🗺️ The 12-Minute Transit Map

On Mon., Oct. 26, Market Street loses its eastbound lanes for four days — and White Oak Road closes outright.

IDOT starts work that morning on the railroad crossing where Market Street (Illinois 9 / U.S. 150) meets White Oak Road in Bloomington: the eastbound lanes close, White Oak Road closes in full, and the job runs four days with detours posted. Westbound Market is not in the announcement — it's the eastbound run that disappears. That's the week this map earns its keep — the cuts below are our standing route notes, published because a dated closure makes them timely, not because we timed your driveway this morning. IDOT

Cut 1 — eastbound across town while Market is closed: Washington Street. Washington runs one-way eastbound through downtown (Front Street is its westbound pair), paralleling Market a few blocks south with the same east-side exits. If your trip is east side to west side next week, Washington is the default; Market eastbound is not an option until the crossing work clears. Route note.

Cut 2 — the north-side parallel: Empire Street. For trips that start or end north of downtown, Empire crosses the same ground as Market without the downtown signal run — the better line when you're headed to the east-side retail corridor or coming off Towanda Barnes (Cut 3). Route note.

Cut 3 — the east side's north–south: Towanda Barnes Road. When the Parkway stack is the problem, Towanda Barnes is the cut locals already use: a surface run down the east side between Towanda and the Eastland side that skips the Veterans Parkway interchange pattern entirely. It won't beat a clear Parkway; it beats a parked one. Route note.

Cut 4 — southeast trips while I-74 is torn up: U.S. 150 on the surface. IDOT's pavement reconstruction has kept lane closures on I-74 from Bloomington to Downs since July, and they run until November — so for Downs and the southeast side, the surface parallel (Market Street east, becoming U.S. 150) is a standing option, not an improvisation. Check IDOT's traveler map before you commit; the work zone moves. And note the geography, because both stories are on the same road next week: the Oct. 26 crossing job sits at White Oak, on the west side — it doesn't touch this east-side run. IDOT

One caution that comes with the map: IDOT's own word on the Market Street job is delays — allow extra time and treat the posted detour as the authority in the work zone, whatever your notes say. IDOT

Send this to the one person whose Monday commute crosses Market at White Oak — Oct. 26 changes the first turn of their week.

One-word reply: which cut is yours — Washington, Empire, or Towanda Barnes? The most-named cut leads the next Transit Map.

📣 Share card — 12-Minute Transit Map (copy-paste ready)

• 🚧 Mon., Oct. 26: Market St. (IL 9 / U.S. 150) at White Oak Rd. closes its eastbound lanes for 4 days for railroad crossing work; White Oak closes in full. (IDOT)
• 🧭 The cuts: Washington St. eastbound across downtown, Empire St. on the north side, Towanda Barnes Rd. down the east side, U.S. 150 on the surface while I-74 to Downs is under lane closures until November.
• 🗓️ Detours get posted in the work zone — allow extra time Mon.–Thu. next week. — The BloNo Bagel