Pedestrians will not find easy going in all areas of Lake County. That is sometimes by design, sometimes not. But it all is a natural part of the evolutionary process for a rural area becoming suburban and urban.
“I think it tends to have a lot to do with the difference between cities and suburbs and the notion that people, instead of living in large multistory buildings, wind up with their own patch of ground and one or two or three automobiles per family,” said Warren Wood, senior planner in the Lake County Department of Planning and Development.
There simply is no call for a sidewalk from one farm to another. But when those farms become subdivisions, sidewalks may pop up within the housing area. And when enough subdivisions form a community, sidewalks typically start connecting them.
Lake County is still very much a work in progress.
There are stretches where walking can be hazardous to one’s health because of auto traffic, yet there are other areas where walking is only natural. Then there are the areas of compromise that serve as pedestrian islands, such as shopping centers. But don’t try walking across the street from one shopping center to another.
Such is the case in Vernon Hills, a community that vigorously pursues sidewalk construction. Nevertheless, at the state-controlled intersection of Illinois Highways 60 and 21, pedestrians never see a sign saying it is time to walk. It is a vehicle-only intersection; mankind was not meant to cross there on foot. There are no crosswalks and no walk lights, though three of the four corners have sidewalks.
That is the scenario Paul C. Burr of Grayslake found when he decided to hike along the nearby forest preserve trail to the east, then cut over to the Hawthorn Center shopping mall.
“You go when you think you won’t get hit,” he said of walking through the traffic-light configuration, which allows for cars going every direction but not for pedestrians doing anything.
“But I grew up in the city,” said the former Detroit resident and new student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield. In other words, he knows how to deal with traffic, but he didn’t expect it to be quite so difficult to hike in the suburbs.
Asked about the lack of crosswalks at the intersection, spokesman John Burke of the Illinois Department of Transportation said crossings are installed where there “is pedestrian traffic.”
Of course, if there are no crosswalks, pedestrians may be scarce.
He also pointed out that traffic backups there could grow even worse if pedestrians stop traffic at an intersection already gorged with cars and trucks.
About a block south, a traffic light does permit east-west pedestrians, but for those going north or south on foot while staying on a sidewalk, they would have to walk three-fourths of a mile west and that same distance back simply to cross the street with a crosswalk.
There is no easy answer in that spot.
There are places where sidewalks would not be a problem to build, except no one seems to want them. Green Oaks is one example.
In that community, where sidewalks can be found only in a new subdivision, there is little interest in laying sidewalks, according to Village Administrator Elaine Palmer, also a former mayor. “I can’t remember anyone calling and requesting a sidewalk,” Palmer said. “We’re a small village (population 3,024) with acre lots. There is a lot of land. We do have a path along O’Plaine Road so the children can ride their bikes to school, and we have paths that connect the subdivisions and the school.”
About 20 minutes away, downtown Highland Park has become renowned for its walkability. There, particularly on summer evenings, the sidewalks teem with people popping into restaurants, pushing strollers and stopping to chat. Even the sidewalks along busy Green Bay Road echo with the heels and wheels of people running errands or just out for a walk.
The busiest road in the area, U.S. Highway 41, permits pedestrian and bicycle traffic to cross with “walk” lights at Old Elm Road on the Highland Park-Lake Forest boundary and at Park Avenue.
Even traffic-clogged Chicago permits pedestrian crossings on its busiest streets, such as Michigan Avenue and all through the Loop. For all the driver frustration that “walk” signs may engender in downtown Chicago, the signals encourage activity. They allow pedestrians and bikers to visit the Art Institute of Chicago, office workers to go out for lunch sans cars, and hotel guests to see the sights, pick up a present or just window-shop.
The same cannot be said of guests staying at some of the motels near Gurnee Mills or Six Flags Great America. Taking advantage of the shopping or entertainment at the two major Lake County attractions generally requires a car or shuttle bus.
