Motorists speeding into La Grange Park on LaGrange Road may be in for a rude awakening.
La Grange Park’s Take Five campaign finally paid off when the Illinois Department of Transportation agreed to lower the speed limit from 30 to 25 mph on LaGrange Road, the village’s most heavily traveled roadway.
“I’m just as excited as heck that we got this pushed through,” village President James Discipio said. “It’s a great milestone for La Grange Park.”
Discipio credited village staff with its persistence in getting the change made, saying that village manager Julia Cedillo, assistant village manager Maggie Jarr, police Chief Tim Contois, and fire Chief Dean Maggos all were key to the effort.
“They worked extremely hard to produce information and documents for IDOT,” he said. “They finally looked at it and said yes, this is the right thing to do.”
IDOT owns LaGrange Road, and when the village first approached the state body about trimming the speed limit by 5 mph, the state initially was reluctant.
“Really it was the persistence of everybody to keep at it, even though we were told no a couple of times,” Discipio said. “We went back down because we knew it was the right thing to do. Our residents were fearful of crossing LaGrange Road in our business district there. Our main goal was always safety for our residents and to be consistent with what was already posted in Countryside and La Grange.”
The speed limit on the thoroughfare in La Grange’s downtown area is 20 mph, rising to 25 mph south of the downtown to 47th Street, where it rises to 30 mph heading into La Grange Park. But motorists don’t always adhere to that limit, either.
“Everybody thinks it’s not 30, it’s 39, everybody would speed up,” Discipio said.
He said the road’s curved nature heading into the village also creates “hazards and concerns from our residents.”
Village officials formally requested the speed limit be lowered in July 2024. IDOT approved the change early this month and village workers wasted no time in implementing it by changing the signs Nov. 12.
“I never thought we would get this done because IDOT has been so persistent in not allowing it to happen,” Discipio said. “There’s a lot of ownership in what IDOT does. They’re really possessive of their roads. They want to move traffic, they don’t want to stall traffic. Their objective is to move traffic and keep it flowing.”
He said a change in leadership at IDOT likely helped spur the change after state Transportation Secretary Gia Biagi was appointed to the post by Gov. JB Pritzker in late 2024.
“Gia Biagi really made the difference and said we need to do this,” he said. “It happened and it was persistence — knowing we’re doing the right thing for the safety of our residents.”
Discipio indicated that simply lowering the speed limit on LaGrange Road was not the end of the village’s efforts to increase traffic safety. Those efforts include working to hire two more police officers.
“We’re kind of low right now — we’re two down,” he said. “But we’re going to have to work with the budget and see where it goes. The main thing is that we have enough officers to make sure it’s effective when we reduce the speed limit.”
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
