If you thought it was riskiest to drive when there is more traffic, you are sort of correct. The morning rush hour with all those cars is the highest crash risk but the accidents tend to be smaller because all the traffic is slowing everyone down. You will see lots of fender benders not not much else. Also, most people are more alert at this time of day. The riskiest times are the early morning weekend hours between midnight at 6am. Drivers are tired and they are driving quickly because there aren’t many cars on the road. And there are four times as many fatalities on rainy days than on snowy days. August is the deadliest month of the year, according to the National Highway Transportation Safeway Administration. No matter when you drive, don’t drive without insurance. If you do, you face fines, penalties and could be required to maintain SR22 insurance for three years.
Top 10 Chick Magnet Collector Cars
Hagerty has published their list of the top ten chick magnet collector cars. Note how many are English. If the cars could talk that charming accent would make them appealing.
1932 Ford hot rod – quite possibly the original hot rod.
1936-1937 Cord 810/812 The front-wheel-drive design with independent suspension makes the car sit lower than its contemporaries and the optional supercharger gave the Cord 812 plenty of power.
1955-1962 MGA Described as an eccentric car because of the absence of external door handles and a not-quite-watertight cabin.
1962-1968 Shelby Cobra - A lightweight British roadster fitted with a powerful American V-8.
1963-1965 Aston Martin DB5. One of the Bond cars, need we say more?
1968-1982 Chevy Corvette. This most recent model years bare no resemblance to the distinctive styling of the vintage years.
1970-1971 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda Convertible : These million-dollar muscle cars are among the rarest artifacts of Detroit’s glory days, with only a handful of the legendary 426-cubic-inch Hemi engines installed in convertibles
1981-1982 DeLorean DMC-12
Few sports cars are as immediately recognizable .
1984-1996 Ferrari Testarossa
This car looks fast standing still.
1992-1998 McLaren F1
Until the Bugatti Veyron came along in 2005, McLaren’s revolutionary, 231-mph F1 had enjoyed a long reign as the world’s fastest production car, and it seats three.
Why Illinois gas prices are so high
Illinois has some of the highest gas prices in the country, and the culprit is easy to find — a 6.25 percent sales tax on top of fuel costs.
“As the price of the fuel goes up, so does the portion of the sales tax,” said Eric Noggle, senior revenue analyst for the state Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, in a story by the Gatehouse News Service.
Illinois is among a small number of states that charge a motor-fuel sales tax. Others include California, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan and New York.
The state government in Illinois gets 5 percent in sales tax, with local governments getting 1.25 percent. Some municipalities add more sales tax on fuel, from 0.25 percent in some small areas to 3.5 percent in Chicago.
The commission that Noggle works for recently compiled a report on fuel taxes at the request of the General Assembly. He called the sales tax in Illinois a “tax on a tax” because it also applies to the 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal tax on fuel.
Here’s the breakdown of Illinois taxes on gasoline per gallon, after the 18.4 cents per gallon that the federal government charges:
- 6.25 percent sales tax (5 percent goes to the state, 1.25 percent to local governments).
- 19 cent tax on motor fuel.
- 3 cents for an underground storage tank fund.
- 8 cents for an environmental impact fee.
- The 69 cents per gallon that Illinois collects in gas taxes is the third-highest tax total in the country, behind Connecticut (70 cents) and New York (69.1 cents).
How to find good Chicago food trucks
Finding a good restaurant in Chicago isn’t difficult with so many to choose from. Finding a food truck that you like can be a little like a treasure hunt, with the payoff being great food and low prices.
By spending a few minutes online before heading out for lunch or dinner, you can easily find a food truck that’s serving healthy meals in any type of food you desire. Food trucks are becoming so popular that some of them have weekly meet ups in one spot, such as the Waggin Wednesdays in the Fulton market in the West Loop, where dogs are invited to join the party, according to Fox News Chicago.
Even though they move around, food trucks are easier to find than you’d think. Most have Twitter accounts and tweet where they are. Chicagomag.com has a Twitter feed of Chicago food trucks to follow.
If you’re looking for a specific food truck, or just want to know where some are, here are some good places to start your search online:
Foodtruckfreak.com has many ways to find food trucks, including a list of Chicago trucks, a calendar so you can find what’s out on a specific day, and a search area for a specific truck you’re looking for.
Metromix Chicago has a list of food trucks that’s updated regularly, but you have to click on individual links to get to an address of where a truck will be. It does, however, list Twitter addresses to follow and links to the trucks’ websites.
Yelp has reviews and locations, and has filters to search by neighborhood, distance, price, food category, and options such as if it’s open now and if it is a good place for groups to eat.
Google has a list of trucks and locations, but it can be kind of clunky unless you know the name of the food truck you want. It also offers plenty of reviews.
How to buy low liability insurance and get Illinois SR22 insurance
For drivers looking for cheap Illinois auto insurance, probably the best way to get it and still comply with state law is to get the minimum liability insurance required. Purchasing liability only will likely be the lowest rate available and will provide protection if the policy holder is at fault and causes damage to another vehicle. It also provides injury protection if you’re hit by an uninsured motorist.
