Traffic Report Geography

[Brandon]

I think they still give travel times to/from "the Post Office"  even though USPS hasn't occupied the building the Eisenhower runs through for decades.

Usually, it's "the Old Post Office".  Then we have...

The Junction (Edens/Kennedy)
The Merge/Split (Ryan/Ford/I-57)

And yet IDiOT refers to the Junction as Montrose.

The full term is "Montrose Junction" due to its location at Montrose, hence the travel times on the VMSs.

[vdeane]

The full term is "Montrose Junction" due to its location at Montrose, hence the travel times on the VMSs.

The last word on the VMS should rhyme with "right" for a proper poem.

[abefroman329]

The full term is "Montrose Junction" due to its location at Montrose, hence the travel times on the VMSs.

The last word on the VMS should rhyme with "right" for a proper poem.

It's actually much more clever than it appears in Brandon's post. On the actual VMS, the messages appear as follows:

PASS
ON THE
LEFT

DRIVE
ON THE
RIGHT

[jon daly]

But what does it say about ketchup?

[abefroman329]

But what does it say about ketchup?

That you can put it on whatever food you want and anyone who says otherwise is a booger.

[jeffandnicole]

The full term is "Montrose Junction" due to its location at Montrose, hence the travel times on the VMSs.

The last word on the VMS should rhyme with "right" for a proper poem.

Pass On the Left

Drive On the Right

23 Min to Montrose
54 Min to Your O'Hare Flight

[hotdogPi]

Do those numbers change in real time in this thread? It says 17/48 for me, and I remember it saying something like 9/16 before.

[US 89]

Do those numbers change in real time in this thread? It says 17/48 for me, and I remember it saying something like 9/16 before.

I bet they do. I'm seeing 7/31 right now.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Do those numbers change in real time in this thread? It says 17/48 for me, and I remember it saying something like 9/16 before.

They do. Now the "Pass on the left, drive on the right" is gone and replaced with "I-90 roadwork continues to I-190 in various lanes", with 5 minutes to Montrose and 21 to O'Hare.

Edit  (2:50 p.m. local time of both the VMS and where Big Rig Steve is now, which is Sulphur Springs TX as of this edit): Now back to "Pass on the left, drive on the right", along with 12 min to Montrose and 31 to O'Hare. So yeah, the image is a real time reproduction of the VMS. I remember doing the same with NHS tropical cyclone advisories, they would update until the last one.

[machias]

I think they still give travel times to/from "the Post Office"  even though USPS hasn't occupied the building the Eisenhower runs through for decades.

Usually, it's "the Old Post Office".  Then we have...

The Junction (Edens/Kennedy)
The Merge/Split (Ryan/Ford/I-57)

And yet IDiOT refers to the Junction as Montrose.

Pretty sure you don't have to refer to them as IDiOT. You may not agree with the way they do things but they're doing the best they can under the circumstances they have.

[Flint1979]

A little off topic but the guy that sold the Post Office in 2016 died the day after he sold it.

[Flint1979]

In Detroit, "The Interchanges" refers to I-94 (Ford Fwy) interchanges with I-75 (Chrysler) and M-10 (Lodge).

I'm from Detroit and am very familiar with Detroit and have never heard that term in my life.

[Brandon]

I think they still give travel times to/from "the Post Office"  even though USPS hasn't occupied the building the Eisenhower runs through for decades.

Usually, it's "the Old Post Office".  Then we have...

The Junction (Edens/Kennedy)
The Merge/Split (Ryan/Ford/I-57)

And yet IDiOT refers to the Junction as Montrose.

Pretty sure you don't have to refer to them as IDiOT. You may not agree with the way they do things but they're doing the best they can under the circumstances they have.

They aren't doing the best they can with what they have.  They can do better, much better.  IDOT consistently fails to work well with other DOTs.  They fail to adopt what's proven to work by other DOTs until it's in use in many, many other places (and then may not use it at all, for it "wasn't invented here").  They fail to plan for traffic loads even when local governments warn them about the traffic that will be created (I-80 and I-55 with the massive intermodal centers in Will County is a prime example).  They fail to plan ahead, often building 20 years after the initial need for the improvement was needed, and 25 years after it was identified.  So, yes, they have proven themselves worthy of the term "IDiOT" when they can't even keep up with WisDOT, InDOT, IowaDOT, MDOT, and MoDOT.

