I wholeheartedly agree with the Oct. 7 Viewpoints letter from Jane Driscoll, “Practical, not prideful” regarding the proposed Home Avenue bridge project. This bridge is a piece of infrastructure that allows access across an ugly, loud, and smelly expressway,
The additional cost for this bridge to the village over what IDOT will be funding will be $5-9 million. That’s a per capita cost of $100 to $180, an amount that we would all consider long and hard before spending. While it may be true that if money were no object it would be nice to have a stunning architectural landmark, the sad truth is that money is an object, and village trustees need to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, by not overspending on projects that do not deserve it.
On another issue, electric bikes, e-motos and electric mobility devices (EMDs) have exploded in popularity in Oak Park, but too many riders, particularly teens, fail to recognize the danger they pose to pedestrians. My wife was recently knocked to the ground by an electric scooter (one type of EMD) driver going the wrong way down a one-way street.
The law is clear: these vehicles belong in the street, not on sidewalks, and riders must obey the same rules as drivers, including full stops at stop signs and traffic lights and one-way restrictions. Without enforcement, those rules mean little.
Because these vehicles threaten pedestrians as cars do, I urge the village board to direct the Oak Park police to enforce traffic laws on e-bikes, e-motos and EMDs as strictly as on cars, motorcycles, trucks and buses, before more people are seriously hurt.
Kevin Shalla
Oak Park