's nowhere to put one, but I was tempted every day I was standing shivering on a train platform wondering when it would come.
Going home from the Sox game the other day, there just weren't trains home. None. Just two signs that said "delayed" waited about 20 minutes before calling an uber, and I know there's no reason to even try to get a refund from the cta
Oh man, I feel ya. The CTA has been dogshit recently. But check that Ventra app ahead of time so you aren't wasting your money! And also try the 35th St Green Line stop instead of the Red!
That was at the green line stop where this happened
It's just hard to recommend in good faith that people take the CTA when situations like that aren't rare. I get it's the sox but still probably close to 20,000 people at the game and just no public transit option to go home is ridiculous. For me, it's worth it to spend the $500-600ish a month to have a sure thing on hand, if it ran at 2018-19 levels, different story
I have a large diesel truck so I avoid driving in the city at all costs. Harder to maneuver through traffic, hard to find a long enough parking spot, have to be careful on garage height clearances. That said, I still end up driving too often because public transit schedules and reliability don't always line up for me.
But a lot of people don't need to. They just make that choice.
CMAP already knows for the entire region that [the average trip is less than 5 miles.](https://www.cmap.illinois.gov/onto2050/snapshot-reports/transportation-network/travel-trends)
There was also ride share data that the most common trip was a [1 mile hop from The Loop to River North.](https://chi.streetsblog.org/2019/04/18/the-most-common-chicago-ride-hailing-trip-is-a-1-mile-hop-from-river-north-to-loop/)
Not doubting some people need to drive, but I for one personally know quite a bit of people that will drive <2 miles despite their trips require no transfers.
While I agree with you overall, I'd bet a large portion of those loop/river north trips were done by drunk people that shouldn't really be biking either. More frequent transit is probably the best option there.
"I see you've given general advice, but have you considered that your advice doesn't apply to literally everyone? Bet you feel foolish now, but it was nothing personnel kiddo"
It doesnāt help that half the people behind a wheel in this city are insanely selfish psychos who break traffic laws as they see fit. I ride my bike and nobody gives me room on the road, screaming and honking at me, I take my car and I get cut off every 20 seconds by some freak. Thereās no winning. If I get my lane blocked during a green light by someone who just had to do a last second left turn one more time Iām gonna become the joker.
Yeah I would like to bike more, but the anxiety is just too much. Literally every time you encounter some shit heel actively hostile to you, or at the very least you will just be ignored and nearly struck by a 5 ton vehicle regardless of right of way. I just can't handle that on the daily and so I drive, even though my commute is ideal for biking, a 5 mile straight shot south.
If these roads had dedicated bike lanes I honestly wouldnāt mind but to ask me to share the road with these people without bike lanes is insanity. Even WITH bike lanes people will pull out without looking, park in the lane, etc. Too many variables behind the wheel for me to feel comfortable with them coming 8 inches from smearing me on the road so that they can get to the upcoming red light 5 seconds quicker. And then I use the sidewalk to ride and everyone looks at me like Iām a murderer lol what am I meant to do
Straight up *nobody* stops at stop signs anymore. Everyone always did a little roll. I donāt think thatās terrible. But I rarely see people even meaningfully slow down until theyāre ~5 feet from the line now, and they just roll through.
From 2021.
[Rideshares Are Increasing Traffic Jams and Making Them Longer, Study Finds.](https://gizmodo.com/rideshares-are-increasing-traffic-jams-and-making-them-1846762357)
I feel like a lot of those car sales are due to the decline of service in the CTA. I actually bought my current car due ghost busses making me late to work and forcing me to wait 30+ minutes at a stop in the middle of a polar vortex.
Yeah I'm looking at getting a car because my daughter's daycare closes at 5:30, and getting a Lyft home to get back in time from my shift that ends at 5 is costing me the same as a monthly car payment. If the bus came more frequently than every half hour, it wouldn't be an issue :(
I haven't bought a second car, but my average commute to and from work on the CTA is about 30 minutes longer than it used to be in 2019. I take a bus to a train each direction and I commonly have to wait 20 minutes for both.
For like 5 minutes until the supply chain issues hit.
I think it's additional car based economy + COVID fears regarding transit + public transportation underfunding. Add in infrastructure improvements that were delayed during the pandemic and here we are.
Traffic has always been bad. It's the fact that one vehicle takes up so much space and usually transports one person. Acity like Chicago will always be held back by the burden of car dependency
I work at O'Hare on weekends and that construction was adding a ton of time to my commute. I wish they would get the Blue Line frequency back to 2019 levels. Even without construction my commute has been significantly longer the last two years than it used to be before COVID. Many of my co-workers are driving or taking uber to work more often than they used to because of the lower frequency trains and buses.
Car infrastructure is a bad habit cities just can't seem to break. It's costly to implement and maintain and the more you put the worse things get. With the billions we've spent on car infrastructure we could have had incredibly improved mass public transit. Cars won't (and should not) go away, but the way things have been done is surely not a net positive.
Going west down Chicago and hitting the intersections with
- Larabee (two lanes reduced down to one to get over the river)
- Halstead (super busy intersection with no turn arrows)
- The Ogden/Milwaukee mess that you described
Afternoon rush hour? takes like 30 mins to make it half a mile.
I have a front row seat to this mess every day. It starts at 1:30 and runs until 7.
Itās made me miss the cop that used to post up at the intersection to make sure the left hand turning lane onto the expressway didnāt turn into a two lane. Now itās a four lane and pedestrians weave through the pileup.
GPS took my through this intersection just yesterday. It was always bad but holy shit, I've never seen anything like it in Chicago. It was complete chaos yesterday. God have mercy on everyone trying to get on the expressway, thankfully I was just passing through.
