EAST WILMETTE – Everyone agreed: Sheridan Road needs to get safer. A lot safer. But how, that was up for a long debate on Wednesday night at the Village’s Transportation Commission Meeting. While the room got colder by the hour, the debate heated up. “Install protected bike lanes”, said our advocacy group Bike Walk Wilmette. “Lower the speed limit”, said a resident who got hit by a car recently. “Add flashing beacons to the crosswalks”, said another resident. “Replace the brick crosswalks with more visible zebra markings”, said an established traffic expert. “Not so fast”, said the commissioners.
The item on the agenda was the Master Bike and Active Transportation Plan, adopted by the Village Board in 2021. The plan provides a 5-year blueprint for safer walking and biking infrastructure within the village. This week the Transportation Commission discussed the Year 1 improvements of the plan.
A consultant for the Village had a Powerpoint presentation ready with five crosswalk improvements on Sheridan Road and the addition of a sixth one at 10th Street. But that wasn’t nearly enough for the about fifteen residents who attended the meeting. According to a recent traffic study one in six cars goes faster than 35mph, which is already 5 miles above the speed limit.
(Village of Wilmette © 2022)
Miraculously no fatal accidents on Sheridan were recorded between 2016 and 2020 according to IDOT records, although two cyclists were seriously hurt. Eight others suffered minor injuries including two pedestrians. More than fifty vehicle accidents occurred in said timeframe.
Our plan for buffered bike lanes didn’t get much of a discussion because commissioners want to keep the center two-way turn lane for the driveways along Sheridan, many of them concentrated around the Plaza del Lago shopping center.
At the end of the meeting a motion was adopted to install a new crosswalk on the south side of 10th Street with a curb extension on the southwest corner. Without that drivers leaving Kenilworth won’t be able to see pedestrians waiting to cross because the huge Kenilworth boundary markers will otherwise block their view.
Other crosswalks on Sheridan Road that will be improved are the ones at Chestnut, Elmwood, Washington and Linden. The latter will also get a new sign in the middle of the turn lane that stopping for pedestrians is required by State Law. That sign might already be installed next week. Other crosswalk improvements will include striping updates, new warning signs and brick repairs and are slated for the summer of 2023.
One crosswalk makeover however was tabled, at Michigan Ave, because commissioners first wanted to know if the Park District has any plans for the entrance to Gillson Park which will be renovated in the next few years.
Bike Walk Wilmette 