[ironlung]

Ive driven in many countries... from the "no rules" traffic of the east to the extremely OCD traffic of norway... but man ive never felt 'scared' driving anyhwere.
So I moved to champaign recently for graduate school, and decided to go to chicago the other day... it was even worse than indianapolis. So the closer i got to chicago from I57, the worse it got. I dont mind being passed by on the right (even if some one is easily doing 110 in a 55 mph zone) but it was when I hit I94 when i got 'scared'. I like keeping my distance from the car in front and at the back, but it was crazy how the cars in front and back were so close to you as if the bumpers were touching each other. And at least 75 mph I might add. Ive driven in new york and that wasnt really a big deal. I was wondering if this is how driving in chicago is like normally? Or maybe this was just out of the ordinary. This was around 7-8pm on the 7th nov. I havent had time to post here because my lab keeps me busy.. Thanks.

[naren]

Yes, they are all out of their freakin minds in Chicago. The last time I drove through there I must have been hitting 150 mph, 'cause I was trying to go with the flow of traffic at 3:30 AM! It's always like a scene out of Mad Max or the second Matrix film on their highways, those people are crazy. What's really bizarre is you have to pay money to do it, they should be paying you to drive on their roads. In my uncle's neighborhood in Chicago they actually keep their parking lights on all night so the people whipping by at 50 mph, on a residential street, can see their cars better and not plow into them. Freaks!

[SKMDC]

Driving in the passing lane in Illinois is illegal, if your are impeding traffic or they have to get in the right lane to pass. I think you have thirty seconds to pass without being in violation.
In other words, If you're in the left lane and someone can pass you in the right lane (even if they are going 110mph) you are impeding traffic in the passing lane and in violation of the law.

But yeah driving in Chicago is scary, but it's amazing how fast you get acclimated to it. You have to be able to drive with the flow of traffic even if it's 75mph with a car 6 feet in front of you and another 3 feet behind you.
And the guys passing you going 110 are the same assholes who get loaded in the bleachers at Wrigley making everyone smell their Cigar smoke. Traders most of them. (HA!)

[psmith2.0]

Wow, Chicago sounds nuts...and I've lived in three really bad areas for driving: SoCal, metro Washington DC and Nashville, TN (where there is never a break from freeway construction/repair zones).



I survived all those without a scratch, then I move back to my hometown of Chattanooga and now nearly get killed on a weekly basis it seems. Go figure.



I feel for you, ironlung. Driving 100mph+ bumper-to-bumper, with no room for error or let-up, is for professionals. And I'd rather watch it...not actually DO it. Yikes.

[Majost]

The last time I drove through Chicago, the fan on my engine block failed. So as long as I kept moving at about 30 mph or faster, the engine would stay nice and cool. Believe you me, I certainly did not worry about the speed demons that day... I was worried about all the construction and toll slowdowns.

It was rather thrilling... watching the temperature gauge rise, sweating my ass off since I was pumping heat through the car (and away from the engine), and just hoping that I would make it through the toll booth and out of traffic before my car entirely overheated.

The only thing worse than the fast drivers in Chicago are the times when nobody can move at all!

[autodata]

The big problem is that the lake makes a choke point, forcing everyone going east or south into a narrow set of expressways through shitty areas. Heading north is much, much easier because there are a variety of roads to choose from. For instance, you can take 41 up and skip 294 altogether. The southern chicago metro area is also not known for being the most upscale (do you like my tact?), so the drivers there are worse and less considerate.

[Moogs]

Welcome to my little corner of traffic hell.

In the last ten years the population in and around the city, and the amount of business development in and around the city has sky-rocketed, leaving the roads far behind. I shit you not, loonatic speeders aside (I'm used to people passing me like I'm standing still... while going 80 fucking MPH) the congestion on our roadways has to be second only to LA and Atlanta. LA because it's just always been attrocious, Atlanta because the roads were designed by people on Acid.

