Getting a driver's license in middle age? (in Illinois)

Factual Questions
1

I used to have a Class A driver’s license, but when we moved to Chicago 16 years ago we found we didn’t really need a car, so I let my license lapse, got a state ID, and life has been good.

Now I find myself traveling frequently to another city that has nearly zero public transportation. My brother-in-law is here and is perfectly willng to let me drive his extra car while I’m here, but only if I have a valid license.

I obtained my original license the way most people do, while in high school after taking Driver’s Ed, which was several decades ago. Can anyone give me an idea of what I need to do? I got my original license in Kansas, currently live in Illinois, and travel to Missouri.

I’m not worried about either the written or driving test. A little study will give me the info I need to pass the written test. I used to drive for a living, and was a very good driver, so I have no worries about passing a driving test.

I assume I have to get this done in Illinois. I assume I’ll take my birth certificate and other forms of ID downtown to the State of Illinios building. I fill out the forms, pay a fee, take the written test…then what?

Do I have to provide my own car for the driving test? I don’t know anyone with a car and I couldn’t rent a car with no license. Any ideas how I can do this?

Has anyone else been through this in Chicago or another big city? I don’t think I need a refresher course, I just need a car, but if I take a driving course would they provide a car for the test?

Any tips, suggestions, ideas? Should this be in MPSIMS?

2

The Chicago-area locations of the IL Driver services department can be found here. Note that some of them do not provide driver’s tests, most notably the downtown ones.

No. From the driver’s manual: “You must provide a vehicle that is licensed and properly equipped for the driver’s license classification you are seeking.”

It is possible that you won’t need to take a driving test — the IL Driver Services Dept. plays their cards very close to the chest about who needs to and who doesn’t, at least as far as their website is concerned — but in your situation I wouldn’t count on it. I would recommend you try going to one of the testing locations listed in the first link above and see what they say; it certainly can’t hurt…

As to how you could go about getting a car if you do need to take a road test, I’m afraid I can’t be so helpful; the only people I’ve known who’ve gone through the process of getting an IL license already had a valid out-of-state license when they did so. Maybe your brother could help the next time he’s in town?

3

I passed all the tests for an Ohio driver’s license at the age of 54, and obtained my license. I already had an Australian license, and so was able to rent a car that I used for the test, so that solved that problem.

4

I’m told that some driving schools rent cars for driving tests.

However when I needed to take a driving test last year, I couldn’t find anyone in town who did this. I ended up having to beg a co-worker to drive me to the DMV. He had to stay around and show them his driver’s license to prove that I didn’t drive there illegally.

Hopefully you’ll have better luck, being in a larger city.

5

I got my license for the first time at 29 (in NH), and this is what I did. Of course, I had also been taking lessons from the same place so they knew I would need the car that day too. I sat for the written test (got one question wrong) and did the driving test with my teacher waiting to get his car back.

6

That is what I did in Florida when I moved to the US in '04. I had a South African license so I could use a rental car. Of course, the rental company ran out of cars, so I ended up with Ford Expedition, which is about twice as big as anything you can buy in SA. Fun and games, doing the driving test on that thing.

7

Did this in Illinois as well, but I had a car. SO THAT won’t help you. Which is why I made a phone call for you. :smiley:

There’s a place in Addison - Michael’s Driving School, that for a fee, $69 per hour and proof by you that you have a valid learner’s permit and can show to them that you can drive, will take you for the test and you will use their car.

Linky. Call em. I called the toll free number and talked to the guy who answered.

Google Driving Schools Chicago - just start calling. They’ll be more than happy to help.

8

Mods - if I shouldn’t have posted that specific place, I apologize - I’m not trying to advertise for them or anything, they were just the people who could answer the question. Sorry if I goofed!

9

Thanks to MikeS, Giles, scr4, gigi, Driver8 and Missy2U for the replies!

That’s a good link, thank you. I’ve figured the nearest one to me, accessible by public transport, is the one on North Elston. Both links were very helpful. It’s especially nice knowing exactly what I’ll need for the written and driving test.

Wow, thank you for your time! I looked to see where Addison was and it’s a bit far for public transportation, however I did take your advice and Google Driving Schools Chicago (which was much more helpful than the “Adult Driver’s License Chicago” that I had tried before.

I found and called a place (Imperial Driving School) not very far from where I live that offers individualized classes and instruction, and costs $67.00 for each 2-hour block, with a minimum (if I understood correctly) of 6 hours of instruction. They provide the car for the test too!

If I were just starting to drive I’d need much more than 6 hours, but if I study exactly what I need for the test beforehand, I’m sure I could get away with the minimum. I’ll go see them in person when I get back in town. Perhaps I can talk them down to only 4 hours, or 2. At least I know that that they DO have a car I can use. I know more now than I did before I posted, so I thank you all for pointing me in the right direction.

10

I’m reviving this thread to thank everyone again for the suggestions. I went on the web looking for driving schools and found one RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER from my apartment! I went in, explained what I needed and they gave me the options. For $70.00 I could take a brush up course for passing the written test. I could either take classes or just come in when the mood hit me and study. That included a mock test so I could see what I needed to work on. For the driving test, $70.00 would get me an hour’s instruction so I could see what I needed to work on (for me it was backing up and parallel parking) and the use of a car for the driving test.