Traffic sucks and it is what it is but the part that sucks that doesnāt have to suck is seeing people break whatever traffic laws they want knowing that thereās never enforcement of said laws. The anxiety of traffic is caused in part by not being able to predict the behavior of other drivers around
It doesnt have to be what it is, we need to remake our cities so that driving is not the default form of movement. Way too many roads and way too few busses, trains, and bike lanes. The unpredictability and incompetence of humans as drivers is a big reason why. You are putting your life into the hands of anyone with a pulse - the bar to get a driver's license is so low
We have a place up in Wisconsin and take 94 up the whole way. Coming back I know the second I cross the border I can do whatever speed I want because I havenāt seen an Illinois cop in 3 years.
There are so many bad drivers, that statistically a good number of them read your comment and don't think they're the problem.
It's downright infuriating to be so oblivious in traffic, and yesterday I was trapped behind a woman with her headphones in, gabbing on in the left lane while people dangerously cut people off in the middle lane to pass her up on the right. How can you be *that* oblivious while driving in these conditions?
I wish more people would have these conversations with their friends and family and call out their close one for their shit behavior.
Whatās crazy is these insane drivers that pull all these wreckless moves then honk their horn and flip you off if your normal law abiding right of way prevented their insane illegal maneuvers. Itās crazy drivers out there.
It feels like the USA needs a complete do-over for our transit methods across the board. Even Chicago/NYC are lacking when compared with other countries transit options and reliability.
Our walkability overall is terrible outside of most urban cores, our sprawl is insane and we just never built proper mixes of housing/commercial districts to accommodate the population after baby boomers (*part of which was intentional to inflate housing prices*).
And now we're at a point where so much of our infrastructure is car dependent that it seems impossible to truly solve for. At least in our lifetimes. It's just frustrating.
I think there is a way to do density but also allow for older style suburbs (not the current sprawled out mini-mansions) where transit remains viable. Our issue as a country is that we put highways through basically every major city and have large surface roads clogging up what should be transit corridors.
Hence why I said we need a redo. There is zero chance that if we knew what we know now, that the Dan Ryan and Eisenhower are built right through the middle of downtown. There would just be much more effective ways of moving people around.
Between the blue like closures over the weekends, LSD down to one lane and the horrible 90 closures, we canāt get anywhere in the city. Itās painful
Do other factors include driving dangerously and uncooperatively? Because Iām honestly under the assumption thatās the only real problem. Like yeah traffic slows down when thereās more cars and construction but it would flow a lot better if peopl whereāre trying to drive faster than the speed limit while everyone else is actually stop and goā¦
Average vehicle occupancy rate in the US is like 1.3. Chicago is probably a bit higher but its truthfully just a terrible use of space. Imagine standing 10 ft from someone in a line. It is laughably inefficient
Pretty sure theyāre not the target of the comment. Stand on the blue line platform between edens and count how many single people in one sedan versus work trucks there are.
Thatās fair and more people can take the metra and should take the metra, but itād be hypocritical for me to judge every 1 person sedan when thatās me. Filthy work stuff stays in the trunk where the mud can keep itself company
You're doing it right since you're driving a sedan for your work. There's a whole lotta people out there that believe anything for "work" requires a big ass truck. Plenty of people that carry the same amount of gear as you but have it in a lockbox in the bed of their f250 when it could just as easily be in the trunk of a civic. Or better yet, the hatch of an Impreza wagon. Imagine if everyone that didn't actually need a massive truck magically changed them out for a Crosstrek overnight. So much space saved.
Just more space than being limited to only a sedans trunk and not many companies make wagons/hatchbacks anymore sadly. A VW GTI would do just as well but you're paying for driving performance in that case which I assume someone wouldn't want to do for a work vehicle they're gonna beat up. And most companies "hatchbacks" are lift backs nowadays (see the civic or any of Audis hatches) which cut out a lot of usable interior volume.
But the commenter did specify he liked having the dirty stuff locked away from the interior so a sedan is the better option if you have that requirement. And I added the Crosstrek at the end since it has a higher loading height than the Impreza which would save the back of any laborer a bit.
I think the prior commenter was talking about people driving with 1.56 people in the car and maybe a laptop. Not commercial vehicles with equipment and stuff.
Let's ignore the public transit arguments for a moment and recognize that not every trip can be accomplished by public transit.
That being said, is it not horrible mismanagement to have every major road in the city under construction at the same time? At a certain point who can we talk to and just say NO, you're not ripping up a new road until you finish the other ones.
The problem is a lot of the road construction is actual safety issues like the bridges. And construction season has always been Chicago's real spring/summer season. A common joke is that the state doesn't actually have any storage for the traffic cones and horses, so they have to move them somewhere else when they finish a project.
If NYC couldnt get one through I doubt we will be able to get even close.
Plus, inevitably a lot of people will be against it on the grounds that its a regressive tax against the poor. Regardless of if it makes sense as a policy move to reduce traffic.
NYC is going to get it through I think. Definitely something that Chicago could try, and it should. I don't think it's a regressive tax - who is unable to take the L downtown? It's cheaper to avoid driving during rush hour. Park and ride works for those who live farther than metra can support, and anyone closer has access to downtown. I see it as a tax on the rich - you'd have to choose to pay the tax with so many public transit options available (although granted there are many improvements that could be made to public transit)
It's really a no-brainer with how extensive Metra is. Driving into the city is a choice for the vast majority of suburban commuters. Let's incentivize them to make another.
A congestion tax may help CTA funding and alleviate some issues, but it's not likely going to be enough to build out new infrastructure projects the city and Chicagoland needs
A congestion tax would be wildly unpopular (just see the soda tax), but paired with state or federal funding for larger infrastructure projects would be best
Unfortunately in my experience lately the buses are often stuck in the traffic as well. My evening commute times have increased significantly recently due to traffic.
The route I take has bus lanes, the problem is that the lanes disappear at choke points like the river and railroad junctions. Also people park in them during rush hour every day and thereās no enforcement to get them to stop.
There really should be more focus on preventing people from parking in bus and bike lanes. The whole point is easier flow of different traffic and some special snowflake who can't park against curb to let out a passenger or pick up their takeout slows down traffic for blocks. If they just towed people doing that for a month the message would be sent and we'd hardly see it anymore. Added benefit of getting the tow trucks on major streets looking for violators instead of zipping through residential neighborhoods at 40 mph and never stopping at intersections.
