Chicago Traffic Among Worst

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Questions? Call 1-800-Tribune Wednesday,August 26, 2015 Breaking news at chicagotribune.com Teachers’ pension perk rife in Illinois Many state districts cover all or part of staff contributions By Diane Rado Chicago Tribune

Abrief but significant phrase appears about half- way through the 106-page teachers union contract in northwest suburban School District 21: “The Board shall pay the entire amount of the staff member’s contribution to the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS).” What that means, according to administrators, is that nearly 500 teachers in the Wheeling-baseddistrict don’t have to pay anything toward their pensions — a perk worth several million dollars. Instead, the district and its local taxpayers cover JOSE M. OSORIO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE the cost of teachers’ pension Traffic clogs the Kennedy Expressway during the morning commute Tuesday. Such congestion puts Chicago high in a new transportation study. contributions — 9.4percent of their earnings. Wheeling’s perk for teachers is not unusual. Chicago traffic among worst Hundreds of districts have reported that they are cov- ering all or some of the 5of 20 most-congested stretches of road in region Area gas prices pension contributions that teachers, by law, are re- should start quired to make, from Lom- By Jon Hilkevitch the misery of 61 extra lagged well below speed coming down bard’selementary district in Chicago Tribune hours behind the wheel on limits during much of the DuPage County to the Zion- average in 2014—equiva- day was sixhours more BP on Tuesday said a Benton high school district Five of the 20 most lent to a week and a half of per driver than the 55 crude distillation unit at in Lake County to Rock- congested stretches of work — because of delays hours lost in 2009, a year its Whiting refineryis ford’s large K-12 district and road in the U.S. are in the caused by gridlock, con- after the recession began. back online. It had shut dozensof districts down- Chicago area, according to struction zones and colli- From 2013 to 2014 alone, down unexpectedly more state, according to state anew study that concludes sions that tied up traffic, the annual delay grew two than two weeks ago, caus- data. that traffic has rebounded according to the Urban hours, the report noted. ing area gasoline prices to Taxpayers may not know completely from the Great Mobility Scorecardre- Increased traffic con- skyrocket. Analysts say about the perk because it’s Recession — and that mo- leased late Tuesday by the gestion is directly related prices should fall shortly, been overshadowed by torists are paying the price. Texas A&M Transporta- to the post-recession re- but it might take some other bargaining issues and Drivers in the north- tion Institute. bound, said Bill Eisele,a time for them to reach the not always easy to find or eastern Illinois-northwest The time wasted last low levels seen before the understand in teacher con- Indiana region suffered year because traffic flow Turn to Traffic, Page 6 CHICAGO TRIBUNE shutdown. Business tracts. But the practice is in the limelight as tensions rise over negotiating a new teachers contract in Chi- cago Public Schools, which PLAINFIELD TORNADO 25 YEARS LATER has its own teachers union, Stocks fall for 6th day separate from the TRS pension for suburban and after big rally fizzles downstate educators. Facing financial crisis, For most of Tuesday, it looked like the market had shak- CPS officials and Mayor en off some of its worries about the slowdown in China, Rahm Emanuel want teach- and at one point, the Dow was up by as much as 441 ers to pay the full share of points. But sell orders poured in during the last 15 min- their pension contributions. utes of trading and the Dow ended the day down 1.3 The district has long paid percent. The S&P 500 fell 1.4percent. The three major 7percentage points of the U.S. indexes have lost ground six days in a row, with the 9percent contribution re- Dow falling about 1,900points in that period. Business quired for teachers. The Chicago Teachers Unionar- gues that such a change would mean a steep pay cut. Thousands of educators across the state get a better deal than CPS teachers — ProudPartner their districts have been paying the full amount of teachers’ contributions to TRS, the largest state pen- EASY FINANCING •OVER200,000SATISFIEDCUSTOMERS! sion system and among the worst funded in the nation. CHICAGO TRIBUNE To give the perk, districts Kevin Smith gets a phone call as his friends and daughter Amy Sue, 13, help demolish use a formula that essen- what’s left of his Plainfield home as debris burns in the background on Aug. 31, 1990. tially adds money on top of regular teacher salaries to cover all or part of teacher Town’s residents reflect * Turn to Teachers, Page 11 on deadly storm’s effects TOM SKILLING’S Area’s strongest an F-5tornado — the daughter, Meghan, who WEATHER strongest the Chicago area was 6at the time. He twister killed 29, has seen — ripped through remembers looking out the High 73 Plainfield, leaving behind a window toward Route 59, Low 55 united community 16-milepath of destruc- seeing the stormy sky and Complete forecast By Alice Fabbre tion. From Oswego to Joli- thinking, “It’s getting real on back of A+E Chicago Tribune et, the twister claimed the bad.” When he went to his lives of 29 people, injured kitchen window and $1.50 city and suburbs, The three letters and 353 and damaged or de- looked toward Plainfield $1.99 elsewhere four numbers that make up stroyed 1,500buildings — High School, the only high 168th year No. 238 the license plate on Don including Kinley’s own school in town at that time, CALLUSTODAY.THISSPECIALOFFER ENDS AUG31ST © Chicago Tribune Kinley’s car tell a story that home. he saw a more troubling too many in Plainfield can’t Kinley had been sitting view. forget. on the bottom step of his “Dirt and dust and Dial(773) or(847) 427-2437

AUG 2890. staircase playing a card *Frame garage only. Up to 480sq ft. On that day 25 years ago, game with his grand- Turn to Plainfield, Page 10 www.danleys.com Not available on prior orders. 6 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Wednesday, August 26, 2015

PHIL VELASQUEZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE StInterstate udy90/94 westbound at Jackcomputesson Boulevard is part of the fourth-worst stretch oftimecongested roadway in thelosU.S. Expertstsay trafinfic grew worstre as theafficeconomy improved.

