EDITORIAL: Easing NWI traffic congestion requires additional routes

Times of Northwest Indiana

Many of the dangers on the region's roads are attributable to driver error, whether inattention or driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. But the congestion on the main roads is an undeniable factor.

It is not uncommon for traffic to be reduced to a crawl on Ridge Road and U.S. 30 because of an accident on the Borman Expressway.

Indiana State Police Lt. Larry Keiser described for the Borman well: "The Borman is a unique 12-mile stretch since it serves as a funnel for three interstate highways. It's a heavily traveled roadway that probably carries more commercial vehicles than any other roadway in the state."

In Lake County, more than a million vehicles travel the Borman each day. It is the deadliest stretch of road in the county, with crashes resulting in 71 deaths between 1994 and 2005.

Those dozen years were studied by The Times for a three-day series on the region's deadly roads. The series looked at a number of factors contributing to the region's high rate of traffic fatalities.

What we need are not just additional law enforcement efforts and upgrades to the existing roadways but new routes as well.

There are two types of traffic on those highways -- vehicles going short distances and through traffic traversing the region.

This year, the Indiana General Assembly was considering a plan to study whether to build the Illiana Expressway between I-94 in LaPorte County and I-57 in Illinois. The road was proposed as a way to unclog the Borman.

The loud public outcry against the study -- not the road itself, but simply a feasibility study -- caused the Legislature to approve only a study of a truncated route linking I-65 and I-57.

People driving the region's roads should consider the consequences.

The region's location makes it a logical choice for the transportation, distribution and logistics industry. Intermodal facilities here could help relieve the bottleneck for rail freight traffic in and out of Chicago. That means even more traffic will be using the region's highways -- adding to the congestion if nothing else changes.

It takes many years to move a new highway from a concept to a completed route. The time to plan new routes is now, before the region becomes so heavily developed that new routes are hard to plot.

"Not in my back yard" attitudes must not stop the construction of these reliever routes.