Tag Archives: highways

Driving through places over and over again – and never stopping there

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There is a category of places that we know but we do not know. In the United States where driving is a daily part of life, people regularly pass through neighborhoods, communities, and places in which they rarely or never stop. It is just along the way. The driver is just driving through. What do we know about such places? A few thoughts, with the example of Gary, Indiana in mind as I have driven back and forth past Gary many times (and only stopped there a few times).

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  1. We are limited to what we can see from a moving vehicle. Yet, we can see some things while driving by, even at fast highway speeds. We tend to see what is along major roads, which can include road signs, billboards, big box stores, exits and intersections, some smaller commercial and residential properties. Some of the signs and properties try to get our attention, often to tell us about a brand, product, place, or attraction. This might tell us about the biggest things to see and do. Passing by Gary via highway, I can see a minor league baseball stadium, steel mills, and some bigger downtown buildings. I can see highway exits and the kinds of establishments that gather there. I see signs for an airport and a few other things to do.
  2. We hear or tell stories about these places. I have read about Gary, heard about Gary, talked about Gary. Some themes: created out of sand dunes as an industrial suburb, steel mills, the home of the Jacksons, decline and white flight, limited development and reinvestment, and new ideas for revitalization. As I drive by, how does what I see contribute to or refute those stories? How much am I fitting what I see to a narrative I already have?
  3. The few stops I have made are different than just driving by. Setting foot in a community, driving at slower speeds and maybe walking around, provides a different experience. So does talking to people or taking a tour. It helps to slow down, get to a pedestrian level, and have time to observe and interact. (See earlier posts about how to know a suburb or community – first steps, deeper steps.)

I could come up with a list of many other communities where the same is true: I have driven through it or passed by it and know relatively little about it. And if we tend to emphasize getting to our destination rather than seeing what is on the way on the journey, we could go through or by places hundreds or thousands of times. Highways do not facilitate getting to know places; this seems to be part of the argument about what happens to Radiator Springs in the Pixar film Cars. Trains may offer different views (and maybe some more stops) at similar speeds while airplanes allow people to just hop even faster over places without even seeing them.

There are ways this could be addressed. Could we get more information about places as we pass them? This is hard to do on road signs. How about voice explanations in maps or GPS systems? How about using the voices of local residents to describe their community and tell stories of what has happened?

How do Americans think highways are funded?

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How would Americans prefer to pay for the highways and roads they use? The Chicago Tribune suggests raising tolls perpetually is not a good way to go:

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The Illinois Tollway board is in the process of implementing a 45-cent toll increase for I-Pass users, meaning a 70-cent toll today could become $1.15 in 2027.

And the toll hikes won’t stop there. Starting in 2029, the proposal to be considered by the Illinois Tollway board sets up CPI-indexed toll hikes every two years.

Wait a minute.

Transit fares aren’t being indexed to inflation. Why tolls? Even if this is allowed by the state, ongoing toll hikes should not be part of the tollway’s plan right now.

Tolls may not be a favored funding method in general but even worse in Illinois is the original promise that highway tolls would go away once the bonds that helped fund construction were paid off.

The editorial also mentions the gas tax which helps fund roads. But with high gas prices, having a higher gas tax in Illinois compared to other states is not popular.

How about funneling more road money to mass transit? This is a popular idea among some who argue mass transit can more efficiently move larger numbers of people and reduce the need to drive. But the American public tends to drive and not use mass transit.

Highways and roads do not just appear. The federal government provided a lot of money to fund the interstate system. Roads need to be built and maintained. The old Chicago joke regarding the two seasons of winter and construction requires money.

Should driving be free? Are tolls offensive because they make obvious that driving is costly? Drivers know their personal costs for driving – gas, insurance, maintenance – but may not think much about infrastructure costs. Drivers may not like tolls, particularly ones that increase in price, but they will likely pay for roads one way or another.

See “regular people” along America’s older highways

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Drive the highways created before the interstates and one author who drove all of US 41 says you can see America:

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“You see a whole swath of the country that people on the coasts don’t,” says Clott, whose fascination with 41 dates back to his boyhood in Northwest Indiana…

Once Clott reached Miami, he’d taken a journey through a country he never would have seen on an interstate highway.

“You see regular people,” he says. “You don’t just see tourists. Even though you’re less than five minutes away from an interstate, you see a different America.”

The interstates have a life of their own. High speeds and limited impediments. Certain amenities available at rest areas and exits.

Many interstates trace paths from earlier highways that also sought to connect major population centers. These highways had sections of faster speeds and no stops but they also tended to go through communities and had stops there.

Is seeing “regular people” and “a different America” because of the different routes of these earlier highways or the different driving pace or the different attractions? One way to interpret the statements above is that these old highways are not the typical routes so drivers will see different things. Perhaps they see what is less glamorous or could see more day to day activity than tourist activity. As noted later in the article, US 41 will still help see Chicago but see different parts than you might via the interstate or common tourist routes.