Traffic, from Page 1 300,000 Metra rides each needed, as the Texas A&M Ranking Chicago-area traffic weekday, plus service pro- report and other congestion senior research engineer at vided by Pace in the suburbs studies indicate that urban the transportation institute A study that tracks time and cost of traffic congestion shows Chicago, like most other and the city and the South congestion will only get and the report’s co-author. major urban areas, saw a big jump in traffic since the end of the recession. Chicago’s Shore Line commuter rail worse if not aggressively The recovery is a double- ranking relative to other major cities didn’t change much, putting it among the worst running between South addressed. edged sword. cities for commuting. Bend, Ind., and downtown Experts say possible en- “You can cheer for eco- CHICAGO’S CONGESTED INTERSTATES Chicago. hancements include ex- nomic activity or for lower The Washington, D.C., panding roadway capacity, According to the study, five stretches of local interstate fall within the 20 worst roads in congestion, but it is difficult area, at a numbing 82 hours providing incentives for the U.S. out of 356 for traffic congestion, during Friday evening rush hour. to have both unless im- of delay per commuter, people to alter their travel provements are made to the Interstate 90-94 Westbound 35th St. to Rank: 4th-worst ranked No. 1on the Texas times away from the 6 to 10 transportation system,” Ei- the Kennedy/Edens exchange (13 miles) out of 356 A&M list of the most grid- a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m. peak sele said. locked metropolitan areas hours, and expanding pub- Chicago Peak travel time Worst avg. speed Delay at peak (minutes) The Los Angeles area Evening rush 16 mph (4 p.m.) last year. Rounding out the lic transit and attracting took the top three spots on 34 top 10 were Los Angeles; new riders with new serv- the congestion scorecard San Francisco; New York; ices that include new rail for last year. Locally, differ- Interstate 90-94 Eastbound Montrose Rank: 7th-worst San Jose, Calif.; Boston; lines and bus rapid transit, ent stretches of the Ken- Ave. to Ruble St. (9 miles) Seattle; Chicago; Houston; airport express trains and nedy and Dan Ryan Peak travel time Worst avg. speed Delay at peak (minutes) and Dallas. options directed at luring expressways (Interstate 90/ Evening rush 14 mph (4 p.m.) 25 Nationally, delays due to reverse commuters from 94) gave motorists the big- traffic congestion last year their cars to trains and gest headaches, accounting Interstate 90 Eastbound from Interstate Rank: 14th-worst kept drivers and their pas- buses. for three spots in the top 20. 294 to Interstate 94 (8 miles) sengers cooped up in cars “The first thing we need Two areas on the Eisen- for almost 7 billionextra is leadership in Congress to hower Expressway (I-290) Peak travel time Worst avg. speed Delay at peak (minutes) hours and more than 3 step forward and properly also were among the 20 Evening rush 13 mph (5 p.m.) 22 billion gallons of fuel were most congested. wasted, according to the Coming in at No. 4 na- Interstate 290 Westbound from Damen Rank: 15th-worst Texas A&M report, which “You can cheer tionally was I-90/94 west- Ave. to 9th Ave. in Maywood (9 miles) was jointly produced with for economic bound from 35th Street to Peak travel time Worst avg. speed Delay at peak (minutes) INRIX, a data technology the Edens junction. The Evening rush 13 mph (4 p.m.) 27 company. activity or for report noted that 4 p.m. on Officials at INRIX and Fridays tended to be the Interstate 290 Eastbound Rank: 20th-worst Texas A&M said they pulled lower conges- worst time to be driving on Illinois 53 to Austin Blvd. (22 miles) travel data from almost ev- the 13-mile section of road ery mile of major streets and tion, but it is Peak travel time Worst avg. speed Delay at peak (minutes) where average speeds were Evening rush 22 mph (5 p.m.) highways in urban America as slow as 16 mph. The 39 for almost every 15-minute difficult to have eastbound stretch from YEARLY CONGESTION COSTS PER COMMUTER For peak commuter, 2014 period of the average day. A both.’’ Montrose Avenue to Ruble Fuel total of 900 million “speed Rank Urban area Travel delay (hours) Cost (Gallons) Street, just south of Roose- data points” helped deter- —Bill Eisele, senior velt Road, ranked seventh 1. Washington, D.C. 82 $1,834 35 mine that the total nation- research engineer, Texas nationally. wide price tag of congestion 2. Los Angeles 80 $1,711 25 A&M Transportation Coming in at No. 14 in the U.S. was $160 billion Institute nationally was the Jane Ad- 3. San Francisco 78 $1,675 33 in 2014, officials said. dams Memorial Tollway “The national congestion (I-90) eastbound starting at 4. New Yo rk 74 $1,739 35 recession is over,” the report fund a federal transporta- the Tri-State Tollway 5. San Jose 67 $1,422 28 concluded. “The total con- tion bill. It is way past time (I-294) and extending to the gestion problem is larger to take a look at increasing Kennedy at the Edens 6. Boston 64 $1,388 30 than the pre-recession the federal gas tax, and the (I-94) merge, the report levels.” fact that it is not indexed to said. Drivers who regularly 7. Seattle 63 $1,491 28 The greater urban area inflation is just a crime,” travel the route can expect 8. Chicago 61 $1,445 29 that includes the city of said Joseph Szabo,execu- to spend 57 extra hours a Chicago ranked No. 3in two tive director of the Chicago year compared with driving 9. Houston 61 $1,490 29 categories: Metropolitan Agency for in smoothly flowing traffic, 10. Dallas 53 $1,185 22 ■ Total travel delay, at 302.6 Planning,which is the offi- the report said. million hours when adding cial planning organization And although the price of DELAY PER CHICAGO COMMUTER BY YEAR Annual for peak commuters, in hours up the waits of the 3.4 for the region. gasoline last year in the 60 million commuters in the Temporary extensions Chicago region, $3.37 a gal- region in 2014. for federal transportation lon on average, was cheaper 55 ■ The cost of truck con- funding have been passed overall than it was during 50 gestion, at $1.5 billionin because Democrats and Re- 2014: 61 hours the previous three years, the 45 2014. It accounted for about publicans in Congress are at commuter who drove pre- 1982: 31 hours Up 97% since 1982 5percent of the $28 billion an impasse on long-term 40 dominantly during peak nationally last year in the legislation. hours in 2014 paid what 35 value of operating time and “There is no question, not amounts to a congestion tax wasted fuel for commercial just in Chicago but as you of an extra $1,445, or almost 1982 ’85’90 ’95 2000 ’05’10 trucks stuck in traffic and look across the country at $30 a week, the scorecard 11th adding to congestion, the our infrastructure deficit, said. The report pegged the report said. that what’s going on with additional costs, which to- 7th National rank Another way to look at transportation, (insufficient taled $7.2 billion region- SOURCE: The Texas A&M Transportation Institute, INRIX TRIBUNE the stranglehold is that a investment) is choking our wide, to such factors as driver in the Chicago region economic growth and im- lower miles per gallon who needs to arrive on time pacting quality of life,” said caused by stop-and-go con- per commuter last year, pedals on Chicago-area While bus and train rid- at a destination that is 20 Szabo, who was adminis- ditions, lost productivity at which for some vehicles interstates, the region ers like to complain about minutes away in light traffic trator of the Federal Rail- work, commuting stress represents about two tanks ranked a perhaps surprising slow and unreliable service, should instead budget a full road Administration for the and diminished quality of of gas. No. 8in the U.S. in terms of roadway congestion here hour to get there during Obama administration. life. As bad as it may have delay hours for each com- would have been stagger- peak travel times, Eisele Congestion resulted in 29 seemed to drivers con- muter due to traffic con- ingly worse without the 1.6 said. [email protected] extra gallons of fuel burned stantly tapping their brake gestion. million CTA rides and the But a better solution is Twitter @jhilkevitch Court nears for Kane prosecutor charged with DUI

