Neither pelting rain nor flying snow keeps Jane Comiskey from walking a mile a day in Hyde Park, the Chicago neighborhood where she has lived since 1960.
In general, the neighborhood has wide, residential streets, interesting architecture and sidewalks, all of which make being a pedestrian safer and more pleasant.
However, Comiskey, 70, other residents and business owners, city officials and community planners note that some of the neighborhood’s features do not encourage people to wear out their shoe leather.
“There are unattractive, dark viaducts [in the neighborhood] that act as a barrier between the residential area and the shopping area,” said Irene Sherr, assistant to Fourth Ward Alderman Toni Preckwinkle.
Viaducts are situated every couple of blocks between 47th and 57th Streets. They support railroad tracks owned by Metra and the Canadian National Railroad that flank Lake Park Avenue, a north-south street that forms the neighborhood’s commercial district.
Being able–as Hyde Park did–to identify an area they want to make more pedestrian-friendly was the first step toward being selected by the Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS) to take part in a series of “walkability” workshops conducted recently in 10 neighborhoods and municipalities in the Chicago area.
“We didn’t want communities that just said, `We’re interested in walking.’ We asked communities to describe a specific problem they want to solve,” said Gin Kilgore, a planner for CATS.
In addition to Hyde Park, the Chicago neighborhoods of Lincoln Park and Humboldt Park participated. Other communities involved were Lemont, Orland Park, Batavia, Riverdale, Itasca, Northlake and Villa Park.
Ideas for increasing walkability in their communities emerged when community, governmental and transportation officials, national transportation experts, residents and business owners took part in “walkabouts” of the areas where problems had been identified.
“It wasn’t just a consultant coming in and saying `Do this. Do this. Do that.’ dictating to us,” said Valerie Dehner, community planner in Villa Park. “It was a cooperative thing. Anyone who had a stake in the area could participate.”
A first-hand look at a troublesome area was a better way to draw attention to a problem than any letter or verbal description could be, added Sherr.
“There’s nothing better [to convey a problem] than standing there [in the viaduct], under the peeling paint and in the dark,” she said.
Villa Park pinpointed Villa and Ardmore Avenues as streets where it wants to see more pedestrians.
Villa Avenue, which is scheduled for resurfacing in the next five years, features a small commercial district and is next to a new, upscale apartment complex in a former Ovaltine factory.
Encouraging people to shop in the commercial district is one reason the village wants to make Villa and Ardmore Avenues more pedestrian-friendly. It also is where two recreational trails, the Illinois Prairie Path and the Great Western Trail, converge.
“We want to have enough amenities in the area so that people will want to live there and walk around,” Dehner said. “And we want to mitigate any problems between cyclists and pedestrians [who use the recreational trails].”
Making a community pedestrian-friendly is not just a nice thing if it happens but also a crucial aspect of making municipalities vibrant, Dehner said.
“I think the trend is that these [pedestrian-friendly] amenities are not just optional,” Dehner said. “People are looking for places they can walk, congregate, have a sense of community and place.”
Amenities may include sidewalks, landscaping, signage, pedestrian bridges, planters with flowers, bumped-out curbs, which narrow the roadway to slow traffic, and more visible crosswalks that are painted, patterned or made of different material than the street.
Though improving the walkability of a neighborhood or community can involve complex, expensive, long-term plans, the workshops pointed out relatively quick and inexpensive improvements.
In Villa Park, for instance, the village plans in the spring to use bright paint to create a hatch pattern on the sides of a Villa Avenue intersection to create a “choker” effect, said Dehner.
The idea is that the hatch pattern will create a zone where motorists will tend to slow down. The village hopes the temporary choker will increase safety for pedestrians and cyclists waiting to cross.
“It narrows the street and motorists slow down,” Dehner said.
Though a concrete or curbing choker could be added, Dehner said the village wants to try paint first to see whether the idea works. If it does, a permanent choker could be created in the reconstruction of Villa Avenue.
“The workshop showed that there are a lot of projects that can be started just by using paint,” Dehner said. “And you can test them before you do a big reconstruction project.”
Crosswalks painted near school
In Lemont, crosswalks at newly paved streets were painted to make them more visible to children going to school.
Lemont was selected for the workshop because it wants to improve pedestrian traffic to its downtown, which is difficult to access from the north, east and west. It is bordered on the north by the Illinois & Michigan Canal. The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Des Plaines River lay beyond.
Outside of downtown, Main Street from the east and New Avenue from the west have no sidewalks. “As far as pedestrians, they’re walking on the shoulders” of the roads, said village planner Christina Dudek. She added Lemont also is looking at long-term goals, such as connecting their biking and walking paths with nearby communities.
Improving accessibility across the canal may require more planning and funds, she said.
“The canal is an obstacle. Maybe we will be looking at [adding] pedestrian bridges,” Dudek said.
Lemont’s shorter-term goals include increasing the visibility of crosswalks, taking an inventory of sidewalks to determine where there are gaps and considering amending the village’s zoning ordinance to require new businesses to have bike racks.
Shopping center targeted
Orland Park identified Orland Square shopping center, at 151st Street and La Grange Road, as an area to make more pedestrian-friendly.
