City keeps vulnerable in mind when planning street projects
By Julie Sammarco
Over the
past several years, Chicago has produced many successful plans to maintain a
safe driving and walking environment. From redesigned streets to new
pedestrian walkways to technologies such as pedestrian countdown signals,
the City has made tremendous efforts to keep the public safe when traveling,
according to the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT).
These past improvements did not take individual transportation users into consideration, however. Now, the City is making the extra effort to assist those whose concerns were left out of previous projects.
Several months ago, the City mandated the Complete Streets Policy, which will help keep every street user, especially those most vulnerable—children, elderly, and persons with disabilities—more safe when traveling by modifying guidelines followed in street upgrade projects.
According to CDOT, these modifications will not only comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which ensures facilities are readily accessible to individuals with disabilities, but integrate features that build a pedestrian-friendly environment.
Such features include creating narrower traffic lanes to make room for bike lanes, for example, by converting a four-lane roadway to a three-lane roadway with a bike lane. Also planned are median refuges, “bulb out” curb extensions to decrease crossing distances and increase visibility between pedestrians and drivers, countdown pedestrian signals to minimize pedestrian crossing conflicts, and reducing the assumed walking speed for countdown calculations from 4 to 3.5 feet per second. Streetscapes in neighborhood commercial districts will gain benches and other street furniture, improved pedestrian lighting, and outdoor floral arrangements.
All new City street upgrade projects must follow these guidelines, and even some problematic existing streets will be changed. Also, troublesome intersections will be redesigned.
CDOT’s Brian Steele explained, “Complete Streets is a way for CDOT to meet the needs of all users of the public way, whether they’re walking, bicycling, using public transportation, or driving.” He added that the changes offer an opportunity for all street users, especially motorists, to become more aware of their actions when traveling.
Even though Chicago pedestrian fatalities are declining, many collisions and crashes involve pedestrians. Also, according to CDOT statistics, children 15 and younger accounted for 8% of pedestrian fatalities and persons 70 and older accounted for 15%. The Complete Streets Policy is aimed specifically at reducing those figures.
Randy Neufeld of the Healthy Streets Campaign said, “If a car is going 30 miles per hour and hits a pedestrian, there is an 80% chance that that pedestrian will live. If a car is going 40 miles per hour and hits a pedestrian, there is an 80% chance that that pedestrian will die. We’re trying to make sure drivers take responsibility as well to allow for smooth traffic conditions for everyone.”
To promote driver compliance, the Chicago Police Department will assign new Targeted Traffic Teams (T3) to surveillance in the most problematic regions of the City, which were chosen based on crash data and input from the community, Aldermen, and district police officers. T3 officers will use light detection and ranging speed guns to gauge auto speeds and will be able to pinpoint up to three locations simultaneously each day.
Better accommodating pedestrians and bicyclists could not only alleviate road traffic but bring neighborhood businesses more customers. David Callahan of the Chicago Bicycle Federation said, “Putting more walkers on the streets can have enormous benefits for businesses. This can restore local neighborhood economies.” People who walk past a store, he explained, are more likely to go inside than people who drive past and may not notice a business because they are watching the road or looking for a parking space.
Hundreds of thousands of people use the City’s streets each day. In the past, cars were viewed as the transportation mode requiring the most attention regarding crash prevention, safety, and road space allowance. Now, making the most of pedestrian and bicycle transportation is becoming equally as important, according to the City.
