New curb cuts will be made along E 47th St where it intersects with 6th, 7th and 8th Aves as part of an effort by village and state officials to improve pedestrian safety along the heavily traveled thoroughfare, La Grange President Elizabeth Asperger announced Monday night at a regular session of the village board of trustees.
Village public works crews will begin work on the project Wednesday (June 24), Asperger said.
The new mid-block curb cuts should make it safer for pedestrians who choose to cross E 47th St at those three intersections, where the avenues and sidewalks that run north-south are not aligned from side of E 47th St to the other.
In the case of the 8th Ave intersection, where Countryside resident Cari Lyn Cook was struck and killed by a motorist May 19, the sidewalks on either side of E 47th St are offset some 50 feet from each other.
The absence of an aligned curb cut may have been a factor in that accident. Cook was struck as she lifted her daughter's stroller up onto the curb on the south side of 47th St. She apparently had entered the roadway using a sidewalk cub cut on the road's north side, but there was no corresponding curb cut directly across from it.
But while the new curb cuts should make crossing at those intersections somewhat safer, Asperger hopes that pedestrians will avoid using them. Instead, village officials are encouraging pedestrians to cross E 47th St only at 9th Ave, where there is a marked pedestrian crosswalk with signage to alert motorists, or to use the intersection at La Grange Rd, which has full traffic signals.
As a subliminal means of encouraging that behavior, Asperger said the village will not paint crosswalks connecting the new curb cuts at 6th, 7th and 8th Aves. Instead, crosswalks will painted east to west connecting the sidewalks on either side of E 47th St that cross those three avenues.
Asperger hopes the east-west crosswalks will draw pedestrians towards the safer crossing points.
The new curb cuts were among several safety improvements for 47th St and other village roadways proposed by village officials during a meeting June 16 with Gary Hannig, director of the Illinois Department of Transportation. The meeting was arranged by State Reps. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) and Michael Zalewski (D-Chicago), who also attended.
Other proposed improvements include:
- Installing flashing yellow beacon lights on both sides of the existing pedestrian crosswalk at the 9th Ave intersection, facing in both directions, that could be activated by a pedestrian pushing a button. Advance warning signage and pavement markings also will be added to alert motorists approaching the crosswalk.
- Installing a second similarly enhanced pedestrian crossing at the intersection of La Grange Rd and 52nd St, and possibly a third along 47th St near Waiola Park.
- Prohibiting right turns on red lights at 47th St and Edgewood Ave when pedestrians are present.
- Reducing the speed limit along 47th St from 35 mph to 25 mph. A similar reduction would apply to La Grange Rd south of 47th St. The speed limit along Ogden Ave also would be reduced to 25 mph, including the bridge portion that crosses over the Indiana Harbor Belt raliroad.
Approval from IDOT for the curb cuts was immediately granted, but the village still is awaiting a green light for the remaining changes, Asperger said. However, she described Hannig as "very responsive" and said that she and Village Manager Robert Pilipiszyn left the meeting feeling "very optimistic."
Asperger said the village's goal is to have all safety improvements in place by the beginning of the upcoming school year.
Asperger said traffic enforcement by police throughout the village also would be re-evaluated, possibly resulting in the deployment of additional patrol cars. Several residents attending special village meeting held June 2 expressed concern that traffic policing was lax and grumbled when Police Chief Michael Holub revealed that generally no more than four patrol cars are on the streets at any given time.
Click here to read full coverage of both the accident and the aftermath.