While traveling near or in Chicago, there is one thing often associated: TRAFFIC. Bad traffic.
I290. I294. I90. I94. I55. These are just a few of the very well-traveled interstates in Chicagoland. Many would rather watch paint dry than deal with the constant ebb and flow, stop and go, of traffic. What do you think of as you try to get downtown at 8am, or traveling home in the evening?
After significantly less traffic during the pandemic, companies are returning to a sense of normalcy. Many in the workforce are no longer working remotely on a daily basis and companies have requested that their teams return to the office. As a result, rush hour traffic has significantly increased.
The Kennedy Expressway project
This massive construction project just kicked off on March 20, 2023. The three-year, $150 million project will be completed in three phases. First, the inbound lanes this year, then the reversible lanes in 2024, followed by the outbound lanes in 2025.
My Traffic is worse than yours!
NRIX (a data and analytics firm that specializes in transportation) published the results of their Global Traffic Scorecard in January, citing the top 10 U.S. cities with the worst traffic congestion, as follows:
- Chicago
- Boston
- New York
- Philadelphia
- Miami
- Los Angeles
- San Francisco
- Washington, D.C.
- Houston
- Atlanta
- Chicago
This is too much!
Here are some helpful tips on how traffic stress can be reduced:
- Help make it a relaxing journey to your destination by listening to your favorite music, a podcast, or an exciting audible book.
- Try to minimize your traffic time by planning your route and timing carefully.
- Add on extra time for your commute so the feeling of being in a rush is decreased.
- Consider traveling a different route in order to get a change of scenery.
- Don’t fight it! Make peace with the reality that you may experience heavy traffic, encounter rude drivers, and that it just ‘is what it is’. Think positively!
