Lake County Gazette

The Waukegan City Council considered a proposed traffic calming ordinance for the city's collector, arterial, and local streets to reduce the speed and amount of traffic in residential neighborhoods. The policy was discussed at the July 15 council meeting.

According to the committee's meeting agenda, city staff presented the proposal requested by the city council during the Public Works & Infrastructure Committee meeting at 5 p.m. on July 15. The policy creates a process to consider, design, and install traffic calming devices that include speed humps, tables, and other right-of-way improvements to reduce speed on non-arterial streets.

Goals and objectives established in the policy include making streets safe and attractive, reducing cut-through traffic in residential neighborhoods, cutting the adverse effects of vehicles on the environment, and promoting alternative transportation modes.

The traffic calming criteria that will be used to determine if a traffic concern is worthy of additional study on a local street includes traffic volume greater than 1,000 vehicles per day, a speed study showing that the 85th percentile of drivers exceed 10 mph over the speed limit, and a greater-than-average number of crashes in a pattern related to speed or unreasonable volumes of traffic. Other criteria include sound engineering judgment, whether the street is a critical snow or emergency route or a bus route, as well as factors such as pedestrian access, residential density, and school and park proximity.