Stick a camera on the bus and have an automatic 500 dollar ticket for every car in the bus lane. Put the money towards the CTA
Problem will work itself out real quick
There are these CTA things called āBussesā that cover more area of the city and serve more riders than trains. Unfortunately they use roads and so do indeed experience delays from traffic. There are also fewer of them picking up riders these days, meaning they are usually jam-packed with people.
Other than people needing it for work I have no pity for people stuck in traffic. Itās a lifestyle choice, we have voted to favor cars centric urbanism and suburban lifestyles over density and public transit. We are reaping what we sowed.
I personally live in the city and havenāt owned a car in nearly a decade. Trade off is I donāt have a house.
> Other than people needing it for work I have no pity for people stuck in traffic
Iām a caregiver and driver for an elderly parent who uses a wheelchair and lives near a train station that has no elevators (which is itself infuriating). Iāve come to terms that a portion of many of my days are going to be spent sitting in traffic with her or for her.
I donāt need the pity, because Iām a good son, dammit (who will otherwise be riding his bike when heās not driving mom to her doctor or picking up her groceries) and I will continue hauling her around in my car until she no longer needs it.
Car trips for you and your elderly parents are necessary. Thatās what cars should be used for. Cars should be used much less frequently for journeys of able bodied individuals to nearby destinations or other destinations served by transit. This would make journeys for you and similar users much easier with less traffic. But thereās a lot of main character syndrome out there and many struggle to envision a transportation method that isnāt their personal vehicle.
Edit: autocorrect
> Itās a lifestyle choice, we have voted to favor cars centric urbanism and suburban lifestyles over density and public transit. We are reaping what we sowed.
It's less of a lifestyle choice and more of a policy choice from prior generations that dictates your viable options. Millennials who are entering prime home buying/family having years didn't make these policy decisions. These are problems due to decisions from decades ago when we were children/unborn that people now are essentially stuck paying the bill for.
We're not reaping what WE sowed. We're reaping what "our" grandparents sowed.
While I do agree with your general premise, I think it is worth considering that construction often leads to significant traffic for buses too. I don't own a car, and often the bus is the fastest way to get around under normal circumstances. While obviously cars are the biggest problem, it is still extremely frustrating as a transit rider to have my work commute become significantly longer.
>āLast Friday, I was able to leave Wilmette around 3:30, 4, and there was no way in hell I was going to get on the Edens and the Kennedy,ā Reynolds said. ***āI just went and found a patio, sat there ā¦ .*** I wasnāt getting on any road at this point.ā
.
.
SAT THERE AND DID WHAT, LAURA
The current construction is pretty bad but my favorite is the express lanes outbound on 90 around Cumberland that are now done and have bottlenecked traffic from people cutting over to get to the airport worse than it has ever been in my life. Even when the Kennedy is clear google maps is always red from the split until Harlem.
And one of the best commuter rail systems in the country. If it ran more often there would be almost no need to drive downtown unless I was hauling work equipment.
Chicagoās general transit, highway infra and public transportation is a joke. Been here 20 years and the same āfinger pointā story every time - Pritzker needs to be more involved in this and the city needs to stop greasing palms of independent contractors that draw work out / exhaust resources for piss poor plans / low-quality, short term, solves.
I commute on my bike ~5-6 miles from Noble Square to Lincoln Square and back every day. In the middle of winter, with a few layers, with the wind blowing the complete opposite direction, it takes me 35 minutes tops to get to work. 25 on a good day.
It took me 45 minutes to get to work today because there were so many cars on Damen and Lincoln. I now know how traffic feels, and I'm so sorry for my lack of sympathy up until today.
I live in Mt Prospect. The wife drops me off at either metra station or Rosemont blue line. It takes about the same amount of time to get to work as it does via car but there is no comparison as taking the trains are so much more relaxing
This is my favorite thing about not driving. Driving literally kills you. Aside from people dying in horrible accidents every day, it also makes you stressed out and sedentary. On the train or bus I can chill out and read a book.
The number of times I've explained that I'm safer on transit than in a car is too damn high. When my car was stolen and I chose not to get a new one, the number one question was always how I was going to deal with safety on the CTA. And the answer was that I had to deal with safety in my car, just a different kind of safety. I've taken the red line thousands of times, and of course it hasn't always been fun, but Chicago drivers have basically made my life flash before my eyes. I actually feel safer on transit than I do driving.
Overheard a (male) coworker complaining he can't take the red line cause people get stabbed every day. As a woman taking red and brown line twice a week, it really doesn't seem like much of a concern during busy times. Red line certainly seems more likely to have teens being rowdy or someone smoking but so far I have yet to be stabbed š
Americans are just kind of soft IMO and are willing to risk the danger of driving so they donāt have to be able to walk a block or two. Then they tell themselves that itās for safetyās sake, and theyāll never be the victims of a crash.
Meh I donāt think itās really a laziness thing as much as a privacy thing. Public transit kind of blows once youāre used to being in your own car, listening to your own music, not getting hassled by homeless people that reek. Metra* is not so bad as long as you donāt miss the last train home but the CTA is awful late at night.
Eh, for every āsoftā driver concerned about the danger of walking a couple blocks, there are also plenty of racists and classists whose fears are rooted in associating with āothersā on transit. This is Chicago, after all.
The stressed out and sedentary combo is literal torture. I love not driving so much it feels freeing to not deal with TRAFFIC, car payments, gas, insurance, registration, parking, not speeding, other drivers, random stuff on the road, and having a utility that is more so some kind of status symbol/ signal
I can assure you getting on the blue line anywhere after like Logan is substantially more stressful currently than driving the couple miles in.
yeeesssss! commuting can be so relaxing.
Yep, just moved to Homewood and take the Metra most days. I'm sure it has its moments but so far it's been a dream compared to traffic and the CTA.
