The Dan Ryan
Construction has begun on the Dan Ryan in Chicago. They are going to be shutting down six lanes of traffic and IDOT is asking that cars use alternate routes and leave the remaining open lanes to the trucks. Well, people did a pretty good job of this today, and the alternate routes were backed up while the Dan Ryan was clear. So, as you can imagine, cars were taking the Dan Ryan. IDOT issued a statement saying that their goal was no cars on the Ryan and they were disappointed with the cars that were taking it. Well, I can't say that I blame the cars. If my commute time were going to be less taking the Ryan, then I think that I would take it over the alternate routes. There is also construction going on on at least one of the alternate routes and, in my opinion, it is not equipped to handle the extra traffic flow. Gabe said that most of the trucks were not taking the Dan Ryan, but instead were taking the toll road. I guess the toll system made a lot of money today. The Dan Ryan is the road that I take to school everyday, and unfortunately the alternate routes take about twice as long. Okay, so my commute is 20 minutes instead of 10, but a lot people have it worse than I do.
Comments
The whole "avoid the Ryan," "There is a way out. Reroute" campaign is pretty fun to observe. We live right next to the Ryan, but we don't rely on it that much. So far, I've benefitted from much lighter traffic than usual and will continue to use the Ryan as long as it is faster. IDOT's goal should be to move people and keep roads at capacity. If the commute time on the Ryan is half that of alternates, they should not be happy since the Ryan is not at capacity while other roads are over capacity. I guess it could be nicer for the construction workers, but either way...
Posted by: Gabe | April 4, 2006 8:07 AM