[inkyatari]

Pretty sure you don't have to refer to them as IDiOT. You may not agree with the way they do things but they're doing the best they can under the circumstances they have.

They aren't doing the best they can with what they have.  They can do better, much better.  IDOT consistently fails to work well with other DOTs.  They fail to adopt what's proven to work by other DOTs until it's in use in many, many other places (and then may not use it at all, for it "wasn't invented here").  They fail to plan for traffic loads even when local governments warn them about the traffic that will be created (I-80 and I-55 with the massive intermodal centers in Will County is a prime example).  They fail to plan ahead, often building 20 years after the initial need for the improvement was needed, and 25 years after it was identified.  So, yes, they have proven themselves worthy of the term "IDiOT" when they can't even keep up with WisDOT, InDOT, IowaDOT, MDOT, and MoDOT.

Quoted for great truth.

[ET21]

Pretty sure you don't have to refer to them as IDiOT. You may not agree with the way they do things but they're doing the best they can under the circumstances they have.

They aren't doing the best they can with what they have.  They can do better, much better.  IDOT consistently fails to work well with other DOTs.  They fail to adopt what's proven to work by other DOTs until it's in use in many, many other places (and then may not use it at all, for it "wasn't invented here").  They fail to plan for traffic loads even when local governments warn them about the traffic that will be created (I-80 and I-55 with the massive intermodal centers in Will County is a prime example).  They fail to plan ahead, often building 20 years after the initial need for the improvement was needed, and 25 years after it was identified.  So, yes, they have proven themselves worthy of the term "IDiOT" when they can't even keep up with WisDOT, InDOT, IowaDOT, MDOT, and MoDOT.

Quoted for great truth.

Quoted a 2nd time. The Tollway is the best road agency in the state of Illinois right now

[GaryV]

In Detroit, "The Interchanges" refers to I-94 (Ford Fwy) interchanges with I-75 (Chrysler) and M-10 (Lodge).

I'm from Detroit and am very familiar with Detroit and have never heard that term in my life.

I hear it on WWJ almost every day.

[Brandon]

Pretty sure you don't have to refer to them as IDiOT. You may not agree with the way they do things but they're doing the best they can under the circumstances they have.

They aren't doing the best they can with what they have.  They can do better, much better.  IDOT consistently fails to work well with other DOTs.  They fail to adopt what's proven to work by other DOTs until it's in use in many, many other places (and then may not use it at all, for it "wasn't invented here").  They fail to plan for traffic loads even when local governments warn them about the traffic that will be created (I-80 and I-55 with the massive intermodal centers in Will County is a prime example).  They fail to plan ahead, often building 20 years after the initial need for the improvement was needed, and 25 years after it was identified.  So, yes, they have proven themselves worthy of the term "IDiOT" when they can't even keep up with WisDOT, InDOT, IowaDOT, MDOT, and MoDOT.

Quoted for great truth.

Quoted a 2nd time. The Tollway is the best road agency in the state of Illinois right now

You know it's bad when even ISTHA has had enough of IDOT and starts doing widening work on their own without IDOT's help.  See the I-88 widening from MP 138 to MP 140 for more (York Road bridge over I-88).

[bzakharin]

For the Greater Philadelphia area, the term Saint Gabriel's Curve or St. Gabe's Curve refers to this stretch of US 422 in Audubon, PA

There is also the Conshohocken Curve which refers to this area of I-76:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0712225,-75.2875643,16z/data=!5m1!1e1

They (the Philly traffic reporters) are also allergic to route numbers on the PA side except I-95 and US 202 even when there really is no other choice. I've heard one reporter fumbling for a name for US 1 in Bucks County "Route 1, um, the superhighway" (yes, I know it used to be called that, but how long ago and how many people know this?).

[jeffandnicole]

For the Greater Philadelphia area, the term Saint Gabriel’s Curve or St. Gabe's Curve refers to this stretch of US 422 in Audubon, PA

There is also the Conshohocken Curve which refers to this area of I-76:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0712225,-75.2875643,16z/data=!5m1!1e1

They (the Philly traffic reporters) are also allergic to route numbers on the PA side except I-95 and US 202 even when there really is no other choice. I've heard one reporter fumbling for a name for US 1 in Bucks County "Route 1, um, the superhighway" (yes, I know it used to be called that, but how long ago and how many people know this?).