Would these older highways be considered the back roads of the United States? In many communities, they are necessary daily roads for people and goods. They may not be scenic roadways in many places. They may not be meandering two lane roads. But they do offer an alternative to where the mass of drivers are.

(I have driven on US 41 in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Florida. While it has its points that are more highway-like with higher speeds and fewer lights, there are also plenty of moments of going right through communities.)

57+ years to build a highway ramp

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A significant construction project means a new interchange will be open between I-294 and North Avenue. It was supposed to happen decades ago:

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The tollway collaborated with Cook County on a broader North Avenue interchange project. Along with the ramp, it includes realigning County Farm Road and rebuilding and reconfiguring North Avenue, Lake Street, Northwest Avenue and I-290 Frontage Road.

“I’m surprised (the ramp) was never built originally when they built the tollway seeing as North Avenue is so busy,” Sherwin said.

A major hotel was built in Northlake near the Tri-State in 1968 “on the promise that they were going to get the ramp. The ramp didn’t come (and) the hotel went bust,” Sherwin recounted, adding the site is currently home to Concorde Place seniors residence.

“Here we are 57 years later; we finally got the ramp open.”

The best time for a lot of infrastructure improvements is in the past, before there is significant need now. This particular interchange has always had a weird convergence of roadways. Perhaps a ramp built decades ago could have made traffic flow better.

But this is easy to say in the present. What stopped the ramp from being constructed in the past? Money is often an issue; who will pay for the road improvement? Or the possible money needed to be spent elsewhere on bigger issues. Maybe the issue was land. Highway interchanges can be limited by the space they have. It is easier to construct interchanges when there is plenty of room for ramps and land is cheap.

And what happens if the ramp is a success and more and more people use it? Building more lanes and road capacity can lead to more use. Those who got on and off the highway elsewhere or who used alternate roads may now choose this improved interchange. The new interchange will alter the dynamic traffic conditions…hopefully for the better.

Fatal car crashes on six Chicago area highways rank among the most in the country

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A report from a law firm looking at the highways with the most fatal accidents in the last three years puts six Chicago area roadways among the country’s top 100:

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Here are the highways numbered by their national rank and with the number of fatal accidents listed at the end:

4. I-94 in Cook County, 52

20. I-80 in Lake County, 33

41. I-57 in Cook County, 26

53. I-290 in Cook County, 24

89. I-294 in Cook County, 21

89. I-90 in Cook County, 21

Driving is one of the riskiest behaviors Americans regularly engage in given the number of accidents and deaths that occur each year. One estimate of 2024 fatal crashes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggested just under 40,000 people died last year.

But to get around metropolitan areas in the United States almost requires using highways. Driving is required in most places and people might be able to avoid faster roads for specific destinations or shorter trips. However, completing a lot of trips – whether suburb to suburb or in and out of major population centers – will involve highway travel.

There are already numerous efforts to make highway driving safer. Vehicle features. Signs. Public service announcements. Traffic enforcement. Are there other methods to try or is this more of a question of public will – are people willing to change driving habits and our public infrastructure in order to reduce the number of deaths?

China leads the world in highway miles – and has 24 hour traffic jams

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With a lot of highway miles comes the potential for large traffic jams?

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China boasts more than 100,000 miles of motorways – more than any other country in the world.

A staggering achievement, considering the country had no motorways at all in 1988.

And one city recently hosted a large traffic jam:

Footage shows the 24-hour traffic jam at Wuzhuang toll station, which left thousands stranded with “no way out”…

According to authorities, roughly 120,000 vehicles passed that day.

The unusually long queues were caused by millions of locals returning home after a national holiday, which spans across eight days from October 1 to October 8.

Do highways inevitable lead to traffic? Or would any amount of planning be able to avoid having traffic jams?

It would be interesting to consider how traffic jams are perceived around the world. I am familiar with the American experience and glad to not have to commute via highway every day.

And in today’s world of social media, is there a point where a traffic jam – typically regarded as an annoyance, an unhappy time – could become a chance to gain status and followers? The absurdity of being stuck for hours could lead to commentary and interaction.

Does that autonomous semi also make stops at Buc-ee’s?

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Drivers traveling at night between certain American cities have some new company on the roads:

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Autonomous trucks are now driving highways at night, hauling food and dairy between Dallas and Houston…

Aurora’s trucks do have a human behind the wheel, just in case. So do autonomous Kodiak trucks operating on highways from Dallas to Atlanta, Houston and Oklahoma City—some of which drive at night…

Aurora is now testing the system between Phoenix and Fort Worth. The journey takes around 16 hours and typically requires two drivers to complete, with a stop for a handover. Federal law allows long-haul truckers to drive a maximum of 11 hours in a 14-hour period, followed by a mandatory 10-hour break.

There are a lot of potential consequences of this. One I have not seen discussed is what happens to the road trip establishments and culture in the United States. Drive any highway in the United States and they tend to be lined with certain establishments: gas, food, and lodging options, plus tourist sites. Drivers count on these and communities, businesses, and employees benefit from the revenue.

