Motorists driving near Washington Park in Downers Grove will want to be especially alert until they adjust to new stops signs installed nearby.
New stop signs are being added on Chicago Avenue at Douglas Avenue, on Highland Avenue at Franklin Street and at Warren Avenue, and on Grant Street at Stanley Avenue. A stop sign is being removed from Chicago and Highland Avenues, according to village officials.
“The majority of them have been installed. We’re on track with that,” said Matthew Mayer, transportation manager for the village.
Mayer said the village also will install crosswalk markings at some intersections near the park.
“We’re installing continental crosswalks. Those are the piano key-style crossings. They’re more visible,” Mayer said.
The new cross walks will be installed at Washington Street and Prairie Avenue, at Elm and Franklin Streets and at Douglas and Chicago Avenues.
The changes are the result of a traffic study that started in September and concluded in May. The area was studied by Schaumburg-based KLOA Inc., a traffic planning and engineering firm. The area of the study is bounded by Ogden Avenue on the north, Fairview Avenue to the east, Warren Avenue/Rogers Avenue to the south and Main Street on the west.
Mayer said the village budgets about $50,000 a year to do traffic studies in neighborhoods. This is the fourth study that the village has completed in the past four years.
“The goal is to look at the neighborhood as a whole, to look at the way the intersections’ traffic controls work, the volumes of traffic and speeds on streets and bicycle and pedestrian safety,” said Nan Newlon, Downers Grove public works director.
Residents provided input as part of the study, Newlon said. Because of the park and schools in the area, she said they expressed concerns about pedestrian safety.
“One of the comments we heard quite a bit in this area was pedestrian safety because we do have schools here. We have a lot of kids who walk to school throughout this neighborhood,” Newlon said.
Other concerns were speeding, cut-through traffic and the impact of high school parking on traffic on Grant Street.
Traffic volumes and speeds were studied at 55 locations in the area. Traffic volumes were found to be within the standard of 400 to 1,500 vehicles a day on local streets, she said.
Mayer said the effectiveness of the new stop signs and crosswalks will be evaluated to see what their impact is on improving safety.
The village will conduct another neighborhood traffic study over the next 12 months in another neighborhood, Mayer said. He is not sure what area will be studied.
