Chicago 2nd Worst in Traffic Jams and Delays
No one needs to tell us that Chicago has awful and unbearable traffic jams and congestion. We are familiar with sitting in traffic on any highway or street at any hour of the day or night. (I have sat in traffic jams at 2am) What we didn’t know is that Chicago ranked 2nd in a national study on the worst traffic in the country. (and by Chicago, we mean mostly the Suburbs) Los Angeles is the worst, they loose 72 hours a year in traffic. The 2007 Urban Mobility Report studied the number of cars on the roads and the travel times required to get around in the largest cities in America. (nothing is sexier than the study of traffic flow)
The charts I was able to find actually ranked Chicago 3rd on the list behind NYC and LA, rather than just LA like all the media outlets have been reporting. Chicago commuters loose on average 46 hours each per year sitting in traffic. Chicago drivers also waste 32 extra gallons of gas each sitting in that traffic on their highway of choice. In my car that’s 2 full gas tanks worth, and at current prices it adds up to an extra $100.00 per year. That shouldn’t break the budget, but who likes wasting money or gas at a time like this? Collectively we are spewing those extra 32 gallons of gas into the air as carbon emissions and getting nothing back. Not even the mobility we were promised when we bought our cars.
Chicago is a car loving town. I know of about 10 suburbs that have “crusin” nights for cars and many more have summer “car shows”. We all see the monster houses with 2, 3 or 4 car garages. Yes some are for storage but more are really holding cars. I think the 1950′s suburban boom was fueled by cheap oil and gas. (see the documentary Escape from Suburbia, it explains more) It started to change where people chose to live because more middle class Americans could afford a car for the first time. (around $1000.00 if you bought it used, $2,000.00 if it was new, insurance was not required then, and you could park anywhere for free, gas was arund $0.30 per gallon)
This led to Sunday drives and trips to places by car that were farther away than you would normally go in a day. At that time families lived closer to relatives and within walking distance to those necessities you needed in town. When cheap oil and affordable cars started changing things people discovered the potential of the suburbs.
You could buy a newly built home further out from the city for a lot less than you could in Chicago. People started migrating from Chicago to near suburbs first. (Berwyn, Cicero, Stickney, LaGrange, Westchester, Park Ridge and Lyons) Then when those were filled up the next generation of new home buyers just went out further. (Downers Grove, Darien, Hinsdale, Willowbrook, Oak Brook and Glen Ellyn) The next generation went further yet. (Naperville, Wheaton, Plainfield) and now we have colonized Aurora and Joliet as Chicago Suburbs. The new young couples today buy a home for under 200K with a yard, garage and a lot of bedrooms is go out to farthest reaches of the end of civilization like Minooka and Sandwich. Those towns do offer cheap housing at a good deal, but the price you pay every day is that you will spend 2 hours getting to work and back in traffic.
In past generations things worked out ok. The house you bought as a young newlywed became a highly valued asset over your lifetime multiplying it’s value by 10 times and civilization came to you, eventually… I am not so sure this will be possible for the next generation of Chicago home owners. It’s not because we don’t have enough land, we have endless supply there, but we don’t have the resources to support sprawl like that anymore. And we don’t have enough space on the roads for all these people going to and from their cheap suburban housing out in Minooka.
I reversed my family’s migration pattern and moved back into the city. (they were appaled by the way, nothing pisses of suburbanites like their kid moving into the same city their ancestors worked so hard to get out of) I live within walking distance of the EL and Metra and Bus service. I do own a car, but it sits in storage and I maybe drive it once a week. I know most Americans and almost all Chicagoans don’t like this kind of living. It’s still socially associated with the working class immigrants that were our ancestors working in factories and living a hard life. It isn’t very showy either, and suburbanites like showy. So it may be a bit of an embarrassment to my family but I think it is a smarter way to live.
How can more people in Chicago live smarter with transportation? Here are some ideas:
1. Live near your work: If you are a young person renting from year to year, find apartments really close to work. Like walkable if possible or just a 10 minute drive. Others of us in the Chicago area who are more established trade up houses every 5-10 years anyway, so why not make it a priority to live by your job? People move half way across the country for jobs, why would you not move to another suburb? It saves you a ton of money too, if that’s more of a motivator.
2. Travel at off-peak times: I know of more and more companies in Chicago offering a flexible schedule. And I see on the news that the roads are empty at 6:30 am, so take advantage of it. Adjust your travel to get out before the rush and save a ton of time.
3. Stop buying imported goods. What? Yes, the trucking business has exploded as we buy everything from China and have to truck it all over the country. Logistics try and make their runs more efficient, but face it, if we didn’t buy that stuff, and we bought locally produced stuff there would be far fewer 18 wheelers clogging our highways.
4. Drive with friends and neighbors. I am hesitant to use the word Car Pool, but you probably your neighbors and coworkers more than I like the people I sit next to on the CTA train or Bus. A lot more. Consider it a cake walk considered to public transportation, and you should try and just be nice, smile and ask about their kids.
If we don’t change our ways, we will soon be spending 2 hours each way to work and back rather than 1. Every year things just get worse. Do something about it and avoid the traffic and plan a more efficient life.