Come Testify in Support of Traffic Calming on Manor Avenue at Tonight’s Hearing

Tonight the Chicago Department of Transportation will present data and analysis from their study of traffic patterns during the two weeks a temporary traffic diverter was in place on Manor Avenue. The meeting takes place at the Horner Park Fieldhouse at 6:30 PM.

Alder Deb Mell, 33rd Ward, canceled the trial early because of some angry residents in Ravenswood Manor. The diverter was part of the Manor Greenway proposal, which also features traffic calming elements on Manor Avenue and adjacent streets to make it safer and more convenient to walk and bike to and through the neighborhood.

Those other traffic calming elements are at risk, too, because some residents want CDOT's whole proposal scrapped. The proposal is supported by the Ravenswood Manor Improvement Association board, which voted last year, the Horner Park Advisory Council, and the ward's Transportation Action Committee, of which I'm a member.

Mell has dedicated some of the ward's discretionary "menu" funds to help pay for the project.

I'm not aware if the concerns of the opposing residents have changed at all, but earlier some people had argued that since this proposal was discussed by the ward's transportation advisory council "secretly" -- in reality it was discussed at a public monthly meeting at a fixed place and time, announced by Mell every other week – the whole plan must be thrown out and everyone should start over.

Come to the meeting tonight to testify about how it important it is to fill the gap in the multi-use trails along the Chicago River between Montrose and Lawrence, and to say that you want a safer path to reach the local businesses at the CTA Brown Line station along the route.