Editorial by Cheryl Muno

South Evanston residents are fully aware that motorists regularly ignore our traffic laws.  As the weeks, months, and years roll by South Evanston’s “artery street” speed limit laws are only sporadically enforced by our over-burdened police force.  Evanston’s exacerbated crime levels have taken priority leaving minimal attention for enforcing speed zones and other traffic laws on these artery streets, many of which that have schools that see young children come and go on a daily basis.

The solution to a speeding problem doesn’t just lie in rearranging the city’s priorities but will need to also tackle our natural urge to push limits as well as revive the lost art of acting responsibly and courteously toward our neighbors as we proceed throughout each day.

Compounding this issue are the poorly designed streets that, while beautifully wide and tree lined, have thedownside of increasing traffic speed. This comes at the expense of the quality of life of South Evanstonians who made the ill-fated decision to settle on one of these streets during a time when people actually obeyed traffic laws and acted with respect toward each other.  For those of you who don’t live on an artery street, this was just a scant few years ago and for those of us who do live on artery streets, little is being done to ameliorate the speeding problem by our traffic division, who view their role as one of keeping traffic moving through our fair city as quickly as possible.

Great stretches of these streets remain unbroken and unbridled for recalcitrant speeders who expend great efforts to push the absolute limit.  Studies have shown that wide streets cause us to push harder on the gas pedal and we artery street residents have noticed an ever-increasing uptick in the level of speed on our streets.  We have voiced our concerns over many years, but we have been batted down by our traffic division on every request that would bring some level of safety and sanity back to our crazy streets.  Not only has the level of safety been impacted but with each uptick on drivers’ speedometers the noise pollution has increased to the current level of an all-permeating and non-stop roar the seeps through walls into our very homes.

Today, we are left pondering the pros and cons of moving from the homes we love simply to get away from the danger, harassment, and heightened sound pollution interlopers’ speeding is bringing to our daily lives.  We tell ourselves it must be interlopers because our Evanston neighbors would never act in such selfishly bad form!

Your neighbors on these streets face an uphill battle each day as we traverse their length.  We live in or close to the school zones and we know that there is a $500 fine waiting for some unlucky sap in those areas.  We don’t want to be the recipient of that sporadically issued ticket so we travel at the speed limit.  What we get in return for our effort is a long series of harassment that is hair-raising in its audacity.  We have had other drivers blare their horns at us, dangerously tailgate our vehicles, and make rude hand-gestures at us.  These scofflaw drivers will even pass us on the left or right side of our vehicles when their honking and bad behavior doesn’t have the desired effect.

We have learned to use our traffic signals religiously on artery streets, but when we slow to turn onto our driveways, we have epithets shouted at us coupled with rude gestures and we think to ourselves, “That crazy person knows where I live.

Our children travel these streets regularly.  They are put in harm’s way on a daily basis by speeding vehicles where even sidewalks cannot keep them safe.  In over twelve years of living on an “artery street,” I have twice had vehicles sitting on the sidewalk in front of my home due to an accident on the street.  There would have been three such occurrences, but our car acted as a blocking device on one occasion and kept the offending vehicle at bay.  On that occasion, our parked car was totaled.  Fortunately for children everywhere, the only living thing harmed during those three accidents was the tree in front of our home that still bears the scar where it was brutally flattened in its young life.

Our current school speed zones are outdated with their “on school days when children are present” tagline.  Today’s schools use their property for so much more than education.  Chute Middle School uses their play field most weekends for sporting events and many evenings it hosts children in practice or in play as they strive for excellence at the current in vogue or seasonal sport.  The field is even used frequently during the summer months.  Bearing this in mind, all of our school zones should sport a permanent 20 MPH zone for I don’t know a bigger priority than keeping our children safe.  If parents bore witness to the behavior of drivers around their child’s school in the way that residents on the street do, they would revolt and storm the doors of our Civic Center.

Where can the harm be found by adding a moment to a driver’s day with a permanent speed zone when safety is in question?  It only takes the blink of an eye, or a distracted driver texting or dialing on a cell phone to seriously injure a child.  We all know there are distracted drivers out there… we complain about them every time we step foot into our own vehicle.  At 20 MPH, a child has a 95% chance to survive being hit, but at 40 MPH a child only has a 15% chance of surviving being hit.  Skokie too has noticed an increase in the level of speeding and is working to take Oakton Street back from Cook County with an eye toward lowering the speed limit and possibly reducing lanes in some areas from four to two.  Chicago’s Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, recognizes the blatant problem around Chicago’s schools and wants to add speed cameras in the school zones.  Will it come to that for Evanston or are we able to turn it around with some self-policing?

Evanston Neighbor, I appeal to your sense of community when I write that I would like to enlist your help as you travel our Evanston artery streets.  I ask that you set a good example for other drivers by obeying our speed laws and even driving under the posted speed limit if conditions warrant it.  I ask that you recognize residential streets for what they are, in spite of our traffic division’s poorly described label of artery street as though that somehow makes it all right for tax-paying residents on these streets to be treated differently than other tax-paying residents in the Evanston community.  We would like to know the same level of safety and lack of harassment as our side-street neighbors.  We don’t want to be tailgated or sworn at.  We are only asking to have our previously enjoyed quality of life restored through the kindness of the drivers, possibly you, that pass through our neighborhood as they travel to their own home.

If everyone who reads this begins to act responsibly, perhaps it will catch on and spur other drivers to act responsibly…. and if you could also let us pull out of our driveway instead of blocking our aprons as you queue up at the red-light, we’d be most appreciative!  Many of us do not have alleys behind our homes and our only egress is from the “artery street.”

Some ideas for traffic smoothing elicited from local residents who recognize the need:

• Set a good example for the outsiders – Evanston residents should obey the speed laws on all streets
• Camera radar enforcement in school zones enabling police to turn their attention to crime
• Paint SLOW on streets in several locations
• Add at least one additional cross walk on artery streets for local residents’ quality of life – one of Evanston’s stated goals is to be pedestrian friendly and we’d like to see less talk and more action
• Implement slightly raised crosswalks – even at intersections if needed
• Add STOP signs to break up the long stretches of unimpeded speeding areas (there are three STOP signs on Lake Street between Asbury and Dodge and other Evanston “artery streets” have STOP signs – South Evanston “artery street” residents should benefit from safety and traffic smoothing devices used in other areas of our city)
• Add bike lanes to bring safety to our bicyclists – Oakton, with its very wideness would lend itself well for connecting our Asbury and Dodge bike lanes to the North Shore Channel Park
• Public awareness campaign
• The speed limit isn’t always the safe limit (on school days when children are present… vs. Saturday/Sunday/after school hours)
• Flashing speed detector (as promised by our traffic division)
• Signage:  Did you know fines in Evanston school zones are $500?
• Begin a speed monitoring program with residents and police
• Increase speed limit signage – every block, both directions

We live in an urban environment, which increases the chances of crime and the need for emergency response, be it police, fire, or EMS calls.  I want our 9th Ward neighborhoods to be safe.  Specifically:

• I want to ensure that our children can walk down our streets without their parents worrying about their safety.
• I want our merchants and business owners not to be concerned about threats to their activities.
• I want responsive, courteous, pro-active public safety professionals.