Originally Posted by toomanybooks

I've never seen more screwed up traffic in my life since I moved to IL some years ago. Sometimes it seems as though ALL the roads are torn up ALL the time. Perhaps this had some bearing on your problem.

They built the Empire State Building from scratch in 9 months 70 years ago, but it takes years to finish some short stretch of road in IL. There's a simple exit ramp onto 294 near my house that will take an entire year to complete. It's utterly inane.

And, of course, 11 of the 12 guys on the road crew are all standing around looking at the one guy actually doing something.

If I ever get insane enough to run for IL political office, I know what my platform will be.

Another possibility springs to mind. Often, driving near Chicago, there will be a huge backup for no reason. You crawl along for 20 minutes, then all of a sudden, traffic breaks free and you are going 60 again. No accident, no road construction, nothing at the site of the delay. Just a bottleneck for no reason.

I don't recall this phenomenon in other states I've lived in, at least nowhere near as often as it happens here.