Decoding Chicago Traffic Reports
 

Here's a fun time-waster:

http://blogs.vocalo.org/jkaufmann/20...9264841f5f%2C0

Thanks
 

Pretty cool--thanks for posting it :)

There really used to be a rush hour once. Then it became two hours, Then three. Now I expect the roads to be crowded between 7AM and 7PM, and plan accordingly. Most of the time that works.

Sarah Jindra is fun to listen to; the guys at 780AM also do a good job. Another good source before leaving home is Google maps.

I mainly use Google Maps for traffic, but lately I've found it to not be entirely accurate: it will show green where in real life there is heavy traffic.

I'm non-native Chicagoan, just someone who lived there for 7 years (none of which was spent driving to work) but still, an informative link. ^

I've found this to be the best traffic report:

http://www.travelmidwest.com/lmiga/m...me=chicagoArea

That's new to me - I was only aware of GCM and google - will give it a try. Thanks!

It's the successor to GCM. Bigger area, adds Madison, SW Michigan, Rockford, Quad Cities to the original Gary/Chicago/Milwaukee, so they renamed it. UIC is still involved from a technical perspective.

Do these various sites pull data from different sources, or is it just the same data presented differently?

I think its all basically the same information - sensors in the pavement. Although some of its supplemented by the helicopters and people calling in items too.

Finally got to check out the guide (WBEZ.org is blocked at work due to streaming media hogging bandwidth)...learned a couple new things. I remember when first moving to Chicago trying to decipher the traffic reports, but most of it gets fairly intuitive after a week or two of remembering where the major crossroads/exits being referenced are located.

Sarah Jindra is my favorite Chicago traffic reporter. Easy to follow and very thorough. She puts in some long days, too. She's on WBEZ around 5:30am and does the last traffic report there at 6:30pm.