Tuesday's Sun features a story about the status of construction along Plainfield-Naperville Road between 95th and 111th streets, a nasty stretch of road in case you haven't driven it lately. What other construction or congestion hot spots around town should people know about?
We figure it's the holiday season, so that means that Route 59 must be avoided at all costs anywhere near the mall. What's your experience driving Route 59 further south? What about Ogden Avenue--love the way it backs up during evening rush hours?
Share with us your takes on getting around in Naperville, what spots you avoid and what places you can't help avoiding but dread driving.
I'm an expat Brit lucky enough to have lived in Naperville for 5 years, so I know all about the rte 59 traffic, and Ogden, etc. Here's my perspective for what it's worth.
There is some congestion here, which is due to the area being economically successful. But before people complain about Naperville, they should read about what the roads are like in the UK. If the roads in Naperville were operated by the British government, here's what you could expect...
- Speed cameras everywhere. Get a ticket in the mail each time you go 1 or 2 miles above the speed limit (no exaggeration)
- The inside lanes on Route 59 and Ogden converted to "Bus-Only" lanes. Sit in traffic looking at adjacent empty road space you have paid for many times over in taxes, maybe once in a while you'll see a bus go by.
- Snow? Stay home. Salting is done rarely or not at all. Half an inch of melting snow would paralyze the area
- Visiting the mall? In the UK they don't have people in day-glo jackets directing traffic at busy times. They just leave the area in total gridlock
- Traffic lights deliberately re-phased to have extremely long all-red phases
- Spine-jarring, suspension damaging speed humps on all residential streets
- Parking in downtown Naperville drastically reduced. Expect to pay $2-$3 an hour for what little is left. There are no cops anywhere, but a large aggressive team of private parking wardens will ensure your car is ticketed the moment your allotted time runs out. As a side effect of this, half the shops in downtown Naperville would be boarded up, a large number of the rest would be charity shops.
So the above is what the average British driver has to contend with year-round. By all means complain about the congestion in Naperville, but as far as I can see, things are run very well here by people who have the taxpayers interests very much at heart.
Happy holidays to all!
Moderator,
Please remove this nonsense blog. It clutters your blog area that discusses important political issues.
The fact only one blogger made a post in 2 or 3 days indicates you erred in posting this uninteresting thread. I hope you remove it and don't put nonsesnse blogs on in the future that interferee with your valuable internet blog space that otherwise has been excellent.
Maryann,
They can't all be home runs. I agree it's a dud, but I'll leave it up all the same because it's something different and not everybody wants to take part in political discussions.
Note to poster Maryann from moderator Jim Lynch: I beg to differ. Though it might not be the most popular topic out there in the Naperville blogosphere right now, readers take transportation issues - especially road hazards - quite seriously. You can always move on to the next or even a prior item of discussion per your interests. To call it a "nonsense" blog is really going over the top. After all, we post the topics in the news and the community takes it from there. However, thanks for the compliment at the end of your post.
Holiday Shop online and let the UPS truck deal w/ the traffic :)
Otherwise, I grocery shop at 1AM. Never had a traffic problem.
Ted and Jim,
I just hated to see that number 0 or 1 for number of bloggers for such a long time. So by complaining at least we can see at least the #6 and it suddenly went from total failure to partial success.
You guys owe me! Just teasing!!
For a topic that does not raise much interest if someone really wants to write, they also have the option of e-mailing the reporter writing the article.
I actually wrote because I like your blogs so much but I want to be able to jump from interesting blog to interesting blog without having to navigate one blog that seems to be in my way....kind of like clutter when only one person cared to write in two days.
I don't care much about the school district but you won on that one because I once peeked and saw over 150 people had blogged. So that is a sign of success for you guys on a topic I don't care much about.
I guess Ted accepts criticism better than you, Jim. But I was impressed to see 2 moderators/hosts having differing opionions. I like that. Never thought I would see dissent in the Naperville Sun. At least we know you guys don't write your speeches before the audience speaks as was the case last night in City Hall. I was flabbergasted that the Councilmen all had prepared remarks and ignored the residents. I still can't get over it.
