Mount Prospect making sure traffic goes with the flow

The Mount Prospect village board on Tuesday night unanimously approved sign and speed limit changes for areas of the village as part of an ongoing study designed to retool traffic flows.

In this phase of the study, the board focused on areas mainly in the northern portion of the village.

Based on an engineering study by Rosemont-based KLOA, about 100 changes to speed limits and stops signs throughout the neighborhoods were approved.

For instance, stop signs at Bobolink Road and Bunting, Albion, Larkdale and Oriole lanes will be added along Forest Avenue, which is off Kensington Road.

The purpose of the study is to provide consistency within the village's traffic flows, village officials said.

"It used to be that 40 years ago someone would call the mayor about a street and a stop sign would be put in, but it needs to be consistent, safe and on a studied basis," Trustee Paul Hoefert said.

The village will continue to study how the changes impact the neighborhoods in the next six months to a year.

Village staff will recommend alterations to the board if changes appear not to have worked well for a particular neighborhood, village officials said.

For the Neighborhood Traffic Study, the village has split the town into 18 areas, typically working on two or three zones at a time, said Matthew Lawrie, village engineer.

Before Tuesday's vote, the village had approved changes to 11 zones.

The village will be looking next at the last zones, 1, 2, 5 and 6, which are located mostly on the northern part of town. This part of the study will be finished by spring,

For more information, check out the village Web site, www.mountprospect.org and click on the Neighborhood Traffic Study under the quick links icon.