CDOT to Install Child Safety Zones at Crosswalks

Update from Waguespack's office: "To date we have not received any communication from the Mayor’s Office or the Chicago Department of Transportation regarding a package of safety improvements around any of our schools. However, over the past five years the Alderman has directed the Chicago Department of Transportation to conduct traffic studies at most of the schools in the Ward. The result of these studies has been a combination of traffic calming measures and improvements to pickup and drop off procedures at our schools designed to improve pedestrian safety that we have implemented."

About 1,500 locations near city schools and park have been designated child safety zones, designed to protect pint-sized pedestrians.

The Chicago Department of Transportation plans to installs pedestrian refuge islands and improve signs and crosswalk and street markings within an 1/8 mile radius of schools and parks.

When will the zones arrive in Bucktown and Wicker Park? That's hard to say.

Peter Scales, CDOT spokesman, said the agency is working in a "triage" fashion, attending to the areas with the most pedestrian crashes first, "in the dozen or so that have the poorest safety record and highest amount of crashes."

The Sun-Times recently reported on the installation of safety zone equipment near Claremont Academy Elementary School in the West Englewood neighborhood, among the first areas in the city to get the "traffic calming" equipment.

According to data published in CDOT's 2011 Pedestrian Crash Analysis, the West Town community, encompassing portions of Wicker Park, saw a total of 497 crashes in 2011. Eighty-one of those crashes caused serious injury or were fatal.

Five Chicago communities saw more serious crashes, according to the analysis.

A spokesman for Ald. Proco "Joe" Moreno, 1st, said CDOT hadn't yet "briefed them on potential sites for safety zones in the ward. We're still waiting to hear back from 32nd Ward Ald. Scott Waguespack's office.

Scales said CDOT crews will work through the remainder of the construction season, weather permitting, and work will resume in the spring.

“Protecting our youngest pedestrians around parks and schools in imperative, and making our streets more safe and pedestrian friendly is our priority,” said CDOT Commissioner Gabe Klein said in a news release. “Our safety zone program will improve safety around these community anchors and encourage more pedestrian activity among children.”