OK, sorry I wrote about an irrlevant subject on the wrong thread. But I guess the advantage of a slow thread is you have the ears of the moderator and host more so than in a very busy thread.
I am new to this so I hope I am using the words thread and blog in the proper manner and not interchanging them.
No can you guys tell me the difference between a moderator and a host. At least we can use this blog for a little education if nothing else.
Anyway, thanks for the great job you guys do and everyone is entitled to have a blimp once in a while. It was your first...so no big deal...lol!!
Maryann
Hi, Maryanne:
See how you stimulated the discussion on a thread that - while admittedly off-topic - has picked up a bit. Ted said it best: You can't hit a home run all the time...that's why we move on to keep the discussion and community engagement going. As for Ted taking criticism better than me....oh, I guess you're right there.
Thanks for posting.
Thanks for contributing, Maryann--I get your sense of humor now. This blog is a lot of fun, a lot of work sometimes, and very rewarding.
My colleagues gave me grief because I pushed staff to do the Plainfield-Naperville Road story, and I drive it every weekday. I liked the British guy's comments above. I hear a lot of complaints about congestion in Naperville, but I give the city credit--it's better here than a lot of other places. Naperville seemed to plan for the growth well, in terms of roads. Will County is particularly challenged right now--lots of catching up to do. So maybe we're too quick to complain about the times we're stuck in traffic, and it really isn't so bad after all.
Ted and Jim,
I guess I am finding it exciting to be on a thread no one wanted to visit except a guy from Britain. I was once in Britain. He made some good points but Britain was very nice and organized. The only problem I had there was I almost got ran over a few times because I could not get use to initially looking right instead of left before I crossed because the cars there drive on the WRONG SIDE OF THE STREET...lol..
OK, I had to say something to justify my presence on this formerly disastrous failed blog which we now have in high gear.
But I really wanted to ask you guys since I have your ears, is what is the difference between a moderator and a host?
Is Ted your boss, Jim, or Ted, is Jim your boss??? Or are you all equal reporting to Tim West. Not really sure! Just began bloggin and lovin it though
Who decides the blog topic of the day: The moderator or the host? Apparently both can comment!!
The other day Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune was discussing blogging and how it picked up and he loves it. I really wanted to hear what he had to say but he was competing for the same time slot with Greta on Fox News, and the Peterson story has me and many others mesmerized so I missed out on Eric Zorn. I think that Eric is a great columnist. I began following him during the Nicarico days. What do you guys think of him?
If you ever want to take a break from the Furstenau story any blog you set up on the Peterson case will be a hit. At least I can guarantee it will have more than one lonesome blogger from Britain in the first 2 days...!!
I really enjoyed the special treatment I got on a slow blog.
I hope the secret is not out now that a slow blog has its unique ADVANTAGES.
MaryAnn
PS. Have you guys ever checked out Gretawire.com. That lady has thousands of people bloggin. She has no delays. I like the delays you guys have. But I just have to wonder why you guys don't tame this Joe guy down a bit with your time delay. I almost enjoying being on this thread a little too much since Joe is not here and it is quiet. Let us see how long that will last before he decides to take over. I can imagine him ripping your British blogger for no reason other than expressing a unique and different opinion.
Maryann,
I already posted in here, in case you missed it. People seem to get bent out of shape when I disagree with them, and they especially like to blow it out of proportion when I give an examples of personal responsibility and how it's not the world's job to inform them of things or that it's not the world's fault that they might have made a mistake (getting a DUI or parking in a tow away zone) even after I concede that yes, a parking spot should be better marked and point them to the appropriate section of city government to make a formal request to get it better marked in the future.
That seems to be the common element in the problems lately. People want to fluff off things as 'not their fault' then get honked off when someone points out a way they could or should take responsibility for the action and the consequences that resulted from it.
