Scrap car removal in Worth

Worth is a short trip northwest: Cicero to Cal Sag Road, along College Drive, then north on Harlem Avenue to 111th Street. About five miles and under ten minutes in light traffic.

Worth on the map

Worth is a village of 10,970 people (2020 Census) on about 2.4 square miles in Worth and Palos townships, ZIP code 60482. It sits between Chicago Ridge to the northeast and Palos Heights to the southwest, with Bridgeview to the north.

North and south, the road to know is Harlem Avenue (IL-43). IL-7 ends at Harlem in Worth, where it becomes Southwest Highway. The Tri-State Tollway crosses Ridgeland Avenue, 115th, 111th and 107th Streets as it passes through Worth and its neighbours. Worth has its own station on Metra’s SouthWest Service line, and several Pace routes run through.

A mix of apartments and houses

Worth is more of a mix than the Palos towns. About 64 percent of Worth homes are owner-occupied, and the housing splits almost evenly: roughly half single-unit houses, and about 40 percent in apartment or condo buildings with five or more units, going by 2020 to 2024 census estimates. So a Worth pickup could be a driveway off a side street or a numbered space in an apartment lot.

For lots, the building manager should know a tow truck is coming. For a driveway, make sure the car isn’t blocked in by a second car.

Snow is the big one

Worth’s snow rules are among the strictest in our area. Two inches on the ground and every village street is off limits to parked cars until the plows have cleared it, with the car’s owner and its driver both on the hook (11-4-1(C)(1)). Apartment buildings, condos and trailer parks get a deadline of their own: their lots have to be cleared within a day of a two-inch snowfall (11-4-1(C)(3)).

A dead car fails both tests. It can’t be moved off the street, and it sits where the lot plow needs to go. If you already know a car is finished, scrapping it before the first real snow saves a ticket and an argument with the building manager.

Other street and alley rules

• Overnight. Worth’s 2:00 to 6:00 a.m. ban covers only the streets the village names by ordinance, and a few blocks are reserved for residents late at night.
• Alleys. Fine for a quick load or unload, as long as ten feet stays open and no driveway is blocked (11-4-1(G)).
• Selling from the curb. Parking a car on the street to advertise it for sale isn’t allowed (11-4-1(E)).
• Left on a highway. Police can order a tow once a vehicle has been abandoned on a highway for ten hours (10-9-2(D)).

Inoperable cars in Worth

Worth’s test is a week. A car that has been unable to move by itself for seven days or more, because its engine, wheels or other parts are gone or changed, counts as inoperable (10-9-1). Parked on private property where the public can see it, that car is a nuisance. The village mails a certified letter, gives the owner a week to get rid of it, and then moves on to a citation and, if it comes to that, a court order (10-9-2(B)).

Residents’ vehicles also carry a village sticker on the lower right corner of the windshield, renewed each July. There’s no need to renew it for a car you’re scrapping. Our inoperable car rules guide lines Worth’s timeline up against its neighbours’.

After a crash

A crash can turn a commuter car into scrap overnight. If yours is sitting at a body shop after a wreck, we can pick it up there; see wrecked and totaled cars. For a car at home, the scrap car removal page covers the pickup.

Landmarks around Worth

The Worth Metra station, the corner of Harlem and 111th, North Palos Fire Station 3 on 111th, and the Peaks Park parking lot off Oak Park Avenue all help a driver find you.

Worth’s neighbours on our list are Chicago Ridge to the northeast, Palos Heights to the southwest and Palos Hills to the west.