Why wasn't Chicago's Lake Shore Drive closed ahead of yesterday's blizzard?

[hedgehog]

Here in Syracuse, Onondaga Lake Parkway is closed whenever blowing snow makes it to dangerous. In Buffalo, the Skyway is closed during bad storms. Who in Chicago didn't get the word of 30 foot waves plus high winds plus blowing snow plus dangerous cold temperatures?

FWIW - I don't put this in the same class as the people stuck on the NYS Thruway in Buffalo a few weeks back. There the road was blocked when a truck jack-knifed as rain switched to freezing rain. Traffic backed up as it would whenever there is an accident blocking the lanes, but then heavy snow swept in before traffic started moving.

[Trajan]

1. Because it always snows in Chicago, and they dont close dem streets ...

No matter what ! ...

Well ... Nature had a say this time around ....

But hey - It is a historic fact ... LSD is rarely closed, even in a blizzard ....

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[virgogal]

3. I think I also heard that Chicago rarely,if ever,has

snow days off for the schools.

[snappyturtle]

6. True. It's been decades since schools were last closed. nt

[former9thward]

10. Not decades. They were closed in 1999.

[Trajan]

21. 1999 ? ... It is 2011 ...

That would be one whole decade and part of another.

Decades seems to be a reasonable response after all ...

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

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[hedgehog]

5. It sounds to me like we're seeing some of the extreme conditions predicted in

various global climate change models. A lot of municipalities need to look at what could go wrong if they get an inch of ice, or several inches of rain , or high winds , etc.

[mucifer]

4. I think it might have been just as bad if people's cars got stuck on the

smaller city streets trying to make it to 90/94. Cars would probably be more scattered and harder to tow. Just a theory.

[hedgehog]

7. It all depends. It's one thing to abandon your car and walk to the curb and into a

convenience store. (Although I knew someone who got stuck at a fried chicken fast food restaurant during the Buffalo Blizzard of '77 - he never ate chicken again.)
It's quite another thing to be a half mile or more away and on the wrong side of a fence from from the nearest shelter

[Bozita]

8. On WGN's noon newscast yesterday, Tom Skilling was predicting 25ft waves on the lakefront

I too was surprised by the mess on Lakeshore Dr.

[hedgehog]

9. I think people figure that if it was dangerous, the road would be closed.

Someone really dropped the ball on this one. As far as we know now, no one got lost in the drifts. Let's hope it stays that way.

[Rhiannon12866]

23. Here's a pic: Scary stuff...

[WillowTree]

11. Saw a press conference with the head of OEMC this afternoon & he addressed that.

Said that, based on the information that they had at the time, the Drive was moving steadily and they felt that it could be more detrimental to force thousands of cars off and onto other main and secondary streets, particularly in light of some construction in the area.

It's the kind of thing that's a crap shoot at best either way and all they can do is make their best call and hope it's the right choice. Under the circumstances, I just can't fault them. They did the best that they could in the midst of a serious and rapidly changing situation. It's called being human.

[hedgehog]

12. I t sounds like the city should have called for an early evening curfew

to get people off the road and home before the blizzard hit. Where I live, I'm used to rapidly changing conditions. I have literally driven from blue skies into a white out in 1/4" mile. I'm used to taking winter driving in stride. Just as most thunderstorms aren't hurricanes, most snow storms are not blizzards. But when a blizzard is expected, it needs to be treated with respect. No one would go to work the day a hurricane is due to strike and expect to drive home just as it hits! I say the city should have announced the curfew, because obviously a lot of employers didn't think to send their people home early!

[WillowTree]

15. That tends to backfire, too.

In years past when lots of employers shut down early, it causes chaos for the mass transit systems because their schedules don't have sufficient trains and busses downtown in the middle of the day to handle what amounts to an early rush hour. It isn't all as simple as you seem to think.