So that’s what I did, I paid $140.00, studied at their place and took the mock written and then they took me to the facility to take the actual written test, which I scored 100% on. For some rules reason I couldn’t take the driving test on the same day, so I did that a week later. I was iffy on my backing because of style, and they didn’t ask me to parallel park. Otherwise I did great, and passed. I got my picture taken and sat and waited for about 15 minutes, then walked out with my brand new Illinios drivers license!

I haven’t used it yet. I almost want to rent a car just so I can drive around the city and see things I’ve never seen in the 16 years we’ve lived here because if it’s not visible outside an “L” window or a bus doesn’t go there, we’ve almost certainly never been there/seen it.

Thanks again everyone!

11

No offence, Equipoise, but I gotta ask: what the hell were you thinking? You let your licence lapse because you weren’t using it? Really? You figured you’d let it lapse because you would never, ever drive again, ever? You figured you wouldn’t ever travel to another city where you might need to get around in a rental, or need to rent a car in Chicago to go where mass transit doesn’t, or move from Chicago to a city with shitty mass transit? Is that what you figured life would be like, no driving ever again?

12

Congratulations on earning your license.

So now they’re giving out style points?

13

You did get the part where he mentioned that this plan had worked for him for 16 years, right?
If IL is like OH he saved himself 16 years of auto insurance premiums, which, in my case, would be something like $19,000; and I suspect if anything that Chicago’s insurance rates are worse than Akron’s, so probably more…

14

You can retain a driver’s license without paying auto insurance. Simply don’t own a car.

I went 8-9 years in Chicago without ever using my driver’s license, although I elected to keep mine current, even if I wasn’t using it for driving.

In Chicago you can still meet middle-aged adults who simply never learned to drive so this is not so implausible sounding as it might be from outside the big city.

15

Mr. Slant, I’m a she. :slight_smile: I’ve never calculated the money we’ve saved by not having a car but yeah, it’d have to be many many thousands of dollars.

Haha, it’s a back up thing. They wanted me to turn my body and look back through the back window as I was backing up. My way was always to physically turn and look to see that nothing was there, then straighten my body facing forward again, and back up using the side mirrors and rear view mirror. I can back up straight as an arrow that way. Part of that had to do with driving a truck. You don’t get a rear view mirror and have to do everything via the side mirrors. I was warned they’d take off points if I did it that way, so I tried doing it by turning my body and looking back. I had a hard time keeping the wheel straight. I didn’t go off the course, but I was very crooked. Luckily, not enough to fail the test.

When we moved to Chicago we left our shitty $200.00 car down in KC, intending to go back and get it. I drove the rental truck with all our belongings, and my husband doesn’t drive at all (never has) so there was no way to bring it with us. Once we got here and realized how great the public transportation was, we just gave the car to my husband’s brother.

I didn’t mean to let it lapse, but there wasn’t much reason to pay close attention to it and it got by me. Once it lapsed, I was in the same boat, needing a car to take a new driver’s test. I just said to hell with it and got an Illinois state ID card.

Driving wasn’t a priority. I figured if a situation developed, I’d deal with it then.

Until a few years ago, we didn’t have a credit card either (by choice) so I couldn’t have rented a car anyway. All our trips have been to places with decent public transportation, like New York, London, Boston and Philly. We once had to take a cab in Troy, NY, which was cheaper than renting a car anyway. We do have a value added credit card now, which makes it tempting to rent a car.

If we moved from Chicago, the only city we’d move to is back to Kansas City and I would have gotten a license.

Pretty much, yeah. Driving became very low priority, and wow did it feel good. I’d had a car since I was 16, and I used to drive for a living, both cars and big rig trucks, so it was a new mindset. Quite a refreshing one.

16

I don’t mean to sound as if I’ve never ever wanted to drive. I love driving and miss it at times, I just loved not having to deal with car payments, tags, licenses, fuel costs, oil, repairs, city stickers, parking and other drivers more. God I love Chicago. For the first few years we’d talk about getting a car, then we’d sort of drop the idea, preferring to spend the money elsewhere. There may be a Smart Car in our future, but it’s not a Grand Plan, it’s just a thought and if it did happen, it wouldn’t happen for several years, unless for some reason we had to move back to Kansas City.

The only times I’ve thought, it would be nice to have a car, are big shopping trips, but we’ve gotten very good at packing backpacks when we shop at Costco or a regular supermarket. We do most of our shopping at local markets. There’s a good one right across the alley from us. Once in a while, if we have something extremely bulky from a distant store, we take a cab, which are plentiful and fairly cheap in Chicago. The only other time I think about wanting a car is when a movie is playing in one of the 'burbs that I missed when it was playing in the city. The 'burbs are foreign to us because if something is not on a bus or train line, it might as well be in Phoenix.

17

And insurance!

18

You might find that a car sharing service works for you. There’s one in Chicago called I-GO. Once you’re a member, you reserve a car on the web, go to the specified location and pick it up (using a smartcard to unlock it), use it and return it when done. The standard pricing is $6 per hour and $0.50 per mile.

19

Oh, I forgot about those! I had heard of them before I got my license, but didn’t know any details. Thanks for reminding me to check them out.

20

I’m still reading the I-Go web site. There’s a $75.00 membership fee and I’m confused if it’s yearly or not. It says “one-time fee” but then it says they’ll renew your membership automatically. That makes it sound like a credit card automatic payment. I’ll continue reading and call them on Monday.

I had to laugh at this part of the FAQ:

My record is crystal clear! :smiley: