On Wednesday at around 4 p.m. a motorist struck and injured an elderly woman at the intersection of Devon and Greenview, on the border between Edgewater and Rogers Park.
The woman who was struck is 70 years old and she was taken to St. Francis Hospital in critical condition, according to Officer Kevin Quaid from Police News Affairs. As of Saturday afternoon, the woman was in intensive care. The driver, a 43-year-old man, was cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian in the roadway and driving without a license.
Local resident Alana Hanson saw the crash occur as she was walking to pick up her young son from a daycare center near the intersection. “It was horrifying to witness, but I can't say it was surprising given how much harassment I face crossing that street with my son twice a day,” she said.
Hanson added that drivers on Devon, the main street, routinely ignore the intersection’s four-way stop signs and fail to yield to pedestrians crossing north-south. “I've had drivers lay on their horn, rev their engines at me, and zoom around me as I'm in the crosswalk with a stroller,” she said. She added that the Chicago Department of Transportation previously installed “Stop for Pedestrians” signs at the intersection, but they were both flattened within two weeks.
Devon is the border of the 48th and 49th Ward, and Hanson says she has contacted both offices to ask if other pedestrian safety improvements could be made at the intersection, such as restriping of the crosswalks, or the construction of curb bump-outs, a pedestrian island or raised crosswalks – which have proved effective in reducing speeding by Palmer Square park.
Hanson hopes the city will make robust changes to the dangerous intersection. “I feel like the only way to get anyone to drive considerately is to force the behavior with physical barriers,” she said. “Making drivers worry about damaging their cars is the only thing I've ever seen have a real effect on dangerous driving.”
Greenview jogs west north of Devon, which makes for poor sightlines. There are also curb cuts for a gas station at the northwest corner, and the parking lot of the Devon Market grocery store on the northeast corner, which present a hazard for pedestrians.
49th Ward assistant Wayne Frazier, who handles infrastructure issues, told me the ward has asked CDOT to survey the intersection and provide recommendations for improving safety. He expects the department will provide a report on their findings within six weeks.
If infrastructure changes are recommended, a funding source will need to be identified, possibly menu money. However, it's too late to include the improvements in the ward's upcoming participatory budgeting election.
“This is a neighborhood where a lot of families walk and bike,” Hanson concluded. “It's one of the main things that I love about Rogers Park. We should be able to do these things safely.”