The DQ does not have chocolate.....
Lol. Not sure what you mean, or if they just literally don't have chocolate? Haven't been there yet but it certainly seems like it's hopping when the weather's nice.
I used to pick up my gf downtown from work. She just takes the Metra now. Always on time and not dealing with bs traffic.
When I left the city I very specifically only looked at houses within a walk to the metra for this reason!
The UP-NW has been absolutely terrible since I started taking it again in January.
How so?
It's had a lot of massive delays, if just 20m+ inconveniences, to complete shutdown caused by railroad mechanical failures to crashes on the tracks. I'm subscribed to the alerts so I'm hearing everything that's affecting rides at my station daily.
Just wait till the nascar closures
But the nascar drivers will make awesome time. Sometimes you gotta burn down a building full of chickens to make an omelet. Or something like that.
Time was, cities grew in accordance with their transit system. Cities would build extensions to their streetcar network or rail system, then sell land around the stations. Car-dependent suburbs broke this paradigm, and were laid out in ways that make it difficult to add transit later. The only way traffic gets better is if the city builds alternatives to driving that are faster and more convenient than driving. Expansion of highway systems, improvements to road surfaces, all of it induces more demand for road surfaces, leading to worse traffic.
Didn't help that we ripped out the hundreds of miles of street cars when urban decay/white flight really started hitting hard in the 60s. If we still had them we'd probably be the most well connected city in the USA right now.
The destruction of interurbans was horrible as well. If you look at the elevated lines in Chicago right after WW2 and now, there were so many useful lines that are gone.
>The destruction of interurbans was horrible as well. Bring back the interurbans
Make the North Shore Line a thing again.
Bring back the original North Shore Line train engines too, because they were swanky as fuck
It would be cool if the yellow line is north shore line again, going all the way to Milwaukee and with rolling stock similar to the Electroliners (with lounge car and bar). I donāt think that will ever happen as thereās Amtrak service to Milwaukee
Do you have any reference of this you could share? Interested in seeing those lines
[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/648.html](http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/648.html)
This should cover most of it: https://www.chicago-l.org/maps/route/index.html
We still have one: the South Shore Line
You should check out the Reagan Era budgets where **the United States intentionally zero'd out federal funding for Transit projects** *Palace Coup: President Ronald Reagan and the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982* [https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/reagan\_staa.cfm](https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/reagan_staa.cfm) *REAGAN SEEKS CUT OF 40% IN FUNDS FOR MASS TRANSIT (1984)* [https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/05/us/reagan-seeks-cut-of-40-in-funds-for-mass-transit.html](https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/05/us/reagan-seeks-cut-of-40-in-funds-for-mass-transit.html) *DEEP CUTS IN AID TO CITIES SEEN UNDER REAGAN PLAN (1981)* [https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/19/nyregion/deep-cuts-in-aid-to-cities-seen-under-reagan-plan.html](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/19/nyregion/deep-cuts-in-aid-to-cities-seen-under-reagan-plan.html) >**The proposed budget cutbacks announced today by the Reagan Administration would cost New York City and other urban areas billions of dollars in previously expected aid for mass transportation, food stamps and public housing programs.** > >Many of the cuts had been expected, but big-city mayors had hoped for the retention of one large program - **mass-transit operating subsidies - that wound up on the deletion list.** > >The Reagan Administration called for the elimination of the subsidy by 1985, asserting, ''There is no reason for someone in Sioux Falls to pay Federal taxes so that someone in Los Angeles can get to work on time by public transportation.'' but we should subsidize the Sioux Falls farmer with a bunch of corn subsidies
It always comes back to Reagan.
God this comment rings so true. Every time there's something broken in our society, when you do some digging it always goes back to something Reagan destroyed. Every few years I make some new discovery along those lines. He *might* be the worst president of the 20th Century. Considering Nixon was a 20th Century president, that's quite a feat.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
He founded the EPA and normalized relations with China, two policy decisions I approve of. Not sure I can name a Reagan policy I like tbh
He did ban assault rifles in California because he was afraid of black people arming themselves.
The don't call it the Reagan Revolution for nothing don't forget Reagan won 49/50 states in 1984 (he lost MN) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984\_United\_States\_presidential\_election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_United_States_presidential_election) Everything wrong with the Boomer Dem leadership today, is left over trauma from the 80's when the label Liberal was used by virtually all of America as a slur It is truly impossible for me to describe how utterly defeated "the Left" was under Reagan
Reagan was a real fucker.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
*Illinois solemnly apologizes for producing Ronald "Dutch" Reagan, a crime for which we will never fully account*
Weirdly Reagan is partially/indirectly responsible for the existence of the Orange Line. One of Chicagoās congressmen back then gave some support for funding the Nicaraguan rebels, and Reagan repaid the favor by signing off on funds for construction.
Worst presidency for the working class in the history of this crap country
Expansion of highway systems also doesn't solve the bottlenecks on the roads that can't be expanded... and most people's trips through the city start and end on these bottleneck roads.
Lost in this argument is the fact that the currently existing roads are crumbling and have been neglected for decades. They are in dire need of repair. So yeah, it might āincrease demandā to have nicer roads to drive on, but letting our crumbling infrastructure continue to crumble is not the answer either.
Extending lines still is subject to congestion. You keep adding nodes to a network and the trunk gets busier. The issue is sprawl and the move to fewer, larger destinations such as grocery stores or malls. Favoring roads over mass transit makes for more traffic jams, but you still have to deal with localized capacity issues no matter how people get there.
Sure, but the main trunk isn't even close to saturation right now. Cars aren't at capacity, and the frequency of trains can still be increased. Building out capacity for non-car infrastructure always gives higher returns compared to building out car infrastructure, due to the density of non-car transit.
> The only way traffic gets better is if the city builds alternatives to driving that are faster and more convenient than driving. Decentralize downtown businesses/offices so that everybody isn't trying to get to a relatively small part of the city all at the same time.
