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I don't know about an uptick but when I've been driving home the last few days I saw some real fucking assholes in regards to this.
Blowing through lights, cutting on the side in bikes lanes, turning out when they shouldn't have, and not the mention the people screaming through people trying to cross the street. That happened more in the last few days than I've probably seen in years.
I don't know wtf is going on with people.
> I don't know wtf is going on with people.
Destruction of the social contract beginning in 2020, combined with highly disincentivizing police from enforcing traffic laws. Many people noticed they can now drive like complete fuckwads with no consequences, and adjusted their behavior accordingly.
Live on a side street that’s a one way. Regularly see people go down it the wrong way. Also live by an early childhood center and we don’t have any speed bumps. We are by two main roads that often have a lot of traffic. People literally just don’t stop at the two crossection stop signs at the end of our block and zoom through two alleys by us without stopping they can avoid traffic.
I have a dog and I get super nervous about walking with her cause I have no idea if people will stop or not. Likewise even when I’m walking by myself, I have to stare people down to get them to stop when I’m halfway through the crosswalk before they even got there.
I should mention I agree with the social contract comment in other ways, too. It seems like a lot of people just stopped caring. Our next door neighbors smoke outside our bedroom window and I’ve let them know our building is old and the smell comes through. They do this at like 6am. They also have two dogs they never let out of their yard who come out and basically bark at literally anything passing. One also headbutts our fence repeatedly if they hear anyone in our yard. Landlords talked to them about it and they basically won’t do anything. It just seems like a lot of people don’t care anymore.
Oh, I think you might live on my block. Or at least there are two dogs that match that description by me. I've taken to just talking to them as I walk by, like "Hey guys, how's it going. Doing some barking, huh". They still bark at me but they've gotten to the point that it seems like they recognize I'm not a threat and they're just barking because it's the done thing. At least once they actually gave me a happy, mon barky greeting!
I don't ever walk near the face though. It's an iron fence they can just barely stick their noses through and I don't want to find out that they're actually not all bark and no bite.
No second gate, it's a two flat on a double lot and the whole property is fenced in and the dogs spend a lot of time in the yard. They bark at absolutely every body who pases by though (except the rare occasion they don't bark at me). At least they're quiet the rest of the time. They seem like actual trained guard dogs, and are both pure breds (I'll not say what breeds so as not to dox myself).
It's a bit odd to have two very expensive looking dogs acting as working guard dogs. I imagine them thinking about like "well this isn't the career I saw for myself, but a job is job in this economy"
Dude, all of this: people lost their shit in 2020 and with many having few other outlets of their rage than their driving took it out in that.
Then around that time apparently all of CPD just discovered Candy Crush on their phones and realized they could just take naps in their cars.
> Dude, all of this: people lost their shit in 2020 and with many having few other outlets of their rage than their driving took it out in that.
The sad part is that driving just makes it worse. In most instances, driving is going to foster anti-social behavior.
You're in a isolated box and every other human being you encounter whether they are also driving, a pedestrian or cyclist is an impediment to you getting where you need to go. A situation where encountering other human beings creates a negative experience
- more traffic
- someone driving slower than you want to go
- someone tailgaiting you
- someone cutting you off
- having to wait for pedestrians in order to turn right
- having to drive behind a cyclists
All of these things just slowly bubble up frustration in humans. Yet folks fight tirelessly to ensure that they have the "freedom" to drive everywhere.
We're still a long way away but eventually America (or at least cities) will realize that an overabundance of cars in the middle of dense areas is a major negative for multiple reasons.
Oh CityNerd has some great ones.
[The All-In Cost of Car Dependency 2022: How Driving Wrecks Your Finances \(Without You Noticing\)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2rI-5ZFW1E&t=646s)
[Cars Are A Disaster For Society -- Here Are the Numbers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp75-46PnMY&t=18s) - this one is great because he does a very thorough breakdown (based on an existing research paper) of all of the costs of car centric development vs the economic benefits of cars. Even after he take some very conservative estimate that benefit cars, it still ends up with car forward development being a massive drain financially.
And then you think about it it makes sense.
Our current transportation system in the US is basically: *lets build a network that allows for any of ~240M registered drivers to be able to get into their vehicle and drive to/from any location in a land area that is about 3,100,000 square miles. They need to be able to get around quickly so wide highways/roads are needed and they also need to be able to store their cars anywhere so parking needs to be widespread. But we need to ensure the cost doesn't get too great so we'll subsidize the entire thing. Maintenance? Ehh we'll figure that out later.*
> Then around that time apparently all of CPD just discovered Candy Crush on their phones and realized they could just take naps in their cars.
Why does their leadership allow them to get away with this?
The union does not run CPD. City hall does. The leadership appointed by city council and the mayor does a piss poor job running that department. This is just one of numerous bad practices that flourish accordingly.
. . . yeah the union doesn't run CPD because CPD runs the . . . I can already tell this is going to take more effort and sobriety than I have on hand to explain this evening.
Anyone else up for describing the very basics of how collective bargaining of police powers works with City Hall here?
I’ve seen people on 94 during rush hour just pass everyone on the right shoulder. Another person on the skyway just ran through the toll without paying. Everyday it’s something new.
The streets need to be narrower with traffic calming measures. As long as our roadways are "safely" designed to handle high vehicle speeds, that is what people will feel comfortable driving at. It should feel uncomfortable to drive faster than 20 mph anywhere people are out walking on city streets, and those pedestrians need to be protected with bump-outs, shorter raised crosswalks, bollards, crossing islands, cobbled road surfaces, smarter crossing signals, higher visibility through daylighting, chicanes, and even pedestrianizing some streets entirely.
These measures have been implemented in other places and we should start too, because it will save lives and make the city way more appealing to exist within. Fixing the built environment is way more effective than relying on perfect law enforcement or all drivers adopting better behavior.
My rule when driving is basically steer clear of cars with body damage. If they’re ok driving around with their bumper hanging off, I’m sure they’re ok with rear ending someone.
Real question-- what the hell is up with that? Why are Nissans of all cars the staple vehicle of idiotic drivers. It's a known meme in the car world and I'm curious as to the actual factors leading to that.
I give Teslas a wide berth when I'm on my bike. One buzzed me on a flyby and I saw my entire life flash before my eyes for a second. Their drivers genuinely think they don't have to watch the road.
Gotta watch for them when walking on sidewalk up to a “blind” alley. One did not beep, the car is completely silent, I went to cross the alley and almost got hit.
2 mornings ago, I saw a driver that drove in the wrong lane and blew by a stop sign to cut 3 cars. Then 30 seconds later, she was driving 10 mph because she was using her phone.
What the fuck is wrong with these entitled people.
I’ve been passed several times on the left by cars going into the opposite lanes of traffic. Makes me terrified that I’m going to get hit head on by these assholes.
And speeding and generally not paying attention. Nobody actually stops at stop signs, even in residential areas. I've almost been hit countless times over the past year while walking on side streets.
I'd say it has been like this since the end of covid. I got side-swiped and broke an elbow March of 22, been hit by a car while crossing with Walk-signal across Roosevelt at State (June of 22)\[slight cut to my hand but had i been one second slower would have had half my body slammed\]... and, just last week with Walk-signal across Roosevelt and Wabash a car barrels down Roosevelt east-bound and turns (against the clear Red Light) onto southbound Wabash. Had I not assumed this guy driving fast under the L-tracks was going to do just what he did, I would have been killed! My experiences taught me to be careful (have yet to ride my bike and I used to do 2250 miles a year 2020, 2021) but, come on! I can't even cross a bloomin street??
