# Anyone else heard the term "Skokie lean"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 21, 2013, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533 "2013-03-21T13:43:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/21 "2013-03-22T18:48:00Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#):
>
> Maybe to imply that it is a common maneuver of Jewish drivers. Or Illinois Nazis.
>
> (I hate Illinois Nazis.)
So what’re you gonna do about it Whitey?
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/22 "2013-03-23T03:19:29Z")
I and my family lived in Chicago just south of Lincolnwood for decades. I’ve never heard the phrase.
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### Author:  [@maxxy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maxxy)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/23 "2013-03-26T20:04:58Z")
Grew up on the Northwest Side, went to NU, drove down Dempster every day for years. Never heard the term, and never saw the maneuver in Skokie.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/24 "2013-03-26T20:44:32Z")
Have lived in the Chicago area for 24 years; I’ve never heard the term.
That said, I **have** heard another non-PC term for the same driving maneuver, used by a friend of mine who grew up on the Southwest Side (he very likely learned it from his blue-collar grandparents, who raised him). He refers\* to it as “n\*\*\*\*\*\*ing your way into an intersection”, and clearly the term is borne out of a belief that members of that racial group are more likely to engage in it.
\*Well, referred (past tense)…I haven’t heard him use the term in many years, so maybe he’s gotten a clue.
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### Author:  [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/25 "2013-03-28T00:56:41Z")
Grew up in Evanston, still have many friends and family there and live 15 minutes away, raised Jewish, never heard the term in my life until this thread.
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### Author:  [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2013, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/26 "2013-03-28T01:50:18Z")
I’ve never heard the term either.
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### Author:  [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2013, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/27 "2013-03-29T17:32:22Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> In Boston that’s called “driving”.
Ha, indeed. I’m not from Boston but I’ve seen people pull that shit all the time. I never knew that was associated with being Jewish in certain parts of universe. In LA, that’s associated with having a car.
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### Author:  [@janeelissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeelissa)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2013, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/28 "2013-04-02T09:46:37Z")
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### Author:  [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/29 "2013-04-03T13:49:52Z")
Never heard it. I grew up in the northern suburbs and worked in Lincolnwood for a while. My ex sister-in-law is from Skokie, and my nieces and nephews and their families live there. I will have to ask them about it.
The maneuver itself is not unknown; sometimes it’s the only way to get out!
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/30 "2013-04-03T13:58:09Z")
Asked my sisters - they never heard of it. Weird - seems as tho my wife and I may have come up with this ugly term. Not a pleasant thought.
> [@Pai325](#):
>
> The maneuver itself is not unknown; sometimes it’s the only way to get out!
Trying to come up with a situation in which this is the ONLY way to get to one’s desired destination. I can think of MANY situations in which it avoids personal inconvenience by inconveniencing others… _Gee, I want to turn left right here. But don’t want to go through the hassle of making a right instead and finding someplace where I could pull a u-turn, go around the block, …_
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### Author:  [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/31 "2013-04-03T14:37:43Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> Asked my sisters - they never heard of it. Weird - seems as tho my wife and I may have come up with this ugly term. Not a pleasant thought.
>
> Trying to come up with a situation in which this is the ONLY way to get to one’s desired destination. I can think of MANY situations in which it avoids personal inconvenience by inconveniencing others… _Gee, I want to turn left right here. But don’t want to go through the hassle of making a right instead and finding someplace where I could pull a u-turn, go around the block, …_
Well, I will edit. Sometimes it was the only way to get out that suits me, especially if I see an opening coming up. Since I now live downstate, having ten cars at a light is heavy traffic, and I am unsuited to driving up north anymore.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/32 "2013-04-03T14:43:33Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> Trying to come up with a situation in which this is the ONLY way to get to one’s desired destination. I can think of MANY situations in which it avoids personal inconvenience by inconveniencing others… _Gee, I want to turn left right here. But don’t want to go through the hassle of making a right instead and finding someplace where I could pull a u-turn, go around the block, …_
It’s pretty normal and expected in the greater Boston area. It’s just the way people drive and most folks accept it as a minor inconvenience that they themselves benefit from at other times.
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### Author:  [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/33 "2013-04-05T19:03:57Z")
I see it quite a bit in Chicago but I’ve never heard it called that name before.
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### Author:  [@Mornac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mornac)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2013, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/34 "2013-04-08T04:24:53Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#):
>
> Anything like the [Detroit lean](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Detroit%20lean)?
–When I was younger we referred to that as the _urban sprawl_. Not sure if it was meant to be pejorative as we were all urbanites ourselves.
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### Author:  [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2013, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/35 "2013-04-08T09:44:22Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> Trying to come up with a situation in which this is the ONLY way to get to one’s desired destination. I can think of MANY situations in which it avoids personal inconvenience by inconveniencing others… _Gee, I want to turn left right here. But don’t want to go through the hassle of making a right instead and finding someplace where I could pull a u-turn, go around the block, …_
Nothing’s ever the ONLY way to do it. But sometimes it’s the only sensible way.
I currently live on a cul-de-sac, where in the morning the traffic on the main road I have to turn into is frequently clogged on the near side by about a block in either direction, and the far side has fairly consistent high-moving traffic, with a gap every minute or so. If I just wait patiently behind my line, someone will often move up to block my exit, even though there’s no particular benefit to sitting _in_ my way rather than _out_ of my way. So yes, I move into the near column while I’m waiting for my gap. Never had a situation where the near column that I blocked moved up more than about half a dozen car lengths in that time, so nobody loses their place. I figure I’m causing a few people trivial-to-no actual inconvenience, while saving myself major inconvenience, and I’m cool with that.
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2013, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/36 "2013-04-08T12:04:58Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#):
>
> Nothing’s ever the ONLY way to do it. But sometimes it’s the only sensible way.
>
> I currently live on a cul-de-sac, where in the morning the traffic on the main road I have to turn into is frequently clogged on the near side by about a block in either direction, and the far side has fairly consistent high-moving traffic, with a gap every minute or so. If I just wait patiently behind my line, someone will often move up to block my exit, even though there’s no particular benefit to sitting _in_ my way rather than _out_ of my way. So yes, I move into the near column while I’m waiting for my gap. Never had a situation where the near column that I blocked moved up more than about half a dozen car lengths in that time, so nobody loses their place. I figure I’m causing a few people trivial-to-no actual inconvenience, while saving myself major inconvenience, and I’m cool with that.
That’s a situation in which I would consider this maneuver no big deal at all - in fact probably the appropriate move. When it would rise to the level of rudeness IMO is if things cleared such that the near-side traffic could flow, but is blocked by your car.
I often see it on main streets where someone will block traffic which is moving at the speed limit, and prevent them from making a green light. In such situations, I think it rudeness for the merging driver to inconvenience traffic in order to avoid some inconvenince to themselves by going around the block or whatever. Just my opinion.
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### Author:  [@alphads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphads)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2013, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-heard-the-term-skokie-lean/653533/37 "2013-04-13T07:40:11Z")
Very nice…
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