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player ready...After four frustrating years, North School Principal Terri Carman is losing hope for getting a traffic signal installed outside her Des Plaines school.
Instead, she will lobby city officials for traffic assistance during rush hours.
North School, a K-6 building with more than 600 pupils, is west of Rand Road between Elk Boulevard and Ballard Road. Although signs along Rand signal drivers that a school is located nearby, the building is tucked out of sight. Unsuspecting drivers risk slamming into vehicles that line up before and after school trying to turn into the school’s drive, Carman said.
“I don’t want to wait until a major accident or a death occurs before we take action,” said Carman. “Thankfully, there have only been minor accidents to this point.”
The effort to get a traffic signal installed where the school’s drive meets Rand Road has been a pressing concern of the school’s safety committee for at least five years, according to Carman and 1st Ward Ald. Pat Beauvais.
Ideally, school officials would like to see a traffic light or flashing yellow signal to slow traffic along Rand during select morning and afternoon hours.
But the drive falls between two existing traffic lights on Rand Road–one at Elk, the other at Ballard–and the Illinois Department of Transportation has repeatedly denied the request due to the proximity of the other lights.
A nearby auto leasing firm, Wheels Inc., recently began contracting for a private traffic officer to help direct traffic during rush hours. While refusing to say the signal is a “dead issue,” Carman believes a similar move may be the only option.
District 62 Supt. Robert Willis recently wrote to Des Plaines Mayor Paul Jung, asking the city for assistance.