Elmhurst May Dust Off Study To Up Safety At Intersection

ELMHURST, IL – A pair of northside Elmhurst aldermen are pushing for the city to review 4-year-old recommendations to improve safety at the intersection at York Street and Diversey Avenue.

This is less than a month after 74-year-old Rosemary Rice of Elmhurst was killed walking across York at the intersection.

In a memo Monday, Ward 3 aldermen Michael Bram and Chris Jensen did not mention the fatality. However, they asked a city committee to consider a consultant's recommendations from late 2019.

They noted the consultant, Engineering Enterprises, stated a traffic signal is not warranted at the intersection.

Short of that, the consultant made other suggestions:

• The city could install signs on Grand Avenue, east of the intersection with York, barring left turns onto side roads that lead to Diversey during rush hours.
• Convert side roads from Grand to Diversey (east of the intersection) into one-way, northbound streets to prevent drivers from seeking to avoid the signal at Grand and York.
• The city could work with local businesses near the intersection to reduce the number of curb cuts at each site, where feasible, following the recommendations of the North York Street Corridor plan.

The alderman said they wanted any other vehicular and pedestrian safety improvements to be evaluated for the intersection.

On Tuesday, the City Council plans to vote on sending the issue to its Public Safety Committee.

Two weeks ago, Rice's daughter, Patricia Hudson, spoke to the City Council, urging aldermen to take action at the intersection. She said her mother complained to her about it.

In February 2020, former Mayor Pete DiCianni, then a DuPage County Board member, urged the council to put up a traffic light. He was responding to the consultant's study.