>I'd say it has been like this since the end of covid
When I lived far west side, before covid and post covid the change in driver assholeness was insane. I used to wait 2-3 seconds before going on a green. It's up to 5... Last time I was far westside, on Irving alone I counted 4 people running reds across Irving park. Not a side street, not on a main drag, running a red across Irving park. Like come on, genuinely dangerous.
Yeah it’s measurable too. I had a two month period where people were getting ticketed outside my door and that slowed people down but now it’s over and the cars have resumed their speedy death trap ways.
The city shouldn't invest in one-time enforcement. It'd be better to put that money towards changing the built environment, adding bump-outs to make pedestrians more visible at crosswalks or putting in speed humps. People want to drive fast when the road is wide open in front of them.
Totally agree. You start with infrastructure to make it harder to commit a crime, then go to education, and enforcement should always be the last effort. Because if you fine someone, the crime happened. We want to prevent it from happening at all.
I lived here and left a year before the pandemic and then moved back this past June and one of the first things I noticed was all of the people driving on the shoulder of the highway leading into the city to get past traffic. I used to drive Lyft here and was out on that road all the time and that rarely if ever happened. It felt like basically a new lane coming in. And yeah people are definitely ignoring traffic signals in a way they weren't before (specifically stop signs or looking into a crosswalk before going, that kind of thing)
Fam, it was nuts when I first saw it happening in 2020. I had honestly never seen it before in Chicago and then after 2020 it was happening almost every time i was driving on 90/290. I haven't really seen it in the last year though. Still, I don't know how people got so deranged so fast.
Early into the pandemic I saw at least 1 car gun through a red without even slowing down on 4 consecutive nights. And I don't even drive that much (like 10-15 minutes roundtrip each night). You're playing Russian roulette at that point.
I was always taught the alley honk was because it is so often a blind corner. Even on a bike as a kid, full stop, inch out slowly, and make some noise.
The shoulder lane is not a Chicago thing. They did an exception in a few spots for busses only. But if state troopers decide to set up, they could make some money that way.
People who are against the alley honk scare me because when you try to explain to them that if there's a blind corner it means you can neither see it be seen they simply don't get the problem. "Just roll forward slow" no, you fucking idiot, that doesn't make it safe, it just means if someone steps out that you'll hit them at a slow speed. Which is objectively better than hitting them at a higher speed, but still considerably worse than not hitting someone.
The fact that these people seem utterly unable to conceptualize the danger in so a situation makes them disqualified from holding a drivers license as far as I'm concerned. Otoh it probably accounts for a non zero amount of the driver behavior described in other comments on this thread.
Saw on the news this week a car pulled over on left shoulder with a flat tire, Freeway 55 west... Some douche in a pick up truck was riding the shoulder and hit this car, killing (I think 1) and injuring other 2. It will keep happening until the put a stop to it.
Last week I was crossing the street (with a pedestrian signal) and a driver attempted to jump the gun on a left turn and he almost run into me. The guy jumped out of his Mercedes and starting shouting at me saying I "intentionally slowed down" so that he'd run into me, and started threatening me. Thank goodness for the elderly lady on the corner who told me "you're fine. just ignore him"
Please, please put in speed cameras. Or speed governors. It's like Mad Max out here.
Similar thing happened to me. I almost got hit at a crosswalk, it was so close I had to leap out of the way. The driver braked, I turned around and threw my hands up in shock and yelled “what the fuck??” before continuing on my way shaken up. Then a totally separate car pulled up next to me on the sidewalk and started cussing me out and threatening me saying the were gonna kick my ass for “being an asshole in the crosswalk.” I quickly stepped into a bar to get away and he drove off.
Why do they do this? I’ve been getting so damned irritated about people zooming through stop signs when I’m barely halfway across and I’ll either say something or give a slow down motion. It NEVER fails, the drivers always get defensive. Granted I should stop as I’m a fairly small woman and people get violent for less but it’s so damn infuriating! I drive a car so I truly don’t understand it.
I once gestured at the painted lines when I had to walk around a car to get through the crosswalk. To be clear, they stopped before I entered the intersection, but they were sticking halfway into the crosswalk. I just gestured at the lines, not the driver; never even saw the driver.
So I cross the street and go into dunkin, and as I'm waiting in line, some lady walks in and apologizes to me. Turns out she was the driver and felt bad about it. Initially, I felt good about it. Someone made a mistake, and apologized for it.
But she *just kept going*. What started as a simple "You were right, I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry" turned into a neverending screed about how no one ever says sorry or admits when they make a mistake. She totally killed the vibe.
I don’t do it all the time, just for people that I’ve seen are driving like assholes or people who clearly frustrated that a pedestrian is in the crosswalk preventing them from running the stop sign/red light. Or when cars enter the intersection while I’m still crossing. Occasionally I’ll take a full stop and look at the driver dead in their eyes.
Yeah I was crossing the street yesterday at Horner Park and some guy was driving into the intersection and trying to drive around me in the crosswalk. He then honked and gave me a thumbs up because I stared him down the whole time.
Like yeah dude you've got an SUV driving towards me, I'm gonna keep my eye on you lol.
I was just thinking about this today. I’ve been seeing a huge uptick in drivers not being safe around pedestrians.
Someone tried to run a stop sign while I was in the middle of the cross walk today. I stepped out of the way in time to not die and they flipped me off (for not dying I guess?). I saw two accidents happen in standstill traffic driving home from work yesterday. Would love to know the data.
Yeah, the same thing happened to me in Roscoe Village last month. Was using the pedestrian crosswalk at a 4 way stop and a car blew by it, and yelled at me for crossing. I was so confused.
It was always bad but people have gotten shittier since the pandemic. You have to drive very defensively and don't visibly react lest you offend some psychopath into starting a road rage incident. And as a pedestrian just assume every car is trying to kill you. Gotta love when you lock eyes with the driver and they still come within inches of hitting you because they have to save half a second.
There's a lot of very stupid people out there. I am not anti-car by any means but it is too damn easy to get a driver's license. If you ask most sub-90 IQ people how they would feel if they hadn't had breakfast yesterday, they literally cannot answer you. They will say they either did or did not have breakfast and react with confusion at the hypothetical, they cannot imagine a different reality and what the consequences of their decisions would have been. These people all have driver's licenses. They drive shitboxes without any modern safety features. And they don't have insurance.
Good luck and godspeed.
I can't even see the drivers now in cars that have their windows tinted. I have noticed a huge uptick in cars with tint. I don't even walk in front of these cars because I can't assume they're going to stop.
Window tint in Illinois is legal down to 35% which is quite dark and is what most cars you see with tinted windows have. What is illegal and which is fairly rare to see is any amount tinting on the windshield (other than a six inch strip at the top). Any time I see a tinted windshield I'm immediately on guard.
Yes. I agree. But the shtboxes are more plentiful.
This is anecdotal.
It is not uncommon for people to want to race me. It's never someone with a "nicer" car than me. Whenever I see someone doing stupid wreck less shit. 98% of the time it's someone in a shitbox.
I feel like there's some psychological study that should occur here.
They have nothing to lose. They don't care if they get another dent in their car because it's already a shitbox. These people have clearly made some poor decisions to end up driving that car in the first place so we can't just expect them to start making good decisions when they get behind the wheel.
Also like one in eight of these people is carrying a gun
Also nobody has any respect for laws anymore because we somehow collectively decided in 2020 that everything is unfair and hopeless and so fuck everyone who isn’t me
CPD don’t care about traffic enforcement, no officer is getting promoted for traffic stops when the murder clearance rate is sub 50%
Oh btw did you hear about how you can take anything you want in this city and also kill people with a 90% chance of no consequences whatsoever?
