nigelloring

What is the story behind these people? Do they have any training?

Usually they just stand in the middle of busy intersections and block traffic. Isn't it the job of traffic lights to tell cars when they can and can't go?

And if one of these clowns tells you you can't cross the road, can you just ignore them? I mean, they're not police officers. Are they just civilians employed to do a job which traffic lights already do, and who in reality just hinder the flow of traffic?

Does Chicago or IL have jaywalking laws? If so, aren't they breaking them all day long.

[/rant]

hondsps

just hit the gas and run them over, ooops don't do that, I thougth they helped at peak traffic times??

DataPlumber

The TMA folks were selected from a qualified pool of GED recipients. Yes, they are useless and redundant. First rule, ignore them and keep walking. Second rule, if you need to get anywhere with purpose you need to jay walk and keep an eye open for the suicide cabbies.

UNITED959

Yes, but they're hardly enforced. If you can cross the street and make it alive, there are no issues.

paytonc

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.

milepig

I think they do serve some *slight* purpose in that the waving of the flags does seem to make people proceed through the intersection at a faster pace. The problem, of course, is that they don't have any clue as to how to wave those flags in a manner that makes their intent clear. I've also had them let me go through a "no turn of red" intersection when there was no traffic to otherwise stop me. What burns me is when they also take control of the traffic light signal box and manually decide how to run the lights - this is when things really truly get messed up.

Big Mo

I generally agree that they should be ignored, but you should take care to check whether they are directing a turning car right into you.

These boobs sometimes spring up along the lakefront bikepath. At peak hours, the path can use all the help it can get (especially in terms of keeping groups of tourists and suburbanites from randomly wandering in and out of the middle of the path with 2 dogs, 6 toddlers, a SUV-esque baby carriage, and/or a 4-wheeled bicycle). However, the yellowcoats spend 95% of the time telling the traffic on the path to stop, while telling cars that they don't have to stop at stop-signs.

nigelloring

You know, it used to be kind of nice having peace officers at busy intersections, since :

(1) it provided some feeling of security, knowing there's a peace officer with full arrest powers nearby
(2) the peace officers were on the whole a lot more intelligent than the TMA clowns
(3) they actually had some authority

Seriously, what is the purpose of spending taxpayer dollars on the TMA? Their website http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/w...OID=-536893734 doesn't seem to help much.

glg

If you think that there used to be police officers, you're incorrect. They were civilian employees of the police department. They did not have arrest powers or authority. That group got shifted from CPD to Emergency Management and relabeled as Traffic Management. There was an article about it in the Trib a few months back. Seems most people (like you) believed they were cops before, so they got more respect.

I never thought they did much good before when they were under CPD, don't think there was much change. But, like milepig, I've had them wave me through "no turn on red" and "left turn on arrow only" intersections when it was clear, so I'll take it

nigelloring

Huh. Didn't they at least carry guns?

glg

No. They were not sworn officers.

fairviewroad

Right. Not sworn, just sworn at.

glg

That part doesn't seem to have changed much with the uniform change

nigelloring

Great. I saw 2 of these clowns at Stockton & Fullerton (Lincoln Park) this morning. I go through that intersection twice a day to get to work and usually there are no problems whatsoever as the traffic lights do their job.

But today no-one knew what was going on, and the two yellow-coated idiots in the intersection just blocked traffic.

milepig

Let me add to the rant.

Yesterday afternoon the TMA had descended on the corner by Midway - that would be, um, Cicero and 55th I think? The lights were turned off - possibly broken, but I suspect just turned off, stop signs were out and the TMA was "directing" traffic. Actually, one person was directing and two were standing there looking confused and frightened by the cars descending upon them from all directions. Traffic was backed up for blocks in all directions.