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Results tagged “cars”

Some Gems, Clunkers And Head Scratchers At The 2012 Chicago Auto Show

          

Our feet are still sore from braving the crowds and walking the million square feet of floor Saturday at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show. We saw damn near every one of the thousand vehicles on display. more ›

Chicago Auto Show Preview

Chicago Auto Show Preview

For Chicagoist, one of the few bright spots of winter is when we get to head over to McCormick Place and lust after hundreds of the latest cars and trucks for sale. more ›

Emanuel Proposes "Congestion Fee" to Pay for New Transportation Center

Emanuel Proposes "Congestion Fee" to Pay for New Transportation Center

A plan proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel would charge downtown motorists a $2-a-day "congestion fee" to help fund a new CTA Green Line station near McCormick Place and establish express bus lanes downtown. more ›

Car Thefts Up in the City

Car Thefts Up in the City

Even though the overall number of car thefts in Chicago had been declining since 2004, Chicago Police report that car thefts have gone up 22 percent this year in comparison to last year's number around this time. more ›

CTA Board Member in Car Accident on Election Night

CTA Board Member in Car Accident on Election Night

CTA Board Member Jacky Grimshaw made it to Governor Pat Quinn's election night party, but not without a few scrapes. According to the Sun-Times, Grimshaw's car was hit on North Lake Shore Drive by a taxi cab that had temporarily lost control in the snow. The cab changed lanes to regain control, hit the shoulder of the road and then hit Grimshaw's car. She said she had taken her car out that day to run some errands. Sporting a neck brace, she told the Sun-Times that next time it snows, she plans to take the CTA. more ›

Black & Brown & Driven All Over

Ford Motor Company released sales data that showed which cities preferred which colors when buying cars. And according to Ford's stats, Chicago ranked as a top five market for black and brown cars. Results also show Chicago as a top five market for six cylinder engines. For the record, the Chicagoist company car looks like this. more ›

Towed on the South Side? This Class Action Might Be For You

Towed on the South Side? This Class Action Might Be For You

Every time our car gets towed from the Chicagoist Happy Hour, we resign ourselves to our fate: a long, expensive ride down to a random city lot somewhere incredibly inconvenient. Endless lines. Administrative hurdles that make tax forms look easy. And sometimes, we're lucky enough to find someone generous enough to give us a quasi-official hearing. We always lose. And then it's ramen noodles again, for months. But at least the hearing made us feel better about the situation. more ›

Controversial "Cash For Clunkers" Program Ends Today

Controversial "Cash For Clunkers" Program Ends Today

Today is the final day of the government's controversial "Cash for Clunkers" program but by the sounds of it, if you didn't cash in over the weekend, you're pretty much out of luck now. more ›

More Cars Torched

For the second time in about a week, multiple cars were set on fire. The latest incident occurred last night in Lincoln Square where four cars were burned in a parking lot in the 5600 block of North Western Avenue. No one was hurt and an investigation is underway. Police say it doesn't appear to be related to last week's incidents of car burnings on the Northwest Side. [CBN] more ›

Proposed Tollway Additions on Hold

Officials said they would put plans for a proposed $1.8 billion program to add green carpool lanes on the tollway -- in addition to an interchange to connect Interstate 57 and the Tri-State Tollway -- on hold Thursday. While tollway directors still support the idea, lower gas prices and the potential use of stimulus funds for interchange work has led them to fall back on pushing the plan forward. more ›

Push for transit upgrade after 'eye-opening' tour of eroding system

Push for transit upgrade after 'eye-opening' tour of eroding system

Eight legislators saw the best and worst of the city's transit on a tour led by the chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee to show the need for a multi-billion dollar program to upgrade and maintain the transit system on Friday. more ›

Tesla Motors Announces Chicago Showroom

Tesla Motors Announces Chicago Showroom

While the Big Three grasp for lifelines from Washington -- due in part because they missed the trend shift toward fuel efficient vehicles -- new car companies are on the rise to fill the void for those looking for a "green" ride. Perhaps the most high profile of them will soon be setting up shop in Chicago. Tesla Motors, known for its sporty electric cars with six-figure stickers, will open a showroom and service center this spring at 1053 W. Grand Ave. The dealership will be Tesla's first one outside of California. more ›

2009 Auto Show Recap

2009 Auto Show Recap

As promised, Chicagoist checked out the 2009 Chicago Auto Show over the weekend. And as suspected, the show was a smaller event than in recent years. While most auto makers still had their wares on the show floor -- Porsche was the noticeable exception -- the brands clearly scaled back their displays in both decor and in terms of the numbers of cars on the floor. This was especially evident for the larger brands, who used to feature a number of their most popular models for attendees to check out in all the various trim levels. In booth after booth this year, however, just one of each model beckoned people to check it out. more ›

Fewer Drivers Buying Vehicle Stickers

The economic crisis that's gripping the nation might have claimed yet another local victim: vehicle stickers. Whether or not that's the reason fewer people are buying stickers (as opposed to, say, laziness), you'll still get ticketed out the wazoo if you're caught sans sticker.

