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.