Ugh, don't get me started on the TMA. Some guy at the 911 office (Emergency Mgmt) comes in and starts to boss the DOT (transportation) folks around about their jobs. No, these clowns *do not* do a better job of managing traffic flow than the signal network -- unlike the pretty darn sophisticated signal system, which knows how traffic is flowing across the road network, the yellowjackets can't see past their own intersection. (Or, in many cases, past their belts.)
The entire operation has an incredibly anti-pedestrian bias, which we've worked for decades to overcome at the DOTs (one 1960s manual called pedestrians "the largest single obstacle to free traffic movement"). No, actually, it's the damn cars who are taking 80% of the space and carrying 20% of the people downtown. The yellowjackets yell at jaywalkers while turning a blind eye to dangerous drivers, while their bosses busy themselves with ripping out crosswalks. Hey, if I wanted to work somewhere where driving was fast and walking was impossible, I'd work in Schaumburg -- no wait, driving there is slow and tortuous, too. Grrrr.