Chicago Need for Speed

Middle America highway driving typically stops just short of absolute, death by one thousand cuts, torture. This is the maddening dichotomy:

The flat topography is an invitation for speed. One, washboard straightaways create drag-racing type conditions. Two, the monotonous terrain is synonymous with Dennis' Place for Games 1980's style arcade video game racing simulations. Regardless of one's top-end speed, the eerie feeling of motionless remains. 

The scenery from the Appalachians to the Rockies is an endless loop of farmland, silos, and manufacturing plants. Mileage markers and the march of time are often the only indicators of actual movement. The speedometer mockingly reads 80 miles per hour, contradicting one's senses of sluggishly grinding through the region at 10 mph.

The caveat: the flat terrain enables law enforcement the ample sight lines and radar detection capabilities to effectively apprehend speeders. Such is the cruelty that is Middle West Interstate driving.

Chicago, the third largest city in the United States, emerges out of the cornfields, and towers over the surrounding prairie. The Chicagoland area presents particular sections of road that offer the ample coverage of vehicle traffic, gentle curvature, limited access, and virgin straightaway asphalt that are built for speed. That is, if operating a motor vehicle at a trajectory higher than the posted speed limit were legal.

Our intent is not to condone speeding. Our initiative is to present the top 5.5 locations for drivers to...um er ah...test the limits of highway construction and automobile engineering. Our selection of the real number 5.5 pays homage to the basic '55' speed limit.

5.5 South Lake Shore Drive

Motorcycles and sport bikes only. U.S. 41 - Lake Shore Drive is a fifteen mile long speed trap for automobiles. Police lay in wait underneath overpasses and along interchange off-ramps to ticket 'speeders,' on a road way that could easily handle 70 miles per hour traffic. 

The speed limit is embarrassingly low, not because of safety, but to preserve the landscaping and flowers that have been planted within the median [Mayor Daley would be livid if rock salt were to be splashed onto his precious orchid bed]. The speed limit is typically reduced to 40 mph during the winter months. This year, the limit was kept at 40 into the summer months due to the thousands of potholes that have ravaged The Drive. 

Still, motorcycle traffic appears immune to apprehension. Although four wheel motorists are regularly ticketed, Lake Shore from Soldier Field to 67th street is a renowned speedway for motorcyclists in the summer months. Sport bikes raring through the area in formation at 150 mph is the rule, not the exception from May to October. Apparently, law enforcement does not even attempt to combat the trend, conceding defeat and refusing to initiate any high-speed chase. 

List of things to do: purchase sport bike. Open up the throttle on Lake Shore Drive.

5. South Chicago Avenue

Interestingly, there are two Chicago Avenues. One is the east-west street that empties onto Lake Shore Drive after whisking motorists from the West Side through Near West loft-like yuppyville and onto the Magnificent Mile. The other is a diagonal, parallel to the Skyway, abutting warehouses, railroad tracks, White Castles, and shuttered buildings.

South Chicago Avenue is a neglected thoroughfare, made obsolete by the Chicago Skyway and the decline of American manufacturing that has decimated the Rust Belt. Still, the Avenue registers as a de facto meeting place for every South Side Chicago car club. 

The extensive spacing between traffic lights, and ample parking along this abandoned section of the Windy City produce a Fast and Furious, cinematic-like atmosphere for street racing.

Wanna Drag?

[If that were legal, of course]

4. Sheridan Road [Evanston-Lake Cook]

Arguably, the most pleasant drive in the Chicago area. Sheridan Road is not built for top-end, Indianapolis 500 type of speed. This is a Monaco Grand Prix of dips and do's, hairpin curves, and random straightaways. The landscaping through the North Shore Executive Belt is impeccable, and the two-lane excursion is buffeted by lush forestry and grandiose estates. Traffic lights are rare, and the stretch is wide open after nightfall.

North Cook and Lake County Sheridan Road is built for a performance automobile advertisement. 