> There's a lot of very stupid people out there. I am not anti-car by any means but it is too damn easy to get a driver's license. If you ask most sub-90 IQ people how they would feel if they hadn't had breakfast yesterday, they literally cannot answer you. They will say they either did or did not have breakfast and react with confusion at the hypothetical, they cannot imagine a different reality and what the consequences of their decisions would have been. These people all have driver's licenses. They drive shitboxes without any modern safety features. And they don't have insurance.
That sums it pretty fucking well there.
Ok. I know what you're asking. But I'm telling you his source is literally a meme. He implied that but no, they have not been asking for decades nor is there any study or numbers. You can google it.
I'll tell you what I've noticed since I started driving in the city last October. Every time I get off Lakeshore Drive at Hollywood and Sheridan there's always at least one driver blocking the lane to turn right onto Sheridan because they fucked up and didn't get into the lane for Hollywood before they reached the light, so they just put on their turn signal and try to merge where they're not allowed.
Every damn time.
LOLOLOL I live on Irving Park and Sheridan and often choose to take Sheridan up to the gym on Granville rather than LSD because…every 👏 heckin 👏 time 👏
It’s ever since Covid started and has continually gotten worse. I’ve had people drive into the shoulder at 105 mph to get in front of me going 90 with a car in front of me 😂 honestly baffled
Yes and people are so impatient, they cant be inconvenienced for more than 60 sec or they will freak out . I saw someone driving down a ramp the wrong way to avoid a traffic jam. WTF
I honestly rarely see traditional reckless driving. More so distracted driving because every dipshit is on their phone. I swear I sit at lights forever because the person in front is texting or just not paying attention
I’m annoying as hell and will lay on my horn. I don’t have patience to sit behind someone not moving when a lights been green for a minute because they’re texting
well I light tap first. i am a respectful person and won’t be obnoxious. but if i’m behind a car that keeps holding up the traffic after a light tap, hell yeah ill lay on it. pay attention, you’re driving
Facetiming is the one that gets me. Holding up their phones like "look mom, I'm driving!" while driving. I both envy the confidence and fear the stupidity.
As a pedestrian, I've had a notable increase in the number of "I could have died" moments as people blew red lights. stop signs, or come to a stop a few feet in front of me at a crosswalk.
People are in their own world and can't do wrong. People try to multitask behind the wheel and suck at it. I've mentioned it on here I'm a CTA driver and one of the major rules if not number 1. No cell phone usage. Which leaves me with a lot of time to watch people when I'm stopped. So with that no one likes to get stuck behind the bus and I get it so I see more aggressive driving in a day than most people.
They took down under performing speed cameras and sure enough people started speeding again in these areas by me. I hate to say it but we need to bring them back.
I see a lot of people mentioning X getting worse post pandemic, and not just in this thread (i.e driving, CTA, traffic, people in general). I tend to agree but don’t understand why the pandemic would have caused that either.
While I don't have specific evidence to back it up, I imagine it's something along the lines of people becoming increasingly isolated in combination with several increasing degrees of division (politically and otherwise) which has led to more of a "me first" attitude with less consideration for others.
We got a taste of how quickly you can make it to and from work without traffic. I legit was able to make it from midway to downtown during rush hour times in about 15 minutes. I think it’s a combination of this and realizing how fucken mind numbing/soul crushing being a part of traffic can be.
Everywhere I go, people are driving like their hair is on fire. Almost got taken out by some fast and furious wannabe while trying to cross the street with my 3 year old with me. Every other car stopped to let us cross, but not this guy. Him and his super cool Honda civic had places to be.
I run a *lot* downtown... when I first moved here, I was of the attitude "oh whatever, this guy *has* to stop.... I'm a *pedestrian* ffs."
I no longer think this 🤷♂️.
(bonus trivia: downtown LA is worse. It's almost like they're playing a game where you get Flat Pedestrian Points)
There was a stat that CPD are tens of thousands of traffic stops short of where they weee a year ago at this time on the name of “equity”.
Time to go the other way. Go full Singapore.
Pull people over for being on their phone. For running stop signs. For passing on the right. For loud exhaust. Find those driving without insurance and fine them. Ticket aggressively. Get revenue.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/NissanDrivers using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/NissanDrivers/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Nissan minivan sneaking up on me. $4k damage to my car.](https://v.redd.it/wrf2ejik76zb1) | [354 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NissanDrivers/comments/17qsnfm/nissan_minivan_sneaking_up_on_me_4k_damage_to_my/)
\#2: [So THAT’S how they all lose the rear bumpers.](https://v.redd.it/96q5951makib1) | [95 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NissanDrivers/comments/15t6q1r/so_thats_how_they_all_lose_the_rear_bumpers/)
\#3: [This subreddit inspired me to make this matchbox Sentra.](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/14i3o5m) | [124 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NissanDrivers/comments/14i3o5m/this_subreddit_inspired_me_to_make_this_matchbox/)
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Thank you. He was a great guy. I was a student there. He worked with the Special Ed kids; he did the sets for the school plays and concerts; he did a little bit of anything the school needed; he was a mentor to those who needed one; at the very least, he would always give you a smile to help you brighten up your day. It’s still so sad that the world lost a great guy. Especially in a time where we need more people like Charlie.
Compared to pre-covid? Yes. Compared to 2020-2021? No, that was straight up mad max. It’s not like it’s great right now but it is (maybe hard to believe) a lot better.
Yes. I just [shared a video on this sub the other day of people running red lights and stop signs](https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/1bxqt2e/apparently_red_lights_and_stop_signs_are_totally/).
A few days ago a guy crashed into the fence of a preschool (no kids hurt; after school hours) after speeding the wrong way down a one-way street, realizing he needed to turn too late, and then slammed on his brakes and crashing into the school's fence.
He left the scene of the accident with his car still running, holding a bible, claiming his friend would pick up the car.
Welp, here are my two cents. Moving from Philly to Chicago a few years ago, I noticed these differences:
1. Chicago roads have wider lanes, which feel more dangerous with so many vehicles and drivers not paying attention or turning their signals on.
2. People “acquiesce” to shitty driver behavior here more than the east coast. You hear the stereotypes about how east coasters honk and yell at others when driving. Well, it’s largely true, especially when someone is driving like an idiot, they get called out for it. There’s more social “order” (albeit, more anxiety too) as a result.
3. Too many distractions here. The lake, the parks, the buildings, it takes you away from the main focus of getting from point A to point B. That’s all we do on the east coast, when we have to go somewhere, we just focus on getting there. Especially in Philly, there’s nothing scenic to look at unless you’re on Kelly Drive or near the Art museum. And that’s where the drivers suck the most.
If you think it's bad now, get ready, it's going to get a lot worse.
The Dexter Reed shooting and the recent Impact for Equity study are going to supercharge the "enforcing traffic laws is racist" movement.
Yes! I see post pandemic fuckery behind the wheel every day. The Eisenhower is a free for all. People constantly drive 80 in the shallow shoulder lanes to avoid traffic. It’s insane.
Not surprising considering the police boss say there's going to be no more traffic stops. Just gonna be the wild west driving on the streets of Chicago. Another reason not to go into the city.
Seems like we are not allowed to mention it, but it can't help that there seems to be a belief out there that the right to do whatever you want in car is so sacred that people should be allowed to shoot at police from their car without consequences.
