ChiTown Traffic Tattler

There’s a federal tax break out there that could save users of Chicago public transportation up to $1,067, but the Tribune reports that only a handful of Chicago-area commuters take advantage. According to Richard Wronski’s article, the tax break enables commuters to save money, reduces traffic congestion and cuts down on pollution and carbon emissions. [...]

According to WBBM 780′s Bob Roberts, Chicago and the Chicago Transit Authority are working on a way to help speed the commute for those who don’t use public transportation. Each CTA bus now has a GPS transponder that is used for the bus tracker program, and Roberts reports that the transit agency will share the [...]

Modern day mobile technology has allowed commuters to grab hold of some old-fashioned phone-treeing. A little start-up called Clever Commute allows riders to e-mail one another when their trains are delayed. USA Today brings us the story of New Jersey’s Jim Connors, who “checks his BlackBerry to see whether his train home is on schedule. [...]

South Shore weekend commuters traveling between South Bend and Gary will have to find some alternatives for a period of four weekends. Starting at 2:30 a.m. Saturday and continuing until 3 a.m. Monday, service at the following stations will be suspended: Miller, Portage/Ogden Dunes, Dune Park, Beverly Shores, Carroll Avenue and 11th Street in Michigan [...]

Metra – “The Way to Really Fly” – entered the 21st Century this week, allowing its roughly 312,000 daily commuters to buy daily and monthly passes on its Web site. Commuters can also sign up to receive e-mail alerts when their trains are running late. The Chicago Tribune reported that the transit agency’s efforts come [...]

Beginning Sept. 14, motorists on the Borman Expressway in Lake County, Ind. can expected to find overnight lane closures. Westbound Interstate 80/94 will be restricted overnight to one or two lanes through Sept. 18 from Ind. 912 to Broadway. Crews will be installing underground weigh-in-motion sensors. Eastbound lanes along the same stretch of the Borman [...]

Oprah Show Causes CTA Bus Reroutes: http://bit.ly/Puq4c (via @foxchicago)

The Parking Ticket Geek offers a few tips for navigating traffic as the Labor Day weekend hits its mid-point. Taking advice from one of our favorite traffic reporters — WBBM-AM’s Joe Collins — the Geek suggests to avoid traveling on the expressways on Monday after 2 p.m., and to stay clear until 8 or 9 [...]

If you have texting on your iPhone while stuck in traffic down, how about loading and firing your 9 mm? We don’t recommend trying this, but we can sympathize. And go with the lite version, and stay away from the shotgun.

What do the Stevenson Expressway, Interstate 80, Ill. 59 and the Kennedy Expressway have in common? They are among a group of highways that cause Chicago commuters the most pain, according to the “Commuter Pain Index” released on Friday by IBM. In Friday’s Chicago Tribune, Jon Hilkevitch’s story on the study nails the symptoms to [...]

For those souls who have to work Friday nights and Saturday mornings, this Labor Day you’ll find Chicago Police Department roadside safety checks in the 10400 block of S. Halsted and the 2300 block of W. 87th Street. The safety checks begin at 8 p.m. and end at 4 a.m. Meanwhile, a roadside safety check [...]

Jon Hilkevitch in Monday’s Tribune answers a question I have been dying to ask — what’s with these folks hanging around the new pay boxes that line the Lincoln Square and North Center streets these days. Turns out the folks in the bright green T-shirts are temporary workers hired by LAZ Parking, the company managing [...]

Traffic on the 8s, traffic on the 5s, traffic on the web and traffic on our phones. Lord knows we have more than enough options to find traffic conditions here in Chicago. That is unless you’re looking for traffic conditions on say Racine Avenue between Randolph and Jackson. Enter Google Maps. The search engine giant [...]

Here’s ABC7′s take on the announcement that Chicago is one of the most congested cities in the country, according to the INRIX company.