I swear, every friggin time I go downtown on a weekday, rush hour on the major arteries extends (and I'm not making this up) from about 6:00 am to 10:30 am. From 10:30 to 11:30 it's just "heavy". Then from 11:30 to about 2:00 it's rush hour (which can mean bumper for several miles at a time). 2:00 to 3:00, just heavy. 3:00 - 8:00, rush hour again. It's fucking incredible. I have NO IDEA why we don't have a shooting on the highways every friggin day. If I had to drive down there, I'd kill myself inside a week.

The more amazing part: we really do have a pretty hefty public transportation system. Probably a dozen train line arteries running into the city from every compass point, with trains running on the hour and every half hour during the morning and late afternoons... we have plenty of bus routes even in the burbs.

Yet it's like every living person on earth is on the highway (or so you'd think). Even just driving from suburb to suburb in the morning (never going near the city) is nerve-racking on the afore-mentioned 294/94. Everyone, and I mean everyone, drives a minimum of 75-80mph, and many closer to 90 mph. The 100+ are pretty rare but obviously everyone notices them when the go by. Or you notice poor grandma, wondering why she ever got on this God-forsaken roadway, as people blast by her Reliant-K (ripping the vinyl roof trim off as they go) while she tops out at 58 mph.

[DMBand0026]

My commute to work takes me on 3 different toll/expressways. Yes, sometimes it's scary, but this is part of what makes Chicago so great.

Some intestates are notoriously known for being akin to the Indy 500 during overnight hours, namely I-55/Stevenson and parts of I-290/Ike. People are regularly caught speeding on some parts of those roads and are nailed for doing 100+mph.

The biggest problem that I've heard from people isn't just the drivers being crazy, but the actual roads being confusing. We don't call our intestates by their alphanumerical names around here, we made up new (better?) names.

I-55 is the Stevenson
I-94 is the Edens
I-90 is the Northwest tollway...until you hit O'Hare where it becomes the (John F.) Kennedy until it meets up with I-94 south of the loop and becomes the Dan Ryan
I-294 is the Tri-State
I-290 is the (Dwight D.) Ike
I-88 is the Ronald Regan
I-355 is the North/South tollway

The south end is more confusing than anything else because 94 meets up with 80 and for a short time is 80/94, aka the Tri-State. Than there's the Skyway, Elgin/O'Hare expressway (which doesn't go to Elgin or O'Hare...they just never finished it).

To make matters worse, you have to figure out which ones to pay tolls on and which ones are free.

Than there's the old adage; "There's only two seasons in Chicago, winter and construction."

[Moogs]

Yah, what's worse is when you only know the numbers or only the names and people giving you directions know the opposite set. Had that happen several times.

"So then you get on the Stevenson..."

"Wha... wait a minute, you mean 290?"

"No noo, that's the Eisenhower"

"Eisenhower? The entire interstate system is named the Eisenhower."


And I give as good as I get

"OK, just hop on 294, then take the split over to 41... from there you will hit the Edens, then merge at the junction and...."



But seriously, as messed up as it is at times, I find Atlanta (and I lived there for quite a while once upon a time) to be far more confusing in how it's roadways are laid out. At least once you're around the city of Chicago, almost everything is on a N-S, E-W grid. Relatively few diagonals or roads that loop around to nowhere.

I am pretty sure half of Atlanta's feeder roads end up in the Event Horizon, crushing all who enter, never to be heard from again....

[SKMDC]

Listening to Chicago traffic reports is a singular treat. In addition to deciphering the names of the roads (that DmBand0026 noted) to their route number.
You have many points of interest like Hubbard's Cave, the Hillside Strangler, the Merge, The S curve on Lake Shore, the Steel Bridge, and the usual back-up on the Eisenhower (due to my hometown's unwillingness to allow 290 widened to 4 lanes here) Not to mention that each road also has shortened names, The Ike, The Stevie. The Tri-State.
And then there are descriptions unique to Chicago, Gaper's Block, Carbeque (which has been banned) and a few others that I forget.

[Moogs]

OMG! Good call SKM... I have been living here over twenty years, and to this DAY, I STILL cannot understand the gibberish that's spewed at me during the traffic reports. It's like that little mustached guy from the 90s who used be in the TV ads where he'd read the disclaimer at about 9000 mph... all I ever get out of it is "out to OHare" and "In from the Junction". Everything else is gibberish.


