Board Passes Ogden Crosswalk Improvements Despite Residents’ Protests

Although residents of northern Old Town North came out in force to Monday night’s Board of Trustees voting meeting, objecting that a motion to renovate the crosswalk across Ogden Avenue (Rt. 34) to Bemis Woods would result in increased traffic on their blocks, the Board unanimously passed the motion as part of their omnibus vote (with one trustee absent.)

Trustees seemed surprised at the sudden and emphatic resistance to what had largely been seen as a long-overdue and universally positive project. The typically comment-free and formulaic voting meeting saw an at-times heated debate over whether the Board was adequately addressing resident concerns.

The motion, which was , will add flashing yellow lights at the crosswalk, which crosses Ogden just west of Woodland Avenue. The lights will be activated by pedestrians or bikers, stopping the four lanes of traffic for safe passage. The proposal will also straighten the now-crooked crosswalk and add painted white “stop bars” on the road.

But Woodland residents said that such traffic stoppages would encourage a flood of shortcut left turns onto their narrow and ill-paved street (and similar right turns onto Central Avenue,) resulting in dangerously high traffic in a child-dense neighborhood.

While they expressed support for a solution to the notoriously dangerous Ogden Avenue crossing, Woodland residents like Susan Duff felt the Board should perform a traffic study or make changes to Woodland before approving the flashing yellow lights.

“If we’re going to be the pedestrian gateway to Bemis, I really think we need to strongly examine what the options are for our street,” Duff said. “I really think if you pass it the way it is now, without actually taking a step back and looking at what it’s going to do for the local traffic… you’re making a mistake.”

Later in the meeting, as trustees were preparing to vote on the omnibus package that included the crosswalk improvements, fellow resident Jeff Pohl interjected to express surprise that the Trustees had not opened the floor to discussion after hearing Duff’s concerns.

“I assumed, given the objections, that you would at least give that some further considerations,” Pohl said. “You have people here that do live in the community, on the block in question, who are asking you to give further consideration to something, and you’re going to pack it onto the back of an omnibus vote?”

In response, Village Engineer Jeff Ziegler, while acknowledging that Woodland is in need of repair—which it is scheduled to receive next year—said that the crosswalk and the state of the avenue were not connected issues.

“Woodland Avenue, under its design considerations, moving forward… is going to be looked at in terms of its geometrics, its width, its operational characteristics,” said Ziegler. Referring to the road and the crosswalk, he added, “They are two separate and distinct things. One can try to mix them, but they’re really not mixable items.”

“They are intermingled,” Pohl disagreed. “The second you put a light up there, you’re changing the character of the traffic flow in that area… I am anticipating an increase in traffic [on Woodland and Central]. I would turn left there. My neighbors talk about it, they would turn left there.”

“I’m for increasing safety, but I think we’ve transferred the risk from the crossing to Woodland Avenue,” agreed resident Jim Duff. “People are going to take the left, and we have 45-50 kids on that block. So a child won’t be killed in the crossing, but they’ll be killed on our street.”

The residents offered additional concerns that Woodland Avenue would become even further clogged with parked cars when the Bemis parking lot was closed or unplowed, and noted that the Woodland-Ogden intersection is already uniquely dangerous due to the entrance to that parking lot being almost directly across the street. They also said they felt the Village should have better informed them about the proposal.

Potential solutions offered by residents included making Woodland a cul-de-sac by blocking Ogden access, prohibiting left turns onto Woodland, adding parking restrictions and/or at least placing a permanent police speedometer on the street.

Not all of the visitors who nearly filled the conference room were in opposition to the motion. Brad Kulat, a Walnut Street resident, said his children regularly used the Salt Creek bike trail in Bemis Woods and hated the death-defying dash across Ogden to get there.

“Something needs to be done before our kids get killed,” Kulat said after the meeting. “I understand [Pohl’s] point… [but] my kids are terrified.”

Another attendee, Steve Winegar of the 4000 block of Woodland, criticized the for poorly enforcing the current crosswalk, for which vehicles are supposed to yield. Winegar also asked if the Village could do something about the other crossings of the Salt Creek trail at Wolf Road and 31st Street, both of which are north of Village boundaries.

“They’re extremely dangerous. Maybe not as bad as Ogden, but they’re still bad,” Winegar said. “I called our police department… the forest preserve, the county, I called the state, I called the villages, and I got the same answers from everybody: 'it’s not my jurisdiction.'”

The Board recommended that residents bring all their concerns to the Transportation Safety Commission for further discussion, which trustees referred to as the best channel for effecting solutions for their complaints.

Eventually, the Board passed the motion unanimously (Trustee Deborah Lyons was absent), with Village President Bill Rodeghier saying that after a year and a half of discussion of the project, “there comes a point where we have to take some action.”

“I’m not trying to be flippant, but what’s a traffic study going to do?” Rodeghier asked rhetorically. “We’ve considered all these things, and we think this is in the best interest of the Village at this point.

“Who knows what the future is going to hold? If this doesn’t work and we have to do something further, we’ll do it.”