The end of summer brings the beginning of school and the transformation of thousands of youngsters into daily commuters.
And judging from phone calls to Getting Around, parents are becoming increasingly edgy over their children’s safety while waiting at school bus stops. Perhaps fueling the concern is the widespread attitude among planners in many communities that sidewalks are an optional luxury and that neighborhood streets can and should be altered to accommodate the maximum number of vehicles.
Where, then, is a child to queue for the morning school bus without standing like a bowling pin in the path of cars or trucks that will sooner or later jump a curb?
Parents who phoned us found out the hard way during the opening weeks of classes. They instructed their kids to stand far back from the street, resulting in school bus drivers breezing past designated stops.
“The school instructed my daughter to wait at the end of the driveway by our mailbox so the driver could see her. But I’ve replaced two mailboxes hit by trucks in the last couple of years and my daughter is irreplaceable,” said Cindy Homolka, who lives on busy North Avenue in Lombard.
“There isn’t even a curb in front of my house,” she said.
So, with school transportation officials focusing on keeping their buses on schedule, just what are the rules to ensure safety?
According to state regulations for school bus operations, students must stand at least 5 feet back from the edge of a roadway. School buses, by law, must stop at least 5 feet in front of waiting students and within a foot of the right curb, if there is one.
“These are the minimums. It doesn’t mean that children can’t stand farther back, even waiting on their front porch if they can get down to the bus stop within 30 seconds or so,” said Alvida Petro, director of pupil transportation for the Illinois State Board of Education.
“The school buses must come to a complete stop at each designated stop, not just if students are in view,” Petro added. “But the drivers are not required to wait beyond a reasonable time for the child to appear.”
Petro advised parents experiencing difficulties with school bus service to work with district officials. If that fails, the next step would be a call to the regional superintendent of education.
A bridge too far gone: For those motorists who miss using the Ogden Avenue bridge over Cicero Avenue, a major alternative route to the Eisenhower and Stevenson Expressways, let us break it to you gently.
The old truss bridge, which has been closed without explanation for more than a month, is unsafe, too expensive to repair and will be torn down. But demolition must wait until the state figures out how to remove a structure that not only spans Cicero Avenue but rail yards and the Metra-Burlington Northern tracks as well.
“We can’t just blow it up and say goodbye,” said Ken Macander, a program development engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation.
No contracts have been issued, but Macander said he anticipates work will begin in late 1998 to demolish the bridge. Then, the Ogden interchange will be redesigned and a tunnel built under the railroad tracks. The purpose is to maintain access from Ogden Avenue–which will be widened to four lanes–to Cicero Avenue.
The project is estimated to cost $30 million, Macander said, and construction will continue into 2000.
Skyway back to `normal’: The summer construction ban on the Chicago Skyway is officially over. Until late November, the Skyway will be reduced to two lanes in each direction between 92nd and 106th Streets to make way for a $10.5 million bridge deck repair project. The work will be halted in November for the winter and will resume in March, with completion scheduled for Memorial Day.
Read, ride, recycle: Chicago’s Blue Bag recycling program is expanding to CTA subway and Loop “L” stations, and the Tribune has pitched in as a sponsor.
Newspaper recycling bins have been installed at 10 stops, and CTA President David Mosena said the agency plans to eventually install newspaper bins systemwide.
The CTA-Tribune recycling bins are at the following stations: on the Loop elevated Clark-Lake, State-Lake and Adams-Wabash stops; on the Blue Line (Dearborn Street subway) Clark-Lake, Washington, Monroe and Jackson stops; and on the Red Line (State Street subway) Washington, Monroe and Jackson stops.
Officials say paper products account for 40 percent of garbage generated at CTA rail stations. Getting Around suspects that cigarette butts come in a close second.
———-
Got a commuting question? See a problem on the area’s roads, trains or buses? Getting Around will address topics of general interest. Write to Getting Around, c/o Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611-4041. E-mail jhilkevitch@tribune.com.
