No traffic light warranted at busy school entrance
Q. I'm concerned about the traffic along Prince Crossing Road in West Chicago from Geneva Road north to North Avenue.
Between 7:15 and 8:15 a.m. and again between 3 and 3:45 p.m., trying to make a left turn out of Wheaton Academy onto northbound Prince Crossing is very dangerous. Traffic coming from the north and traveling southbound on Prince Crossing is obscured by a hill.
The ability to see cars approaching from the south and going northbound on Prince Crossing is also made difficult by SUVs and vans inching up to the intersection before they turn right onto southbound Prince Crossing.
When you add inexperienced drivers, impatient drivers, an occasional pedestrian or the winter driving conditions we've had recently, it seems like an accident is waiting to happen.
Are there any plans for a stop sign or traffic light? I am not sure the school is aware of this problem.
--J. J., Carol Stream
A. Dave Pacheco, communications coordinator for Wheaton Academy, said the school is aware of the congestion during the times of day you mentioned.
"We did re-engineer our entrance in the late-1990s by moving it 25 yards south of where it was located," Pacheco said.
As part of an application for permits to the City of West Chicago for the new entrance and other projects on the property, city code required a traffic use study to be done.
According to David Ziesemer, traffic engineer in the division of transportation at DuPage County, state law requires all agencies to abide by the Federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.
The manual requires a traffic engineering study to justify the installation of traffic control devices. Minimum traffic volumes and accident warrants must be met.
"Based on the results of the study, the intersection didn't meet the minimum requirements to warrant either stop signs or a traffic signal," Pacheco said.
As a part of the project, though, the hill on Prince Crossing Road as you approach the school from the north was planed down and flattened to make the area safer with better sight lines.