Bartlett traffic gets glowing review despite residents' complaints

The results of a $20,000 traffic study of downtown Bartlett contradicts residents' complaints of lengthy delays and recommends the village add more pedestrian signs.

Despite the largely positive review, some trustees on Tuesday argued the study by Christopher B. Burke Engineering wasn't broad enough and should have predicted future volumes.

The Rosemont-based firm found that wait times at traffic signals downtown averaged between 50 to 60 seconds during the evening rush hour and 35 to 45 seconds during the morning.

“There's a great deal of anecdotal evidence among the residents that traffic flows very poorly through the downtown,” Trustee Aaron Reinke said. “The study challenges that to a certain extent and indicates that the delays that people encounter aren't necessarily unreasonable, so it may an issue of perception, rather than reality.”

Beginning in April, Burke centered its analysis on five main roadways — North Avenue, Oak Avenue, Main Street, Western Avenue and West Bartlett Road/East Railroad Avenue — along with the parking lots around the Metra station and parts of residential neighborhoods bordering the downtown.

“If the traffic signal is functioning correctly, it seems like it's about as smooth a place as I've ever seen,” Burke Vice President Mike Ziegler said of traffic around the Metra tracks.

The firm also found that commuters stepping off Metra trains in the early evening treated a one-block section of Bartlett Road, from Oak to Eastern avenues, as a “pedestrian mall” or “shared space” with drivers, although there was noticeably less traffic on Bartlett Road during that time.

“They're scattered like ants,” Ziegler said.

He encouraged the village to install portable signs at certain crosswalks warning drivers to stop for pedestrians. Village planners say they will bring a more detailed proposal back to the board, but Trustee T.L. Arends said the village has “so many signs now.”

“It clutters everything up,” she said.

Meanwhile, several officials thought the study should have been more far-reaching. Trustee Vincent Carbonaro said Devon Avenue should have been under review. A significant number of drivers, including himself, avoid what they perceive as traffic headaches downtown by taking Devon Avenue to West Bartlett Road, which funnels into Route 59, Carbonaro said.

“We're not seeing how much traffic is actually being diverted downtown,” Carbonaro said.

The study did document some cut-through traffic on North and Western avenues to avoid Oak Avenue, but those drivers were headed to homes or businesses. In general, the firm said traffic was balanced throughout the study area.

Reinke also wanted to see how roads and parking will hold up to economic development spurred by a proposed tax increment financing district.

“What's our capacity like and can we physically accommodate those volumes?” Reinke asked.

Among the firms' other findings: There were 64 crashes in the study's area between 2010-12, based on police data.

The intersection of Oak and Oneida avenues saw the most accidents — 14 — during that period, followed by Railroad and Western avenues with 10; Railroad and Oak avenues with 9; Oak and North avenues with 8; and Railroad Avenue at Main Street with 7.

Those numbers do not indicate a high accident rate, according to the study.