Going back to School... Driving School

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 After going the wrong way on a one-way, I decided driving school was for me.

It happened on a dark night when I did my bi-weekly visit from Cleveland to Chicago. I visited a handful of times before I moved. My favorite parking garage is on Kinzie street and I don't fix what isn't broken. I changed hotels and this hotel had a 24/7 in-out garage access. I was REALLY hungry and it was 10pm and dark outside. A McDonalds was 0.4 miles away. I thought HEY this shouldn't be bad at all, I'm gonna drive to this McDonalds. I should be safe in my car!

Well out of the 5-6 times I've been to Chicago, it never occured to me that one-ways ever existed. I rode on a Divie bike and wondered why all the bikes went in the same direction.. they went out to Lincoln park on Dearborn but never came back up. Until I saw people going the wrong way lol. That was my only inkling that something was off about these roads.

Back to the McDonalds story.. I programmed McDonalds into my Google Maps GPS and hit go! I went down Dearborn and made a left on Ontario. Google maps said "You are here!". I was not there. I could see McDonalds, but not the entrance. I made a left on North Clark and then a right (wrong way) on Ohio. Welp. A car was coming at me in my lane. It meeped at me and got out of the way. I then entered McDonalds feeling like a fool. I had to go in the order lane and think 'Oh god I hope they didn't see that. They are probably shaking their heads and laughing at me'. Now I was feeling 5/5 bad and at the thought I'd have to DRIVE BACK...

I got back to my hotel (and even now) my head hurts thinking about it. I thought "how many one ways have I gone the wrong way and not known? Is Kinzie a one-way? Is that why all the cars are coming at me? How can I even tell I'm in a one-way besides cars coming in my direction? Has Google Maps been leading me on these one-ways the whole time and I never knew? One-ways are so rare and unusual, does Cleveland have them? Did I drive poorly in Cleveland too... (insert 200 more questions and hours of pondering).

Tips I learned from Driving Instructor

1. Merging

Merging isn't only for the highway. They use this term called "merging" to mean "I'm making a left or right turn therefore I'm going to the outermost lane and making my own lane". A lane will become two lanes if someone is turning. Picture below:

I drew three lanes. You see the leftmost lane turns into 2 lanes when people want to turn. The cars are going up one-way.

I would be so freaked out by these "make your own laners" that I would hog the lane, get in the middle, and left/right my turn signal in panic. Or I'd hug the rightmost lane and hope they don't hit me. After driving for a week I realized people did this to turn.

2. Stop Signs

In Ohio (esp in Medina, country roads) we would have two stop signs and one road going 50-60 MPH nonstop. I would stop at all the Chicago stop signs and look to see if this was the case. Sometimes stop signs will have the marking "All Way" or "4 Way" which means all sections stop. This is pretty helpful to save time.

3. Spotting a Two-Lane Road

A two-lane road will have a double yellow marking on the road. Look at the second road in this picture:

A one way will have white markings only

4. Right Turning

When the light turns green, pull your car 1/3 of the way to turn because walkers are blocking you. Continue turning when walkers are gone. Its okay to start a turn. You don't gotta sit absolutely still until they are done.

6. Right Turns on Red

You can make a right turn on red. I personally don't because the walkers, bikers, and traffic is too much to track. I can do a "fake out" where I pretend to go straight and once the light turns green, change my turning signal to right and turn. Sometimes cars like to meep if your too slow.

5. Crosswalks

Keep driving. You don't have to stop for crosswalks if there is no stop sign or red light. Only stop for pedestrians.

6. Bike lanes

Apparently if your turning, you can get in the bike lane or to the left of the bike lane. Unsure about this, still figuring it out. Just don't hit the bikes. I'll find an answer later.

7. Bus lanes

The driving instructor said stay away from these. But Chicago says otherwise:

I'm confused on how to make a right turn on these bus lanes. What I do is go in the bus lane to turn right. Unsure if that is correct.

Closing

That's all I got. It just gets confusing from here. I'm gonna bike to one of these streets with a bus lane to see how drivers interact with it. If your from Chicago and got any tips or corrections, let me know!

I'm driving down Lakeshore Drive and learning parallel parking. I'm gonna wake up at 6am to go down this scary Lakeshore drive to see what its all about. Then I'll go to a suburb and practice parking in an empty lot. If I have trouble I'll get more help again.

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