If more vehicles are autonomous, do these roadside features disappear? Or do the people still riding in the vehicles – they may or may not be in trucks, would likely still be in passenger vehicles – still need or want to stop? What if being in a vehicle becomes even more about only what is inside the vehicle; a person enters at the start of the journey, does what they want in the moving room, and only exits at the end? Or perhaps the autonomous vehicle will have to stop to recharge batteries?

Offices along I-88 helped Naperville become a boomburb; current mayor says they are ripe for redevelopment

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What might the parts of Naperville along I-88 look like in the future? The current mayor has some thoughts:

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“There is no doubt that the I-88 corridor will be the largest and most significant redevelopment opportunity in our city’s history,” Wehrli said.

A new study calls the corridor the only “opportunity area” of its scale left in the city. Much of the corridor in Naperville — once known as its “Innovation Corridor” — was developed with single-use, low-density office space and is underused and “underperforming relative to its potential,” according to the report by AECOM, a consultant hired by the Naperville Development Partnership.

“Nearly half of the city’s existing jobs are located in the corridor, which the report noted was an ideal location for certain high-growth industries,” Wehrli said. “Sectors like: ag and food tech, biotech, pharma, life science, energy, fintech, quantum and advanced computing, tourism, sports and hospitality.”…

Among its recommendations, the study suggests developing a new corridor brand identity and creating a special zoning district along I-88 that would allow for a more dense, mixed-use, pedestrian- and transit-friendly environment.

“The study sets aspirational goals that add 15,000 high-paying jobs in the corridor by 2045 if we target these industries,” Wehrli told a business-friendly audience.

Three features of this report strike me:

  1. The emphasis on quality jobs is not a surprise. The jobs that came in the 1960s with Bell Labs and then other companies helped provide Naperville with a solid jobs base and a higher status. For a community that is used to having these jobs, it sounds like they want more of the same.
  2. The mention of mixed-use development is intriguing. Naperville has limited the amount of housing in this corridor in the past. How much housing would they allow? What residents are they hoping to attract? How many large-scale mixed-use developments do they think the corridor can handle?
  3. There is mention of zoning and branding unity that would be more “pedestrian- and transit-friendly.” Could this become a kind of linear neighborhood linked by mass transit and walking/biking paths? For decades the corridor was marked by proximity to a busy interstate that grew from two lanes in each direction in the late 1950s to four or more lanes each direction today. Could these new developments have significant connections to each other that go beyond cars and driving?

The diamond interchange advances in the Chicago region

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A new diamond interchange, the fourth in Chicagoland, just opened in the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

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Illinois Department of Transportation leaders unveiled a new diverging diamond design they predict will expedite travel for drivers on the interstate and local roads…

“The modern design is a proven solution to improve safety and traffic flow in a busy area like where we are today,” IDOT Secretary Omer Osman said…

The interchange dovetails with Rock Run Collection, a major Will County development that will include housing, retail, restaurants, offices, and the relocated Hollywood Casino Joliet…

A diverging diamond has a smaller footprint than conventional cloverleafs and is cheaper to build.

Innovation to keep all the vehicles moving smoothly between interstate and a local major road.

What other major roadway changes could help speed up traffic and increase safety? Adding lanes does not necessarily speed up traffic. The Chicago region has plenty of left-turn on green signal only lanes that help reduce certain crashes. Protected bike lanes are only found in a few denser places.

Is the answer in better vehicle technology? Vehicles that talk to each other and/or driverless cars? Smaller or lighter vehicles?

Another possible solution is to reduce the amount of driving. This could be hard in sprawling suburban areas, like where these diamond interchanges are located. Introducing more mass transit options in the region is possible but it is costly, is harder to implement in the suburbs, and it might not find favor among residents.

The drivers at this busy interchange may come to appreciate their new diamond among the asphalt. Others may want to wait for more innovation that improves travel through suburbia.

The new 10-to-4 office hours and commuting patterns

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When rush hour is continues to change:

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The traditional American 9-to-5 has shifted to 10-to-4, according to the 2023 Global Traffic Scorecard released in June by INRIX Inc., a traffic-data analysis firm.

“There is less of a morning commute, less of an evening commute and much more afternoon activity,” said Bob Pishue, a transportation analyst and author of the report. “This is more of the new normal.”

Now, there is a “midday rush hour,” the INRIX report found, with almost as many trips to and from the office being made at noon as there are at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Also, commuters have all but given up on public transportation. Ridership sank during the pandemic, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data shows, and never fully recovered.

The rush hour increasingly seems to be “traffic all the time!”

Since this has now been going on for a few years and also includes changes to truck use and ride sharing, what are cities and regions doing differently? What incentives do drivers and organizations have to choose other than drive by themselves when they want?

There does seem to be some possible good will to change traffic patterns when there are major issues, like significant highway repairs or the Olympics. When does regular traffic become a large enough issue that people start acting together?

Like I asked yesterday, are there cities and regions that do a better job at this than others?