3. I-294 Tri State [I-80 to 290/88 JCT]

Officials claim that the dearth of a regular exit pattern along the Tri-State Tollway is an indicator of both the age of the roadway - and the stunning growth of the Chicago area. The 294 bypass was built at a time where the underdeveloped vicinity was dominated by farmland. Hence, highway engineers balked at constructing a plethora of interchanges to nowhere. The highway's 'right-of-way' was designated strictly as a means to allow Wisconsin and Indiana interstate motorists to avoid Windy City congestion.

That was then. This is now.

The Tri-State has emerged as a critical link of local, Chicago area traffic, and the Tollway authority has responded by expanding capacity with additional lanes - rather than additional entry points. The lengthy 10+ mile spacing separating interchanges is a rare happening for the urban highway, yet extensive mileage between exits, and frequent rest-stop / oasis' are staples of tolled roads.

The Message: Stay on the Road. Pay tolls.

The combination of infrequent exits [fewer battles with slow, merging traffic], gentle curvature, adequate traffic to provide cover, and eight to twelve lanes of total thoroughfare manifest themselves in a Tri-State Tollway that is built for speed. The southern half of I-294 is the most conducive for a joy-ride, as the O'Hare section is a notorious bottleneck, and the northern portion is currently under construction. Also, the lower 294 vehicle counts from O'Hare to the Edens Spur enable law enforcement to easily get a beat on renegade speeders.     

2. Kennedy Expressway Reversibles

The thrill of accelerating through the two-lane reversibles within the Kennedy Expressway in the early morning hours is almost unmatched. The skyline views, dense neighborhood, curvature, and tight comfort of the imposing concrete jersey barriers act to exacerbate the sense of speed. The lack of shoulders and exit ramps is also an impediment to the stern Chicago copper intent upon satisfying his speeding ticket quota. The Kennedy reversible escapade is the dirty little secret of every Windy City car enthusiast.   

What guilty pleasure: the ecstasy of downshifting and blazing through a persistent day-time bottleneck, while Chicago sleeps. The feeling is of another time and place, as if one were able to stop time, reshuffling the world to meet his very own image.

1. I-90 Northwest [Jane Addams] Tollway

Spaceship.

Fittingly, the Northwest Tollway skirts past O'Hare airport, as the design of Interstate 90 allows for motorists to compete with aircraft - launching themselves skyward. The black asphalt, darkened suburban atmosphere, and exaggerated tollway lane markings recreate the appearance of an airport runway after sunset. Jane Addams matches the specifications of the Tri-State, with less curves. 

Outside of the Elgin toll plaza, the rolling hills of Northern Illinois present a beautiful landscape, atypical of flat-iron Midwest monotony. On the return, the pace quickens, and the urgent hustle of the Big City calls immediately after entry onto the I-90 tollway from Wisconsin. Speed is quite the necessity to maintain pace with Windy City, Land of Lincoln drivers.

One of the better parts of leaving a location, is actually returning home. 

Conclusions

A limited number of exits, accommodating terrain, and a reliable surface are obvious facilitators of quick traffic flow. Still, motorists should not discount the practicality of utilizing other traffic as a shield to move through an area in formation, preventing aggravating traffic stops. The section of roadway must maintain an adequate vehicle count, and the proper safety barriers before any operator attempts to test the limits of engineering.

Speeding as the lone car is an open invitation to appear in traffic court.

Chicagoland Bottlenecks

The persistent traffic congestion snarling Chicagoland transportation serves as both testimony to the Windy City as a major transportation hub; and to the glaring limitations of its roadway network. Local commuter traffic, tourists, commercial vehicles, and interstate travelers that must be funneled through the area as a consequence of the Great Lakes natural barrier - strain Chicago area roadways to capacity. 

Although U.S. infrastructure continues to crumble, following years of overuse and neglect, I am dubious to any reversal of this trend. The U.S. Treasury and its citizenry are spent - grappling with recession, the Iraq War, and a $700 billion bailout plan. Slackening petroleum demand, will further reduce highway funding, as gasoline tax revenue is vital to the overall transportation budget. 

