Daily Herald Opinion: Reducing number of lanes on Route 31 in Batavia would improve safety
This editorial represents the consensus opinion of The Daily Herald Editorial Board.
If you've ever driven the old Lincoln Highway through the Fox Valley, you know what it's like to feel hemmed in.
The stretch of that transcontinental roadway that takes you from Aurora to Geneva is Route 31.
To say it's narrow is an understatement. We've been white-knuckling Route 31 in Batavia and Geneva for as long as we can remember.
It's the kind of road where you drive the outer lane of the four-lane road unless you want to pass, and you say a prayer as you blur past a pickup truck or a Hummer headed in the other direction that you keep your mirror.
The road was built 85 years ago, and homes, massive old trees and utility poles butt right up to it.
It was not envisioned as a superhighway or, as Fox Valley residents would know, Randall Road.
Breakdown lanes, you ask? Nope.
It used to be the same in Geneva as you drove Route 31 across Fabyan Parkway. But in recent years, wise people reduced the number of lanes in Geneva from two northbound and two southbound tracks to one in either direction and a single turn/merge lane between them. Driving that stretch of the road now is a dream.
Batavia officials are asking the same thing for its stretch of the state highway.
Illinois Department of Transportation standards for a road lane are 11 feet. In some stretches of Route 31, it's just 9 feet.
Batavia city officials are petitioning IDOT to reduce the total number of lanes to three from four.
A feasibility study estimated it could reduce crashes by 20% to 50%.
But it also could increase backups for and snarl traffic at the two signalized intersections with Main Street and Wilson Street.
One option would be reduce to three lanes the entire stretch of Route 31 through Batavia, from Fabyan Parkway south to Mooseheart Road. The other would be to leave a downtown portion between Main and Fabyan as is, the thought being that would cause fewer traffic backups.
Ultimately, it's up to the state department of transportation to decide. One of IDOT's main concerns is safety; the other is traffic flow. It's not for us to recommend one or the other - but that some version of it is approved.
The study concluded 85% of the crashes from 2016 to 2020 were either rear-end collisions or because of turns.
None was fatal.
It's always more important to get someplace safely than to get there on time, so either option to reconfigure Route 31 will be a benefit.