Street Player

Observations on Driving and Walking in Chicago

First of all, everyone in Chicago honks their horn when they drive.  A lot.  Granted, most of this racket is generated by cab drivers, but everyone participates.  As for taxi cabs, there must be thousands of them, so with each one honking their horn a minimum of once per block, it’s quite a din.

When the light turns red, at least three more cars go through the intersection.  Sometimes ten.

Therefore, crossing the street is an extreme sport.  However, despite the fact that everyone runs the red lights, a surprising number of pedestrians trot out through the crosswalk when the light is still yellow.  I have to assume that these people are: 1) indifferent locals who trust that they won’t be harmed, 2) tourists from places where you can do that and people will stop for you (such as Portland), 3) suicidal maniacs.

Thus it’s not surprising that much of the honking derives from this common scenario: the light has changed, so people are walking across the street; the first of many cars turning onto that street has lurched to a halt to wait for the people to get out of the crosswalk; so all the cars behind them are honking furiously at the first car for not mowing down the pedestrians.