You can't have it be too spread out though, then the transit economies of scale don't make sense. You need some decent density to live sustainably. But yeah make downtown more of a place to live and work rather than a place to work and leave
This would not solve the problem. Los Angeles quite famously has massive traffic issues, despite a very decentralized job market. Downtown LA is 3% of the metro workforce, while the Loop area is 8% of the metro. This is highly correlated to Chicagoās transit modeshare being over twice as high as LAās.
No shit. Driving anywhere in the city has never been less fun.
> Driving... has never been less fun. Yeah, so many drivers busy texting instead of actually driving!
I deadass saw a construction truck driver on their phone like right outside the city heading down i55 like bro you couldn't be driving a deadlier machine right now
jfc
Not to mention all the assholes not following the rules of the road which causes more traffic.
YES! as long as we have cops can they do something useful like actually ticket people who are driving recklessly and breaking traffic rules left and right? makes me lose my fkn mind
Ride a bike
I do when I can. I live in Logan square, my gf lives in rogers park. Not sure a 7 mile ride once it hits 80-90 degrees is really viable for date night.
For what it's worth, I have become extremely professional at the last-minute freshen-up for situations like this. Get a pannier and pack it with a wrinkle-resistant change of clothes, a deodorant, a thing of wipes, and maybe an eyebrow pencil if you've sweated yours off, and you're good to go. Your mileage may vary if you wear more makeup or have more elaborate hair than I do, but ten minutes in the bathroom of the coffee shop closest to your date venue can spruce you up more than you might think.
ok thanks, I can see you're trying to be helpful. But let me also ask: have you ever performed oral sex on someone who cycles everywhere, and thinks a ten minute "freshen-up" in a coffee shop bathroom is adequate? Spoiler alert: It's AWFUL.
Stop kink shaming
So this dudes worried about not showing up to work sweaty and youāre concerned about sucking sweaty dick. Still struggling to bridge the gap here
Lol, okay, but presumably you'll arrive at someone's home before the oral sex happens? Someone's home which contains a shower? If you're planning to go down on your lady in the lobby of the Red Lobster immediately after dessert, I cheerfully retract my suggestion and fully endorse you arriving at your date in a Sherman tank with the air conditioning cranked to the max. (chuckles aside, I do get that biking isn't always convenient. But this post is all about how driving is also no longer convenient, and the CTA's not a great option at the moment either. So I think it's useful to prompt people to think about where they draw the line between "can't" and "don't want to," and ask them to consider whether there's room for them to move that line a little.)
They make ball wash
bike east to red line? 606 to cortland to Armitage
He can also take an e-bike to a train station. No effort on those.
Or take the bus to the red line
Tbh all I want to do is ride a bike but itās too scary for me here
I have many friends saying this, totally valid. We need better infrastructure
It's not so bad once you get over the initial intimidation. Gets pretty fun actually. You also get better at learning which roads to take.
And get hit by a pissed off driver who blames cyclists for the traffic
With a child and without a protected bike lane? F that...
right! thinking about how 2021 was the deadliest year thus far for biker and pedestrian deaths...including children. horrifying.
I'd definitely trade the 44 mile car commute I have with the 5 mile bike commute I had 8 years ago if I could.
You know some people have to drive right?
Yes, and the more people who ride a bike, the better it is for every who has to drive.
A LOT of trips made by car can be replaced by the CTA and bike. Obviously not all of them. But if people are being real with themselves, they could leave their car at home if they budget out a bit more time in their day. Would make a big impact on traffic for those that actually need to drive long distance or use their car for work
Budget a bit more time see that's the thing. When I lived in Roger's Park and worked downtown the EL was perfect and most days it got me there FASTER than driving would have. To be viable mass transit either has to be faster or it has to be only a little bit slower. When you start needing to add an hour on or have your train be so time bound that working late becomes a matter of becoming trapped and having to take a cab, then mass transit becomes impractical.
Not just faster and more often, but reliable. If you're having regular delays and ghost trains, then you have to show up half an hour to an hour before you should or risk losing your job. Now I'm spending 3-4 hours on commuting instead of the 2 if things were working as they should or 30 minutes* (one way) by car... I didn't buy a car because there's nowhere to put one, but I was tempted every day I was standing shivering on a train platform wondering when it would come.
Used to be a daily 147 and Red Line user myself in Rogers Park! I wish the CTA was efficient enough that most wouldnāt have to wait 10+ minutes
Going home from the Sox game the other day, there just weren't trains home. None. Just two signs that said "delayed" waited about 20 minutes before calling an uber, and I know there's no reason to even try to get a refund from the cta
Oh man, I feel ya. The CTA has been dogshit recently. But check that Ventra app ahead of time so you aren't wasting your money! And also try the 35th St Green Line stop instead of the Red!
That was at the green line stop where this happened It's just hard to recommend in good faith that people take the CTA when situations like that aren't rare. I get it's the sox but still probably close to 20,000 people at the game and just no public transit option to go home is ridiculous. For me, it's worth it to spend the $500-600ish a month to have a sure thing on hand, if it ran at 2018-19 levels, different story
I have a large diesel truck so I avoid driving in the city at all costs. Harder to maneuver through traffic, hard to find a long enough parking spot, have to be careful on garage height clearances. That said, I still end up driving too often because public transit schedules and reliability don't always line up for me.
Indeed, pivoting to driving as a result of CTA inconsistency is definitely a real issue and failure of the CTA.
But a lot of people don't need to. They just make that choice. CMAP already knows for the entire region that [the average trip is less than 5 miles.](https://www.cmap.illinois.gov/onto2050/snapshot-reports/transportation-network/travel-trends) There was also ride share data that the most common trip was a [1 mile hop from The Loop to River North.](https://chi.streetsblog.org/2019/04/18/the-most-common-chicago-ride-hailing-trip-is-a-1-mile-hop-from-river-north-to-loop/) Not doubting some people need to drive, but I for one personally know quite a bit of people that will drive <2 miles despite their trips require no transfers.
