Niles mayor Andrew Przybylo said he is calling on Gov. J.B. Pritzker for help in improving local pedestrian and road safety following a string of recent fatalities in the north suburb.
Przybylo told the Village Board last week that he would be sending a letter to the governor and four local state legislators seeking “assistance through the Illinois Department of Transportation to develop solutions for the issues of pedestrian safety along regional arterial roadways” that run through Niles, but are under state jurisdiction.
Przybylo suggested that if the state passes a capital bill this year, he would like to see funding used to help the village.
“There’s a part of me that says this letter’s going to get lost in the shuffle,” Przybylo said during the April 23 board meeting. “But if God is looking down on Niles and at the accidents and the occurrences of injury and fatality, and shows any mercy and justice on this town, then the governor will pick this up. And hopefully in the next capital bill we will see some money so we can light our streets, create little safety islands in the middle of the street like they are doing in Chicago on Milwaukee Avenue, and a lot of other things that can help people crossing the streets.”
The state roadways that run through Niles include Golf Road, Milwaukee Avenue, Dempster Street, Harlem Avenue and Touhy Avenue.
Since December, four pedestrians have died after being struck by vehicles in the village. Only one of the pedestrians was in a marked crosswalk. One of the fatalities involved an individual who was walking in the street in an area of Golf Road that does not have sidewalks.
“Our village finds itself at a critical moment where lives are being lost and solutions are seemingly out of our hands due to financial, logistical and jurisdictional constraints,” Przybylo wrote in his letter to the governor.
On Tuesday, he said he had already sent the letter, but had not yet received a response.
Village Manager Steve Vinezeano indicated that each year, the village provides state legislators a list of potential improvements on state property around Niles.
“It’s everything from sidewalks to pedestrian crossings, to better lighting,” he said. “If they in fact do end up having a capital bill and figure out how to fund it, they could help us with that funding.”
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The village also continues to seek funding for the construction of sidewalks along Golf Road through the Regional Transportation Authority and Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, Vinezeano said. Recently, the village obtained federal funding for a “road diet” on Howard Street to reduce the number of vehicular lanes and widen bike lanes.
At the same time, the police department has been trying to educate pedestrians about taking precautions when crossing busy streets and warning those caught jaywalking.
Since 2014, there have been 10 pedestrian fatalities involving vehicles along the village’s regional roads, Vinezeano said.
Przybylo suggested the state perform a “safety audit” or analysis of pedestrian-involved crashes and determine how they can be “stopped or mitigated.”
“We make no assumptions that the state is going to help in this problem,” he acknowledged. “Our village staff is looking at ways we can do something, but the jury is still out on that because these projects are very expensive. Even if we provide the solution and the recourse, there’s no guarantee the controlling entity [IDOT] would let us modify the roadways. So that’s a big ‘if.’”
jjohnson@chicagotribune.com
Twitter: @Jen_Tribune