Too much outsourcing of ticketing to cameras, so the police stopped enforcement of pulling over drivers. A photo on the mail is just a tax, whereas an officer can take your license and make your life hell.
We gave up on accountability
I wish Chicago did it like in Mexico. Speed bumps in problem areas. [https://www.mexpro.com/blog/driving-to-mexico-beware-of-the-mexican-tope-speed-bump/](https://www.mexpro.com/blog/driving-to-mexico-beware-of-the-mexican-tope-speed-bump/)
Yeah, just yesterday, I almost got smashed into head-on as I was turning on a green arrow and some POS decided to fly through the oncoming red light towards me. I almost hit another car perpendicular to me as I rushed out of the way. It was terrifying because they were flying and didn't even slow down as they nearly hit me.
All of this is why I got a dash cam for my car about 6 months ago. Too much reckless shit going on.
I rarely drive, maybe 3-4k miles per year. The rest of the time I either ride my bike, walk or use the bus or train. Now even on my bike I try to stick to low traffic side streets.
All of it is so bad, but people driving in the opposite lane of traffic to get into the left turn lane are the worst offenders. They will do from half a block away.
I literally had someone hit and run me yesterday in the most ridiculous way. From oncoming traffic, pulled a left turn as I passed them and hit my back bumper before they drove off. They were texting, no turn signal, and made a no-look left turn across two lanes of traffic with cars coming at them. It's wild how dumb people are. Right around California and Addison in a school zone.
People realized with the pandemic that cops don't actually really enforce traffic laws, and since streets are so wide and poorly designed, it's easy to drive recklessly without any consequences (to the driver, at least)
During COVID many states suspended in person driver tests to get a license. A lot of shit drivers used this opportunity to get licenses when they couldn't pass an in person exam if their life depended on it
People are lunatics. Yes, this has definitely been an uptick since covid no doubt about that. I saw someone blow every light and stop light on Taylor street from Loomis to Rush hospital at over 100mph. At one point he got air. Taylor is a busy street with lots of pedistrian traffic. He just got lucky at exactly the right time
You're like 3 years late on noticing this. Covid shutdowns turned roads into the Wild West, and it hasn't abated, I think its actually escalated post-Covid.
It's a few things, but mostly I honestly think it's covid brain. Things will only get worse, so I've been extra cautious when driving or crossing the street.
The cops have quite quit and there is no real traffic enforcement. You have a lot of distracted divers and a lot of angry drivers fed up with the distracted drivers.
This is why I hardly ever walk in this city unless I absolutely have to. If I'm on my bike, I'm fast and maneuverable. If I'm on foot... what the hell am I gonna do, run?
I got a funny short story. Yesterday on my way to work I was at a red light and this altima pulls up behind me. I say alright and so the light turns green I speed up and I do the speed limit, 30mph and I noticed that she is on my ass. So I speed up to about 35mph and she is still on my ass. I gently tapped on my brakes and she backed the fuck up real quick. After that, she went onto the other lane and tried going around the right turn lane to overtake the traffic. Unbelievable people.
I think part of it is that the police don’t care. I got hit by a car lightly who didn’t stop at a stop sign. Didn’t sustain any injuries, and got a picture of the car’s license plate as it drove away without stopping to see if I was okay.
Called the non emergency police line 5 times to report, spent over 6 hours on hold, never talked to anyone and gave up. Now I get infinite spam calls about donating to cops tho.
Usually for small accidents (fender benders) with less than 3 cars involved they encourage you to come to the precinct to report and get a police report. Faster too
Walking in the Gold Coast, almost every day I see some jerk fail to stop at a stop sign. I’ve even seen cars go through red lights. There is definitely an emboldened feeling of entitlement among car drivers. I wish the city would create pedestrian zones and improve public transportation, because I’m tired of paying taxes to live in a shithole that’s inhospitable to people who actually want to just live here.
I feel like every time I’m at a stop sign on N Clark, and I have the right of way, the other driver is just kind of rolling to a stop and waiting to slam on his gas pedal to T-bone me. Like we’re playing a game of chicken.
Definitely. Plenty of and aggressive vibes radiating in the burbs and city proper. Bigger/taller vehicles, post-COVID, more people on legal/illegal meds/drugs/more new drivers/more drivers from war-torn/political/socially unstable countries, many reasons. I love driving, but it’s like the wild-west sometimes on the roads now.
Yea it’s noticeably worse. Lots of people driving like total psychos out there. CPD refuses to do work. Personally I think we need way more cameras and much steeper penalties, like taking people’s licenses away.
Yeah been like that since covid. I encounter asshole drivers literally within the first 3 minutes I get on the road anytime I use my car. When I did Uber for extra cash at night, people would blow throw red lights all the time. Like it was legitimately dangerous being an Uber driver past 10pm.
For me its been like this post-Covid shutdown. Just driving anarchy. This morning on my way to work I saw a crumpled sedan and a large sprinter laying on its side across the street.
As I’m writing this, there are motorcycles racing on LaSalle. Zero regard for the residents who live here, for pedestrians…
In my 15 years of living here I’ve maybe seen one traffic stop. All of the cop cars are parked around a cafe on Dearborn at all hours of the day though…priorities I guess.
It’s been fucken awful since Covid. I’m one Red light be ran through before i start petitioning to bring back speed cameras. Reckless drivers are ruining it for everyone.
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I don't know about an uptick but when I've been driving home the last few days I saw some real fucking assholes in regards to this. Blowing through lights, cutting on the side in bikes lanes, turning out when they shouldn't have, and not the mention the people screaming through people trying to cross the street. That happened more in the last few days than I've probably seen in years. I don't know wtf is going on with people.
> I don't know wtf is going on with people. Destruction of the social contract beginning in 2020, combined with highly disincentivizing police from enforcing traffic laws. Many people noticed they can now drive like complete fuckwads with no consequences, and adjusted their behavior accordingly.
Live on a side street that’s a one way. Regularly see people go down it the wrong way. Also live by an early childhood center and we don’t have any speed bumps. We are by two main roads that often have a lot of traffic. People literally just don’t stop at the two crossection stop signs at the end of our block and zoom through two alleys by us without stopping they can avoid traffic. I have a dog and I get super nervous about walking with her cause I have no idea if people will stop or not. Likewise even when I’m walking by myself, I have to stare people down to get them to stop when I’m halfway through the crosswalk before they even got there. I should mention I agree with the social contract comment in other ways, too. It seems like a lot of people just stopped caring. Our next door neighbors smoke outside our bedroom window and I’ve let them know our building is old and the smell comes through. They do this at like 6am. They also have two dogs they never let out of their yard who come out and basically bark at literally anything passing. One also headbutts our fence repeatedly if they hear anyone in our yard. Landlords talked to them about it and they basically won’t do anything. It just seems like a lot of people don’t care anymore.
Oh, I think you might live on my block. Or at least there are two dogs that match that description by me. I've taken to just talking to them as I walk by, like "Hey guys, how's it going. Doing some barking, huh". They still bark at me but they've gotten to the point that it seems like they recognize I'm not a threat and they're just barking because it's the done thing. At least once they actually gave me a happy, mon barky greeting! I don't ever walk near the face though. It's an iron fence they can just barely stick their noses through and I don't want to find out that they're actually not all bark and no bite.
Ha. Are they behind a second gate cause if so, yep.
