Expressway motorists who wound up behind state troopers traveling three abreast on Memorial Day saw one impressive display of law enforcement.
It was all about safety over the holiday weekend, slowing traffic and observing the 55-m.p.h. maximum, officials said. And it got some nice newspaper and TV coverage.
But the special crackdown lasted less than four hours and was conducted on a single expressway-the Stevenson.
And it raised a troubling question often asked by motorists, usually just after they’ve nearly been flattened by some speed demon doing 30 m.p.h. over the limit: Where are the troopers the rest of the time?
You’ll see them at accident scenes and assisting drivers in distress, but issuing tickets, even to the most dangerous offenders out there, seems to have priority about as high as curbing cars with burned out taillights.
When Getting Around asked readers a few weeks ago whether they thought motorists going the posted limit properly can stay in the left lane or should move right to accommodate faster traffic, some of the people who wrote made unsolicited observations about the puny enforcement effort they see when they drive.
A suburban man recounted a recent expressway trip between Elmhurst and Dolton.
Motoring in the middle lanes, “I had dozens of cars climbing on my tail and passing on the left and right at speeds I estimated at 75 to 80,” he said. “On I-294, my daughter asked me why we were driving so slowly. I explained I had the cruise set at 65, a full 10 miles an hour over the limit. Through the entire 80-mile round trip on four major highways, I did not see even one state police car.”
“There is absolutely no respect whatsoever for the speed limit,” declared another reader. “Every day I drive between Golf and Lake-Cook Road. For safety’s sake, I’m usually up to 70 miles an hour, and virtually every car zooms past me at speeds that make me look like I’m standing still.”
Another driver said he was low on gas recently and kept his speed at 55 on Interstate Highway 90 to conserve fuel.
As other cars whizzed by, “I thought, `Where are the cops?’ ” he said. “The answer came a few days later when I got a ticket for rolling through a stop sign.”
Now, some strong arguments can be made that the 50- and 55-m.p.h. limits posted on Chicago-area expressways are artificially low. If that’s the case, they should be changed.
But lack of enforcement, it seems, only encourages people to lose respect for the law. If you don’t have to worry about a ticket when you go 70 in a 50 zone, why not drive on the shoulder when traffic backs up? And why hit the brakes at that sidestreet intersection just because there happens to be a stop sign?
A state police spokesman said last week that the Memorial Day public-awareness effort was a success, but “nobody has the manpower to do that on all the expressways” or on a daily basis.
True enough, especially when state police staffing totals have been heading south over the last few years, thanks to budget constraints and cost cutting.
In 1990, there were 2,300 troopers statewide. Since then, the total has slid nearly 15 percent to about 1,960.
Wipers without lights
While we’re on the subject of traffic violations, is it that drivers don’t know about-or just don’t care to comply with-the new Illinois law that requires headlights to be on whenever windshield wipers are going?
One inclement afternoon a few months ago, motorist Mary Joyce started toting up violators on a ride of less than two miles through the Bridgeview-Burbank area.
“I counted 41 cars and vans and even one police car that had wipers on and no lights,” said Joyce, who thinks the law is a good idea.
The number of violations didn’t surprise her.
“I’ve seen it all over, everywhere you go,” she said. “I think (the law) needs a little more publicity and, definitely, enforcement.”
Supporters of the statute, which became effective in 1994, believe it was needed because too many drivers were strangely reluctant to turn on their lights in deterioriating weather conditions.
Other motorists obviously consider the law one more bit of unnecessary intrusion by government.
All-day `L’ station
The Chicago Transit Authority has some good news for people who live, shop or attend theaters in a now-vibrant area on the Near North Side.
The North and Clybourn rail station on the Howard Red Line, currently closed on weekends, will be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, beginning in early July.
Now, if the CTA would only install some signs that can be seen on the easy-to-miss station entrance.
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Got a commuting question? Getting Around will address topics of general interest. Write to Getting Around, c/o Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611-4041.
