Illinois licenses the dumbest drivers

By On June 11, 2012 · 7 Comments

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I took this photo to capture the sign, which I think has design problems. I didn’t know when taking it that it’d help me illustrate this story. The issue is this: From the left lane, one can make a left turn at an obtuse angle or an acute angle, but not two obtuse left turns. The same is true for the right lane: you can make an acute or obtuse right turn, but not two obtuse right turns.

On my ride home from Pequod’s Pizza tonight, I stopped at a red light in the left-most lane (there are two lanes, see photo) at Clybourn Avenue and Belmont Avenue, getting ready to turn left from northwest-bound Clybourn onto westbound Belmont.

A guy in a car behind me peaks his head out the window and asks, “Buddy could you move right a little bit?”

“I’m turning onto Belmont”, I explain, while pointing in the direction of Belmont Avenue and my specific left turn.

“So am I”, he says.

“Then according to that sign [to which I pointed], we’re both in the correct lane!”, I reply. (See photo of the sign.) I don’t remember if he said anything beyond that. I made the left turn, with he behind me, and when he passed me in the left lane (while I was cycling in the right lane) he honked.

Illinois licenses the dumbest drivers.

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  • http://profiles.google.com/vanlue Will Vanlue

    Once I was sitting on my bike in a green bike box, waiting for the light to turn to proceed straight. There was a car behind me, inching forward across the stop line. It had it’s right turn signal on and started honking. 

    I looked back and the driver leaned out the window and yelled “Hey! Get out of the way!”

    I replied (more calmly but still yelling over the noise nearby traffic), “There’s no turn on red [point to the no-turn-on-red-sign], and you’re supposed to stop there [point to the stop line and "WAIT HERE" painted on the road]!”

    The driver tried to yell back at me again but before he could get a word in, three people waiting at the bus stop next to us, one of them a well-dressed woman in her 60s, started yelling at the driver, telling him what an idiot he was for not reading the signs on the ground and infront of him.

    As they were berating him for not paying proper attention the light turned green and we all went on our merry way.

    So although Oregon seems to suffer from the same problem, I’m happy to know that our bicyclists and pedestrians (like yours) are smart enough not to take their crap.

  • Drakeaa

    Cars will often be patient enough when one of their two-ton-comrades sits stalled at a new green finishing their text or simply spacing out, but when a bike is in front of them they suddenly have a renewed vigor and attentiveness for driving. Oftentimes I feel its like people didn’t learn how to drive until I pull up next to them on my bike. Suddenly they can’t wait to pull ahead on the green or pass me with speed . . of course only to arrive way to early to the next red light.

    • http://www.stevevance.net/ Steven Vance

      I think my post title is a little too mean for the situation. The guy asked me very politely to move my back, but I was got annoyed at how that person understood how bicycles and cars are to be operated on the road.
      It’s definitely the least impactful and least dangerous interaction with someone driving a car.
      I wonder if there are cues that could be installed on the road that would give the driver a better impression on how cyclists are to turn left here. Perhaps a bike symbol in the roadway with a left turn arrow. And the reverse for the right lane.

  • John Wirtz

    I don’t think dumb drivers are unique to Illinois.

    • http://www.stevevance.net/ Steven Vance

      I don’t think so either. With the title I was trying to start the case for an argument that the requirements to receive a license should be more stringent.

  • Erik Swedlund
  • http://www.facebook.com/juan.dominguez.102 Juan Dominguez

    One can only hope the new drivers being edumicated are being taught how to share the road with cyclists.