Why Is Everyone In a Hurry When Driving On This Rockford Road?

Rockford isn't Chicago for so many reasons other than the obvious, the name. One of the trials of living in the windy city is the traffic, it's absolutely crazy. Stop, go, stop, honk, go, honk, honk, stop, go, stop, repeat. Rockford doesn't have anything near the troubles of Chicago's traffic except for traffic lights.

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One problem Rockford does have, like many other big "small" cities (or is it small "big" cities?) are people speeding down stretches of roads.

I spent my childhood and high school days growing up in New Milford, a.k.a the south side of Rockford. We were near country roads galore. My brothers and their friends never went the speed limit down some of those roads. I don't think I even knew what a speed limit was before driver's ed at East High School. (That's where I had to take my driver's course.)

As a young driver, I stupidly sped along Rotary Road, Baxter Road, and Blackhawk Road. Then, as I got older, and a few speed tickets I didn't learn my lesson, I just "knew" where the cops hid. I'm not condoning to speeding, I'm just being honest with you.

I don't speed nearly as badly as I used to because I have kids and have to be "an adult." One thing I've noticed though is the speed of traffic along parts of Perryville Road. It's not the entire stretch that people treat like a road course. It seems like its between Guilford Road and 173, a.k.a. West Lane Road.

Rockford Illinois Police Department via Facebook

Why is this? Is it a "Rockford" thing? Are transplants the people actually following the posted speed limits along this area?

Can You Identify These 20 Intersections in Rockford?

Rockford has some weird intersections as well as "worst" intersections. Test your knowledge and see if you can correctly name all 20 of these interactions in the forest city.

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LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.