Carbeque...

[DMBand0026]

You guys remember the Hillside strangler? Remember how the Illinois state tollway authority said it was fixed? Remember how they're all lying sacks of crap?

Very true what SKMDC says...and we have the most strange landmarks around here. If you're not familiar with the area, you're pretty screwed.

There's the Bensenville Bridge, the Northlake Water tower, Cal-Sag bridge, the avenues, circle interchange. Traffic reporters like to refer to toll booths as "cash boxes" and will regularly refer to them in their reports.

A typical report (of just the Tri-State during morning rush) will sound a little something like this: Big delays on the Tri-State this morning going northbound is at a crawl at Cicero all the way up to the 83rd street cash box, ties up again around the Stevenson, you'll tap the brakes around the 290 ramp and it's a parking lot from the water tower all the way up too and through O'Hare.

Our traffic reports take so long in the mornings. That's just one direction of one road, they still have all the other major (and some not so major) roadways to cover.

[Moogs]

They ought to just cut through the subterfuge and say "unless you're on 88 this morning (or whatever the lucky road happens to be), you're screwed."

[DMBand0026]

Yeah, that's pretty much the way it goes around here. The thing is, most mornings there is no lucky road, you're just screwed. I'm listening to WBBM right now waiting for a traffic report. I'll try and catch some of it and type it out to the best of my ability...which is limited.

In the meantime check this out. It's a map of all the intestates that run through Chicago. It shows travel times, speeds, construction, toll booths, and other random crap.

For the record: dark green is 55mph+, light green is ~35mph, yellow is ~10-15mph, red is under 5mph/completely stopped. It's not too exciting now, but take a look at it tomorrow morning around 7am, the thing looks like a friggin Christmas tree there's so many different colors.

Welcome to Chicago. I'm proud to call it home.

[Moogs]

Greatest town on earth....

[psmith2.0]

Many days at work, I listen to the WLS 890AM stream on my Mac. And during Roe Conn's show, I always listen to Christina Filiaggi's traffic reports...it's always neat to hear reports from other places.

After nearly two years (I first began listening when it was still Roe and Garry), I've gotten so familiar with locations and major roadways.

I feel like I could probably go to Chicago and sorta find my way around in a pinch.



I know the major freeways and what appear to be the major surface street connectors and downtown in-and-outs.

Here in town today, we had an 18-wheeler (hauling concrete blocks, no less) lose control, slam into the median, cause accordian wrecks behind him, the CAB became disconnected from the chassis and skidded sideways down the freeway, flying concrete blocks hit about seven or so cars and both lanes of I-24 through totally closed for hours and hours.

A hellish day, traffic-wise. But no one was killed, miraculously!

http://chattanoogan.com/articles/article_76244.asp

http://wrcbtv.com/news/news.cfm?DID=15801

[DMBand0026]

I don't mean to insult you Paul, but it's really hard to get around here without being confused, even for those of us who have lived here all our lives. It's just not easy. Although, you'd certainly recognize things as you saw them...or sat next to them for an hour.

"Ohhh, there's the Bensenville Bridge!"

<one hour passes>

"Argh!!! I can't believe I'm still on the Bensenville Bridge!"



There's also the magically changing expressways/tollways. You can be driving on one road and 30 seconds later be on a different expressway entirely without even realizing it. The confusion happens a lot where the 290/53 extension split off into 355, ILL 53, and I-290.

It's cool that you listen to a Chicago station, I've always wanted to listen to other stations from around the country, but I'm just not sure how to find them. If I may recommend checking out WGN Radio, Paul. They're the big gun here in Chicago and they're great to listen to. They're a privately owned station so you don't get any of the crap that you'd hear listening to a Clear Channel station or anything like that. It's really nice, a great overall station.

