Chicago has one of the best city layouts anywhere; a nice, consistent grid with a numbering scheme that allows you to find your way with minimal knowledge of math and numbers. But then some rocket scientist decide to shit up our nice grid with some diagonal street, and then make those streets some of the busiest in the city. What good comes of having 6 corners? After the original novelty wears off, these intersections under up sucking HARD. Here are some that are high up on my shit list.

1. Damen/Elston/Fullerton – Rightfully #1. Easily the worst intersection in the history of mankind. 2 highway exits meet up (Damen ramp & Fullerton ramp) within a couple blocks of each other. Add to this the sheer mass of people making their way to Target and Home Depot just up the street and chaos breaks out. I live right up on Clybourn and Damen, and it can easily take me upwards of 20 minutes to exit 90 at Damen and get to the red bridge by CostCo. I can commonly be found at this intersection banging my head against the steering wheel and dropping the F-bomb.

2. Milwaukee/Damen/North – Damen again makes a shameful appearance. This intersection sucks ass for obvious reasons. The addition of people and cyclists makes for super extra terror, especially if you are planning on turning left. Extra bonus on weened nights, when drunk chicks are likely to bump into your car while crossing.

3. Irving Park/Damen/Lincoln – This intersection isn’t as bad, because it keeps the lights short and people moving. Unless you are turning left. Ther are NO left turn signals (assinine) and traffic gets all pissy and backed up as 3 cars try to fit in a left hand turn on yellow, while straight through drivers are blowing the stale yellow. It’s like playing involuntary chicken. I commute from Damen/Belmont to Lincoln/Peterson and this intersection is responsible for 30% of my travel.

There are craploads more (Lincoln/Lawrence/Western, Clybourn/North/Halsted, Clyborn/Ashland/Fullerton, Lincoln/Ashland/Belmont, etc). Which is the pain in your ass?