Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jessica on November 17, 2011 at 5:12pm

With the campus buildings, you really can't see them.  Now the bikes think it's okay to do the same as the peds and dart out riding full tilt.  I've almost creamed 5 or 6 people now because they *do not stop/slow down*.  They literally march right out in the street, even if I'm 10 feet from the intersection going 30 MPH (the speed limit).  There are also cars that are allowed to park all the way down the streets.  If there is a bigger car or a smaller person, you seriously can't see them until you're about to him them.  There's a bus stop right in front of one, too.  Maybe if there was some mutual respect, as in, slow down before you march your happy ass into the street of metal death, and perhaps look before you step out.  It's not about right of way, it about common sense.  I stop for them when I can see them.  But if they can't see the road for oncoming cars, perhaps it isn't wise to just boldly walk out into the street.

 

Edited to add:  Looking at those pictures, it's VERY different from our roads.  The roads they have ours on are 3 lanes, one way.  HUGE roads.  I'd honestly rather them put in stop signs so the peds don't almost get hit, whether it be from their stupidity or not.

 

BK, I have a retarded aunt.  We ask her if she's retarded when she does or says something particularly stupid.  I think people need to grow a thicker skin and not take things so personally.  It's not all about you.  (general you)

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Permalink Reply by Jessica on November 17, 2011 at 5:14pm

Plus, we don't call them retarded anymore, they're mentally disabled.  Can I have the word 'retarded' back now?  Or do they get to keep it?  Haha

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Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on November 18, 2011 at 4:57am

It's really very simple.  Pedestrians have the right of way.  Always.  If you are motoring or cycling too fast to avoid mowing them down, you are moving too fast for conditions.  A 30 mph speed limit is a maximum, not a minimum. If not hitting pedestrians requires one to drive (or cycle, or skateboard...) at 5 or 10 mph, that's what we do.

As a pedestrian, I agree with crossing defensively, as if all motorists are total morons who will run you over, in order to shave a millisecond off their commute.  Too many motorists are precisely that, and self-preservation of pedestrians may require this, until things improve.  But that doesn't change the responsibility to cede the right of way to the most vulnerable.

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Permalink Reply by Jessica on November 18, 2011 at 6:59am

I agree. I am a very defensive driver, and incredibly alert. I pull horse trailers regularly, and always drive as if I have one behind me. They need to either change the parking issue or lower the speed limit. The pedestrians need to take the damn headphones out and pay attention, not blindly (is that offensive to blind people?) walk into the street.

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Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on November 18, 2011 at 11:55am

Active Transportation Alliance in partnership with Healthy Kids Healthy Communities organized residents around traffic safety issues in and around Humboldt Park. The walkability assessments determined that the top issue for neighbors and other people who use the park was high speeds on inner drive. In fact, many residents wouldn’t even drive through the park. So if drivers are intimidated, imagine how people walking felt trying to cross four lanes of fast moving traffic. Alderman Maldonado agreed to try out a trial run of the road diet with barricades and it proved to be successful.

 

We applaud Alderman Maldonado for wanting to make Humboldt Blvd. and access to the park safer through traffic calming efforts.

 

We also want to give a public shout out to Chicago Dept. of Transportation for trying new initiatives. This is the first time CDOT has used barricades, etc. to test out traffic calming efforts before they are implemented.

 

The alderman and CDOT also conducted a survey that received more than 100 responses.

 

Chainlink discussion here: http://www.thechainlink.org/forum/topics/humboldt-drive-traffic-tes...

 

This year the Chicago Department of Transportation has actually built the raised median and installed ladder style crosswalks. There is now one lane of traffic going in each direction and it really does slow down cars. Drivers are no longer treating the road as an expressway and are going at or below the speed limit not because they want to, but because they have to. I have seen cars stop for people and it actually works.

 

Active Trans’ perspective is to push for bicycle accommodations when they will be included in a larger bike network. This half-mile section of Humboldt, unfortunately, doesn’t currently connect to Chicago’s larger bike network. And we do feel that traffic calming, safety improvements and access for pedestrians will provide some benefit and increased safety for bicyclists.

 

 

Tony Giron

Community Liaison

Active Transportation Alliance

 

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Permalink Reply by Jessica on November 18, 2011 at 4:07pm

I just drove back from campus, and realized another reason why I hate these signs.  Two of the streets they are on are NOT LIT.  I mean, not at all.  So when you compound the parking on both sides with no street lights, the pedestrians truly do pretty much come out of no where.  Again, if they would *slow down* before marching into the street, there would be no issue.  I drive at a reasonable speed and do my best to look for them, but they are still hard to see and a little over confident in stepping out into their right of way.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on November 19, 2011 at 9:50am

In some cases it makes it a little worse as cars jockey to get ahead of each other to go down to one lane then speed up and pass once it goes back to 2 lanes.

 

Personally I think they should have Humboldt drive a non-thru street too many people use it as shortcut to Kedzie or California just too avoid the stop signs and still speed through it.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Ash L. on November 19, 2011 at 4:56pm

The road was a mess before last fall and it's still a damn mess now. Four lanes merge into two with no signage to indicate as such. I don't see how that's safe of legal. If the project were to have been done correctly, aside from adding much need bicycle accommodations onto what is a "historic boulevards bicycle route", the south bound lanes north of North Ave would have the right hand lane become a right turn only lane so that only the left lane could proceed straight. The north bound lanes south of Division would then get the same treatment. As it stands now the road is a fatality waiting to happen.

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