Home | News Index
Chicago Tribune
September 8, 2004
By Jon Hilkevitch, Tribune transportation reporter.
Tribune staff reporter Virginia Groark contributed to this report
Chicago area motorists spend the equivalent of 1 1/2 workweeks every year stuck in traffic, making the region the
third most congested in the U.S. for the second straight year, according to a national study released Tuesday.
Drivers in northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana spent an average of 56 hours snarled in traffic delays in 2002,
the latest year for which figures were available, said the study by the Texas Transportation Institute. That number
is up from 50 hours of delays in 2001 and more than triple the 16 hours of delays per driver in 1982.
The 56-hour average now being wasted in traffic translates to about 238 million hours of travel delays for all
drivers in the region, the study said.
Traffic congestion is costing travelers in the 85 biggest U.S. cities 3.5 billion hours a year, up from 700 million
hours two decades ago.
The transportation institute, based at Texas A&M University, ranked the Los Angeles area No.1 for the nation's
worst traffic jams. Drivers in the L.A. area suffered through an average of 93 hours of delays in 2002.
The Chicago region has placed among the worst five areas for congestion since the transportation institute's annual
studies began in 1982.
State officials said projects like the scheduled reconstruction of the Dan Ryan and Kingery Expressways will help,
but congestion will grow worse unless the federal government increases funding for more regional road improvements.
"About 95 percent of Illinois' road program has historically gone to preserving the existing system rather
than expanding it. Now, because of budget problems, we're in an even more restrictive situation," said Mike
Matkovic, bureau chief of programming in the Chicago area at the Illinois Department of Transportation.
But roads are not the only answer.
"Just to keep congestion levels from getting worse, construction of about 25 miles of a six-lane freeway would
need to be added each year in the Chicago area," said David Schrank, an associate research scientist and co-author
of the study, called the 2004 Urban Mobility Report.
As a new multiyear federal transportation funding bill makes its way through Congress, the debate sharpens over
how best to attack the country's transportation woes.
More capacity and greater efficiencies are needed, but state governments and local communities, including those
in Illinois, are divided over how much money should be spent expanding roads versus improving mass transit.
Long-discussed development reforms that would lessen suburban sprawl and move jobs closer to people's homes remain
largely unresolved in the Chicago area.
"This study shows we are not going to pave our way out of congestion, and we need to work on doing the kinds
of things that will make the drive better," said Jacquelyne Grimshaw, transportation coordinator at the Center
for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago. "Public transportation is always a solution to congestion."
Bus and rail operations in the Chicago region reduced annual delays by 91.3 million hours in 2002, the study said,
and resulted in a $1.6 billion cost savings. In the New York City area, mass transit reduced annual delays by 380
million hours.
The statistics point to the benefits of investing in transit and, locally, to the potential harm of Chicago Transit
Authority service cuts that might be required to close a projected $70 million budget gap in 2005.
Meanwhile, the cost of congestion to the Chicago region was $4.2 billion, or $985 per traveler in time and gasoline.
The congestion resulted in 365 million gallons of excess fuel being consumed, said the Texas institute's report,
based on federal and state transportation data.
For the last three years, Charlie Kyle has driven 23 miles each way from his Plainfield home to his job in St.
Charles. Although his starting and ending points remain the same, the duration of the trips has been growing.
"It used to be 30 to 40 minutes," Kyle said. "Now it's 40 [minutes] to an hour."
Kyle bought his Plainfield home when he worked five minutes away. Now that he has a third child on the way, Kyle
said the commute is getting to the point that it makes more sense to live closer to work. "It's time to spend
more time at home than driving," he said.