We shall present our list of the five most maddening Chicago area bottlenecks:

#5 - Lake Shore Drive 

The Drive is intermittently transformed into the Lake Shore Parking Lot at various times of the day. The flash points are from the I-55 / Stevenson junction to Belmont Avenue. Specifically, Lake Shore Drive is a brutal grind of stop and go following Chicago Bears games at Soldier Field, and amidst normal rush hour periods. 

Avoid The Drive before and after all Bears games, as normal traffic flow between I-55 and Columbus is shut down with drunken football fan pedestrians, tailgaters, tour buses, and law enforcement. Soldier Field, along with the museum complex rests upon a small peninsula, with only one way out: Lake Shore Drive.

Normal rush hour periods are further complicated at the Wacker / Grand interchange leading into Chicago Avenue. Chicago Avenue is the lone signaled crossing between Grant Park and Hollywood. Also, the treacherous Oak Street Beach curve that marks the Gold Coast lay in wait to further confound motorists. 

Lastly, the diamond interchange at Belmont is an overused entry into the densely populated Lakeview neighborhood. The Belmont exit typically marks the beginning of the end for any visions of the open road, with commuters jockeying for position to access the area.

#4 - I-88 East-West [Reagan] Tollway

88 has been under construction for the past century. The tollway authority appears to be mocking motorists with a baffling program of widening, resurfacing, implementing open lane tolling, and resurfacing the mainline highway - yet again. Spanning six to eight lanes across, Interstate 88 represents a harrowing adventure from birth - at its beginnings at the 290/294 Hillside Strangler to Aurora. 

Featuring flat, washboard topography, extensive mileage separating interchanges, and lengthy straightaways -- Interstate 88 was built for speed. Ironically, average speeds rarely exceed 20 miles per hour during large portions of the work day. The Oak Brook toll plaza marks the nightmare, as Eisenhower and Tri-State feeder traffic must navigate the mixing bowl, dancing across lanes to enter the proper collection point.

The Reagan Tollway is a critical link between the DuPage suburbs, O'Hare, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Chicago Loop. The roadway is overused, as the only limited access option for the rapidly growing Naperville-Aurora residential municipalities and the commercial centers surrounding Oak Brook.

We must commend the Tollway Authority for its prescient design of the I-355 / 88 confluence. Rather than the two interstates sharing a section of road; 355 and 88 remain separated by concrete barriers. Although the sight of being sandwiched on both sides by six lanes of oncoming expressway traffic is an odd sight; certainly the design trumps the alternative.

Lazily funneling 355 and 88 traffic into a short dualplex 355-88 configuration would have been nightmarish.

#3 - I-90 / [94] Kennedy Expressway

MISSION: Your flight out of O'Hare is set to take off in two hours. You must travel to O'Hare airport from downtown Chicago within that specified time period. Sadistically, the Kennedy Expressway to 190 is the only link connecting the world's busiest airport to the cultural and commercial heart of Middle America. ABORT MISSION.

The Kennedy Expressway is an elevated highway that can be stacked with traffic at any time, at any place. The eight lanes of through lanes; and the center reversibles from the Loop to the Edens-Kennedy junction are hapless to mitigate the constrictions of the Chicago Plan: funnel all traffic into 90-94.

Northwest Side, Chicago Loop, Lake County, Wisconsin, Cook County suburban, and O'Hare motorists are forced to rely upon this dualplex as the only viable connection between these disparate areas. I would estimate that this Northern half of the 90-94 configuration legitimately serves a population footprint totaling ten million people.

Following the Edens junction, I-90 is the sole marker carrying The Kennedy. Kennedy traffic is collected into a maddeningly inadequate design of three lanes per direction at this point. Anything less than eight lanes of expressway traffic traversing a metropolitan area is the mark of a failing design and precipitates a highway engineering traffic flow debacle.

The Kennedy Expressway is privy to standstill, 5 miles per hour [at best] vehicle speed at any location, at any time.

     

#2: I-290 Eisenhower Expressway

The Kennedy Expressway, without the benefit of rush hour reversible lanes, landscaping, reliable surface work, or even basic lane markings.

This road is a disaster.