“They said, `We’ve got a ’70s-era mall surrounded by residential neighborhoods. There’s a parking lot that people have a hard time walking through. How can we fix that?'” Kilgore said.
Describing the asphalt sea around the mall, Greg Dreyer, planner in Orland Park, said: “There’s no defined area between the lot and the ring road. Right now it’s like a free-for-all. You can just cruise through the parking lot to the ring road.”
“We actually walked the parking lot and reviewed our entrance areas,” said Dan Cote, general manager of Orland Square.
Because of the workshop, Cote said the shopping center is considering installing three or four raised sidewalks with curbs and landscaping that would cross the parking lot.
One sidewalk, for instance, would extend from sidewalks on La Grange Road to a mall entrance. There would be crosswalks at the center’s inner and outer ring roads.
“These sidewalks would not be accessible to vehicular traffic. It would be kind of a safety zone for pedestrians,” Cote said.
However, Cote said that it will likely take a couple of years to add the sidewalks.
“We have to do a lot of planning,” he said. “We will lose some parking places, and we have to look at traffic patterns.”
Solutions via CD
Other communities that want to improve walkability may learn from what Hyde Park, Villa Park, Lemont and Orland Park are doing. Kilgore said CATS will create a CD-ROM detailing the problems and solutions these and other communities use to improve walkability.
Communities that did not take part in the walkability workshops “could pop this CD in and get ideas of what their options are,” Kilgore said.
In Hyde Park, Metra is rebuilding the station that serves 51st, 52nd and 53rd Streets and the one for 55th, 56th and 57th Streets.
The project was not a result of the workshop but will contribute to its goals, said Dan Schnolis, a Metra spokesman.
Wooden platforms that date from the 1920s are being replaced with steel ones, and new ticket offices, canopies, warming shelters and stairs are being added, along with elevators that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In addition, the viaducts at these stations will be improved.
“Where there is station access, we are going to improve a bit of lighting, do some painting and improve the sidewalks,” he said.
These improvements are scheduled for completion in the spring.
Improvements at viaducts that are not next to these stations might take more time and coordination. They would require cooperation of Chicago, Metra and the Canadian National Railroad, Schnolis said.
“We will do them on a case-by-case basis. The city will call everyone together and we’ll decide what to do,” Schnolis said.
Comiskey was glad to take part in the walkability workshop. She welcomes any improvements that will cause others to don their comfortable shoes and go for a walk in the neighborhood she loves.
“This is my community,” she said. “The more people there are on the street, the safer it is for everyone.”
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Walking the walk
10 sites in Chicago and the suburbs that have taken part in Chicago Area Transportation Study “walkability” workshops to improve pedestrian access.
Hyde Park
Dark viaducts along Lake Park Avenue discourage walking from residential areas to shopping. Suggestion for improvements along the railroad tracks from 47th to 57th Streets include striped bike lanes, bumped out curbs to shorten pedestrian crossings and more prominent bus stops.
Villa Park
Pariaer Path access is the focus as the town looks to ease walking, biking and auto congestion with a speed table (a slight elevation in the roadway). It’s also looking to open links to the Villa and Ardmore Avenue business districts.
Lemont
Pedestrian crossings on 127th Street and near schools are being improved with bolder painting to make crosswalks more visible and bumped-out curbs.
Pedestrian plans in other areas covered by study
These are the other seven areas that have taken part in Chicago Area Transportation Study “walkability” workshops to improve pedestrian access and their plans:
Lincoln Park
Clark Street Commercial Corridor from Armitage Avenue to Diversey Parkway. At issue are the narrow sidewalks and offset intersections. CATS is looking at whether it would be more pedestrian friendly if there were fewer and better-defined crossings or if the district were considered a “destination” with crossing expected anywhere.
Humboldt Park
Access to the park bounded by North, Kedzie and California Avenues and Augusta Boulevards. The four-block stretch along North Avenue as well as interior streets are the focus. Consultants suggested removing center lines (which suggest a road is made for speed) from interior streets, using angle parking to calm traffic and using paint for pedestrian-heavy areas such as near restrooms.
Riverdale
Sidewalk under the Metra underpass at 144th Street and the station. Bicyclists and pedestrians do not co-exist on the narrow sidewalk–a more gradual grade was suggested to slow cyclists along with the establishment of a bicycle lane. Also, the town looks to improve access to the station and its retail stores through the commuter parking lots.
Itasca
Irving Park Road intersections at Rush Street, Maple Street and Bloomingdale Road. Plans include adding wheelchair curb cuts to improve access to the Metra station and painting the crosswalks to improve visibility.
Orland Park
Orland Square shopping center, 151st Street and La Grange Road. Access to the surrounding neighborhoods is the focus. Changes have been proposed to the parking lot and ring access road to link them to adjacent neighborhoods.
Northlake
North Avenue crossing. At issue is building a pedestrian overpass from Concord Place retirement home to Northlake Commons shopping center and developing a trial into Elmhurst.
Batavia
Fox River crossings and downtown access for walkers and bikers are under study. One proposal is to move back the stop bars at intersections to encourage more deliberate turns.
