The Axles of Evil

The City of Chicago has waged a long war against the “Axles of Evil”, also known as the pickup truck. Who knows what their beef is. I am sure that it must be part of Daniel Burnham’s plan to keep the hillbillies at bay.

Their main tool is this parking ordinance,
9-64-170 Parking restrictions – Special types of vehicles.
(a) It shall be unlawful to park any truck, tractor, semi-trailer, trailer, recreational vehicle more than 22 feet in length, self contained motor home, bus, taxicab or livery vehicle on any residential street for a longer period than is necessary for the reasonably expeditious loading or unloading of such vehicle, except that a driver of bus may park the bus in a designated bus stand as authorized elsewhere in the traffic code.

Parking is allowed in certain wards, as long as the owner obtains a sticker from the city.

Back in 2000, I was flush with money and decided to buy myself a new vehicle. At the time a small pickup made sense so I wound up with a brand new Ranger.
Like most folks, I found out about the residential parking restrictions on pickups via an orange envelope on my windshield.
Luckily, I was in a ward that allowed it, so I applied for my sticker.
Back then it was a complicated process. You filled out a form, gave it to the alderman with a $30 check and waited. They would check to see if you had any outstanding tickets, and then it went down to the city council where they would vote to give you special dispensation.
On the third year of this, my alderman called and said my application was denied because of outstanding tickets. When I checked it, I had several tickets for residential truck parking, despite the fact that I had the sticker in my windshield.
I went down to the Addison office to straighten it out. The hearing went well, but while leaving the office, I got t-boned by an undercover officer with the US dept of Transportation. He was leaving the McDonalds with his lunch and crossed a lane of traffic to hit me. That is an entire story in itself.
The experience was so bad that I said “never again”.

I read the ordinance and realized that if I was an RV of less than 22 feet in length, I would not need the sticker.

As soon as I got my truck back from the shop, I bought a used camper shell on ebay and had it registered as an RV.
That was good for seven years.
Then something changed and I started getting tickets. Back when the cops wrote the tickets, they knew better, but now tickets are being issued by wandering revenuers who pass them out willy nilly.
I contested the first one by mail and I was found guilty. I contested the next two in person and pleaded my case successfully. On the strength of those determinations, I have successfully contested the next seven by mail.

That’s my story, and why this is important to me. However, in reviewing the municipal code I noticed something that is the reason I am writing.

The city has its own definition for recreational vehicles

The Illinois Vehicle code says;
(625 ILCS 5/1‑169) (from Ch. 95 1/2, par. 1‑169) Sec. 1‑169. Recreational vehicle. Every camping trailer, motor home, mini motor home, travel trailer, truck camper or van camper used primarily for recreational purposes and not used commercially nor owned by a commercial business. (Source: P.A. 84‑986.)

The Municipal code defines recreational vehicles as;
9-4-010 Definitions.
“Recreational vehicle” means every camping trailer, motor home, mini-motor home, travel trailer, truck or van camper used primarily for recreational purposes and not used commercially nor owned and used by a commercial business.

It is almost the same, word for word, as the state’s definition, with one important change. Where the State says “truck camper” the city just says “truck”.

In fact, it says “every truck”. Nowhere does the municipal code define truck, or mention the type of plates. So what it says is that every truck used primarily for recreational purposes and not used commercially nor owned and used by a commercial business is by city definition a recreational vehicle.

Try to follow my Perry Mason logic here.

The city has created its own definition.
So, for all things municipal, that definition reigns supreme.
They have chosen a definition less restrictive than the state’s.
So, although RV plates are proof that the vehicle is an RV, the state’s definition is a subset of the city’s.
How big is the city’s set?
Every truck used primarily for recreational purposes and not used commercially nor owned and used by a commercial business.

Recreational purposes are never defined, so the enjoyment of driving should qualify.

That means every noncommercial pickup, box, garbage or fire truck qualifies as a “recreational vehicle” in the eyes of the City of Chicago.

This brings us to pickup trucks.

The city’s ban, with respect to RVs, only applies to RVs longer than 22 ft.

As far as I can ascertain, nearly all stock pickup trucks are shorter than this. To get one longer than this, you have to move up to Ford F450 and Dodge Ram 4500 series and above. These behemoths are actually chassis cab vehicles with a pickup bed screwed on. They are closer to a dump truck with a broken lift than they are to a pickup. Even these are shorter than 22 ft until you get to various long bed/crew cab combinations.

So, there it is.
Every noncommercial truck is by definition an RV.
Virtually every pickup truck is less than 22 ft long.

Therefore it is perfectly legal to park virtually every noncommercial pickup truck anywhere it is legal to park a passenger car.

No special stickers, no special wards, no special plates, no special dispensation from the city council.

This will need to be tested by the Dept of Administrative Hearings. Someone will need to stand up and test it. I have my RV plates and my exemption and don’t have the energy for another fight. I urge someone, everyone to contest these tickets in person.
If for no other reason than that it will cost the city more to hear each case, than they could possibly get from the $25 ticket.

Paul K. Dickman