The Kennedy/190 is not quite entirely in Chicago, but mostly is.

The cell phone law just isn't well enforced.

In Chicago you can only talk hands free. ORD is indeed part of the city, so is most of the Kennedy expressway (I-190/I-90) from the airport (part in Rosemont). So, yes it is a legal issue, but is rarely enforced by cops.

Well, then.... Da Mayor is obviously missing a great revenue opportunity!

He doesn't care about the nickel and dime stuff. Next, he's gonna lease Midway, then the parking meters.

Cabbies ignore every other traffic law. I wouldn't expect the hand-held phone ban to be treated differently.

This is illegal. Suburban taxis aren't allowed to collect fares in the city and then deposit them in the city limits.

That aside, I have had good luck with the Chicago Carriage cab folks - the maroon ones. They are always timely when I call and always get my rollaboard into and out of the trunk.

I usually give the cabby the cue he's getting my bag out for me by transacting business outside the cab - he gets paid in back by the trunk unless I want to hassle with the credit card. I did the credit card thing for a while but it completely messes with my expense reports so I just stopped doing it and carry cash for it and besides it saves the whole hassle of "the machine is broken".

Could someone explain to me the rationale behind this completely inane law?

Besides politicians getting paid off by city cab companies, of course.

Well last night: same story.

Got in a cab at ORD. Naturally, the cab driver did not get out to help me with my bag - just popped the trunk.

As we pulled out he immediately gets on the phone. I asked him to please hang up. He told me he was talking to dispatch (yeah, right ).

Told him my address and which exit off the Kennedy and he said he knew where to go.
Of course, he is about to blow by my exit before I remind him where I'm going and he swerves across two lanes to quickly get off the Kennedy. Naturally he had no idea where to go after that so I had to walk him through it. I thought you said you knew where to go???

I tipped him $2.

What is inane about it? It's the law in pretty much any major city. Without it, why would any cab register in the city? They'd just all register in whatever suburb is cheap and the city would have no regulation powers whatsoever.

At least some of the suburbs have similar rules, though they generally allow the alliance companies like 303 and American to register some cabs but use them all. I know for a fact that American registers its cabs in numerous cities for that reason.

Loved the cabbie I had who didn't know how to get to Ontario from LSD. He didn't have a license posted but was driving a regular cab. On the other hand, we were doing 70mph and I got there about 5 minutes faster than normal^.

I had a similar problem a year or two ago. Heading from ORD over to Wallgreens corp offices. Once we finally got there went to give him the cc and he said that he couldn't take it. I reminded him that legally he was supposed to. He decides he wants to argue with me, something that isn't wise to do especially when I know I am right. Also he goes on to tell me that the machine is broken. That really set me off! I tell him that he better fix the machine otherwise he has two options I call the police (non emergency number) or he doesn't get paid. I also tell him that I know for a fact that he can do the card payment old school style taking an imprint of my card. After giving him the options he decides to back off and do an imprint of the card. I would have paid cash but I wasn't expecting on taking a cab and was expecting to be picked up from ORD. Now I avoid at all costs taking cabs. This isn't the only problem I've had with cabs. I've had a few try to take me the long way and milk me for the money. Again not a good idea because I have no problems with only paying part of the fare and walking away.

Which part of the Kennedy/190 is not in the city limits?

This is my pet peeve regarding all (most) cab companies in the US - their conveyances are filthy and nasty. They just don't have the same standards of professionalism and cleanliness that their counterparts in say, Dubai or Singapore have.

As for talking on the phone, I just ask them to get off it asap or I won't pay my fare. ne time, the guy ignored me so I pulled out my phone and began shouting loudly and swearing into it in a language the cabbie understood. That did the trick

Oh, the other thing I like doing is taking the cab from the airport to nearby hotels. They love that.

Chicago should modernize the cab fleets... perhaps common cars and not stuff from the used car lot.

What about taking the mayor's love for all things green and painting all cabs green (a nice version), like nyc's yellow. Some of these cars look so, well, ick!!