Update 2/12/25, 1:30 PM: The Chicago Department of Transportation will host another public meeting on this project Thursday, February 13, 6-7 p.m. on Zoom. Register at bit.ly/granville2025.
If you aren't already in the Loop about the the Chicago Department of Transportation's proposed Granville Avenue Traffic Safety project in Edgewater and West Ridge, you can read this article for details. But here's a quick rundown.
This initiative seeks to address heavy traffic and speeding, and a high crash rate on the 2.8-mile, two-way segment of Granville Avenue (6200 N.) between Sheridan Road (1000 W.) and Kedzie Avenue (3200 W.) Granville is a residential roadway situated halfway between Peterson (6000 N.) and Devon (6400 N.) avenues, which are the nearest main streets. Nonetheless, it's very common for crosstown drivers, who are trying to avoid traffic jams, to take Granville as a "cut-through" route. To prevent motorists from using the residential road like an arterial, CDOT has proposed adding traffic calming infrastructure and one-way segments for drivers, with "contraflow lanes" to allow two-way bicycle and scooter riding.
As Streetsblog has previously discussed, some neighbors and the Not In My Back Yard-style local newspaper the News-Star are dead-set agains the plan. In some cases they've made absurdly factually incorrect statements about the project, like the paper's claim that drivers must be allowed to use Granville as a highway because "Peterson and Devon avenues... are a mile apart." (Divide that figure in half to get the actual distance.)
Almost as ridiculous is the opposition to the Granville proposal from the Edgewater Glen Association. That's a community group whose turf includes the territory bounded by Granville, Clark Street (1600 W. here), Elmdale Avenue (6000 N., what Peterson is called east of Clark), and Broadway (1200 W. here.)
Some people in the association seems to have a lot of time on their hands. The group's website's homepage is currently shellacked with a very long list of grievances about the Granville project. (In fairness, they also spent some time on the home page complaining about the possible upzoning of Broadway in Edgewater and Uptown to allow for more housing close to Red Line stops.)
I won't bother taking a deep dive into the thousands of words of argument on EGA's homepage. But let's take a look at one of their recent, misleading blog posts by board president John Dale that's been making the rounds among aggravated sustainable transportation advocates. It's titled, "Let’s Make Granville Safer Without Causing Chaos," with the subheading "Keep Granville Open: Why Our Neighborhood Needs This Collector Street."
"The critical part of the debate with CDOT and [local Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th)] often centers on what type of street Granville is," Dale wrote. The transportation department defines a "collector street" as one intended for through traffic, that also provides access to local properties. The board president acknowledged that the avenue is "not officially a collector street."
Correct. The Illinois Department of Transportation street classification map for Cook County, above, shows Peterson in red, color-coded on the map legend as a "Principal Arterial." Devon is shown in green, making it a "Minor Arterial." But Granville is a relatively faint gray line, which means it's classified as a "Local Road or Street," i.e. not a collector that's intended for through traffic. Those are shown in pink (Major Collector) and yellow (Minor Collector) on this map.
However, Dale maintained that while Granville is not supposed to be a collector that carries through traffic, "it [currently] functions as one."
CDOT agrees. Between Kedzie and Sheridan, Granville has three times the traffic volume of a typical non-arterial street, the department reported at a community meeting on the project last October 15. Some blocks on the avenue are in the top percentage point of side street blocks for collisions, across the city. And CDOT said it's not uncommon for drivers to go 20 miles per hour over the 30 mph speed limit, sometimes as fast as a terrifying 70 mph.
So Dale and CDOT are on the same page that lots of drivers use Granville as a cut-through route. But, despite the speeding and crashes on the residential street, the board president argued that's a feature, not a defect. Among the arguments he made is that the avenue is "vital for emergency vehicle access. Our fire department said so!"
That seems to refer to comments at an October 21 EON-NEON Block Club meeting in Edgewater. According to a News-Star report, two different men who said they were firefighters voiced different opinions on whether new traffic calming on Granville would cause problems for first responders. One claimed the changes would delay firetrucks, but the other pointed out that similar traffic calming strategies in the community haven't caused major issues. At any rate, CDOT has said the Chicago Fire Department provided input on the plan, so it appears they had no major objections.
"We believe North Edgewater needs a functioning collector street like Granville," Dale concluded. "Tell CDOT and Ald. Manaa-Hoppenworth: Stop the plan to close Granville."
Again, despite what the News-Star previously said, the Devon arterial is only a quarter of a mile north of Granville. That's only a five-minute walk at 3 mph, so driving that distance at 30 mph only takes about 30 seconds.
Dale's post has inspired some passionate comments in Edgewater Facebook discussion groups. After he posted the article on the EGA Facebook page, Streetsblog reader Jean Pabon responded, "The Edgewater Glen Association is promoting dangerous vehicular traffic on residential streets. Shame on you."
In his post, Dale claimed that if the currently two-way stretch of Granville east of Clark became one-way westbound, half of the current 7,000 average daily car trips on that street would be diverted onto the five nearby east-west side streets. "If split equally, [those 3,500 trips] would result in an additional 700 days per day on each street," he wrote on the image below.
"Your assumption that 100 percent of car trips of Granville would shift to other streets doesn’t make sense," responded Alexander Ryan on the EGA Facebook page. "There are many trips that are only partially on Granville, which would not be impacted. And some residents may choose to walk or bike instead if the street was calmer. This sort of fear-mongering does not look good coming from a neighborhood association."
Indeed. John Dale and the Edgewater Glen Association need to learn to stop worrying and love the Granville Avenue Traffic Safety project.
Read Streetsblog's writeup of the October 15 Granville public meeting here.
Visit the main website for Granville Avenue Complete Streets here.
Check out images from the October 15 presentation here.
Look at more open house posters here.
See images of the street network here.
Check out the corridor plot here.
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