Swami:
I read about how the Northbrook fire chief says the Edens Spur is so unsafe these days he wouldn't let his own family drive on it. I don't usually drive to Chicago, but I'm heading down there a few times this summer for the Taste and stuff like that. What should I do?
Max Rockatansky
Dear Mad Max:
Stay home. Or take the train. Seriously, if you don't like the Edens and/or the Tri-State and/or the Spur during a good year, you will hate it this summer, when the first two are undergoing surgery and the third is suffering sympathy pains.
The problem should have been foreseen by mere mortals not blessed with a crystal ball: traffic limps on both the Tri-State and the Edens, but it has a chance to sprint on the Spur. You know how you get stuck in stop-and-go traffic for an hour, and when you get even a quarter-mile of open road, you floor it just to blow off steam? That's the recipe right now, and it's one made for disaster. People are flying on the Spur just because they can -- even though, as it turns out, they really can't.
The Swami foresees that adjustments will be made in the same way that school buses eventually started stopping at all railroad crossings -- after a few accidents forced the issue. This will make for safer travel, if not smoother (imagine a one-lane Edens Spur on a 95-degree July afternoon).
P.S. If you don't like taking public transportation, Waukegan Road and Milwaukee Avenue are options, though you will want to add two weeks to your travel time in each case.
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