The undersigned Oak Park residents urge the village to move forward with long-overdue improvements to Madison Street in order to create a safer, more attractive corridor, while taking steps to protect neighbors of new developments and limit potential traffic diversions or tie ups.
With Madison TIF funds available to pay for improvements, the village has a unique opportunity to finally act. Forest Park implemented its successful makeover of Madison more than fifteen years ago, while Oak Park has spun its wheels for more than a decade. Madison St. in Oak Park continues to underachieve economically while it doles out around 250 vehicle-related crashes per year that cause financial distress, injury and even death.
We urge the village to ensure that the narrowing of Madison is done right. This change should eliminate around 750 to 1,000 crashes every ten years with only modest changes to traffic diversions and backups, based on results from similar projects. Madison’s current configuration is dangerous for the children going to the four schools within one block of Madison and for everyone who uses this crash-prone street.
We urge the village to take steps to prevent potential traffic diversions to neighborhood streets, and the village should update traffic signals to improve traffic flow on Madison.
We also urge the village to ensure that the concerns of residents who live near any proposed developments are heard and addressed. Some of us live near the proposed “bend” development and others do not, but we all respect and appreciate the concerns raised.
Signed,
First Name
Last Name
Email
Address 1
Address 2
City
Zip
Comments