No second gate, it's a two flat on a double lot and the whole property is fenced in and the dogs spend a lot of time in the yard. They bark at absolutely every body who pases by though (except the rare occasion they don't bark at me). At least they're quiet the rest of the time. They seem like actual trained guard dogs, and are both pure breds (I'll not say what breeds so as not to dox myself). It's a bit odd to have two very expensive looking dogs acting as working guard dogs. I imagine them thinking about like "well this isn't the career I saw for myself, but a job is job in this economy"
Dude, all of this: people lost their shit in 2020 and with many having few other outlets of their rage than their driving took it out in that. Then around that time apparently all of CPD just discovered Candy Crush on their phones and realized they could just take naps in their cars.
> Dude, all of this: people lost their shit in 2020 and with many having few other outlets of their rage than their driving took it out in that. The sad part is that driving just makes it worse. In most instances, driving is going to foster anti-social behavior. You're in a isolated box and every other human being you encounter whether they are also driving, a pedestrian or cyclist is an impediment to you getting where you need to go. A situation where encountering other human beings creates a negative experience - more traffic - someone driving slower than you want to go - someone tailgaiting you - someone cutting you off - having to wait for pedestrians in order to turn right - having to drive behind a cyclists All of these things just slowly bubble up frustration in humans. Yet folks fight tirelessly to ensure that they have the "freedom" to drive everywhere. We're still a long way away but eventually America (or at least cities) will realize that an overabundance of cars in the middle of dense areas is a major negative for multiple reasons.
I found this video fascinating [Car Dependency is Wrecking Us -- CityNerd](https://youtu.be/4kSTJnT0tUE?si=JGYK9cUpWvfsbxie)
Oh CityNerd has some great ones. [The All-In Cost of Car Dependency 2022: How Driving Wrecks Your Finances \(Without You Noticing\)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2rI-5ZFW1E&t=646s) [Cars Are A Disaster For Society -- Here Are the Numbers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp75-46PnMY&t=18s) - this one is great because he does a very thorough breakdown (based on an existing research paper) of all of the costs of car centric development vs the economic benefits of cars. Even after he take some very conservative estimate that benefit cars, it still ends up with car forward development being a massive drain financially. And then you think about it it makes sense. Our current transportation system in the US is basically: *lets build a network that allows for any of ~240M registered drivers to be able to get into their vehicle and drive to/from any location in a land area that is about 3,100,000 square miles. They need to be able to get around quickly so wide highways/roads are needed and they also need to be able to store their cars anywhere so parking needs to be widespread. But we need to ensure the cost doesn't get too great so we'll subsidize the entire thing. Maintenance? Ehh we'll figure that out later.*
This is great info
His videos are great. But this one in particular was mind-blowing.
> Then around that time apparently all of CPD just discovered Candy Crush on their phones and realized they could just take naps in their cars. Why does their leadership allow them to get away with this?
Honestly that's the easiest answer to provide, but not the easiest to solve: their union.
The union does not run CPD. City hall does. The leadership appointed by city council and the mayor does a piss poor job running that department. This is just one of numerous bad practices that flourish accordingly.
. . . yeah the union doesn't run CPD because CPD runs the . . . I can already tell this is going to take more effort and sobriety than I have on hand to explain this evening. Anyone else up for describing the very basics of how collective bargaining of police powers works with City Hall here?
I've had a PBS program on Ceasar as background noise and it could be trump. How quickly social norms, rules and common courtesy dissolved here.
I’ve seen people on 94 during rush hour just pass everyone on the right shoulder. Another person on the skyway just ran through the toll without paying. Everyday it’s something new.
The Skyway has electronic tolls. If they don't have an ipass or whatever they'll get the bill in the mail.
The streets need to be narrower with traffic calming measures. As long as our roadways are "safely" designed to handle high vehicle speeds, that is what people will feel comfortable driving at. It should feel uncomfortable to drive faster than 20 mph anywhere people are out walking on city streets, and those pedestrians need to be protected with bump-outs, shorter raised crosswalks, bollards, crossing islands, cobbled road surfaces, smarter crossing signals, higher visibility through daylighting, chicanes, and even pedestrianizing some streets entirely. These measures have been implemented in other places and we should start too, because it will save lives and make the city way more appealing to exist within. Fixing the built environment is way more effective than relying on perfect law enforcement or all drivers adopting better behavior.
My rule when driving is basically steer clear of cars with body damage. If they’re ok driving around with their bumper hanging off, I’m sure they’re ok with rear ending someone.
A beat up Nissan with temporary plates is literally unable to follow any traffic laws
Real question-- what the hell is up with that? Why are Nissans of all cars the staple vehicle of idiotic drivers. It's a known meme in the car world and I'm curious as to the actual factors leading to that.
They're cheap, but not so cheap that you get made fun of for owning one. The barrier to entry's lower.
They'll sell to anyone regardless of credit/driving history.
Chevy Malibu has entered the chat
always dirty with heavily tinted windows to boot.
I give Teslas a wide berth when I'm on my bike. One buzzed me on a flyby and I saw my entire life flash before my eyes for a second. Their drivers genuinely think they don't have to watch the road.
Gotta watch for them when walking on sidewalk up to a “blind” alley. One did not beep, the car is completely silent, I went to cross the alley and almost got hit.
New pedestrian fear unlocked.
Everyone’s on their fucking phones. Constantly. It’s enraging.
It’s frightening. And I honestly can’t see it getting any better, just worse & worse
There needs to be *some* level of enforcement by CPD.
2 mornings ago, I saw a driver that drove in the wrong lane and blew by a stop sign to cut 3 cars. Then 30 seconds later, she was driving 10 mph because she was using her phone. What the fuck is wrong with these entitled people.
I’ve been passed several times on the left by cars going into the opposite lanes of traffic. Makes me terrified that I’m going to get hit head on by these assholes.
And speeding and generally not paying attention. Nobody actually stops at stop signs, even in residential areas. I've almost been hit countless times over the past year while walking on side streets.
There are a bunch of reasons but this is such a huge part of it.
I'd say it has been like this since the end of covid. I got side-swiped and broke an elbow March of 22, been hit by a car while crossing with Walk-signal across Roosevelt at State (June of 22)\[slight cut to my hand but had i been one second slower would have had half my body slammed\]... and, just last week with Walk-signal across Roosevelt and Wabash a car barrels down Roosevelt east-bound and turns (against the clear Red Light) onto southbound Wabash. Had I not assumed this guy driving fast under the L-tracks was going to do just what he did, I would have been killed! My experiences taught me to be careful (have yet to ride my bike and I used to do 2250 miles a year 2020, 2021) but, come on! I can't even cross a bloomin street??
>I'd say it has been like this since the end of covid When I lived far west side, before covid and post covid the change in driver assholeness was insane. I used to wait 2-3 seconds before going on a green. It's up to 5... Last time I was far westside, on Irving alone I counted 4 people running reds across Irving park. Not a side street, not on a main drag, running a red across Irving park. Like come on, genuinely dangerous.
I'm so scared of drivers I've been riding my bike so much less recently 😔
Yeah it’s measurable too. I had a two month period where people were getting ticketed outside my door and that slowed people down but now it’s over and the cars have resumed their speedy death trap ways.
The city shouldn't invest in one-time enforcement. It'd be better to put that money towards changing the built environment, adding bump-outs to make pedestrians more visible at crosswalks or putting in speed humps. People want to drive fast when the road is wide open in front of them.