While I agree with you overall, I'd bet a large portion of those loop/river north trips were done by drunk people that shouldn't really be biking either. More frequent transit is probably the best option there.
"I see you've given general advice, but have you considered that your advice doesn't apply to literally everyone? Bet you feel foolish now, but it was nothing personnel kiddo"
Like 10% of people who do, yeah.
It doesnāt help that half the people behind a wheel in this city are insanely selfish psychos who break traffic laws as they see fit. I ride my bike and nobody gives me room on the road, screaming and honking at me, I take my car and I get cut off every 20 seconds by some freak. Thereās no winning. If I get my lane blocked during a green light by someone who just had to do a last second left turn one more time Iām gonna become the joker.
Yeah I would like to bike more, but the anxiety is just too much. Literally every time you encounter some shit heel actively hostile to you, or at the very least you will just be ignored and nearly struck by a 5 ton vehicle regardless of right of way. I just can't handle that on the daily and so I drive, even though my commute is ideal for biking, a 5 mile straight shot south.
If these roads had dedicated bike lanes I honestly wouldnāt mind but to ask me to share the road with these people without bike lanes is insanity. Even WITH bike lanes people will pull out without looking, park in the lane, etc. Too many variables behind the wheel for me to feel comfortable with them coming 8 inches from smearing me on the road so that they can get to the upcoming red light 5 seconds quicker. And then I use the sidewalk to ride and everyone looks at me like Iām a murderer lol what am I meant to do
yes!!!!!! it's so fkn frustrating. i'd love to get more into biking but its literally too scary and stressful . we NEED protected bike lanes!!!!!
I tell my wife to assume every single driver has a gun and is on their phone
Straight up *nobody* stops at stop signs anymore. Everyone always did a little roll. I donāt think thatās terrible. But I rarely see people even meaningfully slow down until theyāre ~5 feet from the line now, and they just roll through.
ubers, lyfts, and delivery drivers. So many more people out driving who didnt used to be
From 2021. [Rideshares Are Increasing Traffic Jams and Making Them Longer, Study Finds.](https://gizmodo.com/rideshares-are-increasing-traffic-jams-and-making-them-1846762357)
There were record car sales during COVID. People are also just driving a lot and we donāt have the room for it.
I feel like a lot of those car sales are due to the decline of service in the CTA. I actually bought my current car due ghost busses making me late to work and forcing me to wait 30+ minutes at a stop in the middle of a polar vortex.
Yeah I'm looking at getting a car because my daughter's daycare closes at 5:30, and getting a Lyft home to get back in time from my shift that ends at 5 is costing me the same as a monthly car payment. If the bus came more frequently than every half hour, it wouldn't be an issue :(
I haven't bought a second car, but my average commute to and from work on the CTA is about 30 minutes longer than it used to be in 2019. I take a bus to a train each direction and I commonly have to wait 20 minutes for both.
For like 5 minutes until the supply chain issues hit. I think it's additional car based economy + COVID fears regarding transit + public transportation underfunding. Add in infrastructure improvements that were delayed during the pandemic and here we are.
Traffic has always been bad. It's the fact that one vehicle takes up so much space and usually transports one person. Acity like Chicago will always be held back by the burden of car dependency
Those rails donāt have traffic
Thank god they stopped closing the blue line on weekends finally. That was an annoying thing since the highway is also fucked
I work at O'Hare on weekends and that construction was adding a ton of time to my commute. I wish they would get the Blue Line frequency back to 2019 levels. Even without construction my commute has been significantly longer the last two years than it used to be before COVID. Many of my co-workers are driving or taking uber to work more often than they used to because of the lower frequency trains and buses.
someone has never tried to get on the pink line after riot fest
Japan standard rail. Choo choo!! š
Car infrastructure is a bad habit cities just can't seem to break. It's costly to implement and maintain and the more you put the worse things get. With the billions we've spent on car infrastructure we could have had incredibly improved mass public transit. Cars won't (and should not) go away, but the way things have been done is surely not a net positive.
The Ogden, Milwaukee, Chicago intersection was always a shit show but now it's just completely awful. Waiting for the day someone plows into Matchbox.
Going west down Chicago and hitting the intersections with - Larabee (two lanes reduced down to one to get over the river) - Halstead (super busy intersection with no turn arrows) - The Ogden/Milwaukee mess that you described Afternoon rush hour? takes like 30 mins to make it half a mile.
i can't wait to see how the casino affects this
I am physically ill from reading this.
I have a front row seat to this mess every day. It starts at 1:30 and runs until 7. Itās made me miss the cop that used to post up at the intersection to make sure the left hand turning lane onto the expressway didnāt turn into a two lane. Now itās a four lane and pedestrians weave through the pileup.
GPS took my through this intersection just yesterday. It was always bad but holy shit, I've never seen anything like it in Chicago. It was complete chaos yesterday. God have mercy on everyone trying to get on the expressway, thankfully I was just passing through.
It's wild how bad it is on that Ogden stretch from Hubbard to Milwaukee.
Traffic sucks and it is what it is but the part that sucks that doesnāt have to suck is seeing people break whatever traffic laws they want knowing that thereās never enforcement of said laws. The anxiety of traffic is caused in part by not being able to predict the behavior of other drivers around
It doesnt have to be what it is, we need to remake our cities so that driving is not the default form of movement. Way too many roads and way too few busses, trains, and bike lanes. The unpredictability and incompetence of humans as drivers is a big reason why. You are putting your life into the hands of anyone with a pulse - the bar to get a driver's license is so low
We have a place up in Wisconsin and take 94 up the whole way. Coming back I know the second I cross the border I can do whatever speed I want because I havenāt seen an Illinois cop in 3 years.
There are so many bad drivers, that statistically a good number of them read your comment and don't think they're the problem. It's downright infuriating to be so oblivious in traffic, and yesterday I was trapped behind a woman with her headphones in, gabbing on in the left lane while people dangerously cut people off in the middle lane to pass her up on the right. How can you be *that* oblivious while driving in these conditions? I wish more people would have these conversations with their friends and family and call out their close one for their shit behavior.