I'm sorry if that somehow does not 'sit well' with you. I'll happily let Ted and Jim make that call though.
Joe,
I came to this quiet blog so I can have some peace and tranquility. I am shocked you appeared even here.
I am new and looked at some old archives back in Sept. I found your name arguing with almost everyone. You don't seem to have an original opinion and you never seem to agree with anyone...only disagree, disagree and disagree....argue, argue, and argue!!!
Well, since you are on this slow post, I will leave you with Ted and Jim. I am sure they can handle you better than I can.
They can delete you if they so choose. I can not delete you.
I wish you well Joe. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you wish for a change for yourself in the new year. It just can't be that 1000 bloggers are all wrong and Joe is right every time. It just can't be! If you are so smart why are you not running Microsoft or President of the USA!!!
Merry Christmas to Ted the host and Jim the moderator. It was nice chatting with you but I can not remain on this thread with Joe. I just don't like fighting over everything. Sorry!!!
I won't let him ruin my Holidays. It would be nice if you banned Joe just for the Holidays so maybe he can reconsider his actions and try to comprehend what he is doing. You would actually be helping him immensely by suspending him for one or two weeks. He needs time to think about what he is doing. I think he is "knee jerk reacting" to anything on the blog without any thought!!!
Maryann
The key to get trolls like Joe to go away is to just stop acknowledging anything they post. The only reason he posts here is to get a rise out of people. If everyone quit taking the troll bait, they would eventually get bored and stop posting. I used to administer a fairly popular local computer gaming community web forum, and came up with a fairly entertaining way to deal with trolls. Instead of banning them, I would add them to the "trolls" user group. The posts users in that group made were only viewable by themselves, administrators, and moderators. Their posts were never displayed to regular users, so to the troll it seemed like everyone was ignoring their postings.
After a week or so of no one responding to them, they would get bored and go away on their own. This ended up working much better than the alternative of just banning someone. By banning people you've acknowledged that they're being disruptive and it just gives them even more drive to re-register and continue trolling.
Anyway, in regards to the earlier responses about removing unpopular posts... Nuts to that, this "blog" needs more variety. Reading people ranting about the school districts and city council is getting boring. We know, 203 and 204's management can be best described as "FUBAR". We know, no matter where you stand with Furstenau and Burchard, the entire situation is ridiculous and hopefully will come to a fitting conclusion on a daytime TV court show like HDNet's "Eye For An Eye" For anyone unfamiliar-
This blog needs some fresh local drama that isn't 203/204/City Council related. Maybe someone needs to make a new YouTube video or something.
I think we can all agree that the current drama is getting stale and smells like hot garbage. The Sun needs a good investigative reporter to dig up some new dirt.
Well said, Eli. Though I'm thinking we're going to have to coast on the fumes of the current controversies through next week. Historically not much happens between the Christmas and New Year's holidays. I'll do my best to come up with some new ideas for posts.
Ted,
Topic suggestions: Home market, lending practices and credit crunch including banks doing their post holiday fun of moving payment due dates up, raising interest rates and penalties. 2008 is unfortunately going to be a rough economic ride for many. Then again, that may be too depressing of a topic for some.
Eli,
You ought to make a video dramatizing Richard Furstenau coming out of the Lantern, seeing cars being towed and confronting a patrol officer. You could have a friend wear a Furstenau mask made out of one of the front-page pictures in the newspaper. You could do several movies, each depicting a different version of what might have happened. That would be a good video to post on YouTube.
OK, here's a video of Dick Furstenau with the aid of his faithful sidekick Shawn Collins battling Officer Hull and the Tow-Truck Gang:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r94AJzJZZaU
And now, back to the traffic! haha.
The places that I try to avoid include Rt 59 and Ogden Ave (where you take your life in your hands when you go,) As you say, it's congested due to economic success, but makes for stressful driving; these roads are also the perfect place NOT to use a cell phone. I've witnessed too many accidents under those conditions..