How Hinsdale Residents Feel About Downtown Traffic

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale residents are generally satisfied with downtown traffic and pedestrian safety, a village survey shows.

But they have a few concerns.

Hinsdale conducted a survey last year, with 224 people responding.

Last fall, Patch and area watchdog Edgar Pal filed public records requests for the survey results, but were denied.

Pal filed a lawsuit, which was served on the village last week. He received the survey results Wednesday and forwarded them to Patch.

In the survey, 78 percent of respondents say downtown is safe and would recommend little or no change.

Many expressed concerns about electric bicycles in their written comments. In 2024, the village enacted e-bike rules.

"E-bikes are out of control – unenforced laws are worthless, too," a resident said. "I would ticket offenders immediately. Moms on phones drinking coffee while driving also concerns me. Scary and frequent unsafe actions."

Residents also took different sides on the safety near Fuller's Car Wash, where an employee fatally struck a 14-year-old pedestrian with a car in 2023.

"Industrial operations such as Fuller's Car Wash and Car Repair have no place in our downtown area. They have a demonstrated track record of unsafe operations," a resident said. "The operations don't fit in our downtown area."

Others disagreed.

"The push against the car wash is misplaced, and (destroying) downtown viability for revenge is stupid," said another resident.

Residents were also asked how satisfied they were with driving to and from downtown, to which 61 percent said they were mostly satisified.

As for raising taxes to fund traffic safety recommendations, 58 percent were against. The rest either said yes or maybe.

Like other western suburbs, parking is a typical concern.

"I think parking works great," one person said. "Frustrating that there's always open parking by the Hinsdale train station, but no option to park there. I'd pay a premium to use those close spots."

Another resident lauded the village's 2020 opening of a parking deck.

"The addition of the parking garage was a huge improvement to downtown," the person said. "The removal of parking meters was also a nice touch. I don't have any difficulty finding parking."

Another resident called parking downtown "challenging," especially for quick errands to the bank and the UPS Store.

In 2024, Hinsdale officials said they wanted to conduct traffic studies in certain areas of town. Downtown is the first.