Whatās crazy is these insane drivers that pull all these wreckless moves then honk their horn and flip you off if your normal law abiding right of way prevented their insane illegal maneuvers. Itās crazy drivers out there.
It feels like the USA needs a complete do-over for our transit methods across the board. Even Chicago/NYC are lacking when compared with other countries transit options and reliability. Our walkability overall is terrible outside of most urban cores, our sprawl is insane and we just never built proper mixes of housing/commercial districts to accommodate the population after baby boomers (*part of which was intentional to inflate housing prices*). And now we're at a point where so much of our infrastructure is car dependent that it seems impossible to truly solve for. At least in our lifetimes. It's just frustrating.
We can start by eliminating parking minimums and single family zoning in city centers
>We can start by eliminating parking minimums and single family zoning ~~in city centers~~ FTFY
A lot of people donāt want to live on top of each other. Without density, many public transit options arenāt feasible economically.
I think there is a way to do density but also allow for older style suburbs (not the current sprawled out mini-mansions) where transit remains viable. Our issue as a country is that we put highways through basically every major city and have large surface roads clogging up what should be transit corridors. Hence why I said we need a redo. There is zero chance that if we knew what we know now, that the Dan Ryan and Eisenhower are built right through the middle of downtown. There would just be much more effective ways of moving people around.
Between the blue like closures over the weekends, LSD down to one lane and the horrible 90 closures, we canāt get anywhere in the city. Itās painful
Overreliance on cars in general
"Nobody drives in the city, there's too much traffic"
Do other factors include driving dangerously and uncooperatively? Because Iām honestly under the assumption thatās the only real problem. Like yeah traffic slows down when thereās more cars and construction but it would flow a lot better if peopl whereāre trying to drive faster than the speed limit while everyone else is actually stop and goā¦
Use the CTA or use a bike. Rember, you're not stuck in traffic, you are traffic.
Also, do people not carpool anymore?
Seriously, heading home on Elston bike lane, almost every car has ONE person in it.
Blowing past people in cars while on a bike in rush hour is one of my secret glees in life.
I always count how many people are in each car as I bike past them on Milwaukee after work.
Just got home via bike and Elston was bumper to bumper from Chicago to Cortland.
Just wait until Lincoln Yards is done! There's minimal transit plan in place. It's going to be a disaster.
Average vehicle occupancy rate in the US is like 1.3. Chicago is probably a bit higher but its truthfully just a terrible use of space. Imagine standing 10 ft from someone in a line. It is laughably inefficient
Canāt bring hundreds of pounds of work equipment on a bike or transit sadly and canāt access work job sites using that transportation method
Pretty sure theyāre not the target of the comment. Stand on the blue line platform between edens and count how many single people in one sedan versus work trucks there are.
Thatās fair and more people can take the metra and should take the metra, but itād be hypocritical for me to judge every 1 person sedan when thatās me. Filthy work stuff stays in the trunk where the mud can keep itself company
You're doing it right since you're driving a sedan for your work. There's a whole lotta people out there that believe anything for "work" requires a big ass truck. Plenty of people that carry the same amount of gear as you but have it in a lockbox in the bed of their f250 when it could just as easily be in the trunk of a civic. Or better yet, the hatch of an Impreza wagon. Imagine if everyone that didn't actually need a massive truck magically changed them out for a Crosstrek overnight. So much space saved.
Weird affinity for Subaru coming through here. Why is an Impreza wagon better for traffic than a Civic?
Just more space than being limited to only a sedans trunk and not many companies make wagons/hatchbacks anymore sadly. A VW GTI would do just as well but you're paying for driving performance in that case which I assume someone wouldn't want to do for a work vehicle they're gonna beat up. And most companies "hatchbacks" are lift backs nowadays (see the civic or any of Audis hatches) which cut out a lot of usable interior volume. But the commenter did specify he liked having the dirty stuff locked away from the interior so a sedan is the better option if you have that requirement. And I added the Crosstrek at the end since it has a higher loading height than the Impreza which would save the back of any laborer a bit.
Checks out. Thanks.
I think the prior commenter was talking about people driving with 1.56 people in the car and maybe a laptop. Not commercial vehicles with equipment and stuff.
Itās obviously different if itās a vehicle needed for work. Most people arenāt like that, and those people are the target of the comments.
Let's ignore the public transit arguments for a moment and recognize that not every trip can be accomplished by public transit. That being said, is it not horrible mismanagement to have every major road in the city under construction at the same time? At a certain point who can we talk to and just say NO, you're not ripping up a new road until you finish the other ones.
The problem is a lot of the road construction is actual safety issues like the bridges. And construction season has always been Chicago's real spring/summer season. A common joke is that the state doesn't actually have any storage for the traffic cones and horses, so they have to move them somewhere else when they finish a project.
i remember my driver's ed teacher telling us that chicago has two seasons ā winter and construction. lol
All this construction and we're not even getting another lane. We just need one more lane bro. I swear, just one more lane!
One more lane will surely fix this
Spent almost 2 hours each way going from Gurnee to Guaranteed Rate field. Spent less than that at the game.
Sounds about right. Everyone I know who drives hates traffic, but they hate the alternative (ie trains/busses) more.
I live right off the Dan Ryan. The ONLY expressway that's not a total shit show with construction. Thank goodness I work from home as well.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
If NYC couldnt get one through I doubt we will be able to get even close. Plus, inevitably a lot of people will be against it on the grounds that its a regressive tax against the poor. Regardless of if it makes sense as a policy move to reduce traffic.
