The 3 million commuters who work in downtown Chicago will now have a new trouble-shooting tool at their fingertips to help make the trip home smoother.
Don’t look for it on the radio dial, which is rather useless in the Loop area anyway because signals from the AM wavelength on which the most comprehensive radio traffic reports are carried simply can’t be picked up in the offices of most buildings downtown. Besides, as up-to-date as the Chicago area’s traffic reports are, they concentrate mainly on the expressway and tollway systems.
Starting with Monday evening’s rush period, real-time traffic reporting on the situation on downtown streets will be provided on-line by the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT).
It is called, aptly, “In the Loop,” and office workers can check it out before heading out the door at www.ci.chi.il.us.
That’s the address of the City of Chicago’s home page. Click on “Traffic,” which opens up the Mayor’s Weekly Traffic Bulletin, and then click on “In the Loop.” Getting Around suggests that commuters bookmark the page, which will be updated with breaking downtown traffic news between 3:30 and 5 p.m. weekdays.
“If, for example, there is a major accident on Ontario Street or some other key artery that feeds traffic onto the Kennedy Expressway, I want to get the drivers this information so they can change their route pattern before they are stuck in their cars going nowhere fast and blocking the access of emergency equipment to the scene,” said Thom Johnson, a CDOT assistant commissioner who created “In the Loop.”
Johnson, a former local television reporter and veteran traffic jock, will concentrate his efforts on the downtown area bounded by Division Street and Roosevelt Road. He will patrol the area each weekday, keeping in close contact with the Chicago police’s Loop traffic detail. At the first sign of trouble, Johnson will update “In the Loop” by filing reports from a cellular phone-linked laptop computer that he will carry while in his car, on foot, riding a CTA bus or pedaling a bicycle.
“My goal is to save people a lot of hours or aggravation,” Johnson said. “It will give drivers the option to stay at work a little longer if downtown traffic is a mess, and I hope it will also help cut down on pollution.”
The “In the Loop” page also contains a link to expressway travel times that use sensor loops buried in the pavement to estimate commuting times between various downtown and outlying points on the Kennedy, Edens, Dan Ryan, Stevenson, Eisenhower and Kingery Expressways, the Bishop Ford Freeway, Interstate Highway 57, Lake Shore Drive and the Tri-State Tollway. Those travel times are provided by the Gary-Chicago-Milwaukee Transportation Information Center, which offers a full range of transportation information at www.ai.eecs.uic.edu/GCM/GCM.html
Getting Around wishes “In the Loop” and its users happy trails, and we’ve already got some ideas to offer Johnson as the service premieres.
First, don’t limit the reports to automobile users. If service on Metra or Chicago Transit Authority rail lines is delayed significantly, post the information on the site. It’s a public service that Metra (www.metrarail.com) and the CTA (www.transitchicago.com) ought to–but don’t–provide on their own.
Finally, we’d like to see “In the Loop” up and running through the entire evening rush. The 3:30 p.m. starting time is appropriate, but why quit at 5 o’clock, when the real fun has just begun?
A crash-landing in Congress: The next time you find yourself cursing an airline or the Federal Aviation Administration because of a bad air-travel experience, also direct a few choice words at members of Congress.
House and Senate negotiators washed their hands last week of trying to reach a pact this year on legislation that would have provided the FAA with more than $50 billion to improve safety, fund airport improvements and modernize the nation’s air-traffic control system the next five years.
Funding in next year’s U.S. Transportation Department budget will keep airports operating next year as-is, which anyone who flew during the delay-riddled summer of 1999 can attest is pretty awful. The FAA, like any large and complex organization, requires a long-term funding stream to prepare for the future.
Transport helper: Grand Avenue from Columbus Drive to Wabash Avenue is scheduled to reopen to traffic Monday after a long closure due to construction of the Nordstrom’s complex and other development in the Michigan Avenue area. . . .
———-
See a problem on the area’s roads, trains, buses or at the airports? Write to Getting Around, c/o Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611-4041. E-mail jhilkevitch@tribune.com
