Back from MFF

[vakkotaur]

This is the short version.

Thursday: Travel.
Driving in MN: No problem.
Driving in WI: No problem.
Driving in IL: I have a renewed contempt for tollways and bad design. And for poor signage. And for hotel clerks who don't know the area. Evidently the right way to get to the Schaumburg Hyatt, at least for me, is via Elgin.
Arrived at hotel at long last - met some folks. Generally had a good time.

Friday: Attended a couple panels, saw a show or two, wandered around.

Saturday: Like Friday, but with the amazing sponsor's bunch. How good? There was smoked salmon available and I simply never got to it.

Sunday: Attended a panel, recovered sketchbooks from dealer's area and artist's alley, and drove home. Via Elgin since the supposedly closer access to I-90 was effectively blocked by a crowd of folks whose mental capacity indicates that they probably were designers of signs for Illinois tollways.

Conclusion: MFF was great, though I can't really say I did that much. It helped that I knew some people already and saw them repeatedly. I will almost certainly return. If the weather looks decent, I am very likely to plot a route that avoids I-90 in IL and aim for Elgin intentionally.

Comments

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Despite my familiarity (in general) with the area and with the obnoxious lack of design of Illinois roads and signage, even I had trouble finding the hotel on Friday. And I was equipped with the directions provided by the hotel itself and by the MFF website...

However, even though there is access to I-90 very close to the hotel, the on-off ramps are deadly dangerous if you aren't prepared for them and there is much traffic. Taking IL-72 (Higgins Rd.) from some other access point to I-90 is probably not a bad idea.

To give some benefit of the doubt to the designers, the area was already very congested before that interchange was built. They had almost no space to work with unless they seized large buildings by eminent domain and tore them down.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I've seen the results of crowding constraints in the Twin Cities and what I've come to call the %$#@ Minnesota-merge. This atrocity of design has one short lane shared by traffic merging onto a roadway and the traffic moving off of that roadway in a pattern (not road) that's roughly an X. There's not much room to avoid a collision and also try to accelerate to the speed of flowing traffic. I hate the design, but I can see why it was done. It's the screwy signage that bugs me.

If I miss a turn once because I misread a sign, well, I misread a sign. When it happens over and over again, I conclude that the signs are poorly designed. I followed the MFF website directions, or tried to. I called the hotel. I finally got to Elgin and stopped at a CVS Pharmacy and got directions - and specifically said I was not going onto I-90 again as that's what caused all the trouble in the first place.

Reconstructing it, it seems I took what I thought was the exit from I-90 to I-290 but it was only the access to the exit. The exit itself indicated it was 355 rather than I-290, so I didn't take it. I think I'll not take it again next year - and also stay well away from it.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Actually, the exit is marked IL-53 and I-290. An additional sign indicates that it is a connection "To I-355". You make your exit on a two lane ramp and hit a toll booth that wants 15 cents. The toll booth is built backwards, with the I-Pass lanes on the right instead of the left, but they don't warn you until you are on top of it, which generates additional "X pattern" traffic as vehicles try to switch lanes in a hurry.

Once through the toll booth (you are now on the extreme left after putting your money in the basket) you have to move right again to take an exit that is only about 500 feet beyond the booth, thus crossing the lanes occupied by speeding I-Pass users headed for O'Hare or whatever. Keep left coming out that exit ramp, and turn left at the next traffic light, so you go UNDER IL-53/I-290. Turn left again (you have to) at the light on the other side and stay in the left lane. In another 500 feet or so, an exit ramp goes off to the left, but do not take it. That would put you back onto IL-53 going the other way. (You do take that when leaving the hotel and heading back onto I-90, though.) Instead, stay in the left lane but go straight ahead. Turn left at the next traffic light (a T intersection, you must turn one way or the other) and then get into the right lane ASAP. Turn right into the hotel driveway (the hotel's own sign is obscured by shrubbery from this angle until you are on top of it) right AFTER you go through the next traffic light. Got it? <GRIN>

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I think I'll stick with going via Elgin. It might take a few more minutes but I'll cuss a lot less.