CHICAGO HOME TO THREE OF AMERICA'S WORST TRAFFIC BOTTLENECKS
As Congressional debate continues on long-overdue highway legislation needed to fund road and bridge improvement projects, a new report is sparking added urgency by ranking the nation's worst highway bottlenecks, including three in the Chicago metropolitan area. The report, an update of a study originally conducted in 1999, now ranks the I-90/94 and I-290 junction, the "Circle Interchange", as America's third-worst traffic bottleneck, blaming the site for more than 25 million hours of traffic delay each year.

I dread any kind of construction that would reduce lanes on the Ryan (I-94). I hit these sites after the morning rush hour and before any evening traffic, so I am lucky- I usually breeze right through town. The study lists the I-90 Skyway south and I have never, ever had a problem there. The one I have been stuck on (twice- and that is the reason I now take the Ryan and Stevenson when I can) is I-294, and that didn't make the list.

Chicago is scary and frustrating at times, but you get used to it.

Guess who paid for this study? The highway construction folks. No surprise there.