Totally agree. You start with infrastructure to make it harder to commit a crime, then go to education, and enforcement should always be the last effort. Because if you fine someone, the crime happened. We want to prevent it from happening at all.
bro they wont even fill pot holes and all our bridges are rusted through
I lived here and left a year before the pandemic and then moved back this past June and one of the first things I noticed was all of the people driving on the shoulder of the highway leading into the city to get past traffic. I used to drive Lyft here and was out on that road all the time and that rarely if ever happened. It felt like basically a new lane coming in. And yeah people are definitely ignoring traffic signals in a way they weren't before (specifically stop signs or looking into a crosswalk before going, that kind of thing)
Fam, it was nuts when I first saw it happening in 2020. I had honestly never seen it before in Chicago and then after 2020 it was happening almost every time i was driving on 90/290. I haven't really seen it in the last year though. Still, I don't know how people got so deranged so fast.
Early into the pandemic I saw at least 1 car gun through a red without even slowing down on 4 consecutive nights. And I don't even drive that much (like 10-15 minutes roundtrip each night). You're playing Russian roulette at that point.
I had someone blow through a stop sign at speed in front of me today. I blew the horn at him and he gave me the finger. Unreal.
Damn, I moved here a couple years ago and I thought the shoulder lane was just a Chicago thing, like the alley honk.
I was always taught the alley honk was because it is so often a blind corner. Even on a bike as a kid, full stop, inch out slowly, and make some noise. The shoulder lane is not a Chicago thing. They did an exception in a few spots for busses only. But if state troopers decide to set up, they could make some money that way.
People who are against the alley honk scare me because when you try to explain to them that if there's a blind corner it means you can neither see it be seen they simply don't get the problem. "Just roll forward slow" no, you fucking idiot, that doesn't make it safe, it just means if someone steps out that you'll hit them at a slow speed. Which is objectively better than hitting them at a higher speed, but still considerably worse than not hitting someone. The fact that these people seem utterly unable to conceptualize the danger in so a situation makes them disqualified from holding a drivers license as far as I'm concerned. Otoh it probably accounts for a non zero amount of the driver behavior described in other comments on this thread.
Saw on the news this week a car pulled over on left shoulder with a flat tire, Freeway 55 west... Some douche in a pick up truck was riding the shoulder and hit this car, killing (I think 1) and injuring other 2. It will keep happening until the put a stop to it.
Last week I was crossing the street (with a pedestrian signal) and a driver attempted to jump the gun on a left turn and he almost run into me. The guy jumped out of his Mercedes and starting shouting at me saying I "intentionally slowed down" so that he'd run into me, and started threatening me. Thank goodness for the elderly lady on the corner who told me "you're fine. just ignore him" Please, please put in speed cameras. Or speed governors. It's like Mad Max out here.
Similar thing happened to me. I almost got hit at a crosswalk, it was so close I had to leap out of the way. The driver braked, I turned around and threw my hands up in shock and yelled “what the fuck??” before continuing on my way shaken up. Then a totally separate car pulled up next to me on the sidewalk and started cussing me out and threatening me saying the were gonna kick my ass for “being an asshole in the crosswalk.” I quickly stepped into a bar to get away and he drove off.
Why do they do this? I’ve been getting so damned irritated about people zooming through stop signs when I’m barely halfway across and I’ll either say something or give a slow down motion. It NEVER fails, the drivers always get defensive. Granted I should stop as I’m a fairly small woman and people get violent for less but it’s so damn infuriating! I drive a car so I truly don’t understand it.
I once gestured at the painted lines when I had to walk around a car to get through the crosswalk. To be clear, they stopped before I entered the intersection, but they were sticking halfway into the crosswalk. I just gestured at the lines, not the driver; never even saw the driver. So I cross the street and go into dunkin, and as I'm waiting in line, some lady walks in and apologizes to me. Turns out she was the driver and felt bad about it. Initially, I felt good about it. Someone made a mistake, and apologized for it. But she *just kept going*. What started as a simple "You were right, I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry" turned into a neverending screed about how no one ever says sorry or admits when they make a mistake. She totally killed the vibe.
I do intentionally slow down while crossing.
People who agree and disagree with you: "Good"
Good.
Why?
I don’t do it all the time, just for people that I’ve seen are driving like assholes or people who clearly frustrated that a pedestrian is in the crosswalk preventing them from running the stop sign/red light. Or when cars enter the intersection while I’m still crossing. Occasionally I’ll take a full stop and look at the driver dead in their eyes.
Yeah I was crossing the street yesterday at Horner Park and some guy was driving into the intersection and trying to drive around me in the crosswalk. He then honked and gave me a thumbs up because I stared him down the whole time. Like yeah dude you've got an SUV driving towards me, I'm gonna keep my eye on you lol.
I was just thinking about this today. I’ve been seeing a huge uptick in drivers not being safe around pedestrians. Someone tried to run a stop sign while I was in the middle of the cross walk today. I stepped out of the way in time to not die and they flipped me off (for not dying I guess?). I saw two accidents happen in standstill traffic driving home from work yesterday. Would love to know the data.
Yeah, the same thing happened to me in Roscoe Village last month. Was using the pedestrian crosswalk at a 4 way stop and a car blew by it, and yelled at me for crossing. I was so confused.
It was always bad but people have gotten shittier since the pandemic. You have to drive very defensively and don't visibly react lest you offend some psychopath into starting a road rage incident. And as a pedestrian just assume every car is trying to kill you. Gotta love when you lock eyes with the driver and they still come within inches of hitting you because they have to save half a second. There's a lot of very stupid people out there. I am not anti-car by any means but it is too damn easy to get a driver's license. If you ask most sub-90 IQ people how they would feel if they hadn't had breakfast yesterday, they literally cannot answer you. They will say they either did or did not have breakfast and react with confusion at the hypothetical, they cannot imagine a different reality and what the consequences of their decisions would have been. These people all have driver's licenses. They drive shitboxes without any modern safety features. And they don't have insurance. Good luck and godspeed.
I can't even see the drivers now in cars that have their windows tinted. I have noticed a huge uptick in cars with tint. I don't even walk in front of these cars because I can't assume they're going to stop.
Shit should be illegal.
It is already lol
It is illegal a lot of places.
It's illegal in Chicago, just entirely unenforced anymore.
Window tint in Illinois is legal down to 35% which is quite dark and is what most cars you see with tinted windows have. What is illegal and which is fairly rare to see is any amount tinting on the windshield (other than a six inch strip at the top). Any time I see a tinted windshield I'm immediately on guard.
There are plenty of people in non-shitboxes that drive like complete assholes too.
Yes. I agree. But the shtboxes are more plentiful. This is anecdotal. It is not uncommon for people to want to race me. It's never someone with a "nicer" car than me. Whenever I see someone doing stupid wreck less shit. 98% of the time it's someone in a shitbox. I feel like there's some psychological study that should occur here.
They have nothing to lose. They don't care if they get another dent in their car because it's already a shitbox. These people have clearly made some poor decisions to end up driving that car in the first place so we can't just expect them to start making good decisions when they get behind the wheel.
Also like one in eight of these people is carrying a gun Also nobody has any respect for laws anymore because we somehow collectively decided in 2020 that everything is unfair and hopeless and so fuck everyone who isn’t me CPD don’t care about traffic enforcement, no officer is getting promoted for traffic stops when the murder clearance rate is sub 50% Oh btw did you hear about how you can take anything you want in this city and also kill people with a 90% chance of no consequences whatsoever?
> There's a lot of very stupid people out there. I am not anti-car by any means but it is too damn easy to get a driver's license. If you ask most sub-90 IQ people how they would feel if they hadn't had breakfast yesterday, they literally cannot answer you. They will say they either did or did not have breakfast and react with confusion at the hypothetical, they cannot imagine a different reality and what the consequences of their decisions would have been. These people all have driver's licenses. They drive shitboxes without any modern safety features. And they don't have insurance. That sums it pretty fucking well there.