Through Oct. 31, investigators for the city clerk's office had issued 46,541 tickets to vehicles that either had an expired city sticker or no sticker at all. That's up 8 percent from the same period a year ago. City stickers cost $75 for passenger vehicles, reduced to $30 for senior citizens. The sticker fee for SUVs went up -- from $90 to $120 -- in 2008. The 46,541 figure includes only those tickets written by the clerk's office.
Yet another reason why we stick with bikes so much. more ›

Buckle Up

A new study released today found that 97 percent of Illinois parents don't know the state's child safety restraint laws, and 67 percent said "most parents with a young child do not have a clear understanding of how to correctly install and/or use child safety seats." For the record, Illinois law says kids in the car need to be in a "child restraint"—a car seat or booster seat—until they're 8 years old. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for children under 14, according to AAA, and, and the NTSB says using proper restraints for kids could reduce injuries and deaths by 50 percent. [AAA, Seatcheck] more ›

Booters Will Continue to Work Alone

Mayor Daley says Monday's shooting of a city employee who was booting a car is an isolated incident, and that booters don't need to go back to working in two-person teams. Earlier this year, the Department of Revenue switched to solo missions, with employees driving van equipped with cameras rather than working in crews. more ›

Wienermobile Has Nothing To Fear from Baconmobile

  

In my dreams, a Baconmobile is a little more ambitious than this. But it's a start. more ›

Does Insurance Cover This Kind of Thing?

Today's Darwin award nominee: "A 30-year-old man dipped the rear tires of his BMW X5 into the Cal-Sag Channel Tuesday night to see if there was a leak. Moments later the vehicle was up to its roof in water, Worth police said." The guy was fine, so it's completely OK to laugh at this. [Trib] more ›

City Worker Shot Booting Car

A Department of Revenue employee was shot and wounded this morning while booting a car on the 8400 block of South Dante Ave. It's not clear if the shooter was also the car owner. The city employee was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition. [WBBM]
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Study Says States Should Raise Driving Age

Study Says States Should Raise Driving Age

A new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says states should raise the age at which teens can get drivers licenses to 17 or 18. The report says higher licensing age "would save lives." more ›

Solar Taxi Revs Its Eco Engine

Swiss adventurer Louis Palmer is driving a solar-powered car around to highlight the feasibility of alternative fuels. He cruised through Chicago yesterday in his two-seat, three-wheeled contraption that tops out around 55mph. [AP, ABC 7]
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New Look for CPD?

New Look for CPD?

The CPD is considering changing how its cars and SUVs look. And lo, the options are fug. more ›

Drivers on Cell Phones Cause 1,357 Crashes in IL

Drivers on Cell Phones Cause 1,357 Crashes in IL

In the last year in Illinois, cell phone use was listed as the primary or secondary cause of 1,357 crashes, in which eight people died and 351 were injured. IDOT says these numbers are probably low, given that not all law enforcement officers fill out crash reports as thoroughly as they're supposed to. more ›

Vehicles Towed from Bud Billiken Parade

Vehicles Towed from Bud Billiken Parade

Yesterday’s 79th Annual Bud Billiken Day Parade left many parade goers surprised when they returned to their cars to find them missing. more ›

Getting the Boot

Mayor Daley wants to boot cars after two tickets instead of three, which he says will help the city close its $400 million budget gap by bringing in around $48 million. more ›

Extra, Extra

Extra, Extra

I've had "Concrete and Clay" stuck in my head all damn day. Good thing it's so awesome. more ›

Don't Forget Your Sticker, Sucker!

Don't Forget Your Sticker, Sucker!

People like JoeM500 don't need to worry about vehicle stickers this year, but the rest of us motorvatin' four-wheelin' city dwellers have just days to go until we're at risk of one of those $120 "You Forgot To Get Your Sticker" tickets. Did you get your reminder in the mail? Yeah, neither did we—and WBBM is reporting that we're not alone. more ›

Chicago 176th Safest Driving City

Chicago 176th Safest Driving City

The average Chicago driver is in an accident every 7.6 years according to a new study from Allstate, which makes us the 176th safest. Out of 193. We're not the worst! We're not the worst! The safest "city" is Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where drivers are in accidents once every 14.6 years; the most dangerous driving is in DC, where drivers are in accidents every 5.4 years. Hilariously for anyone who's spent any time around New England, Massachusetts drivers were not evaluated in the study. more ›

City May Raise Fine on Tinted Windows

City Council's police and fire committee has proposed raising the fine for illegal tinted front windows to $250. It's currently $25, and given that the police issued 30,000 tickets last year for tinted windows, the higher fines could mean big bucks for the City. Tinted front windows (and windshields) are illegal because they pose a safety risk for police officers who need to be able to see into a car if they pull someone over. Also, geeze louise, 30,000 cars have illegal tinted windows? That number seems astronomically high to us. more ›

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