Oak Park trustees approved a staff recommendation to install traffic-calming measures on Gunderson Avenue after residents on the 600 block expressed concerns about excessive speed, increased traffic and general safety in the area.
“The adults on the block, and I expect this Commission as well, would be completely remiss and entirely heartbroken if we did not petition for a traffic calming measure and one of the children on the block were struck by a speeding car,” Alissa Nowinski, a resident of that block, wrote to the transportation commission in September 2021.
Ron Burke, chair of the transportation commission, did not immediately reply to a Wednesday Journal inquiry about the delay in action regarding those concerns.
Trustees unanimously opted for a more limited staff recommendation that contrasted with a transportation commission recommendation with stronger measures. A motion to do both failed on a 3-4 vote.
The transportation commission reviewed the resident petitions April 8. The commission voted 5-0 to recommend deploying temporary speed radar feedback signs and installing paint and post bump-outs, or curb extensions, according to village officials. The commission proposed bump-outs at the intersection of Gunderson Avenue and Adams Street.
But village staff did not support the bump-out recommendation because they said their data shows the intersection has neither a speeding issue nor accidents, and it has a low number of pedestrians that cross there, Village Engineer Bill McKenna told trustees Monday.
There’s been no accidents along the 600 block of Gunderson Avenue during a five-year period, he said. And there’s an average of 400 cars per day on Gunderson Avenue, which is lower than some other residential streets, he told the village board. He added that village data shows 85% of drivers on the street are going at or below 27-miles-per-hour there.
The car volume, speed and pedestrian data was collected May 16, 2023, but McKenna said it was compared to historical data on that block, as well.
Instead, village staff recommended installing a paint-and-post pinch point on Gunderson Avenue south of the alley next to Madison Street. Pinch points narrow the roadway mid-block. McKenna said this could serve as a visual indication to drivers that they are entering a residential neighborhood and should slow down.
The transportation commission’s recommendation would cost approximately $7,000. Village staff’s recommendation is expected to cost about $3,000. The village has available funds to cover the improvements as part of the 2024 capital improvement fund budget.
Burke said the village staff recommendation of pinch points were not discussed at the commission’s meeting in April, but he’s supportive of it and believes the commission would be, too.
Many streets are designed to create a better traffic flow for cars, Burke said. But across a lot of Oak Park, he said the village could benefit from implementing traffic calming measures and improving residents’ safety.
“We are kind of awakening, in some ways, to traffic safety risks, in ways that we hadn’t before,” Burke said. “We had sort of overlooked them as a society … Our tolerance for that kind of risk is dropping.”
During discussions, Trustee Susan Buchanan said she wondered why this block is getting special attention while others don’t.
Burke said the village doesn’t have the capacity to identify and treat all the areas that might need traffic calming measures yet, so in the meantime, they focus on the areas where residents are petitioning for changes, and where there is community buy-in. Ideally, there will be a way to prioritize these efforts later, Burke said, but for now, this is a chance to pilot treatments, see what works and better inform decisions.
“I have no problem making cars go slower and would really hesitate to vote against anything like that,” Buchanan said.
Trustee Brian Straw said he would like both the transportation commission and village staff’s recommendations to be implemented. Trustee Cory Wesley agreed, saying that if residents feel that people are driving too fast on their street, it’s likely the case.
“Way too many [cars] drive way too fast on our streets and it’s apparent to me every day when I sit on my porch,” Wesley said.
“I have no problem doing both,” Trustee Chibuike Enyia agreed, too. “Trying to figure out any ways that we can slow some people down and making sure that we’re able to have some calming around those areas, I’m open to.”
Village President Vicki Scaman said she’s not sure this is the best intersection to study, and recommended the village look into measures at Ridgeland Avenue and Adams Street or Oak Park Avenue and Adams Street.
“For a lot of the residents, they’re going to see some change, and they’re going to be like ‘Cool,’” she said. “I’d rather test something like this on a street … where we’re going to know what the impact is a little bit more.”
Straw, Wesley and Enyia voted to implement both the transportation commission’s and village staff’s recommendation, but with only three votes in favor, the motion failed. Then the entire board voted in favor of implementing the staff’s narrower recommendation.