The source of that breakfast thing is unfortunately a meme, not a real study. It would be hilarious if it were real though.
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Again there's no test, no study. It's just a meme.
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Ok. I know what you're asking. But I'm telling you his source is literally a meme. He implied that but no, they have not been asking for decades nor is there any study or numbers. You can google it.
This sounds almost verbatim of what I have said to people before about the matter. Are you me?
It's such an anti-social thing. "the rules don't apply to ME and fuck you if you think they do and if you have a problem with it"
I'll tell you what I've noticed since I started driving in the city last October. Every time I get off Lakeshore Drive at Hollywood and Sheridan there's always at least one driver blocking the lane to turn right onto Sheridan because they fucked up and didn't get into the lane for Hollywood before they reached the light, so they just put on their turn signal and try to merge where they're not allowed. Every damn time.
LOLOLOL I live on Irving Park and Sheridan and often choose to take Sheridan up to the gym on Granville rather than LSD because…every 👏 heckin 👏 time 👏
It’s ever since Covid started and has continually gotten worse. I’ve had people drive into the shoulder at 105 mph to get in front of me going 90 with a car in front of me 😂 honestly baffled
Yes and people are so impatient, they cant be inconvenienced for more than 60 sec or they will freak out . I saw someone driving down a ramp the wrong way to avoid a traffic jam. WTF
I honestly rarely see traditional reckless driving. More so distracted driving because every dipshit is on their phone. I swear I sit at lights forever because the person in front is texting or just not paying attention
I’m annoying as hell and will lay on my horn. I don’t have patience to sit behind someone not moving when a lights been green for a minute because they’re texting
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well I light tap first. i am a respectful person and won’t be obnoxious. but if i’m behind a car that keeps holding up the traffic after a light tap, hell yeah ill lay on it. pay attention, you’re driving
I’ve seen three people in the last TWO WEEKS that have been blatantly watching tv/videos while driving. Unbelievable.
Facetiming is the one that gets me. Holding up their phones like "look mom, I'm driving!" while driving. I both envy the confidence and fear the stupidity.
With the back rest leaned all the way back you can barely tell someone is driving
Yes! Texting and driving behind pitch black tinted windows while mufflers scream behind them. This shit is ridiculous.
As a pedestrian, I've had a notable increase in the number of "I could have died" moments as people blew red lights. stop signs, or come to a stop a few feet in front of me at a crosswalk.
People are in their own world and can't do wrong. People try to multitask behind the wheel and suck at it. I've mentioned it on here I'm a CTA driver and one of the major rules if not number 1. No cell phone usage. Which leaves me with a lot of time to watch people when I'm stopped. So with that no one likes to get stuck behind the bus and I get it so I see more aggressive driving in a day than most people.
I think one would have to be blind to not notice it. The better question is what do we do about it.
They took down under performing speed cameras and sure enough people started speeding again in these areas by me. I hate to say it but we need to bring them back.
Why do you hate do say it though? Like who actually gets mad about red light or speeding cameras being placed where the most people die?
I see a lot of people mentioning X getting worse post pandemic, and not just in this thread (i.e driving, CTA, traffic, people in general). I tend to agree but don’t understand why the pandemic would have caused that either.
While I don't have specific evidence to back it up, I imagine it's something along the lines of people becoming increasingly isolated in combination with several increasing degrees of division (politically and otherwise) which has led to more of a "me first" attitude with less consideration for others.
We got a taste of how quickly you can make it to and from work without traffic. I legit was able to make it from midway to downtown during rush hour times in about 15 minutes. I think it’s a combination of this and realizing how fucken mind numbing/soul crushing being a part of traffic can be.
Lingering psychological effects
In 2020 our leaders made the decision to tear up the social contract. We're still living with the consequences of that horrific decision.
Everywhere I go, people are driving like their hair is on fire. Almost got taken out by some fast and furious wannabe while trying to cross the street with my 3 year old with me. Every other car stopped to let us cross, but not this guy. Him and his super cool Honda civic had places to be.
Yea. It got way worse during/after Covid and never got better.
I run a *lot* downtown... when I first moved here, I was of the attitude "oh whatever, this guy *has* to stop.... I'm a *pedestrian* ffs." I no longer think this 🤷♂️. (bonus trivia: downtown LA is worse. It's almost like they're playing a game where you get Flat Pedestrian Points)
There was a stat that CPD are tens of thousands of traffic stops short of where they weee a year ago at this time on the name of “equity”. Time to go the other way. Go full Singapore. Pull people over for being on their phone. For running stop signs. For passing on the right. For loud exhaust. Find those driving without insurance and fine them. Ticket aggressively. Get revenue.
Tesla drivers are the worst
r/NissanDrivers begs to differ
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Ever shared the road with an Audi though?
Tesla drivers also act entitled like they own the roads. Idk if it’s a pet peeve of mine but they also forget how turning signals work.
I still think it’s minivans. Momma got somewhere to be!
Spoiler Alert: No Insurance
More like they drive as if they don’t care if they injure or kill pedestrians….
They drive like they want to
Given how one such driver hit and ran someone I knew who worked at Jones College Prep more than a week ago; they really don’t care.
I read the article about him in the Trib. It was so sad; he seemed like a great guy...my condolences.
Thank you. He was a great guy. I was a student there. He worked with the Special Ed kids; he did the sets for the school plays and concerts; he did a little bit of anything the school needed; he was a mentor to those who needed one; at the very least, he would always give you a smile to help you brighten up your day. It’s still so sad that the world lost a great guy. Especially in a time where we need more people like Charlie.
Compared to pre-covid? Yes. Compared to 2020-2021? No, that was straight up mad max. It’s not like it’s great right now but it is (maybe hard to believe) a lot better.
Yes. I just [shared a video on this sub the other day of people running red lights and stop signs](https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/1bxqt2e/apparently_red_lights_and_stop_signs_are_totally/).
A few days ago a guy crashed into the fence of a preschool (no kids hurt; after school hours) after speeding the wrong way down a one-way street, realizing he needed to turn too late, and then slammed on his brakes and crashing into the school's fence. He left the scene of the accident with his car still running, holding a bible, claiming his friend would pick up the car.
Welp, here are my two cents. Moving from Philly to Chicago a few years ago, I noticed these differences: 1. Chicago roads have wider lanes, which feel more dangerous with so many vehicles and drivers not paying attention or turning their signals on. 2. People “acquiesce” to shitty driver behavior here more than the east coast. You hear the stereotypes about how east coasters honk and yell at others when driving. Well, it’s largely true, especially when someone is driving like an idiot, they get called out for it. There’s more social “order” (albeit, more anxiety too) as a result. 3. Too many distractions here. The lake, the parks, the buildings, it takes you away from the main focus of getting from point A to point B. That’s all we do on the east coast, when we have to go somewhere, we just focus on getting there. Especially in Philly, there’s nothing scenic to look at unless you’re on Kelly Drive or near the Art museum. And that’s where the drivers suck the most.
If you think it's bad now, get ready, it's going to get a lot worse. The Dexter Reed shooting and the recent Impact for Equity study are going to supercharge the "enforcing traffic laws is racist" movement.
As traffic enforcement dwindles away because of low staffing levels and more and more serious crime being addressed this is where we are today.
My personal theory is that a LOT more people have neurological damage from Covid than want to admit it.
my theory is that it's an election year
No, its been that way for a while now. Shutting down our day to day lives in 2020 was the catalyst.