By Clifford Ward Chicago, a Kane County 12:30 a.m. headed east on on Illinois 64, and he noted participate in field sobriety issue. Doyen works in the Chicago Tribune assistant state’s attorney Illinois Route 64, near astrong odor of alcohol tests and informed police felony division and was part since 2011, was charged County Farm Road. coming from the vehicle. He she was an assistant state’s of the prosecution team that AKane County prose- Aug. 15 after she was Doyen, according to po- also reported that her eyes attorney, authorities said. won a conviction this year cutor is due in court in stopped by Carol Stream lice, was driving at a high were bloodshot and glassy, But she eventually per- in the Shadwick King case. September after her arrest police, according to reports. speed and weaving. The and her speech was slow formed the tests and King, a Geneva resident, this month in DuPage Police say her blood alcohol officer who arrested her at and confused, “as though showed signs of impair- was found guilty of the County on charges of driv- level was 0.168 — twice the one point clocked her car she was thinking of what ment, police said. first-degree murder of his ing under the influence, legal limit. going 67 mph in a 45-mph not to say,” according to the The office of Kane wife and was sentenced last speeding and improper lane According to Carol zone, authorities said. police report. County State’s Attorney Joe month to 30 years in prison. usage, according to court Stream police, an officer in The officer reported acti- Doyen, who police say McMahondeclined to com- and police records. an unmarked vehicle said vating his siren three times admitted consuming alco- ment Tuesday on Doyen’s Clifford Ward is a freelance Kathleen Doyen, 30, of Doyen passed him about before Doyen pulled over hol, initially declined to case, calling it a personnel reporter.