[hedgehog]

17. Again - it sounds like we will all have to get used to taking the weather a lot more seriously .

As it happens, although all the schools around here were closed today, we didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Given what was predicted, I'd have to say the right call was made last night.

The real question is, was this a freak storm or a sign of the new normal?

[kas125]

13. Accidents are exactly why LSD turned into a parking lot, too.

There were three car accidents on both sides that shut down traffic, then the snow moved in and everyone was stuck.

[hedgehog]

16. I think the question is whether a reasonable person could have predicted

that those accidents would happen. Let's see; high wind, blowing spray, extreme cold and no visibility - I can't imagine any problems there!

I referred to the people stuck on the NYS Thruway just before Christmas. IMO, that was the result of an unexpected series of events. IIRC, a jackknifed truck blocked traffic in one direction, and trucks going uphill lost traction and stopped traffic in the other. If traffic hadn't been stopped, salt trucks and plows would have kept traffic moving. Once everyone was stopped and the heavy snow moved in, everyone was stuck until each car could be dug out. Back during the '77 blizzard, the Thruway was kept running. I remember seeing the through traffic moving even though the on-ramps in the city were drifted over. At other times, the Thruway has been closed as conditions deteriorated but before people were stranded.

[kas125]

18. Oh, sure, I agree that they should've shut down the road

long before that happened. On tonight's news, they said the city won't discuss Lake Shore Drive anymore until they've investigated exactly what happened. We all know what happened, they didn't shut it down even when they should have known what would happen if there were delays from accidents.

But I think they should have shut all the businesses and let everyone go home at noon, too, when they knew the storm was going to be historic and was coming soon. Chicago's snow stopped at about 6am this morning, and here, thirty miles away, it kept snowing til 3:30 pm so it's even worse here than in the city. This morning the police issued a statement that only emergency vehicles were allowed on the roads, other cars would be ticketed and to just stay home. Both my kids' employers were open and expected them to go to work anyway. One tried to go and couldn't get there, the other one was more sensible and didn't even try because his normal fifteen minute drive home last night took almost two hours. But I think a big part of the problems in this area are that business owners have no sense and don't let people leave when a big storm is imminent and then they force people to try to get back the next day even when it's a state of emergency and we're not supposed to even be on the roads.

[prolesunited]

26. I think we may be neighbors.

Would you disclose your town? PM it if you want.

[former9thward]

14. The city screwed up.

They warned people to stay off the drive but if they thought it was going to be that bad they should have closed it. Instead they let fools who think the rules of mother nature do not apply to them go on there and get stuck. The city should bill them big time.

[KharmaTrain]

19. A Good Friend Was In That Mess...

Blizzard warnings went into effect at 3pm...he left his office at 2:30 for what would usually be a 15 minute ride up the drive. He said there was no snow when he got on the road but within 5 minutes conditions went to hell in a hurry...snow and wind. The snow piled up fast that made the road surface slick that led to the first big accident...a CTA bus spun out and this blocked the northbound lanes. People then tried to use the slick exit ramps to get off and that caused more accidents and stalls that turned the road into gridlock. The situation was a true "perfect storm" of everything going wrong at the wrong time.

I don't fault the city for not shutting the road down but for how they handled the accident that would result in people being stranded for the next 14 hours. My friend said the police on the scene kept saying how things were being cleaned up (when they weren't) and to remain with his car. They also instructed that people only run their engines for 10 minutes each hour...all this while the snow was falling and the winds were howling. My friend was "rescued" by a snowmobile and then taken to a local hospital to warm up and check to see if he was ok (other than being cold and tired he was no worse for the wear). He didn't have to sit out there for all those hours...our questions here is why did he have to wait so long.

[Warren DeMontague]

20. "The last time I spent that much time on LSD, Jerry Garcia was alive"

Sorry, someone had to say it.

[Withywindle]

22. DUzy!

Virtually, anyway.

[hedgehog]

24. I"m so square it took me five minutes to figure out the joke!