Median could improve safety along Kirchoff, consultant says, but some still want stop light

A consultant recommends Rolling Meadows officials install flashing lights and a midblock median to improve safety at a key intersection along Kirchoff Road, though some aldermen are still holding out hope for a stop light.

A study by engineering firm Hampton, Lenzini and Renwick suggests the 10-foot raised median refuge island — envisioned some 300 feet east of the intersection of Kirchoff Road and Oriole Lane — would cut the current 70-foot pedestrian crossing distance of Kirchoff into two shorter segments. Rectangular rapid flashing beacons — with push buttons that activate yellow blinking lights — would be visible to drivers, the consultant said.

The price tag for the upgrades is estimated at $255,000.

The intersection is within a mile of three schools and two parks, and where residents have clamored for safety changes for years.

A pedestrian was struck by a car and killed about 1,000 feet east of the intersection in 2022. A crash analysis from 2020 to 2024 shows seven vehicle crashes at the intersection, though none involved pedestrians.

One solution — a full traffic signal — was rejected after a previous May 2024 study by Christopher B. Burke Engineering found only six pedestrians and 10 bicyclists crossed Kirchoff over a 12-hour time span.

Aldermen Mike Koehler and Nick Budmats, who are on the city’s capital projects committee, questioned the accuracy of that traffic count.

“We gotta get our data right to get to justify spending any money on this if nobody’s crossing there,” Koehler said during discussion of the proposed intersection improvements Tuesday night. “I think they are crossing there. I’m just saying, the data’s not right to me. … We won’t be able to justify the project with this kind of data.”

Budmats suggested a new traffic count on a school day could present “a reason to have a traffic signal there” and the chance to get grant money to pay for it.

The nearest traffic signals along the Kirchoff corridor are at its intersections with the next-closest streets to the east and west: Meadow Drive and Wilke Road.

For now, council members concurred with city staff members’ recommendation to hold off until the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning completes its pedestrian and bike study. Then the city could have a stronger application for Illinois Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School grant funding, according to Marie Higginson, the assistant director of public works and city engineer.

The project also will be placed into the city’s capital improvement plan.