ChiTown Traffic Tattler

South Shore commuters in Northwest Indiana will have two fewer options when it comes to buying tickets, after the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District decided to close windows at the Hammond and Gary Metro Center South Shore stations. The stations will remain open, and the halt in ticket sales was called a cost-cutting measure, according [...]

Motorists who use an iPhone will have more information at their finger tips with an update this spring to a navigation app — and more reason to ignore the road. iGo My Way — developed by NNG — is a 3-D GPS app for drivers in the style of Garmin. The upgraded app will be [...]

Motorists should expect delays through Sunday along Cicero Avenue at the Stevenson Expressway due to railroad crossing repairs, the Illinois Department of Transportation said in a news release. Canadian National Railroad crews will be repairing and replacing an at-grade crossing in the area, and motorists should expect heavy congestion along other routes in the towns [...]

The Chicago Transit Authority Board has scheduled an informational meeting on proposed fare increase and service reductions for Thursday. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Oct. 29 at the Austin Town Hall, located at 5610 West Lake Street in Chicago. Under the proposed service reductions, the CTA — effective February 7, 2010 — would [...]

NBC5 reports that the Chicago Transit Authority has completed its analysis for a new Circle Line, which was considered a crucial transportation improvement included in the city’s plans to host the 2016 Olympic Games. An idea that arose in 2002, the Circle Line would create a second Loop connecting the Loop, Chinatown, the Illinois Medical [...]

As overheard on Twitter during Friday’s commute. As always, follow and tweet commuting or traffic tips and story ideas to @chitowntattler. @astrophysics: I like astronomy a lot, but when I drive to Chicago, I’m putting my life on the line in the name of Science. Night, rain & traffic don’t mix @euphenia: Chicago traffic, you [...]

The Chicago River bridge lift season is winding down, and scheduled to end Nov. 14. Lifts occur Wednesdays and Saturdays, starting at Lake Michigan and continue down the Main and South Branches of the Chicago River. Wednesday lifts begin at 9:30 a.m. and impact the downtown area — especially Lake Shore Driver — between 9:30 [...]

As overheard on Twitter during Thursday’s rainy commute. As always, follow and tweet commuting or traffic tips and story ideas to @chitowntattler. @dkw2487: O my god. Just had 2.5 hours of stop and go traffic and still not out of Chicago! @andrewkordek: I spent 224 minutes in traffic today going to and from downtown Chicago. [...]

IDOT on Wednesday was urging Chicago drivers to avoid downtown expressways for at least 24 hours after after pavement buckled on the westbound Kennedy Expressway at Adams Street. UPDATE: According to the Tribune’s Jon Hilkevitch, the expressway’s pavement buckled near Adams Street when concrete grout flowed through a crack in a repaired section of the [...]

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. [...]

A preliminary study released by the Illinois Department of Transportation finds that a north-south expressway connecting the Jane Addams Tollway to the Tri-State Tollway on the west side O’Hare International Airport would significantly cut travel times to the airport. In addition, a long-planned extension of the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway would contribute to halving travel times for [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Commuters who have relied on 159th Street to avoid Bishop Ford Freeway construction will have another headache to deal with beginning Tuesday. The Illinois Department of Transportation on Thursday announced that 159th Street between Park Avenue and West/Center Avenue in Harvey will be closed from Sept. 8 through May 2011. Eastbound motorists will be detoured [...]

The Chicago Tribune reports that a proposal to designate  “green lane” is back as Pace and the Illinois Tollway begin to push a plan to designate the express bus and carpool lanes on the Tri-State Tollway. “The agencies are seeking $200 million in federal stimulus funding to get express buses running between job-scarce areas in the [...]

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 [...]