According to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, the region's metro planning organization, northeastern Illinois has recently seen an uptick in traffic crash deaths. They've joined forced with the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways (DoTh) and the Chicago Department of Transportation on the Cook County Safety Action Plan. That's part of Safe Travel for All, a region-wide effort to reduce the number of serious injuries and fatalities on local roads. They're hosting community meetings to spread the word about new initiatives, hear about residents' experiences with traffic hazards.
Cook County and CDOT held a hearing on Safe Travel for All online last Thursday. The County's project team consists of DoTh staffers Joe Seymour (the lead planning specialist), Jesse Elam, Brian Roberts, Matt Krause, Neha Soni, and CMAP's Victoria Berrett, Borja Gonzalez, and Lindsay Bayley are also involved.
According to Berrett, the Cook County Safety Action Plan is focusing on pedestrians, bike riders, and people with disabilities, in addition to underserved areas with high crash rates. She said it will be data-driven thanks to robust engagement and feature a comprehensive "Safe System Approach."
"The Safe System approach was born in Sweden a couple of decades ago to look at traffic safety a little bit more like we have been looking at aviation safety, which is through the systems that keep safety in place," Berrett said. "And by taking a systemic approach, you're able to improve things like roadway design and policies that are used to set things like speed limits, policies that can inform the training and education of roadway users. So it's trying to elevate safety a little bit outside of just a hot spot analysis and talk about it on a broader scale, and understand what needs to be changed to have a more comprehensive impact."
In 2021, CMAP began its Safe and Complete Streets program to address the growing number of traffic fatalities in our region. Of the 1753 crash deaths that occurred in Cook County between 2018 and 2022, 43 percent involved speeding, 36 percent involved cell phone use, 34 percent involved unrestrained occupants, 31 percent occurred at intersections, and nearly 30 percent involved pedestrians. Cook County DoTh's Seymour noted that some data, such as cell phone use or distracted driving, is likely underreported compared to national trends.
Racial and ethnic discrepancies are also an issue. "Per 100,000 residents by race, by race or Hispanic or Latino origin, roughly 53 Black or African-American Cook County residents are killed per 100,000 in traffic crashes, compared to 32 as a whole," Seymour said. He compared that to about 25 Latino residents killed per 100,000 crashes and roughly 23 non-Hispanic whites. "Our Cook County Policy Roadmap directs us to reduce these health inequities, including traffic crashes, by addressing the racial disparities and the social, physical, and economic conditions that impact health."
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Transportation launched the National Roadway Safety Strategy as a federal response to the traffic safety crisis between 2021 and 2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic, CMAP's Berrett said. "Shortly after that, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law launched and funded the Safe Streets for All program, which gave us a lot of money to do Traffic Safety Action Plans and implementation plans."
Unfortunately, one of Donald Trump's many executive orders put Safe Streets For All funding on hold until further review by the USDOT. (The department is currently headed by ex-Wisconsin U.S. representative Sean Duffy who recently co-hosted a Fox Business show and is, like the president, a former reality TV personality.)
However, both Cook County and CMAP say they are still committed to reducing the number of serious and fatal traffic injuries, so they will continue to work on safety planning. There are also several ways in which the public can become involved.
The agencies say their goals for public involvement are meaningful and equitable outreach to vulnerable road users, people less likely to feel engaged, and as many people as possible with Cook County. They plan on getting feedback from people via municipal partner events, steering committee open houses, pop-ups, existing community events, project website, and surveys.
"This fall, we had the chance to go to Evergreen Park's October Fest and talk with kids about how they're getting to school, and talk with parents about their concerns about accessing schools," Berrett said. "We hope to do more events like this as we get out of our winter and be on the ground. We have a steering committee for this project, which has met twice so far. The steering committee represents a big, broad, and diverse range of expertise and interests, both on the ground and in Cook County and national experts on various topics. So, we're also leveraging their their networks and looking for more opportunities of steering committee member-hosted events."
The project kicked off in spring 2024. They spent summer 2024 researching and analyzing traffic safety trends and equity issues. Next, they created the steering committee and conducted community engagement in fall and winter 2024. In winter and spring 2025, they'll work with communities to identify potential strategies and safety improvements. The community engagement will wrap up in summer 2025, and they will then share a draft of the Cook County Safety Action Plan for public review and comment. The final plan will be released in fall/winter 2025.
There will be an in-person open house on the project on Saturday, February 22, from 10 a.m. to noon at Centre of Elgin, 100 Symphony Way in northwest-suburban Elgin, near the local Metra station. Register here.
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