Heated bus shelters with real-time signage, new sidewalks, enhanced intersections with ramps that meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act, bike paths, viaducts with public art — North Avenue may be viewed as primarily an automobile-oriented route, but that could change if some of the recommendations in a study of the corridor released last week are implemented.
Officials from Pace, which sponsored the study; the Regional Transit Authority, the funding agency; Teska Associates, the lead consultant; and other groups unveiled their findings, including drawings and survey results at an open house last week at the Elmhurst Public Library. The study findings can be found online at northavenuecorridorstudy.com.
Members of the steering committee met with representatives of communities that line the route, trying to draw up a plan to connect “people, Pace and place,” and “looking at ways to improve the bus/bike and pedestrian experience.”
Pace officials, who approached the RTA for the roughly $200,000 study, saw an opportunity to improve access to service, especially around its Pulse stations with improved connections between the shelters and businesses.
Steering community members found one existing factor working toward their advantage, said Jodi Mariano, a principal with Teska. Because North Avenue “is excessively wide in some places,” officials believe the extra roadway would make it easier adding some of the improvements discussed.
“You know, we have over 200 feet of right away in some places — that’s a lot of space,” she said, pointing to one the designs displayed at the open house.
For instance, on North Avenue near Al Piemonte Ford in Melrose Park, “you’ve got three lanes of traffic in each direction, and then you’ve got a turn lane sometimes, so it’s a lot of space,” she pointed out.
“Where the medians are painted, that could be landscaped,” she said. “In some cases there are private developments” built to the right of way, “so we’re encouraging the communities to work with the future developments and future property owners to pull back from the right of way and meet those codes and ordinances.”
“This was always built as an auto-dominated corridor,” she added. “Pedestrians and bicyclists want to have the right of the roadway, too, so we’re trying to provide for them.”
It might not seem that way at first, said Michael Horsting, principal analyst for the RTA.
“To the typical resident or average Joe, if you’re driving on the corridor, you just think of curb to curb,” he said, “but there’s actually a lot more right of way on either side of that curb in many sections of that corridor, so there’s an opportunity to think outside the box a little.”
William Grieve, a senior transportation engineer for Gewalt Hamilton Associates, and Cindy Fish, a principal with the Fish Transportation group, said it is a route that changes character along its seven-mile length, with urban neighborhoods to the east, with storefronts and restaurants on the street. Then, to the west, there are larger developments.
Then, noted Fish, “you go a little north and south of North Avenue, and it’s just neighborhoods, with people who ride their bikes, who are walking, who use the bus.”
“One thing we found, too — among the Pace ridership, the bike racks in the front of the buses are heavily used,” she said. “People may take the bus to work in the morning, but on the way home, they ride their bikes. They have more time.”
Horsting said next steps on the plan will fall to Pace, which made the request for the original study. The municipalities that surround the corridor also can identify recommendations in the study they would like to move forward on and address those areas within their jurisdiction, he said.
Then there is the redevelopment wild card, also covered in the study. The site study identified the current Sears site at North and Harlem and the former Maywood Racetrack/Menards site on North between First and Ninth avenues as areas whose future redevelopment could have a major bearing on the corridor.
Money will be an issue. “This is a planning study,” Grieve pointed out.
Still, the partners said they are pleased with where their efforts have taken them thus far and the support behind the recommendations given the numbers of players. The communities along the corridor are Chicago, Elmwood Park, River Forest, Oak Park, River Grove, Melrose Park, Stone Park, Northlake and Elmhurst.
When members gathered at the first steering community of the project, they dubbed the job ahead as “the tale of seven miles, nine communities and five agencies,” quipped Grieve.
“I mean talk about a hodgepodge,” he said. “Everybody had their own ideas of what to do.”
But, “it’s really been a team effort,” he said. “Everybody — I mean everybody on the steering committee — whether it be communities or agencies, eventually understood they had to give and take a little bit. You couldn’t just come in and say “my way or the highway.” So agencies like the Illinois Department of Transportation had to be more open to providing additional amenities; Pace increased its bus traffic along the route.
“It’s really been a team effort,” he said.
