Commuter News Roundup

Woman pays off 1976 parking ticket. The fine, which was $1 when the ticket was issued, increased to $5 after 72 hours, but didn’t compound itself after that. Hmm, I wonder what the current fine would be for each dollar in unpaid parking fines incurred in Chicago in 1976?

Filed under: Mass Transit, bus, chicago, Pace, parking, transportation

Pay-to-play on busiest Chicago streets

The City of Chicago will receive federal money to implement congestion relief tactics including bus-only lanes on key routes and increased parking meter rates downtown during rush hours.

The Chicago announcement reminds me of a recent article that addressed congestion pricing and similar options in the suburbs (I was unable to find the link, but I will update this post with the link should I find it).

Congestion pricing is increasingly being studied as a way to reduce the number of vehicles in busy areas and encourage alternate modes of transportation. It’s an attempt at letting the market decide the value of driving in premium areas at peak times.

Filed under: Congestion Relief, chicago, congestion pricing, Mass Transit

Potholes: portals to the center of the Earth

There is a pothole on the Tri-State Tollway in the second-to-rightmost lane, south of the Deerfield Road exit. This pothole is narrow but dangerous. Flying over it at 65 MPH, you’ll barely feel a jostle. But hit it at the “right spot” during the rush hour crawl at 10MPH and it’ll feel like you’ve just driven over a moon crater. This stretch of I-94 is under construction, so the hole should eventually be patched, but be aware.

There’s just something about the Tri-State and potholes. Last winter, several of them opened up between Route 60 and Route 22. There must be something about the paving material, coupled with heavy truck traffic, that makes this road surrender under wintry duress.

Chicago’s potholes are legendary. Potholes resumed their reign of terror over Lake Shore Drive in December, leaving injuries to cars and people in their wake.

Ordinary citizens can fight back by joining Operation Pothole – otherwise known as a web page with links to city, county and state resources. The city is tackling potholes head-on:

[Repair crews are] referencing a new, GPS-based, real-time map of more than 1,000 potholes. The map is based on the same city maps used to fight crime, only this time, the bad guy is the potholes that are phoned in to 311.

As for our lovely suburbs, the pothole problem is generally not as extensive but the buggers are still there. A Route 41 pothole took out my tire on a wet winter night in 2006 (note to motorists: electronic tire pressure monitors are wonderful things).

Lake County potholes can be reported to the municipality, the county, or the state. Provide as much information about the pothole as you can: name of street, name of closest cross-street, number of busted hubcaps lying on the shoulder near it (we call these “the pothole’s way of scrapbooking”) – anything that sticks in mind.

Filed under: Road Conditions, chicago, I-94, potholes, Tri-State Tollway