Today I had to make a trip into the Windy City at noon and decided the best method would be to drive partway and use the public transportation system for the remainder of the trip downtown to avoid road congestion and high parking fees. Although I could have taken a Metra Train directly from Westmont to Union Station I decided to stick to a tried and true method - from Westmont I drove to the Cumberland Ave Blue Line station via I-88/I-294/I-90, parked and took the 'L' in to the Loop, and did the reverse on return. My trip to the city was uneventful; however, the return trip at 5 pm put me in the height of evening traffic - which is an oxy-moron in Chicago as traffic is ALWAYS a bad state no matter what time of the day/week/year it is.
It took me 1.5 time slonger to drive home compared to my inward trip to the station. This led me to fume for the umpteenth time over the congestion of the expressways in Chicago and why it seems to get worse and worse each year.
According to quip I head on a sitcom recently "there are two seasons in Chicago - winter.....and road construction."
Wry, but true.
According to a report issued late last year Chicago ranks 3rd as worst in traffic delays amongst 437 urban areas studied in the continental United States. Chicago is just behind New York and Los Angeles when it comes to delays and slow moving trafic. The report attributed this dismal state due to a lag in the building of new roads to increasing traffic, and to a failing public transportation system. Personally I believe that until the Regional Transport Authority - the board overseeing public transportation for the Chicagoland area gets it's act together - Chicago will never be chosen as the pick city the for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
One of the main concerns of the deciding Olympic committee is moving large amounts of sports fans from venue to venue and although we've countered that concern with proof of how we handle hosting major sporting events by moving large crowds without incident (such the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, The Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, and the Chicago White Sox at US Cellular Field) we haven't proved that we can move the even larger crowds an Olympic event will attract.
And rising gas prices will only burden and already old and strained public transportation sytem.
On the bright side - rising gas prices WILL put a strain on the public transportation system and in an election year may FINALLY light a fire under the dormant derrierre of state legislature to invest serious captial in to making the Chicago transport system the envy of other world cities.
Hope, however, is the sustinance on which politicians greedily feed, leaving us with the bare bones of reality once elected.
Click here to see that video clip on the report on congestion in Chicago filed on CBS Chicago in September 2007:
No comments:
Post a Comment