River Forest officials revisited an issue that vexed them and residents of the northeast section of the village in late 2022 and through most of 2023, agreeing at the Feb. 26 village board meeting with recommendations from the traffic and safety commission to address ongoing traffic safety complaints.
The discussion of the traffic control issues in the northeast section has continued at village board and traffic and safety commission meetings for almost two years with residents and business owners and operators first expressing concerns about speeding drivers and cut-thru traffic, then debating the effectiveness of measures approved in October 2022 and implemented in November of that year.
On Feb. 26, officials accepted the recommendations of the traffic and safety commission to stripe existing parking spaces along Monroe Avenue, William Street and Clinton Place between North Avenue and LeMoyne Street, and to install a 25-mile-per-hour speed limit sign along the southbound direction of Monroe between North and LeMoyne.
The recommendations stem from a supplemental report to the village-wide traffic study by Thomas Engineering Group presented in January that addressed traffic issues in the northeast section. Data was collected in November and December. TEG also conducted the village-wide study. Monroe, William, Clinton, Jackson Avenue and Bonnie Brae Place were studied for traffic volume and speed between North and LeMoyne. Within the report, TEG used the recently adopted “traffic calming toolbox” to determine what level of traffic calming measures would be appropriate, Bill Koclanis, civil engineering technician, explained in a memo to village administrator Matt Walsh.
Traffic calming measures in the toolbox “consist of horizontal, vertical, lane narrowing, roadside and other features that use self-enforcing physical or psycho-perception means to produce desired effects,” according to the federal highway administration.
The report indicated that adding parking space striping to existing parking spaces along Monroe, William and Clinton would help maintain a narrow road appearance, which in turn may help slow down vehicle traffic, Koclanis said. He also said the speed limit sign on Monroe would not be new, but would be replacing a sign that has been missing.
Officials Feb. 26 also accepted a recommendation from the traffic and safety commission to install bollards at eight Washington Boulevard intersections, which supported a similar recommendation from TEG in the village-wide traffic study to address speeding drivers.
To discourage drivers from using the parking lane, the four-foot-tall bollards will be installed on both sides of the intersections of Washington with Gale, Keystone, Forest, Park, Franklin and Ashland avenues; the east side of the intersection of Washington and Thatcher Avenue; and the west side of the intersection of Washington and Lathrop Avenue. The west side of Washington at Thatcher is under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Department of Transportation and the east side of Washington at Lathrop is under the jurisdiction of Forest Park.
In a separate memo to Walsh, Koclanis explained that the TEG recommendation was for curb bump-outs at the intersections that were identified, but traffic and safety commissioners felt that would take a couple of years to complete and recommended installation of the bollards instead. Not only would installing the bollards be quicker but also the effectiveness can be studied before a more permanent solution is implemented.
