Ticket in Focus: The Riverwoods Aggravated Speeding Ticket Issued on Portwine Road Between Riverwoods Road and Lake Cook Road

Portwine Road in Riverwoods, Illinois, is a common source of aggravated speeding tickets. An aggravated speeding ticket is a type of Illinois speeding ticket that charges a misdemeanor offense and alleges speeding 26 or more miles per hour over the posted speed limit.

Riverwoods aggravated speeding tickets require an appearance at the Mundelein Branch courthouse.

Portwine Road is a two-lane roadway that runs on a north-south basis through roughly the center of Riverwoods, Illinois. Portwine Road starts its journey southward at Riverwoods Road, eventually crosses Deerfield Road, then continues south to Lake Cook Road.

Lake Cook Road marks the southern boundary of not only the Village of Riverwoods, but also the southern boundary of Lake County, Illinois. The distance on Portwine Road from Riverwoods Road to the north, to Lake Cook Road to the south, is approximately 1.5 miles.

The intersections of Portwine Road with Deerfield Road and Lake Cook Road are governed by traffic lights.

A number of minor surface streets meet Portwine Road between Riverwoods Road and Lake Cook Road.

From north to south, these streets include Hoffman Lane, Sunset Trail, Forest Glen Trail, Arrowhead Trail, Ringland Road, Sherry Lane, Orange Brace Road, Gemini Lane, Blackthorn Road, Daiquiri Drive, Meredith Drive, and Chianti Trail.

This approximately 1.5 mile stretch of Portwine Road through Riverwoods is characterized by heavy, mixed deciduous tree cover that reaches close to both sides of the roadway. Wide and tall, old-growth oak is predominant, as are the many multi-acre residential estates that occupy the Portwine Road corridor.

And yet there is still an even more abiding feature of the Riverwoods section of Portwine Road here-described that is applicable to the passing motorist: At the time of this publication, the speed limit on this entire section of Portwine Road is only 25 miles per hour.

Street signs designating this 25 mile per hour speed limit are posted in various places on Portwine Road on both the southerly and northerly sides of the roadway.

Again, as of the time of this publication, the Code of Ordinances of the Village of Riverwoods specifically declares that " . . . the reasonable and safe absolute maximum speed limit for all vehicles traveling on . . ." Portwine Road " . . . between Lake Cook Road and Riverwoods Road . . ." " . . . is 25 miles per hour." See, Village Code of Riverwoods, Illinois, Ch. 3, Sec. 6-3-6.

This same Section of the Code of Ordinances states that, "It shall be unlawful for any person to drive any vehicle on any street within the village at a speed exceeding the speed limits established in this section where such speed limits are posted. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be subject to all of the penalty provisions of the Illinois vehicle code." Id.

The Illinois Vehicle Code makes speeding 26 or more miles per hour over the applicable speed limit a misdemeanor offense. See, 625 ILCS 5/11-601.5.

A Riverwoods class B misdemeanor speeding ticket alleges an act of speeding between 26 and 34 miles per hour over the posted speed limit. A Riverwoods class A misdemeanor speeding ticket alleges an act of speeding 35 or more miles per hour over the posted speed limit.

As has been stated, Riverwoods misdemeanor speeding tickets require a court appearance.

Applying the foregoing, then, with its comparatively low speed limit of 25 miles per hour, and with its relatively rural character, the Riverwoods locale of Portwine Road is a common source of Lake County aggravated speeding tickets.

In practice, a driver ticketed for traveling 51 miles per hour on the here-described Riverwoods portion of Portwine Road will find her or himself charged with a class B misdemeanor offense that also happens to be alleging driving more than double the speed limit.

Moreover, a driver ticketed for traveling 60 or more miles per hour in this same area will find her or himself charged with a class A misdemeanor offense.