Recently, there have been a string of letters to the editor complaining about the new traffic-calming measures being rolled out village-wide. The feeling I’m left with after reading them is sadness: that for many members of our village, upon seeing new infrastructure — meant to protect our most vulnerable pedestrians, cyclists and especially children — their first instinct is to say, “But how does this personally inconvenience me?”
Well, here’s the hard truth: these changes were intended to inconvenience you, driver of a 4,000-pound vehicle. That is a feature, not a bug, of these new improvements. Because streets designed for your convenience — streets that prioritize driver speed — are streets that injure and kill.
They are streets that make it easy for drivers to get distracted. Meanwhile, streets designed to make driving “inconvenient” are streets where drivers are forced to pay attention. If you fly over a speed table or run into a bump-out, it’s because you weren’t paying attention. The difference is that a speed table can absorb that. A kid crossing the street cannot.
In September, a speeding driver on South Boulevard hit three kids on their way to school while they were crossing at a stop sign, a traffic control that only works if drivers choose to follow it. Meanwhile, the newly installed speed tables on South, a direct response to that incident, would have likely prevented their injuries by giving the driver no choice but to slow down.
While you complain about personal convenience, every month the Transportation Commission hears petitions for more of these traffic-calming measures from community members who have seen one too many close calls on their block. Their fears are backed by research: 2021 saw the highest U.S. traffic death toll since 2005, and pedestrian and cyclist deaths have risen at a far higher rate than deaths among drivers. The problem is not going away on its own.
So the solution is not to try to change driver behavior; we just don’t have that power. What does work is changing the built environment. Studies show that speed tables reduce vehicle speeds by up to 24%, and the World Health Organization finds that even a 5% reduction in average speed reduces road fatalities by 30%. Appeals to driver goodwill don’t work. Only infrastructure can force the change we need.
So next time you see a change that may personally inconvenience you, ask yourself: who was harmed that led to this measure, and who might it be protecting? And then consider how it actually does convenience you — because it makes you far less likely to ever hit a child or a cyclist on the streets of Oak Park. Meanwhile, every pedestrian and cyclist on the street is one less car on the road, which also means less congestion for you. Streets that feel safe for people outside of cars make that possible.
P.S. If you want to bike around the village but aren’t sure where to start, Bike Walk Oak Park has partnered with the Oak Park Climate Action Network’s climate coaching program to offer free support, including help navigating the greenways, finding gear, or biking with a volunteer. Request a coach at http://bit.ly/3PufD5F.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/headway/motor-vehicles-fatalities-newsletter.html
https://www.who.int/westernpacific/news/item/05-05-2017-slow-down-to-save-lives
Nicole Chavas is an Oak Park resident and board member of Bike Walk Oak Park.