Road Etiquette

Jarl and I have noticed one thing about drivers in Chicago: they don't let you cross the road unless you are right in the middle of it, and even then... you better watch out!

You can be holding a five-year old by the hand, you can be on a wheelchair (we saw it with our own eyes!), you won't get across unless you stick your foot right into the middle of the road, or unless there's a specific sign saying that you must give priority to pedestrians (and even then, you better believe in prayer or you may end up "fried", as we say in Portugal).

Here the car is KING.

It will make us reassess our regular disparaging of Brussels traffic and their general lack of manners. On the other hand, here drivers roll their cars not very fast (sometimes so slow as to drive us crazy with impatience...) and have good road etiquette (making signals when turning, waiting in line, stopping when a stop sign appears, etc.). However, when it comes to pedestrians it's a whole different kind of attitude.

(L)