Traffic choked chicago (Cicero, Schaumburg, La Grange: home, tax, living)

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by tonythetuna

NO, THIS IS THE TOPIC HERE:



Here you are talking about NYC.

Give it a rest.

I'm not doublenickels sorry.

[tonythetuna]

Originally Posted by NYrules

Chicago nor IL has any money to widen roads unfortunantly all we can do it try to make what we have flow as best possible. Coordinated signals will push any given roadway to it's maximum potential. The traffic will be bumper to bumper but it should be moving at least. Plus at nearly 4 bucks a gal again, a car kept in constant motion will get better mileage than one racing red light to red light. The signals are the one variable here that we can change at a minimum cost. Widening roads however costs a fortune.

Widening roads are not needed. What is needed is to bring jobs back into the city so people don't have to drive to the burbs to work and to bring public transit usage even up to early/mid 90's level.

[tomcho]

No real comment except whatever truck they were filming that North Ave video from was huge. They were towering over other vehicles.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by NYrules

Chicago nor IL has any money to widen roads unfortunantly all we can do it try to make what we have flow as best possible. Coordinated signals will push any given roadway to it's maximum potential. The traffic will be bumper to bumper but it should be moving at least. Plus at nearly 4 bucks a gal again, a car kept in constant motion will get better mileage than one racing red light to red light. The signals are the one variable here that we can change at a minimum cost. Widening roads however costs a fortune.

You still haven't explained how you move huge volumes of traffic "quickly" through a dense grid where the main thoroughfares cross each other in half-mile intervals without either a) causing massive amounts of gridlock along one axis to prioritize the flow of the other, or b) creating huge arterial throughways like the ones you've pictured or provided videos for above. And don't say "coordinated lights" because they're already coordinated. Traffic flow would be even worse if they weren't. Try driving inbound during afternoon rush hour if you don't believe me.

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by Drover

You still haven't explained how you move huge volumes of traffic "quickly" through a dense grid where the main thoroughfares cross each other in half-mile intervals without either a) causing massive amounts of gridlock along one axis to prioritize the flow of the other, or b) creating huge arterial throughways like the ones you've pictured or provided videos for above. And don't say "coordinated lights" because they're already coordinated. Traffic flow would be even worse if they weren't. Try driving inbound during afternoon rush hour if you don't believe me.

You obviously TOTALLY overlooked the whole point here. IF YOU SEE SIGNALS OUT OF SYNC OR MALFUNCTIONING BY TURNING ON THE GREEN LEFT ARROWS FOR NO REASON CALL THE PROBLEM IN SO CDOT KNOWS ABOUT IT AND CAN FIX IT. The signals are poorly coordinated at best. Some roads are better than others such as I listed Ontario and Ohio which by me calling in and speaking to a number of engineers over at CDOT gave them ideas as to what signals were out of sync and fixed it in the past year. Now traffic moves steadily. This was never about getting anyone to move "quickly" you can't move quickly here or in NY or Sacrameto or wherever, but what we should at least be able to do is move steadily and slowly at the posted speed limit at the very least. Heck I posted enough video proof that it can be done and one is an instructional video made by the government. The technology is there to keep traffic moving steadily, heavily but steadily. If it can be done on Ohio and Ontario without sacraficing the perpendiculars it can be done. On 2 ways as I said originally not much can be done. Two ways only major problem I EVER see in Chicago is the wasted time of the green lefts holding on for no reason. By signals doing that NOBODY is moving through the intersection... No cars, pedestrians, nothing. It's wasted time. Thats where us calling in and informing CDOT of the problem comes in. The problem on Ontario I was constantly calling in was that as you headed out the signals progressed in the opposing manner meaning if you get stopped at lets say State traffic would back up behind you right through the intersections to the east of State meaning NOBODY going north or south bound on those streets could move either. That's known as gridlock which was remedied by CDOT reprogramming the lights to progress with the flow of traffic. This way the street to the east of State now gets a red first, traffic keeps moving west to the west of that light and keeps progressing through the system next State turns Ontarios light red, at this point traffic is not blocked through the eastern intersections as about 20 more cars were able to keep moving down the line. The way NYDOT fixed their problem was to start with the one ways coordinating them, then next move to the two ways. NY uses their one ways as rivers basically to keep cars moving down the line. 2 ways are stop and go and typically those are best to all turn green to red at the same time which is how Park Ave. moves. If CDOT was to program our one ways to progress the way Ontario and Ohio do problem solved. Nobody is talking about offering more green time to one street over another, just change the pattern in which signals progress. It can be done. CDOT even informed me that it can be done, but Aldermen in the LOOP especially don't want it as it would make getting around too easy and they actually want you to sit in traffic to encourage you to sit and look around and hopefully shop down the line someday. This is what I was told, sorry. As for driving in and out, I do it on a regular basis and recently called in 75th and Pulaski which was doing the green left turn arrow problem. CDOT informed me that it will be put onto the list to be repaired as the loops are bad over there they found after I called them. They didn't even know the loops were bad. Once fixed, Pulaski will have an increased green time and no sacrafice will be made to 75th. It will still have the same amount of green time as before, just now north and southbound Pulaski will have an extra 10 seconds of green time. This can get maybe another 15 cars on each side through the intersection before the signal changes back to red. The whole point is not moving cars quickly, just keep them moving and moving at a posted speed limit.

[Drover]

Holy Gigantic Block of Text, Batman...

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by tomcho

No real comment except whatever truck they were filming that North Ave video from was huge. They were towering over other vehicles.

Huge vehicle or not, it still should be able to get up to speed (Speed limit) and be able to progress through the system without being stopped by nearly every light down the line. It's done in other big cities and is done in the burbs with the same style roads Chicago has yet with "actuated signals" which actually work like they are supposed to so trucks as well cars are able to make green light after green light. Believe me our traffic on the southside is horrid just like in the city, yet we can keep moving fairly steadily as long as you don't speed thanks to perfect signal coordination. It has nothing to do with lane capacity or driveways or what not, it has to do with IDOT has it's S together.

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by Drover

Holy Gigantic Block of Text, Batman...

You of all people I would think would want to look for ways to improve our city. Just say it with me, there's always room for improvement. If we sit on our laurels and do nothing to make things better here Chicago will be the next Detroit. We have to keep moving forward and setting the standard, not following other city's leads like New York and Kansas City.

[tonythetuna]

Originally Posted by NYrules

You of all people I would think would want to look for ways to improve our city.

"Our city?" I thought you live in the burbs.

[css9450]

Originally Posted by tonythetuna

"Our city?" I thought you live in the burbs.

Perhaps the Chicago forum should be made private, with a password needed to participate. Residents only.