Survey Shows Chicagoans Take Commutes in Stride
By Chuck Sudo in News on Sep 8, 2011 2:00PM
IBM's fourth annual "commuter pain" survey, which measures the stress levels and cost of commuting in cities around the globe, indicates Chicago has the third-least stressful commute of the cities surveyed.
This may come as a shock to drivers who negotiate area expressways to and from work on a daily basis. IBM business solutions expert for smart transportation Michael Noblett told the Tribune's John Hilkevitch the survey isn't a ranking of commutes from best to worst.
The IBM survey also reads counter to other reports that indicate the Chicago commute is among the worst in the U.S. As much as we think we have it bad on the Kennedy during morning rush, there's someone in Mexico City who's yelling in his car louder.
The index was measured on ten factors:
- Commuting time
- Time stuck in traffic
- The price of gas is already too high
- Traffic has gotten worse
- Start-stop traffic is a problem
- Driving causes stress
- Driving causes anger
- Traffic affects work
- Traffic so bad driving stopped
- Decided not to make trip due to traffic.
The full results may be viewed here. Maybe we just don't sweat what we can't control.