[SKMDC]

Originally Posted by DMBand0026 A typical report (of just the Tri-State during morning rush) will sound a little something like this: Big delays on the Tri-State this morning going northbound is at a crawl at Cicero all the way up to the 83rd street cash box, ties up again around the Stevenson, you'll tap the brakes around the 290 ramp and it's a parking lot from the water tower all the way up too and through O'Hare.

pretty good

[SKMDC]

Originally Posted by DMBand0026 I don't mean to insult you Paul, but it's really hard to get around here without being confused, even for those of us who have lived here all our lives. It's just not easy. Although, you'd certainly recognize things as you saw them...or sat next to them for an hour. "Ohhh, there's the Bensenville Bridge!" <one hour passes> "Argh!!! I can't believe I'm still on the Bensenville Bridge!" There's also the magically changing expressways/tollways. You can be driving on one road and 30 seconds later be on a different expressway entirely without even realizing it. The confusion happens a lot where the 290/53 extension split off into 355, ILL 53, and I-290. It's cool that you listen to a Chicago station, I've always wanted to listen to other stations from around the country, but I'm just not sure how to find them. If I may recommend checking out WGN Radio, Paul. They're the big gun here in Chicago and they're great to listen to. They're a privately owned station so you don't get any of the crap that you'd hear listening to a Clear Channel station or anything like that. It's really nice, a great overall station.

I've listened to WGN, good god! 40 years now, (like my father before me) but I swear to god when they let traffic-babe Anne Maxfield get away, well let's just say I actually try to listen to Mike North (who has a voice like a sweathog, from welcome back kotter) just to hear her dulcet tones. Unfortunately she does news now, oh how I long to hear her speak of an overturned semi.......I get verklempt.

[psmith2.0]

I know - along with Enron and Haliburton and others - that Clear Channel is a current, popular boogeyman among many...what gives?

I'm not sure what WLS is or isn't (and don't really care, frankly)...if the shows I enjoy are on it, do I suddenly stop liking them and go to a channel that doesn't have that "crap like Clear Channel"?



We're not talking music here, are we? Because WLS AM is simply talk/news.



Next, you'll be telling me to listen to Air America. And then you're gonna get a beating.

[SKMDC]

Yeah, WGN is all talk, news AND CUBS!

when I was a kid WLS (wold's largest store?) was my music station. Larry Lujack....the silver dollar survey......

WGN has had the same format for almost 50 years until just recently when they axed the noon farm report. (the hogs and frogs as the late unle booby used to call 'em) I'm am tremendously knowledgeable for all things AG, for a city slicker.

The only thing I don't like about WGN is Spike, but that's because I grew up listening to his sorry shit back in Iowa, all he seems to talk about now is how rich he is.

Also after 9 p.m. (central time) they have a talk show with Milt Rosenburg.
He may be the smartest person I've ever heard on radio, yet is entertaining with out talking down to his audience or dumbing it up. catch a few minutes of his show and remember that WGN is the top 5 most listened to stations in the country. so much for the lowest common denominator theory.

[psmith2.0]

I'll give WGN a listen tomorrow then.

I miss KFI 640AM from L.A. (John and Ken, AND where I originally heard Phil Hendrie, six or seven years ago). Every now and then, I'll listen to it in the early morning.

Ain't the Internet just the coolest?

[DMBand0026]

Originally Posted by SKMDC Yeah, WGN is all talk, news AND CUBS! WGN has had the same format for almost 50 years until just recently when they axed the noon farm report. (the hogs and frogs as the late unle booby used to call 'em) I'm am tremendously knowledgeable for all things AG, for a city slicker.

I grew up listening to Uncle Bobby because all my mom ever listens to is WGN. I got hooked on it. When I listen to the radio it's either public radio or WGN, I'll take in some country music every once in a while, but I have an iPod for music. I loved Uncle Bobby, it was a truly sad day when he passed away, I'll never forget him though, he was one special man.

Originally Posted by SKMDC The only thing I don't like about WGN is Spike, but that's because I grew up listening to his sorry shit back in Iowa, all he seems to talk about now is how rich he is.

I like Spike actually, you're right, he's into gadgets and seems to parade that on the air quite a bit. However, deep down he's got a great heart and he's pretty fun to listen to.

Steve Cocharn is just absolutely hilarious, I really enjoy listening to him.

John Williams is a little goofy, but he's got some good ideas.

