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Yield signs will be installed at the intersection of Ravine Road and Oak Street in Hinsdale, where a bicyclist died after being struck by a car Aug. 22.
Hinsdale Police Chief Kevin Simpson said the results of a comprehensive study revealed yield signs should be installed on Ravine to tell drivers going west or east on Ravine to yield to vehicles on Oak. A yield sign also will be put up on a median island in the intersection.
Simpson said the village cannot put flashing lights on the yield sign, because that warning is reserved for stop signs. But there will be flags on the sign to draw drivers' attention to the need to yield to cars on Oak.
Due to two landscaped islands that separate turning vehicles and the way both Ravine and Oak curve at that juncture, the intersection is not a simple cross. There are six approaches to the intersection, police said.
Lane markings will be painted approaching the intersection on Oak and on the spur roadways to Ravine.
"The pavement markings will clearly differentiate the lanes of travel," Simpson said.
The police also will continue to monitor traffic in the area.
As part of its study, the police reviewed a five-year accident history and measured the volume and speed of vehicles through the intersection.
In the five-year period from Sept. 1, 2011 to Sept. 1, 2016, there was only one property damage collision, besides the bicycle fatality. The collision happened at 6:52 p.m. March 27, 2014, when it was raining, Simpson said. The Aug. 22 accident, when a 55-year-old Clarendon Hills woman was killed, happened at about 7:30 a.m.
In both collisions, a vehicle traveling south on Oak struck a vehicle or the bicyclist going west on Ravine.
Police equipment was used to measure the traffic the week of Sept. 12. When vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians are included, the traffic averages more than 2,000 units per day. The most traffic during that week occurred on Sept. 15, when 3,410 drove down Oak and 415 vehicles drove down Ravine.
The equipment measured the average speed of vehicles as 26.5 mph on Oak 50 feet north of Ravine, and 27.4 mph on Oak about 100 feet south of Ravine. The speed limit on both Oak and Ravine is 25 mph.
The village's Engineering Department determined that visibility on the southwest corner of the intersection was a problem for drivers due to landscaping on private property.
Despite the few collisions in the past five years, residents near the intersection said they have seen many near misses and had contacted village officials about the situation in years past.
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Susan Anderson started a focus group of Oak Street residents the day after the accident, and was the Police Department's contact person for the residents.
About 25 residents attended a meeting the police held last week to explain the new traffic control plan, Simpson said.
Anderson thanked Simpson and Sgt. Mark Wodka for "being so responsive to our concerns and needs. Immediately, everything was in motion," she said at a Hinsdale Village Board meeting Tuesday, when the plan to install the yield signs was recommended.
However, Anderson told village officials, "It's not just that intersection we are concerned about. It's the whole street, but one section at a time."
The Village Board is expected to approve the ordinance to install the yield signs at its next meeting Oct. 18, which means the signs will be up as soon as possible after that, Simpson said.
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