NP: Frisbie, The Subversive Sounds Of Love

Okay, so last night I was at the Fire-Crew match out in Bridgeview. On the way home, I realized I was in a bit of a pickle. Getting from the Stevenson Expressway to the Kennedy would be a mess, because of construction on the stretch of the Dan Ryan before the Dan turns into the Kennedy. And I had already hit massive traffic for Venetian Night -- Chicago's annual aquatic parade of "tall ships" on the lake -- when I tried getting out of the city, so Lake Shore Drive might be problematic. I could cut up Ashland, but that would take me by the Pitchfork Festival right when it was getting out.

So I tunned into my newsradio of choice -- WBBM 780 -- to get a traffic update. They said "traffic was slow on LSD through Downtown." Two things are worth noting. First, slow implies movement. Second, downtown means the Loop, which means north of about Van Buren, or if you take a more expansive definition, Congress.

Neither of these turned out to be the case. Traffic was stopped from about a half-mile back on the Stevenson up past Soldier Field, and then actually cleared up once you got to Balbo and the fountain, nominally "downtown" by traffic report standards. It took me at least 45 minutes to navigate that stretch. If WBBM had told me this, I would have taken my chances with Ashland and gotten home a lot sooner.

There's always been a certain amount of casual disregard to Lake Shore Drive traffic reporting as compared to how many minutes it will take to get from Lake-Cook to the Junction, but this time it had a direct, deleterious effect on my travels, so I may have to inform WBBM of how badly they misrepresented things. I'd say I've cooled down now, but given this weekend's weather, that, too, would not be an accurate portrayal of the situation.