By The Chicago Times Staff
September 18, 2022
CHICAGO – Chicago Department of Transportation will install speed bumps and posts at 15 intersections to enhance pedestrian safety and reduce motorist collisions.
Continuing a 2019 plan, CDOT is installing new traffic-safety features to alter or restrict left-hand turning motorist at city intersections.
The new safety features include rubber speed bumps, hardened center lines, and vertical posts that force drivers to turn at safer speeds and prevent them from cutting through crosswalks.
According to CDOT, left turns can be dangerous because motorists will execute them at a higher rate of speed than right turns. In addition, the car’s window frame may act as a blind spot preventing motorist from seeing pedestrians in the crosswalk. CDOT claims that since 2017, motorists who were making left-hand turns were involved in 40 percent of crashes where a pedestrian was seriously injured or killed. In test intersections with safety features, CDOT found that 95 percent of drivers yielded to pedestrians, compared to 80 percent before the traffic-safety features were installed.
CDOT failed to comment on how many pedestrians are walking the sidewalks looking at their cell phones without paying attention to traffic at intersections.
The following 15 intersections will receive left-turn safety features in 2022:
N. Ashland Ave. & W. Wilson Ave.
N. Ashland Ave. & W. Sunnyside Ave.
N. Ashland Ave. & W. Montrose Ave.
N. Ashland Ave. & W. Cullom Ave.
W. Grand Ave. & N. Austin Ave.
W. Division Ave. & N. Rockwell St.
W. Chicago Ave. & N. Leavitt St.
W. Chicago Ave. & N. Oakley Ave.
W. Chicago Ave. & N. Paulina St.
W. 63rd St. & S. Kedzie Ave.
W. 63rd St. & S. California Ave.
W. 63rd St. & S. Western Ave.
W. 71st St. & S. Halsted St.
W. 71st St & S. Ashland Ave.
W. 71st St & S. Damen Ave.
Photo: Ryan from Toronto, Canada, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
The Chicago Times 