I was listening to a traffic report on KYW and for some reason the traffic reporter (the normal afternoon guy) was naming both the highway nickname and route number for nearly every roadway. I know I don't hear that very often!

[bzakharin]

For the Greater Philadelphia area, the term Saint Gabriel’s Curve or St. Gabe's Curve refers to this stretch of US 422 in Audubon, PA

There is also the Conshohocken Curve which refers to this area of I-76:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0712225,-75.2875643,16z/data=!5m1!1e1

They (the Philly traffic reporters) are also allergic to route numbers on the PA side except I-95 and US 202 even when there really is no other choice. I've heard one reporter fumbling for a name for US 1 in Bucks County "Route 1, um, the superhighway" (yes, I know it used to be called that, but how long ago and how many people know this?).

I was listening to a traffic report on KYW and for some reason the traffic reporter (the normal afternoon guy) was naming both the highway nickname and route number for nearly every roadway. I know I don't hear that very often!

That does happen occasionally, especially "76 the Schuylkill" and "476 the blue route"

[Sctvhound]

In the Charleston area, most of the bridges are just referred to by their names (the Ravenel, the Westmoreland, the Don Holt). The Wando bridge is 526 over the Wando River in Mt. Pleasant.

I-26 is just referred to as 26. 52 (Rivers Ave) is just referred to as Rivers.

One we used to have was before the Ravenel Bridge was built, when it was two bridges going over the Cooper River. We had the "302 merge" , where I-26 and the Crosstown (US 17) split, going from 3 lanes to 2 lanes. That was a chokepoint during afternoon rush hour.

[bzakharin]

Not traffic reports, but I-295 VMS's in NJ show travel times to BEN (the Ben Franklin Bridge) and WALT (the Walt Whitman Bridge). I imagine most of the non-locals have no idea what those are. The other destinations are all route numbers, so those are ok. I don't recall ever seeing the Delaware Memorial Bridge on any of them, so not sure how (or whether) it's abbreviated.

[mrsman]

We addressed this in a similar topic before:

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=12762.msg313363#msg313363

In that topic, I list some of the common names traffic reporters use in the L.A. area:

In the Los Angeles area, the South Bay Curve is that sharp bend in I-405 just south of LAX. The "Orange Crush" is where I-5, California 22 and California 57 all tie into each other.

Auto Club of So. Calif. (ACSC) used to print a map labeled "Guide to the L.A. Freeway System" that listed the multiple nicknames of the freeway features commonly used, especially by traffic reporters.  I don't have one in front of me, but this is what I remember:

4-level interchange: 110/101
Downtown Slot: 101 between 10 and 110
San Bernardino Split: 101/10 interchange
E LA Interchange: 5/101/10/60
Malfunction Junction: 405/22/605
El Toro Y: 5/405 in Orange County
Santa Ana Canyon: 91 between OC and Corona
Kellogg Interchange: 10/71/57 in Pomona
Kellogg Hill: 10 approaching the Kellogg Interchange from Covina
Sepulveda Pass: 405 between 101 and Sunset
Cauhenga Pass: 101 between Lankershim and Highland
McClure Tunnel: West end of I-10 approaching PCH
Conejo Grade: 101 between Camarillo and Thousand Oaks
Calabasas Grade: 101 between Agoura Hills and Calabasas
Santa Susana Pass: 118 between Chatsworth and Simi Valley
Newhall Pass: I-5 between I-210 and CA 14
Castaic Grade: Steep climb of I-5 north of Santa Clarita, including section where roadways switch over
Grapevine: Usually refers to entire I-5 from Santa Clarita to Wheeler Ridge, but technically it's just the southern section

[hotdogPi]

We addressed this in a similar topic before:

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=12762.msg313363#msg313363

The OP's intent was different. It quickly became a duplicate of that thread, though.

[jon daly]

Yeah, I was thinking more about natural features referenced by traffic reporters. Then again, the Rhode Island canyons that I-295 travel through were cut by construction crews.