Friday, February 6, 2009

Yes, It's A Traffic Light

Work has been fast at Montrose and Clifton. When we drove by last night, there were two traffic lights up, although not working yet.

16 comments:

  1. I wish the city could get the potcraters fixed as fast they can get a traffic light (and more opportunities to ticket folks) up.

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  2. According to the news the city has fixed over 150,000 potholes so far. People are never satisfied, they complain about the plowing and then complain about the potholes it creates, they complain Montrose is too "dangerous" for pedestrians then when the city puts in a crosswalk they complain that the flow of traffic will be disturbed. As one of my professors used to always say, "There is no free lunch."

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  3. Hold on, are you proposing that plowing creates the potholes? I've never heard this theory before, please elaborate. I was under the impression that potholes come from the expansion and contraction of water during the freezing/thawing process.

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  4. Snow plows can create potholes. The ascending and descending temperatures along with condensation and moisture are triggers. Moving vehicles are the fingers on the trigger.

    This is a good place for a street light with the Wilson yard construction ongoing. Previously you had to cross the street at Clifton anyway to avoid the fast west bound traffic on Montrose hugging the construction fence.

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  5. So given the ratio of snow plows to regular cars, its safe to say the snowplows aren't causing the potholes, unless somehow the actual plow is doing it, but nobody can produce any evidence to that fact.

    My point being, the city should plow the streets AND fix the potholes since one isn't related to other.

    In fact, not plowing the street could cause more potholes since the snow melts, gets in the cracks and then freezes. If we get the snow off the roads, there would be less melting and hence fewer potholes.

    So by not plowing streets, the city has helped create this problem that they now intend to ignore.

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  6. I will be satisfied when the city fixes ALL of the potholes. I don't think I am being over demanding to expect the streets I help pay for don't cause damage to my car.

    Not too mention that the city continues to use asphalt when concrete is a much better road surface. In trying to be cheap, they create more issues.

    Your professor is correct, "there are no free lunches"...especially in the city of Chicago.

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  7. Ihatemondays-

    Thank you. Your response was perfect.

    Matt M-
    You live in the CITY. Love it or leave it. Some potholes stay for years. Keep bugging 311 if the pothole is causing damages to your car.

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  8. Matt M-

    Getting this traffic light was not a fast process. It took years. Montrose and Racine was a very dangerous intersection for pedestrians.

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  9. there are two (maybe more) types of potholes. potholes that form due to normal wear and tear and potholes that are caused by damage to the road surface.

    so you are both right.

    the road surface gets loosened by expansion and contraction and freezing, cars driving over it cause more loosening. if a plow blade pushes icy snow over this, it can "pull" the broken roadway along with it.

    also, plows (especially poorly adjusted plows) can impact the roadway along cracks, bridge and other joints, etc causing fractures in the pavement, possible damage to the plow, and sometimes large potholes.

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  10. I don't mean to be nit picking but I will...

    ihatemondays used a poor choice for a metaphor. I didn't see any comments relating to "freebies" or "costs." I think the intended notion was more likely "You can't please everyone." True enough.

    If however, our tax paid community servant's office had issued a communication advising of the installation and the reasons behind it, I don't think there'd be all this commentary.

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  11. Green Giant, your "You live in the CITY. Love it or leave it." sounds an awful like a bunch of rednecks I use to live amongst in the south. They said the same thing. However, just b/c I don't LOVE potholes, doesn't mean I am going to leave the city. Pretty sophomoric comment about love it or leave it. You can do better. And I do bug 311 about potholes, people not keeping their sidewalks clear of snow/ice, and anything else that needs to be reported.

    And the process to get the light may have taken some time, but the time it was announced on this site and from the time it actually showed up didn't take much time at all. I apologize if I am ignorant of the duration of the request for the light.

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  12. Matt M-

    No one is in love with potholes.

    You sounded a little bratty with your comment about not being satisfied until the city fixes all of your potholes.

    Ihatemondays had just said the city has fixed 150,000 so far. Sounds like they are working hard to fix your YOUR potholes.

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  13. BTW Bradley I think you taking the saying a bit to literally, it simply means there is a cost to everything whether the cost is slower traffic for pedestrian safety or potholes for cleaner streets. WCE how do you think we end up with gaping potholes throughout the city?

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  14. heaven forbid that there wasn't some reason to disagree on this site

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  15. GG, I apologize if I feel like my tax dollars should be better spent. The least they can be used for is to make sure the streets are impacted minimally by winter time potholes.

    If the tone was bratty, then so be it. Don't think having decent streets is too much of a request for a tax payer. Do you?

    Additionally, I don't claim they are MY potholes, they are everyones. I am sure I have helped to make one or two bigger by driving through them, but they are the cities potholes, not just mine.

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  16. Glad the lights are up-and-running so any "bugs" can be corrected before the thundering herds of Cubs season descend upon us once again. Hope the potholes will be fixed by then too.

    In the meantime everybody, ENJOY the first "warm" weekend of 2009!

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