Every time Elmhurst Ald. Michael Bram gets into his car, he can’t help but notice the emblem in his rear window: “Elmhurst Pace Car. Let’s Slow Down.”
And his thoughts never stray far from the sentiment as the phrase catches his eye whenever he looks in his rear-view mirror. “It’s pretty much a constant reminder,” said Bram.
Over the past several months, he and about 500 other community members have pledged to drive the speed limit and to otherwise serve as models of courtesy to fellow drivers and pedestrians.
The initiative took off in Elmhurst after City Manager Tom Borchert heard of a similar undertaking in Boise, Idaho. Police administrators approached alumni members of the Citizens Police Academy, who developed a grass-roots effort, said Sgt. Jim Kveton.
“They are getting people who are part of the problem to be a solution to the problem,” said Kveton. Locally, Naperville has developed a similar program, he said. Other cities with the program include Salt Lake City, Atlanta and Mesa, Ariz.
In a random survey completed by nearly 800 Elmhurst residents this summer, 47 percent said they were aware of the undertaking. Bram said he was pleasantly surprised by that statistic, and he hopes to insert a question in the next citizen survey in 2006 to gauge the Pace Car program’s impact.
