Chicago Arterial Street Congestion Estimates by Region

City of Chicago provides real-time congestion estimates for 29 traffic regions covering arterial streets. Data is generated every 10 minutes by analyzing GPS traces from Chicago Transit Authority buses. The dataset includes average traffic conditions for all arterial street segments within each region.

Use Cases

• Model real-time traffic region congestion patterns using 10-minute interval updates
• Analyze arterial street speed volatility versus regional consistency across 29 zones
• Correlate CTA bus GPS trace data with congestion estimates for route optimization

Strengths

• Covers 29 traffic regions spanning the entire city of Chicago
• Updates produced every 10 minutes from real-time GPS monitoring
• Estimates derived from continuous analysis of CTA bus GPS traces

Limitations

• Excludes the O'Hare airport area from geographic coverage
• Arterial street segment speed data exhibits high volatility
• No column-level schema or sample data provided for validation

Provenance

Source

City of Chicago

Collection Method

Continuous monitoring and analysis of GPS traces from Chicago Transit Authority buses

Time Range

Real-time

Freshness

Updated every 10 minutes; last platform update March 2026

Geography

City of Chicago arterial streets (non-freeway), excluding O'Hare airport area