Chicago Ranked No. 1 Worst City in America For Driving To The Airport Thanksgiving Weekend
CHICAGO (CBS)--Driving or taking a car to O'Hare this Thanksgiving weekend? Be sure to pad your traveling time to the airport generously because Chicago is ranked the worst city in America for time spent traveling to the airport this Thanksgiving weekend, according to travel-services provider AAA and transportation analytics and connected-car services firm Inrix.
In AAA and Inrix's list of the 10 worst predicted travel times to 10 of the busiest airports in the U.S., the time spent driving from Downtown Chicago to O'Hare was the highest of any other large U.S. metropolitan city at an hour and 37 minutes on the westbound Kennedy Expressway.
The longest travel time to O'Hare is predicted to occur Wednesday between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m., according to the data.
New York City came in second place with a travel time of an hour and 19 minutes to JFK, followed by Los Angeles with a 58-minute commute to LAX.
This video of heavy traffic backups in Los Angeles last Thanksgiving weekend showed just how bad the roads can get this holiday weekend.
All the predicted travel times were measured from each city's downtown area to the airport.
AAA predicts 54.3 million Americans will venture 50 miles or more away from home this holiday, a nearly 5 percent increase from last year and the highest volume the holiday has seen since 2005.
Sitting in your car with your foot on the brake among a sea of beeping horns in the parking lot that becomes of the Kennedy Expressway during rush hour, however, could someday be a thing of the past if billionaire businessman Elon Musk's vision to build an express service train from downtown to O'Hare actually comes to fruition.
Under the O'Hare express deal with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Musk last summer talked about plans to use his own company's machines to dig 17-mile-long tunnels to O'Hare and use 16 passenger Teslas on tracks to reach the airport at 150 miles-per-hour.
Whether that vision will actually come to life is still unknown, however, as Chicago is gearing up to select a new mayor in February.
