Spin the Bottleneck

By Matt Wood in Miscellaneous on Feb 2, 2006 5:08PM

Five of the nation's 20 worst traffic bottlenecks are in Chicago, according to a study conducted for the Federal Highway Administration. This puts us second on the list after LA, which has six. The offenders, listed by national ranking:

• 4. The Circle Interchange, where the Kennedy meets the Ike


• 6. Where the Dan Ryan meets the Skyway


• 12. The split between I-80 and I-94 near the Indiana border


• 14. Pulaski Road and the Stevenson


• 17. I-290 and the North-South Tollway (I-355)

In a former life, Chicagoist had to endure the torture of commuting to the suburbs quite a bit, and we're surprised a few of our favorites aren't on the list: The Hillside Strangler (even after they "fixed" it, it still sucks), the Edens-Kennedy Junction (both directions, but especially eastbound when cars try to cross five lanes to exit at Irving Park), and basically all of I-90 from O'Hare to downtown. Plus we could throw in any number of city intersections that make us want to go all Michael Douglas from Falling Down.

Anyone surprised at those on the list? We can vouch for the first three but we're not as familiar with the other two. Any other surprise omissions?