Traffic in Chicago

Downtown Chicago
We spent the bulk of the last week in Chicago, exploring the downtown atmosphere and seeing what the city had to offer. One thing that struck us in particular was the traffic and what it is like to drive in the city. However, once we arrived at the hotel we did not take the car out at all (far too scary). But we did a number of tours (on a bus), walking (crossing many streets) and taxis to various places.

Traffic in Chicago
Traffic in Chicago is crazy, rivalling New York City in our opinion! Chicago drivers really love the use of their car horns too. If you have the chance to experience the city you will understand what we mean. We noticed a couple of things in particular about driving in Chicago we thought we would share:

1. The city streets seem to have no painted lines when driving. You sort of make your own lane, often by occupying two at at time. Have no fear though, if you do this people will honk at you to let you know.
2. Parking is a premium in Chicago. So if you want to stop and run into a store you do so more or less wherever you want, even if you’re double parked. The trick is to turn your hazard lights on and no one seems to get upset at this tactic! Then just walk away from your vehicle. We did not see one ticket being issued for this.
3. The ‘right turn lane’ only does not exist. If the road is four lanes wide, not a problem, throw your turn signal on and make a wide right (or left) turn. Expect to hear the car horns, but this seems to be an executable practice. Our taxi drivers did it more than once!
4. Just an observation, but Chicago seems to have more Lamborghinis than any other city we have ever visited!
5. On the plus side, the downtown rush hour traffic does not seem to be as bad as Vancouver. Chicago downtown does have a river running through it but there seems to be a bridge on almost every street. We were even able to get a taxi back from the Blackhawks game (on the other side of 2 rivers) as fast as we got there! 

Oh, and by the way, the day this blog was written marks day 85 of living location independent!

 

We, Jeff & Tara Ciecko of CK Golf write two blogs, one is our 19th Hole Blog where we share personal experiences and the other an Industry Blog where we comment on general business and internet marketing best practices, sales strategies and give golf industry related opinions. We have owned CK Golf  for 9 years and provide marketing, social media and business services to the golf and other industries. As of August 2016 our life and our business will be ‘location independent’. Our 19th Hole Blog is about the places we visit and the things we do. You can also follow our road trip at foodwinetravel.ca/roadtrip. If you have any questions or comments, or happen to be in the same location as us please reach out and contact us anytime.