It will not, however, cover repairs to your car. Only if the other person is at fault will your car be repaired under their insurance coverage. If you want your policy to pay for auto repairs to your car if you’re hit by an uninsured driver, you need to request a coverage called uninsured motorist property damage, which is sometimes called liability plus. This coverage usually requires a deductible of $250 or so and adds just a small amount to the total premium.
The minimum requirement for Illinois vehicle insurance is liability of $20,000 bodily injury per person and $40,000 per accident, $15,000 property damage per accident, and $20,000 in uninsured motorist liability per person and $40,000 per accident.
“Getting minimum liability insurance for your car is one of the best ways to save money on auto insurance in Illinois,” said Cynthia Garcia, marketing director at Active Insurance Agency.
For drivers who need Illinois SR22 insurance, getting the minimum liability insurance is a smart move because it’s the cheapest Illinois car insurance available, and it meets the state law for drivers who most prove to the Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) that they have the minimum required auto insurance coverage. SR22 can be added to an insurance policy. It is a form that an insurance company will file with the DMV.
[Let Active Insurance help you find low-cost auto insurance now]
Drivers who typically need SR22 insurance are seeking reinstatement of their driver’s license after being convicted of driving under the influence or other serious traffic offense, have a lot of tickets, or were caught driving without insurance, among other reasons. Insurance companies who insure the driver can help meet the DMV requirement by filing an SR22 form on behalf of the driver before they can reinstate their license or register their car.
The insurance company must notify the DMV if the policy lapses or is terminated, and the driver’s license will be suspended again until the driver either reinstates the SR22 insurance or starts a new policy with SR22. Most states require drivers to have an SR22 for up to three years, even if they move to a different state.
Minimum liability coverage is so important in Illinois that the state requires every vehicle to have evidence of automobile insurance. Illinois insurance cards are required as proof of insurance for drivers who might be pulled over by police.
Illinois drivers who drive without insurance can be fined a minimum of $500 and can have their drivers license suspended for three months. Driving with a suspended license is a Class A Misdemeanor and is subject to a maximum $2,500 fine and a year in prison. Repeat offenders driving without insurance can be fined up to $1000 and have the drivers license suspension extended to six months and receive a four month license plate suspension. A vehicle with its registration suspended can’t be driven by anyone, with the minimum fine for driving a suspended car set by the state at $1,000.
A $100 fee is required for reinstatement of a drivers license, and proof of insurance and an SR22 if court supervision was imposed.
Some poor excuses for bad driving
In the last few weeks a few drivers did some outrageous things which are a reminder to the rest of us to use some common sense and follow the law when driving.
A Lake County woman was given a ticket for $500 and had her car towed because the music in her car was too loud, according to police. She expected a warning or maybe a ticket, but instead police called for a tow truck after officers told her they gauged the volume on her CD player with a meter.
After a hearing, she ended up paying $200 in fines and court costs, and $195 for the tow and impoundment.
Even though the penalty for a first-time offender might seem harsh, it’s a reminder that the police have zero-tolerance for those who break the law and drivers should exercise caution.
One of the dumber things we saw in the news last week was a man who tried to stop his car like Fred Flintstone — using his feet as brakes. The feet dragging didn’t work, however, and the man hit four other vehicles while driving in Roseville, Michigan. No one was seriously injured.
The man had discovered that his brakes had failed, but drove his truck anyway. Police caught him on video trying to stop the truck, and arrested him on charges of reckless driving and driving with a suspended license. His truck was impounded.
The dumbest driving mistake was one that happens too often — driving without a license. But a woman from Hobart, Indiana, took it to an extreme level by being arrested for the 14th time for driving without ever getting a license. That’s right, without ever getting a license.
She was caught going 87 mph in a 55 mph zone in a friend’s car, with two infants in the back not safely secured. She only has an expired learner’s permit and has never held a driver’s license, according to police.
When did that learner’s permit expire, 10 years ago?
And we wonder if these drivers had insurance, and if they didn’t, if they were also ticketed for not having insurance?
Chicago intersections dangerous for pedestrians
The silence of a Prius driving by is a hazard to pedestrians, especially blind ones, but pedestrians in Chicago are being hit by all kinds of cars — sometimes fatally.
A new city study found that most people in Chicago who were hit by cars were walking in a crosswalk, and walking with a walk signal, according to Chicago Tribune transportation columnist Jon Hilkevitch.
The survey found that about 80 percent of vehicle-pedestrian crashes in Chicago are in intersections and commonly caused by turning vehicles. Walking in a crosswalk — especially with a green light — should be considered safe, but pedestrians are instead having to yield to vehicles.
An Illinois law that was enacted in 2010 requires drivers to stop for pedestrians in sidewalks, while the previous law only required drivers to yield and stop when necessary to pedestrians in crosswalks. No amount of auto insurance will save you from hitting a pedestrian.
The study by the Chicago Department of Transportation found an average of two hit-and-run pedestrian crashes resulting in deaths or injuries each day in Chicago. Such crashes account for 33 percent of vehicle-pedestrian collisions, with 41 percent of those fatal — double the national average, officials told the Tribune.
The crashes happened throughout the city, as shown in an excellent graphic that the Tribune created. The highest number of crashes were in a band of areas from the Loop and Near North Side on the east to the Austin neighborhood on the west. A two-mile stretch of 79th Street contained four of the top 20 crash intersections.