Editorial: Mount Prospect crosswalk safety plans instructive for other suburbs
As long as there are distracted and impatient drivers, accidents will happen.
As long as there are risk-taking, impatient pedestrians, accidents will happen.
But public officials must do all they can to make intersections safer and to continue to inform and educate the public on ways to avoid accidents, some of which can be catastrophic and deadly.
That's what Mount Prospect officials have been faced with since a car rammed into bicyclist Joni Beaudry, a mother of five, on Central Road at Weller Lane in June 2016 as she was heading to nearby Melas Park.
Last week, village officials unveiled their plans for enhanced safety measures they hope will make that intersection and several others along busy Central Road safer.
The plans for Central and Weller include: replacing the three-ground-mounted beacons with two ground-mounted beacons and one overhead beacon at Weller Lane; advance stop lines to provide drivers a visual cue of where to stop; a double white line to indicate they should not be switching lanes as they approach the intersection.
Other safety measures will be installed further east at Central Road and We-Go Trail/Lancaster Street; at Central Road and Cathy Lane; at Central Road and Pine Street; and at Central Road and Emerson Street, near the village's library.
In total, construction of all work would cost about $635,000 and is slated to be done between 2019 and 2022.
Some concern was raised as to whether the Illinois Department of Transportation would approve all the permits needed. IDOT, along with all cities and villages in the state, needs to take into account safety for pedestrians just as much as they take into account moving traffic.
We applaud Mount Prospect's efforts to deal with several very problematic crosswalks and believe those efforts could be duplicated in many towns that have similar unsafe intersections for pedestrians as we noted in an investigation last year. Between 2012 and 2015 at least one pedestrian or cyclist was struck and killed each week. on average.
Are these improvements enough? Beaudry's husband, Eric Jakubowski, says no, the plan still doesn't address widespread confusion. We believe this intersection and others may need further studies to get to the safest conclusion.
But Mount Prospect - and IDOT - also must not forget their duty to keep public education - and enforcement - in the forefront. Drivers and pedestrians need to understand the rules and consequences and proceed cautiously, not with impatience or risky behavior. Drivers, especially, who don't stop when they are alerted to, need to be ticketed.