Make access to O’Hare easier

As a person who flies out of O’Hare every Monday and back on Friday, I can say that O’Hare is one of the most difficult airports to get in and out of in the U.S.

The Chicago mayor says, “Why, it’s easy to get to O’Hare”. Well, sure it’s easy for him. He has a police escort to get him through traffic, and to bypass the hourlong security lines.

There’s no public transportation from the suburbs to speak off, and if someone does take the one Metra train that stops at O’Hare, they still have to take a bus and then a tram to get to the terminal. Early morning traffic at O’Hare is horrible. The cops out front wave their arms and blow their whistles a lot, but do very little to actually help the flow of traffic.

Perhaps a change in the traffic flow could be used: Eliminate parallel parking (drop-off) areas and change to perpendicular to the curb in front of the terminals on the upper level. As it is now, the cars, taxis and limos all try for the limited space parallel to the curb. When one does get a curb space, he is then blocked from leaving after he has discharged his passengers by the others who weren’t lucky enough to get a “curb” space, and are now parked parallel to him one (or two or three) layers out.

As more and more vehicles try to drop off people, they begin blocking each other and creating massive congestion. By simply painting some lines in the road, cars could drive in and pull into the parallel spaces (perpendicular to the curb), unload their passengers, and then pull out forward and to the left. Cars would not block one another and there could be a smooth flow of traffic.

Steve Tilton

Libertyville