To the lovely drivers of Illinois -or- Please stop telling me to run over this old woman.

I'm not going to sit here and pretend I'm the most patient driver in the world. Anyone who's ever ridden with me can attest to the fact that I don't tend to react lightly to people who, in my opinion while I'm behind the wheel, have no business doing what they're doing. That said, my recent travails in Chicago have left me with one very solid impression, which sticks out among the other, more fluid impressions.

Chicago drivers cannot hear in the range that a car horn does its thing. That's the only explanation. I've never heard so much honking/beeping/angry-depressing-of-the-horn in my life. Which would make sense if everyone in Chicago also couldn't drive. But they can. What's sticking out is that people are honking their horns when it's entirely unreasonable to do so. I can understand honking at the guy who's turned his car off in the turning lane to finish his bagel. But to honk at someone because they won't turn left while traffic in the other direction is already occupying the intersection? The net result, as far as I've found, is that everyone is completely desensitized to it. No one pays attention. The noble car horn, once presumably a communication device to warn of danger or alert other motorists to a situation is completely useless, because everyone does it all the time. Granted, this doesn't affect me much. I've got no car here, and pedestrians rarely get honked at, and if they do, they're being complete tools anyway. Still.

Also, I'd like to start a petition to the CTA to stop picking up passengers. I was skipped earlier because a train decided to run "express" past my stop because it was behind schedule, and realized (while I waited for the next train) "Hey! If they just stop picking people up as a rule, they'll always be on time.