Milt is truly awesome, beyond intelligent, and very entertaining. A great listen.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by ironlung So I moved to champaign recently for graduate school, and decided to go to chicago the other day... it was even worse than indianapolis.

Indy's not that bad once you get used to it. For the first month or so after I moved here (I moved from a very small town), I was terrified driving a good bit of the time. Once you adjust, though, Indy isn't bad at all (just avoid Monument Circle--it's basically Indiana's version of Hell on the road).

Everything I've heard about Chicago (esp. from people who live here in Indy) is that the driving is the worst they've ever seen, though.

[SKMDC]

I admit to an anti-spike bias, growing up with him and all....
but Cochrane or John Williams should be on during morning drive...

and we've left someone out! the sexy sexagenarians Kathy & Judy......I am a Girlfriend!

For those who don't know Bob Collins, he was the highest rated radio personality in America, (non syndicated, although he wiped up Stern's NYC ratings) and he crashed his airplane on a building up on the north shore, it was wall to wall coverage on all the channels here for four or five hours in spite of the fact that it was speculation that it was his plane. His own station as well as the sister TV station covered his demise. It was very surreal and ultimately very sad. He was beloved.

[SKMDC]

Originally Posted by fcgriz Everything I've heard about Chicago (esp. from people who live here in Indy) is that the driving is the worst they've ever seen, though.

I would vote for Boston or Tel Aviv.

[ironlung]

It seems that there are a lot of people from chicago here. SKMDC, in a three lane road I keep myself in the middle usually so that people coming into the road on the right wont be impeded and people can still pass me on the left. I guess i wasnt clear. Besides the speeding aspect, I think its dangerous passing on the right because people dont like to check their right blindspots and because people coming into the road would be impeded. I think the chicago police should start using IR speed cameras like they do in europe, theyll make a lot of money!
I was wondering if you guys could tell me some place right outside chicago where I could park and take the train, so that I could avoid chicago traffic! Im at urbana champaign, 100 miles south of chicago. I could take the amtrak train from champaign, but that only goes twice a day. I was thinking if it would be possible to park my car outside the city somewhere, and take public transportation. Thanks!
Part of my reason for choosing UIUC for graduate school was so that I could go to chicago for music and food. However, if I keep driving to chicago I feel that ill lose all my hair!

[SKMDC]

where I57 and I94 (the bishop ford and the dan ryan? I have no clue)merge is the 95th street station, the southern terminal end for the EL. The red line will take you to the Cell, Chinatown, The Loop*, Mag-Mile (apple store) Wrigley/Wrigleyville, up to Evanston and my wife's sacred Northwestern University and in the Loop you can connect to anywhere else.

*another interesting Chicago tidbit: the different EL (subway) trains meet downtown Chicago and form a Loop. Inside this oval is technically the loop, outside it, you're just "downtown". The boundaries are Wabash to the east, Lake Street to the north. Wells on the west, and Van Buren to the south.

The cross (east-west) presidential streets all take you downtown if you head east on them. Likewise the Great Lakes named streets will take you to the "magnificent mile" area if you take them east. (toward the lake)

edit=one last piece of Chicago trivia, The Windy City does not stem from the wind (or as it's called "the Hawk" as in "you can really feel the hawk today" or "the hawk is really coming in off the lake today") but comes from over a hundred years ago when Chicago hosted the Columbian Expedition, and as Chicago was beating it's chest a bit, proud of it's new found hipness with world travelers, a New York newspaper, tired of all the braggadocio and bluster pinned us with that moniker and it stuck.

Of course it is F*CKALL windy here, especially this time of year when the hawk has its claws out.

[Stone Of Love]

Coming from Detroit, it seems to me that you all in Chicago drive to F'n slow!!!!

I'm always bitching at some guy who won't get outta my way when I'm in IL!

I guess its all perspective. ;-)

[SKMDC]

Originally Posted by Stone Of Love Coming from Detroit, it seems to me that you all in Chicago drive to F'n slow!!!! I'm always bitching at some guy who won't get outta my way when I'm in IL! I guess its all perspective. ;-)

No the guy speeding behind you is "F*ckin' crazy" and the guy in front of you not allowing you to speed is a "F*ckin' assh*le"!