Mt. Prospect will allow turns off Millers Lane

Despite objections raised by an area resident, Mount Prospect will begin allowing right turns from Millers Lane to Central Road, a move officials hope reduces traffic congestion near the Central Community Center on the village's west side.

Since the creation of the Millers Station subdivision in 1993, only right turns from Central onto Millers have been permitted. Those leaving the subdivision could make a right turn onto Central from Cathy Lane, one block to the east. That intersection, however, often is backed up with traffic from the community center.

With Millers Lane scheduled to be resurfaced, the village's engineering division used the opportunity to examine increasing access at Millers and Central, holding hearings before the Transportation Safety Commission and the village board.

Traffic Engineer Matt Lawrie said the intersection will be modified to allow traffic in and out, pending Illinois Department of Transportation approval. The village also is proposing a right turn lane from Cathy onto Central.

The most ardent opponent of the project, Central Road resident Judith Kirman, tried to dissuade the board during a long speech this week, arguing that the proposed changes would make it unsafe for her to leave her driveway, and pose problems for her neighbors because of the difficulty seeing traffic coming out of Millers Lane.

Lawrie said the village reviewed five years of crash data for the area, and of 300 reports, not one involved someone backing out of a private driveway on to Central.

“You have presented us with no new information this evening,” Mayor Arlene Juracek Juracek told Kirman, referring to a discussion of the issue at a meeting in January.