Illinois · Handbook chapter 3 · 5 min read

Chapter 3: Traffic laws and right of way

Illinois traffic laws: what to do when police stop you, the handheld phone ban, seat belts and child seats, default speed limits, work zones, emergency vehicles, school zones, funeral processions and who yields at intersections and crosswalks.

Why this chapter matters

Most of the written exam's law questions come from this part of the Rules of the Road. These rules decide who goes first, how fast you may drive and what you must do around workers, emergency crews and children.

When police stop you

• Signal, slow down and pull onto the right shoulder, not on a bridge, curve or anywhere others cannot pass.
• Stay in the car with both hands on the wheel. Getting out can look like a threat.
• If your license or insurance card is in the glove box or on your phone, tell the officer first, then follow directions.
• If you cannot tell whether an unmarked car is really the police, drive slowly to a well-lit, busy place or a police station, or call 911, with your hazard lights on.
• Signing a ticket is not an admission of guilt. Argue your case in traffic court, not at the roadside.

Phones and distraction

• Handheld phone use, texting, video calls, streaming video and social media are illegal while driving. Holding the phone on speaker is not hands-free.
• Hands-free use is allowed from age 19. A single-sided earpiece is allowed; headsets covering both ears are not.
• You may use a handheld phone only to report an emergency, while parked on the shoulder, or when traffic is stopped and you are in neutral or park.

Seat belts and child seats

• Everyone 8 and older, front and back, must wear a belt. The driver is responsible for every passenger.
• Children under 8 ride in a proper child restraint. Rear-facing until age 2, unless the child is over 40 pounds or 40 inches.
• Wear the lap belt across the hip bones and never put the shoulder strap behind your back or under your arm.
• Sit 10 to 12 inches from the air bag. Children 12 and under are safest in the back, and a rear-facing seat must never face an active air bag.

Speed limits (unless posted otherwise)

Slow down for intersections, curves, hilltops and narrow winding roads even when under the limit.

Work zones, emergency vehicles and funerals

• In a work zone: slow down, stop handheld phone use, yield to workers, move to a lane away from them and obey the posted work zone limit 24 hours a day, workers or not. All Illinois work zones are no-passing zones.
• Passing a stopped emergency or maintenance vehicle with flashing lights: change to a lane away from it if you can; if not, slow down and go by with caution. No photos or phone use within 500 feet of an emergency scene.
• An emergency vehicle approaching with lights and siren: pull to the right and stop if needed until it passes. Never drive over a fire hose without permission.
• Yield to every vehicle in a funeral procession and never drive between its cars.

Right of way

You must yield:

• after stopping for a right turn on red, or at a STOP sign or flashing red light;
• at a four-way stop, to the driver who stopped first; if two arrive together, the driver on the left yields to the one on the right;
• at an uncontrolled intersection, the driver on the left yields to the right;
• when turning left across oncoming traffic (if you entered on green you may finish the turn after the light turns red);
• on a flashing yellow arrow, at a YIELD sign, and to vehicles still in the intersection when your light turns green;
• when coming out of an alley or driveway after a full stop, and on the ending road of a T intersection with no signs.

Pedestrians

Stop for pedestrians in a marked crosswalk and for children near a school zone crosswalk on school days. Yield to pedestrians in an unmarked crosswalk, when you turn, when they started crossing before the light changed, and always to people with a white cane, guide dog or other aid.