Chicago Tribune: Traffic congestion's toll is $7.3 billion a year in Chicago area

Traffic congestion's toll is $7.3 billion a year in Chicago area
Metropolitan Planning Council study recommends more attention to suburban gridlock
By Jon Hilkevitch | Chicago Tribune reporter

11:11 PM CDT, August 5, 2008


You may want to sit down before reading how much it is costing to sit in traffic in the Chicago area.

Worsening congestion is causing commutes in the six-county region to take longer, costing drivers and businesses $7.3 billion a year in wasted fuel and lost time.

Gridlock is increasing the uncertainty about when workers will get to offices, when an overnight shipment will arrive at the loading dock and whether a pizza will still be hot when it is delivered, according to a study released Tuesday by the Metropolitan Planning Council, a non-profit civic group.

Throwing away money

Time wasted in traffic jams is costing commuters and their employers an average of $879 a year in the collar counties and $3,014 in Chicago, the study estimated. For the six-county region combined, the cost of congestion comes to an average of $1,579 for each worker and his or her employer. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/green/chi-congestion-web-aug06,0,6010193.story

it will save money, time, lives and heartache.

Chicago (and IL in general) has awful traffic planning. They pull out the dumptrucks and excavators every couple of years, tear up the expressways, then put them back together again in more or less the same configuration. And the politically-connected construction companies make a bundle.

Chicago is one of the more commuter friendly cities in the country. Almost everyone I know who works in the city use Metra and the CTA...due to the congestion and expenses of both gas and parking. Chicago's gridlock comes from the large volume of "pass through" traffice...being at the bottleneck of the Great Lakes, we get a lot of cross country traffic rolling through...and add that to the never-ending construction and de-construction season and I can see how that study is pretty spot on.

That said, I've driven in many other cities and see a far more accute problem. IMHO, LA is the worst as the city's sprawl makes one a slave to the freeways...especially if you need to get into OC or to Pasadena. Phoenix is turning into a nightmare...too many cars, not enough roads and almost no public transit.