The Ike serves Chicago's Loop, West Side, and Cook/DuPage suburbs. 290 toils along, attempting to accommodate this enormous outlying population with a meager six, sometimes eight lanes. Whereas the Chicago Transportation Authority [CTA] blue line is a narrow distraction within the Kennedy carriage way, the CTA rails dominate a wide swath of the Eisenhower median - effectively thwarting any expansion with additional lanes.

290 emerges from the I-90/94 Circle Interchange, where commuters must battle with heavy truck traffic, barreling through the area. The menacing gauntlet is exacerbated by high speed expressway traffic being dumped into feeder lanes, and then forged into sharp, one-lane ramps that sky over and around the Circle. The interchange is a collection of wide-eyed tourists, lost suburbanites, and aggressive city dwellers, muscling themselves onto the Ike.

Still, the party has just begun.

Expect delays. All the time. The 88/290/294 Hillside Strangler is especially rough. Three of the most essential collectors and distributors of Chicago area traffic meet at this point; with 290 approaching the area with an interesting array of express lanes, local lanes, and a nearby Manheim road exit. The intense bottleneck arises as a consequence of this heavily utilized section being abruptly constricted into a narrow three lanes per direction through the Avenues [1st -25th]. 

The Hillside landfill and incinerator lay within one mile of the area, and the aroma of fresh garbage often permeates the air - symbolic of Interstate 290. 

#1 - I-90/94 Dan Ryan Expressway

Seven lanes of local and express designated traffic become two elevated, two-lane ramps after the I-55 / Cermak interchange going northbound [West] into the Loop. Interstates 55 and 290 converge into the area within one-half mile of each other - within one-half mile of downtown. 

Motorists must navigate express lanes, local lanes, surface street exit ramps, and interstate feeders through this brutal stretch. The roadway also features a lengthy curve, and drastic, man-made shifts in elevation. Locals attempt to speed through the area, while out-of-state drivers stymie the pattern by gawking at the Chicago skyline.

This stretch of road is to be avoided at all times, if possible.

Lake Shore Drive Road Work

Lake Shore Drive resurfacing from Irving Park Road to Foster is moving along ahead of schedule. The battered concrete section has been replaced with fresh asphalt. Lane markings have already been painted; and sprinkled over with reflective material.

Work remains to rehabilitate the diamond interchange exit ramps, and to add reflectors between the lanes corresponding to the signature Illinois Style: dash, two reflectors, dash, dash.

Cicero Avenue: Chicago Defined

Cicero Avenue is Chicago.

Illinois 50 runs approximately 70 miles from Kankakee to Skokie, but is identified only as Cicero to locals. The avenue defines the grit, promise, and trials of the City that Works. The namesake of the route is Cicero, Illinois - a working class, inner ring suburb made famous by mob figure, Al Capone. Cicero Avenue barrels unceremoniously through suburban sprawl, Midway Airport, urban decay, industrial-working class zones, and tight-knit middle income neighborhoods - delivering motorists at the doorstep of spectacular North Shore wealth.

Cicero is a perpetual bottleneck, running from four to six lanes across - dominated by truck traffic along its Chicago area length. The pattern is testimony to both the utility of this road 
and the shortcomings of the Chicagoland transportation network. The Windy City street grid features nary a diagonal connection between the Far West Side and North Side, nor a direct route connecting the West Side to the South Side. There is no 'inner belt' highway surrounding the City of Chicago - the I-294 Tri-State bypass is deep into Cook suburbia and useless to city traffic.

Hence, motorists must employ a combination of surface level routes towards this end - relying on The Eisenhower, Western, Cicero, and Lake Shore Drive to navigate this West to North/South Side pattern. Complicating matters is the fact that Midway Airport is inaccessible via any limited access highway. These flaws in the Chicago plan have established Cicero Avenue as a de facto expressway, precipitating the constrained traffic flow.

Although this pockmarked stretch of ravaged concrete and asphalt remains overused, IL 50 toils on without complaint, serving Chicago and unconditionally embracing its faults. Cicero carries traffic past the gangland, mob mentality that is embraced - yet abhorred by Windy City residents. Although the city does not officially mark, nor promote the site-benchmarks of organized crime; tourists and inhabitants remain somewhat enamored by the culture. This is evidenced by the large amount of established gangster tour companies.

