Are suburban commuters experiencing a traffic recession?

For drivers, there appears to be a silver lining to the gloomy economy. For those who still have jobs to commute to and money to spend at the malls, traffic sure seems to be down, with reduced travel times to get from here to there.

Government agencies like the Illinois Tollway and Department of Transportation are still working to catch up to the trend with hard and fast numbers, but almost everyone agrees that, at least for now, the numbers in terms of drive times are less hard and more fast.

"Traffic is cyclical. You're at the low point of the year now," said tollway spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis, but "last week in particular the traffic reporters themselves were talking about less traffic than normal."

"A lot of it started last year because of the gas prices," said Joe Collins, a 20-year veteran at Shadow Traffic, which provides traffic reports to radio stations. "When it was $4.50 a gallon, nobody wanted to go anywhere. During the summer last year, it was amazing how much less it was."

Yet Collins agrees the trend has continued into the early months of this year, even with gas prices hovering around $2 a gallon.

So what gives? Are fewer people commuting because they've lost their jobs or they're economizing by working from home more often and exploiting flex schedules? Or did the shock to the system commuters received when gas prices soared really lead them to alter their driving habits for good?

"It's one of those things that's hard to get your hands around," McGinnis said. "It's not a simple answer."

"There are so many different factors," added Tom Garritano, spokesman for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency of Planning. "A few months ago the gas prices were really high. They came down at the same time the economy tanked. So anybody who claims that they know, I'm definitely skeptical about, but it's a good question."

CMAP is awaiting a federal report on Chicago-area traffic in the fourth quarter of last year to see if traffic volume dropped even as gas prices plummeted. And the tollway system won't have its figures for the full year until later this spring.

Yet many drivers have noticed a change and have posited why. "Since the gas crisis last year, my company has instituted a work-at-home policy for one or two days a week depending upon your job and ability to do so," said Dan Anelli of Hanover Park, who has also seen a couple of consistent bottlenecks on his commute to his job as project manager at Allstate Bank in Vernon Hills ease up over the last year. "This has obviously reduced my personal gas consumption by about 15 to 20 percent since my commute is my primary mileage during the week, and I try to work from my home office one day per week."

McGinnis said they noticed a drop in toll transactions, but "it was nothing significant" below the tollway's average of 1.4 million vehicles a day, even as commuters make up an estimated 80 percent of traffic on Chicago-area tollways.

"Which doesn't make us immune to the economy," she said, "but certainly there were other interstates and tollway systems that recorded huge drop-offs in traffic that we just didn't see."

Even people resolving not to see America first with a driving vacation didn't lead to significantly less tollway traffic here. "We certainly would be a route someone would take for a staycation, especially suburban people," McGinnis said. "To get to Great America or Brookfield Zoo or to go out to Rockford to see something there, chances are you hop on the tollway."

McGinnis added that even if there was a drop in traffic, it probably had as much to do with the tollway being in the final year of an extensive construction project.

"Does traffic divert during construction? It does," she said. "That's where it gets weird. I can't necessarily pinpoint whether traffic drop-off is due to gas prices or job loss or people just wanting to avoid construction."

At the same time, she added that volume may not be down, but congestion might be lessened due to improvements like open-road tolling and additional lanes on stretches of I-88 and I-355.

"The other thing you need to keep in mind is if people are moving faster there's less congestion," she added.

Collins also pointed out that the ever-decreasing number of public parking places in Chicago and the ever-increasing rates at parking garages have also driven commuters to opt for public transportation - and reduce traffic.

In any case, for the moment it appears to be a golden age for the few, the proud, the drivers - until warming temperatures bring people out of hibernation in droves.

"When it was beautiful (Tuesday) it was the worst traffic we've had for a long time," Collins said. "The better the weather, the worse the traffic. That's a rule." Except when it's just the opposite. "Of course, when the weather's bad, then it's terrible again," he added. "Any time it's extreme - good weather, bad weather - it's crazy."

So enjoy it while you can, drivers, even if it's only for today.