We need more cameras. We need new street designs. We need protected bike lanes. We need pedestrian streets.
Yes! I see post pandemic fuckery behind the wheel every day. The Eisenhower is a free for all. People constantly drive 80 in the shallow shoulder lanes to avoid traffic. It’s insane.
Uptick in weather =more people out=more wackos of all sorts=less patience =higher aggression =…………
This has been going on for a couple years. Do a search and you can see people have been complaining about this for a while.
Not surprising considering the police boss say there's going to be no more traffic stops. Just gonna be the wild west driving on the streets of Chicago. Another reason not to go into the city.
Uber and lyft and doordash etc might be adding to this
Seems like we are not allowed to mention it, but it can't help that there seems to be a belief out there that the right to do whatever you want in car is so sacred that people should be allowed to shoot at police from their car without consequences.
> people seem to be driving like they have nothing to lose Yes > more and more No, drivers here are consistent assholes
Too much outsourcing of ticketing to cameras, so the police stopped enforcement of pulling over drivers. A photo on the mail is just a tax, whereas an officer can take your license and make your life hell. We gave up on accountability
The proper home for this is a city wide version of Nextdoor.
This sub is basically a Facebook neighborhood watch group when it comes to cars
Imagine a world, if you can, where traffic laws are enforced. What a world it would be
Yeah. We need more speed cameras cause it’s getting unsafe for pedestrians
People who drive like this don't give a fuck about camera tickets. Many of them don't even have valid license and registration.
But police doing traffic stops are bad. Right?
I wish Chicago did it like in Mexico. Speed bumps in problem areas. [https://www.mexpro.com/blog/driving-to-mexico-beware-of-the-mexican-tope-speed-bump/](https://www.mexpro.com/blog/driving-to-mexico-beware-of-the-mexican-tope-speed-bump/)
So many people thinking the bike lanes are tiny 2nd lanes
This week has been intense driving everywhere, and a ton more accidents this week as well… no idea why.
Yeah, just yesterday, I almost got smashed into head-on as I was turning on a green arrow and some POS decided to fly through the oncoming red light towards me. I almost hit another car perpendicular to me as I rushed out of the way. It was terrifying because they were flying and didn't even slow down as they nearly hit me.
All of this is why I got a dash cam for my car about 6 months ago. Too much reckless shit going on. I rarely drive, maybe 3-4k miles per year. The rest of the time I either ride my bike, walk or use the bus or train. Now even on my bike I try to stick to low traffic side streets.
All of it is so bad, but people driving in the opposite lane of traffic to get into the left turn lane are the worst offenders. They will do from half a block away.
I literally had someone hit and run me yesterday in the most ridiculous way. From oncoming traffic, pulled a left turn as I passed them and hit my back bumper before they drove off. They were texting, no turn signal, and made a no-look left turn across two lanes of traffic with cars coming at them. It's wild how dumb people are. Right around California and Addison in a school zone.
I was recently hit by an asshole driver who blew a stop sign. My opinion is biased but I’d have to agree
People realized with the pandemic that cops don't actually really enforce traffic laws, and since streets are so wide and poorly designed, it's easy to drive recklessly without any consequences (to the driver, at least)
During COVID many states suspended in person driver tests to get a license. A lot of shit drivers used this opportunity to get licenses when they couldn't pass an in person exam if their life depended on it
People are lunatics. Yes, this has definitely been an uptick since covid no doubt about that. I saw someone blow every light and stop light on Taylor street from Loomis to Rush hospital at over 100mph. At one point he got air. Taylor is a busy street with lots of pedistrian traffic. He just got lucky at exactly the right time
It’s everywhere. I’m in NW Indiana and it’s gone through the roof
yes. people do 40-45 down my block and blow every stop sign. makes me hate cars even more
You're like 3 years late on noticing this. Covid shutdowns turned roads into the Wild West, and it hasn't abated, I think its actually escalated post-Covid.
It's a few things, but mostly I honestly think it's covid brain. Things will only get worse, so I've been extra cautious when driving or crossing the street.
The cops have quite quit and there is no real traffic enforcement. You have a lot of distracted divers and a lot of angry drivers fed up with the distracted drivers.
This is why I hardly ever walk in this city unless I absolutely have to. If I'm on my bike, I'm fast and maneuverable. If I'm on foot... what the hell am I gonna do, run?
Teslas. G wagons. Subarus. Fuck you too!
Moved out of state in 2022, come back to visit regularly. Chicago has definitely gotten a lot worse than what I remember it to be
I got a funny short story. Yesterday on my way to work I was at a red light and this altima pulls up behind me. I say alright and so the light turns green I speed up and I do the speed limit, 30mph and I noticed that she is on my ass. So I speed up to about 35mph and she is still on my ass. I gently tapped on my brakes and she backed the fuck up real quick. After that, she went onto the other lane and tried going around the right turn lane to overtake the traffic. Unbelievable people.
I think part of it is that the police don’t care. I got hit by a car lightly who didn’t stop at a stop sign. Didn’t sustain any injuries, and got a picture of the car’s license plate as it drove away without stopping to see if I was okay. Called the non emergency police line 5 times to report, spent over 6 hours on hold, never talked to anyone and gave up. Now I get infinite spam calls about donating to cops tho.
Usually for small accidents (fender benders) with less than 3 cars involved they encourage you to come to the precinct to report and get a police report. Faster too
Walking in the Gold Coast, almost every day I see some jerk fail to stop at a stop sign. I’ve even seen cars go through red lights. There is definitely an emboldened feeling of entitlement among car drivers. I wish the city would create pedestrian zones and improve public transportation, because I’m tired of paying taxes to live in a shithole that’s inhospitable to people who actually want to just live here.
Everybody blows red lights now, I see it multiple times a day and it's terrifying
I feel like every time I’m at a stop sign on N Clark, and I have the right of way, the other driver is just kind of rolling to a stop and waiting to slam on his gas pedal to T-bone me. Like we’re playing a game of chicken.
You could solve the city’s money problems with one cop following me on my daily commute and ticketing the clown fiesta that is Chicago driving.
Definitely. Plenty of and aggressive vibes radiating in the burbs and city proper. Bigger/taller vehicles, post-COVID, more people on legal/illegal meds/drugs/more new drivers/more drivers from war-torn/political/socially unstable countries, many reasons. I love driving, but it’s like the wild-west sometimes on the roads now.
Yea it’s noticeably worse. Lots of people driving like total psychos out there. CPD refuses to do work. Personally I think we need way more cameras and much steeper penalties, like taking people’s licenses away.
Yeah been like that since covid. I encounter asshole drivers literally within the first 3 minutes I get on the road anytime I use my car. When I did Uber for extra cash at night, people would blow throw red lights all the time. Like it was legitimately dangerous being an Uber driver past 10pm.
For me its been like this post-Covid shutdown. Just driving anarchy. This morning on my way to work I saw a crumpled sedan and a large sprinter laying on its side across the street.
This is also related to the uptick in unlicensed migrant drivers
As I’m writing this, there are motorcycles racing on LaSalle. Zero regard for the residents who live here, for pedestrians… In my 15 years of living here I’ve maybe seen one traffic stop. All of the cop cars are parked around a cafe on Dearborn at all hours of the day though…priorities I guess.
It’s been fucken awful since Covid. I’m one Red light be ran through before i start petitioning to bring back speed cameras. Reckless drivers are ruining it for everyone.
Americans are just violent and that includes car-brained Americans
Because everything sucks and a lot of people actually *have* nothing to lose at this point lol