Wilmette Bikers Share Your Insight With IDOT

Residents are asked to take a short online survey to help IDOT in the development stages of the bike transportation plan.

  The Illinois Department of Transportation is looking for input on their new bike transportation plan. The Illinois Bike Transportation Plan will follow the Long Range Plan’s theme of Transforming Transportation for Tomorrow and will provide the Department with policies, best practices and strategic direction for implementing a sustainable, multimodal vision for Illinois. Take IDOT's online survey about the bike plan In order to gain input from as many stakeholders as possible, the Plan will set up an advisory group with other state agencies (IDNR and others) and bicycling stakeholders such as (but not limited to) the League of Illinois Bicyclists, the Illinois Greenways and Trails Council, and state Metropolitan Planning Organizations (…

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Holiday 'Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over' Crackdown Begins

Increased DUI and seat belt enforcement starts this week.

Information provided by the Wilmette Police Department: Wilmette Police Department today announced its plans for the 2012 Holiday “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over/Click It or Ticket” Crackdown. The intensified enforcement effort against drunk drivers and seat belt law violators underscores the disproportionate number of traffic deaths caused by alcohol and failure to buckle up. The stepped-up enforcement will begin Dec. 17 and run through New Year’s Eve. Enforcement efforts will concentrate on the deadly nighttime hours between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. According to data from the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the midnight to 3 a.m. timeframe is the deadliest time on …

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Wilmette Police Arrest Four in Thanksgiving ‘Drive to Survive’ Campaign

There were 63 percent fewer motor vehicle crash fatalities reported statewide during the holiday weekend.

Wilmette police say they arrested four drivers during the department’s two-week-long Thanksgiving traffic enforcement step up. The village also “experienced a 9 percent decrease in the total number of traffic crashes” during the two-week period compared to the same time frame a year earlier, according to a police press release. Police arrested one person for driving under the influence, two for “zero tolerance” (underage drivers with alcohol in their system) and one for driving on a suspended license. They also issued 50 traffic citations and 17 warnings. The “Thanksgiving mobilization”, which lasted from Nov. 12 through Nov. 25, was the first of six statewide traffic enforcement operations in which the Wilmette police will participate …

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Wilmette Police Stepping Up Traffic Enforcement Thanksgiving Weekend

The operation will continue through Nov. 25.

Wilmette Police Stepping Up Traffic Enforcement for Thanksgiving

The operation began Monday and will continue for two weeks.

The Wilmette Police Department is participating in a stepped-up traffic enforcement campaign that will target speeders, drunken drivers and those not wearing seat belts. The “Thanksgiving mobilization” began Monday and will continue through Nov. 25. The push is the first of six traffic enforcement operations taking place between now and the end of next September, in which Wilmette police will participate in a statewide effort. According to an Illinois Department of Transportation press release, which urged people to buckle their seat belts and drive safely, there were eight driving-related fatalities and over 800 injuries during last year’s Thanksgiving holiday. “This stepped-up enforcement throughout Illinois will remind drivers that …

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Kenilworth Kicks Off Regional Transportation Authority Planning Project

The village received a $75,000 grant to provide a foundation for future infrastructure planning in Kenilworth's commercial areas and the Green Bay Road Corridor.

 Information provided by the Village of Kenilworth. Kenilworth kicked off the village’s Regional Transportation Authority Planning Project on July 11, with the goal of improving Kenilworth’s commercial areas and the Green Bay Road Corridor.  The village received a $75,000 grant for the Corridor Transportation and Streetscape Plan, which will look at the movement of vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists through the Green Bay Road Corridor, and their interface with train and bus lines.  The plan aims to provide a foundation for future infrastructure planning, land use and development decision-making, urban design, streetscape and wayfinding improvement as well as traffic and transit circulation enhancements in Kenilworth’s commercial areas and …

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Willow Road Could See Roadwork by 2015

With recommendations on the table for two or four lanes, Willow Road may be ready for the next step.

Officials and residents from four North Shore suburbs butted heads over a 1.2-mile stretch of road during Thursday night's meeting at New Trier Township High School in Northfield. The issue could see a resolution within the next year and a green light within the next four years.  Since 2009 the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) has studied two miles of Willow Road, from Waukegan Road to Interstate Highway 94, to give reports on traffic flow, preliminary engineering and the environment. Earlier: Patch's story on Willow Road from September 2010 Throughout the course of the study, a state-mandated Community Advisory Group (CAG) made up of 18 community leaders and residents from Northfield as well as seven from Glenview, Northbrook …

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Willow Road Study Moves Closer to Design Phase

At Thursday's study meeting, IDOT introduced alternative design solutions that include not touching Willow Road at all.

The two most vocal villages in the Willow Road debate – Northfield and Glenview – continue to loudly advocate their preferences: Northfield wants the three-lane plan the state approved in 2005, and Glenview wants the 1.2 mile stretch of road in question to be expanded to four or five lanes. Meanwhile the Illinois Department of Transportation project team assigned to study the road and plan the new design, led by Pete Harmet, has moved along with the process of looking at alternatives beyond adding one or two lanes to the road. At Thursday’s seventh Community Advisory Group meeting, IDOT introduced 15 potential alternatives for the road design, which include: Members on the CAG came up with other potential alternatives such as making …

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David Greenberg

6:32 pm on Saturday, February 4, 2012

The issue of elementary schools being present in the area isn't difficult to address and shouldn't be an impediment to a necessary widening of the road. Install an overpass or an underpass for the children to use - there's many examples of this around the region. And sure, come up with some sort of barriers along the roadway that encourage people to use the overpass/underpass and provide a …   more ›

Recruiting Loud Voices to Win Willow Road Debate

Going into final year of state study to redesign roadway, Glenview uses a village-funded public relations group in its debate with other communities.

In the game where the squeakiest wheel gets the grease, Glenview residents are trying to improve their chances that the Illinois Department of Transportation's two-year design study of Willow Road will end in their favor: expanding the road to at least four lanes. Feeling its residents' voices were initially not loud enough on the study's Community Advisory Group – where 13 Northfield village and community representatives sit across from four representatives from Glenview, four from Northbrook and two from Winnetka – the Village of Glenview hired public affairs firm Jasculca Terman and Associates, Inc. in August to help organize the community. And since the firm launched the Move Willow Forward website, village officials believe its impact…

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