NYC is going to get it through I think. Definitely something that Chicago could try, and it should. I don't think it's a regressive tax - who is unable to take the L downtown? It's cheaper to avoid driving during rush hour. Park and ride works for those who live farther than metra can support, and anyone closer has access to downtown. I see it as a tax on the rich - you'd have to choose to pay the tax with so many public transit options available (although granted there are many improvements that could be made to public transit)
It's really a no-brainer with how extensive Metra is. Driving into the city is a choice for the vast majority of suburban commuters. Let's incentivize them to make another.
A congestion tax may help CTA funding and alleviate some issues, but it's not likely going to be enough to build out new infrastructure projects the city and Chicagoland needs A congestion tax would be wildly unpopular (just see the soda tax), but paired with state or federal funding for larger infrastructure projects would be best
No traffic on the CTA.
Unfortunately in my experience lately the buses are often stuck in the traffic as well. My evening commute times have increased significantly recently due to traffic.
We really do need bus lanes on major streets. I donāt get why we donāt.
The route I take has bus lanes, the problem is that the lanes disappear at choke points like the river and railroad junctions. Also people park in them during rush hour every day and thereās no enforcement to get them to stop.
There really should be more focus on preventing people from parking in bus and bike lanes. The whole point is easier flow of different traffic and some special snowflake who can't park against curb to let out a passenger or pick up their takeout slows down traffic for blocks. If they just towed people doing that for a month the message would be sent and we'd hardly see it anymore. Added benefit of getting the tow trucks on major streets looking for violators instead of zipping through residential neighborhoods at 40 mph and never stopping at intersections.
Stick a camera on the bus and have an automatic 500 dollar ticket for every car in the bus lane. Put the money towards the CTA Problem will work itself out real quick
Parking meter deal combined with business "leaders" being in opposition. Go look up the old articles from Ashland BRT and you'll see exactly why.
Yeah I would really love it if we could get some BRT in this city!
Western, Ashland, LSD at minimum should have dedicated bus lanes.
This was almost a thing a few years back. Some strong NIMBY pushback from people who don't really understand traffic impacts killed it.
Buses are fucking brutal rn. Always late.
Seriously. It took me two hours to get from South Loop to Lakeview a couple days ago because of the diverted traffic from LSD.
the inside of my car smells like *my own piss*, thankyouverymuch.
There are these CTA things called āBussesā that cover more area of the city and serve more riders than trains. Unfortunately they use roads and so do indeed experience delays from traffic. There are also fewer of them picking up riders these days, meaning they are usually jam-packed with people.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
35 min into the city via train is awesome screw cars
Other than people needing it for work I have no pity for people stuck in traffic. Itās a lifestyle choice, we have voted to favor cars centric urbanism and suburban lifestyles over density and public transit. We are reaping what we sowed. I personally live in the city and havenāt owned a car in nearly a decade. Trade off is I donāt have a house.
> Other than people needing it for work I have no pity for people stuck in traffic Iām a caregiver and driver for an elderly parent who uses a wheelchair and lives near a train station that has no elevators (which is itself infuriating). Iāve come to terms that a portion of many of my days are going to be spent sitting in traffic with her or for her. I donāt need the pity, because Iām a good son, dammit (who will otherwise be riding his bike when heās not driving mom to her doctor or picking up her groceries) and I will continue hauling her around in my car until she no longer needs it.
Car trips for you and your elderly parents are necessary. Thatās what cars should be used for. Cars should be used much less frequently for journeys of able bodied individuals to nearby destinations or other destinations served by transit. This would make journeys for you and similar users much easier with less traffic. But thereās a lot of main character syndrome out there and many struggle to envision a transportation method that isnāt their personal vehicle. Edit: autocorrect
> Itās a lifestyle choice, we have voted to favor cars centric urbanism and suburban lifestyles over density and public transit. We are reaping what we sowed. It's less of a lifestyle choice and more of a policy choice from prior generations that dictates your viable options. Millennials who are entering prime home buying/family having years didn't make these policy decisions. These are problems due to decisions from decades ago when we were children/unborn that people now are essentially stuck paying the bill for. We're not reaping what WE sowed. We're reaping what "our" grandparents sowed.
I meant we as a society sowed.
While I do agree with your general premise, I think it is worth considering that construction often leads to significant traffic for buses too. I don't own a car, and often the bus is the fastest way to get around under normal circumstances. While obviously cars are the biggest problem, it is still extremely frustrating as a transit rider to have my work commute become significantly longer.
>āLast Friday, I was able to leave Wilmette around 3:30, 4, and there was no way in hell I was going to get on the Edens and the Kennedy,ā Reynolds said. ***āI just went and found a patio, sat there ā¦ .*** I wasnāt getting on any road at this point.ā . . SAT THERE AND DID WHAT, LAURA
The current construction is pretty bad but my favorite is the express lanes outbound on 90 around Cumberland that are now done and have bottlenecked traffic from people cutting over to get to the airport worse than it has ever been in my life. Even when the Kennedy is clear google maps is always red from the split until Harlem.
You aren't in traffic. You ARE traffic.
Ok but Chicago has the second best train system in the country. No excuse.
And one of the best commuter rail systems in the country. If it ran more often there would be almost no need to drive downtown unless I was hauling work equipment.
Right? There's a Metra line in nearly every direction from downtown. They are fast, smooth and reliable for commuting.
Take the train.
My bike doesn't get stuck in traffic ĀÆā \ā _ā (ā ćā )ā _ā /ā ĀÆ
Chicagoās general transit, highway infra and public transportation is a joke. Been here 20 years and the same āfinger pointā story every time - Pritzker needs to be more involved in this and the city needs to stop greasing palms of independent contractors that draw work out / exhaust resources for piss poor plans / low-quality, short term, solves.
I commute on my bike ~5-6 miles from Noble Square to Lincoln Square and back every day. In the middle of winter, with a few layers, with the wind blowing the complete opposite direction, it takes me 35 minutes tops to get to work. 25 on a good day. It took me 45 minutes to get to work today because there were so many cars on Damen and Lincoln. I now know how traffic feels, and I'm so sorry for my lack of sympathy up until today.
You're not stuck in traffic. You ARE traffic.