Certainly, mob boss Al Capone traveled Cicero Avenue while solidifying power in Chicago and controlling the town of Cicero as a safe haven for criminal activity. With Chicago officials pressuring city mobsters, Capone achieved the unthinkable: an absolute takeover of Cicero government. The 1924 war over Cicero resulted in over 200 deaths and the ultimate installation of a puppet-mayor, loyal to Capone. The rigged elections were a spectacle of democracy: intimidated voters were greeted with tommy guns at town council and Capone was to personally shove all detractors down the steps of City Hall.

The rise of Al Capone, organized crime, machine politics, and government corruption are shadowy staples of Chicago life from 1920's Prohibition to the present. West Side Cicero Avenue abutting the Eisenhower is a notorious arena of prostitution, racketeering, and extortion. The gangster culture of Scarface has been replaced with a new generation of thuggery that will never be acknowledged in any glossy Chicago travel brochure. The bootlegging and speakeasies under girding Capone's empire have been unceremoniously exchanged for cancerous drug trafficking and crack houses - ruining particular West Side stretches of Cicero Avenue.

Ironically, Cicero may also lay claim to former resident, architect Frank Lloyd Wright [Wright's neighborhood annexed into Oak Park in 1902]. The Frank Lloyd Wright influence upon organic and Usonian home architecture is a striking feature of Chicagoland's residential neighborhoods. The bold, yet tranquil design of Wright properties that mesh with - rather than dominate nature, emerge as a stark contrast to the world of Capone.  

As Cicero Avenue treks northward, the lots enlarge and concrete gives way to greenery. Illinois 50 ends as Skokie Boulevard, cut off by U.S. 41 in Cook County. This is suburbia: land of BMW's, three-piece suits, and frolicking teenagers. This is the gateway to the North Shore: a fairy tale world of stately mansions, manicured lawns, and unfathomable riches.

It is only fitting that working-class, utilitarian, and under appreciated Cicero Avenue shall end here. This is Chicago: a city where industry and grit are revered, in the name of deliverance to a promised land. A city that both respects and dismisses the trials of its blue collar roots.  

Chicagoland Construction Projects

We have witnessed a renaissance of Chicago area roadway rehabilitation over the past decade. Recent, major infrastructure improvements include the Chicago Skyway rebuild, Dan Ryan project, the expansion of I-80/94, and the completion of I-355 to Interstate 80. The following is a list of jobs that remain underway:

I-88 / Reagan Tollway: Rebuild and widen from I-355 to West Aurora.

I-90 / Jane Addams [Northwest] Tollway: Reconstruct and widen from Rockford to WI.

I-94 / Edens: Resurfacing from Peterson to U.S. 41 - Tollway split.

I-94 / Tri-State Tollway: Rebuild and Widen from Edens Spur to Wisconsin border.

I-294 / Tri-State [North]: Additional lanes from O'Hare to Edens, rehab Touhy toll plaza.

I-294 / Tri-State [South]: Widening from 95th to 159th. Proposed interchange with I-57.

I-355 / Veterans Tollway: Resurfacing and additional lane added from I-88 to Ogden. 

The Illinois Tollway system is undergoing extensive reconstruction. Interstate 88 appears to be a perpetual work zone.

Sunset

Sunset at Saugatuck, Michigan. The Great Lakes are my ocean...

Lake Shore Drive Roadwork Cost Analysis

Quick math here.

The Lake Shore Drive rehabilitation between Irving Park and Foster is estimated at a cost of $6 million and is scheduled to be completed by Spring 2009. Irving Park marks 4000 North, while Foster is 5200. Generally, every 800 block represents one mile in the City of Chicago.

Hence, we are looking at $6 million to repave 1.5 miles of roadway. The Illinois Department of Transportation is mandating 6-9 months to resurface 1.5 miles of Lake Shore Drive.

This is a case study of inefficiency.

I recommend shutting down the mainline during late night hours and directing traffic to the LSD service conduit that parallels this highway.