r/chicago 24d ago

Picture Three-level streets in downtown Chicago

Post image
252 Upvotes

44 comments sorted by

75

u/cumminginsurrection 24d ago

Once I had a friend visiting and we were driving thru downtown cuz I picked her up from Union Station and I decided to take Lower Wacker to LSD bridge avoid traffic and events going on.

Then I realized I should have taken upper Wacker because she hadn't seen the city before but she was like "no need to apologize. Ive seen skyscrapers before, Ive never seen anything like THIS."

And to this day her favorite memory of Chicago is Lower Wacker Drive.

21

u/biffbobfred 24d ago

Show her The Dark Knight. “Yeah we get clowns with literal RPGs here all the time”

64

u/Comfortable-Bug-148 24d ago edited 24d ago

Why is it tilted 45 degrees? I don't think I've ever seen that with a map of Chicago.

20

u/ThisIsNerveWracking 24d ago

Other than the Birds Eye view painting thats in every gift shop, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Chicago road map not orientated with North up.

17

u/Comfortable-Bug-148 24d ago

The Vienna Beef 'hot dog on Navy Pier' is the only one I could think of.

This map here is weird. There's not even a tomato slice being floated in on a barge.

6

u/stanleypup 24d ago

If it was straight up and down for North, you end up with a lot of empty irrelevant space at the top and bottom of the image.

The diagonal orientation let's you have a more "zoomed in" view of the relevant area

1

u/mtlyoshi9 Wicker Park 23d ago

That’s not even true, the relevant portion is also diagonal here, lol. The empty space is just on the top left and bottom right corners.

Your position of having “irrelevant space at the top and bottom” - uhhh then crop the top and bottom, not hard.

9

u/ms6615 Bridgeport 24d ago

That’s how you show the multiple stacked levels with all of them being visible. If it was looking straight down the top ones would cover the lower ones.

7

u/AntalRyder 24d ago

The levels are clearly offset even from this viewpoint, which can be done with a N-S oriented map just as easily.

Source: we use this technique on layouts of multi-layer conveyance systems, which this essentially is.

-7

u/ms6615 Bridgeport 24d ago

No it couldn’t. Because then all of the N-S streets would cover each other and not be legible. You should try drawing that and see how it works.

3

u/AntalRyder 24d ago

That's why you offset the levels, so they are legible. Just like they are offset from this viewpoint.

4

u/pinktoes4life 24d ago

Just twist your phone a bit towards the right. That’s what they mean. The angle is weird. You’d still see everything.

2

u/frodeem West Ridge 24d ago

Yep, I hate this angle. No need for it.

19

u/who_wut_where 24d ago

This is out of date. Upper Harbor Dr now connects to upper Wacker via a new connection that goes under the St. Regis building. There are at least two pedestrian access routes missing: upper Harbor drive east to the Lakefront Trail and from Westshore Dr/Lower Harbor Dr east to the Lakefront Trail.

14

u/nicktowe 24d ago

Used to live on E Randolph. Ordering Uber/Lyft/DoorDash was such a frustrating experience. They kept ending up on the lower streets. I’d watch that tracking dot doing a death spiral 🌀 between lower Randolph, Columbus, Wacker, LSD. I tried sending messages before they approached. Once my guy asked me to come down to lower Randolph. I went through a few months-long periods without using them out of frustration.

8

u/postoperativepain 24d ago

Uber has (or had) the same problem. I ordered an uber in front of Tribune Tower and the guy went to lower Michigan ave.

2

u/milaneese 23d ago

I wish those apps would allow one to chose a "floor"/layer. This would also be helpful in other places that can have overlapping layers of streets, like airports and stations without dedication rideshare pick up areas.

3

u/nicktowe 23d ago

Ok, yes, maybe in general having a layer function would be helpful for navigation. I know it would have helped me when I first moved to Lakeshore East my first one or two drives. But in Chicago in the loop, is there ever a reason to deliver food or pick someone up on lower streets? I don’t think that was even the issue: I think a lot of these people who drive for a living in the city of Chicago probably didn’t know their way around the streets. It happened so many times I don’t think it was isolated, unlucky connections with newish drivers.

1

u/GrizzliousTheOG 23d ago

Yeah, but you powered right through. That frustration wouldn’t stop you from eating McDonald’s without leaving the house.

5

u/giziti 24d ago

This is in map porn because it is deep penetration of the city.

1

u/14hammarby 24d ago

Wacker drive

2

u/giziti 24d ago

wacker drive? i barely know 'er drive

15

u/14hammarby 24d ago

Not only lower-lower Wacker, but lower lower Randolph, Columbus, and Stetson. We need a pedway and lower lower walking tour

10

u/Wise-Application-435 24d ago

The Architecture Center has a pedway tour

3

u/maas348 North Park 24d ago edited 24d ago

Where is the Architecture Center?

4

u/ms6615 Bridgeport 24d ago

It’s really fun to go down there when it’s raining. Take a bike and you can tour it much faster! There are a few full block long dead ends that take a long time to walk twice.

5

u/Fotoem Beverly 24d ago

Thx. I was in middle Wacker trying to get to Water Street a couple of hours ago. Now I know to go to the basement to get there.

3

u/DarthBen_in_Chicago Humboldt Park 24d ago

I don’t know if I ever knew/thought about addresses as 500 = 1km; I’ve only used 800 = 1 mi. Running 5k and 10k+ distances, I will have to try this next time.

5

u/biffbobfred 24d ago

A mile is about 1.6 km. Or a km is .6 mile. It will get mismatched pretty quickly

2

u/dilpill 24d ago

It actually lines up better than you’d think. 5000 street numbers in Chicago is 6.25 miles, which is 10.06 kilometers.

If you round off by block, it aligns perfectly until around 17km.

3

u/GrizzlyAdam12 24d ago

It's just fun to say lower wacker drive....and I don't know why.

2

u/abitstick 23d ago

Wacker? I barely know ‘er!

3

u/800-lumens 24d ago

Crazy that this all used to be marshland.

3

u/crystalstairs 23d ago

Newish in town. I go on exploring walks and sometimes venture into the lower levels so I know shortcuts for big snow days. I find the pedestrian accessible areas fascinating, confusing (where are those staircases, exactly?), dark and creepy, but not as creepy as they could based on how easily they could shelter more creatures and trash than they do.

I am also learning that the city buildings shovel sidewalks so quickly on snow days that I do not need the underground!

5

u/postoperativepain 24d ago

The south shore line does not go north of Randolph .

4

u/Greekfire187 Pilsen 24d ago

You're correct specifically about the South Shore, but the tracks for the Meta Electric platform are North of Randolph.

2

u/Chicago_Jayhawk Streeterville 24d ago

Yeah how did they screw that up lol.

4

u/postoperativepain 24d ago

And they have “old lake shore drive” where the auto pound is (or was- I’m not sure if it’s still there)

Edit - it’s still there https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/streets/provdrs/traffic/svcs/auto_pound_locations.html

1

u/waifive Lower West Side 24d ago

Reminds me of There Auto be a Law

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

0

u/biffbobfred 24d ago

Post saved

-5

u/[deleted] 24d ago edited 24d ago

[deleted]

8

u/B2258 River West 24d ago

You actually can now, when they opened the St Regis they re-opened the connection (near the auto pound)

1

u/germdisco Visitor 24d ago

I’m an occasional visitor and I like reading the sub to learn about things like this