Safe crossings arrive

By Leslie Phemister

Thanks to a federal grant last year, eight schools in the South Suburbs are seeing their street design dreams come true.
The grant funded the Southland Safe Routes to School Program, which paired a Safe Routes team of engineers, stakeholders and advocates with schools.

The program’s goal is to cute 20 percent of the traffic around South Suburban schools by encouraging more walking and bicycling for the trip to school and eliminating car trips. Over a two-year period, the Southland Safe Routes Implementation Team is recommending encouragement programming and infrastructure improvements.
Two of those are already in place.

Memorial Junior High, Lansing, Ill.
Crossing guards at Ridge Road and School Street had to stop four lanes of traffic to get Memorial Junior High students safely across. The Southland Safe Routes to School Program, funded by a Congestion, Mitigation, and Air Quality grant, and the Village of Lansing installed a traffic signal at this hazardous intersection. The Lan-Oak bike plan called for a road diet on Ridge Road transforming this four-lane road to two lanes with a center turning lane.

Crossing guards now have a countdown signal, allowing them to know the exact amount of time available to safely cross students and having only two lanes of traffic to navigate. The Village made the crossing even safer by not allowing cars to turn on red on schools days while children are present.

This stop light doesn’t only assist students in crossing this thoroughfare but seniors in the community benefit too. The local library in located on the north side of Ridge Road. Many seniors struggled crossing here. Now thanks to the light with countdown timers they can cross safely.

Diekman Elementary School, Dolton, Ill.
Diekman students have dreamed of riding their bikes to school. Now they can! Installation of a bike rack gives them a secure place to lock their bikes. Students that do walk to school have it safer now too! The intersection just south of Diekman, 152nd Street and Dorchester Avenue  had a 52-foot crossing, forcing students to extend their time in the street.

The Safe Routes program and School District 149 reduced this crossing by 21 feet. Shortening the amount of time spent in the street to half. At the intersection of Dorchester and 151st Street students were forced to trek through the mud to cross. Installation of a curb cut allows them a safe crossing without the worry of slipping in the mud. Widening the sidewalk gives students plenty of space for walking to school safely.
 

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