Existing sidewalks and those in the planning stage in that part of Gurnee, an area fed by Interstate Highway 94 and Illinois Highway 132 (Grand Avenue), exemplify an IDOT policy that encourages self-containment.
When asked about the state’s crosswalk guidelines at the previously mentioned Vernon Hills intersection and near Great America, traffic programs engineer John Schwarz at the agency’s Schaumburg office cited safety and traffic flow as primary concerns. He noted that high-volume corners are not safe crossing spots without an overhead or underground walkway.
“The two modes of transportation (vehicular and pedestrian) are not compatible (in those areas) unless there are grade separations,” Schwarz said.
But some communities are fighting the highway-isolation effect.
In Lake Zurich, a town divided into north and south by Illinois Highway 22 and to a lesser extent into east and west by U.S. Highway 12, committees are working with IDOT to have Illinois 22 bypass the center of town.
According to Lake Zurich Mayor Jim Krischke, IDOT proposed the bypass about a decade ago because a wider route was needed to alleviate growing traffic backups.
“The two go hand in hand: our interest in getting a bypass and IDOT’s desire to widen the route,” Krischke said. “There is not as much pedestrian traffic (downtown) as we would like. Part of our downtown revitalization plan is to find ways to bring more people downtown. Right now there is a lot of truck traffic downtown. Our goal has always been to get the heavy traffic out of the downtown area so it is easier for people to get to. We want to enhance the business district to make it as pedestrian-friendly as we can.”
Lake Zurich’s foot-friendly plans have included paths and crosswalks that unite the community.
“Two years ago we completed a sidewalk around the lake. We also want to link up all the different subdivisions. We desperately miss that linkage,” Krischke said.
Linkage was another way of expressing what Frank Nall of Carbondale, a retired Southern Illinois University professor of urban sociology, said when asked for his profession’s view on sidewalks. “Essentially, it’s pro-sidewalks. Because sidewalks, of course, bring people together,” he said.
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Lake Forest College history professor Michael H. Ebner, who has chronicled social development and change on the North Shore in books and articles, also sees sidewalks as a socializing factor in a community.
“Sidewalks make good neighbors, and good neighbors make good communities,” Ebner said. “People are more inclined to walk around their own neighborhood if there is a pathway. And as people walk along the sidewalk, they see their neighbors and interact with them. They talk about personal things, neighborhood things, their municipalities, national affairs.
“Sociologists have even studied the value of sidewalks in new subdivisions and new towns and found that people liked having sidewalks,” he said, offering examples such as Columbia, Md.
Even the shopping center mecca of Vernon Hills is pro-sidewalks and footpaths, according to Village Manager Larry Laschen. He pointed out that the business area south of Fashion Square mall at the Illinois 60-21 intersection contains eight miles of bicycle paths that includes a walk signal across Milwaukee Avenue (Illinois 21) to reach Lake County’s trail system and canoe launch.
“The village has always been for sidewalks–even on both sides of the streets in residential neighborhoods. We probably even overdo it sometimes,” said Laschen, who has mixed feelings about the wheres and whys of the driver-pedestrian transmutations.
“In our newest subdivision, Gregg’s Landing, the sidewalk on one side is 8 feet wide so people can walk or jog three abreast. We’re very pedestrian-oriented,” he said.
Indeed, where developments have gone into Vernon Hills, such as business parks or the residential Gregg’s Landing, sidewalks have been installed at the expense of the developers. “They have to. It’s in our ordinance,” Laschen said. “We don’t have any developed property that doesn’t have a sidewalk in front of it.”
But taking an administrative stance, he brought up issues of safety and liability. “It’s a real dilemma. We don’t know if we always want to encourage pedestrian traffic. A lot of times people do not walk with the light. And we face a liability situation if we direct people to do something that might be unsafe or hazardous,” Laschen said.
He questioned how much people opt to walk to errands instead of drive.
“You very seldom see people who live within walking distance of a convenience store walk there. They jump in the car and drive. . . . I don’t think people are that pedestrian-oriented. From what I see, walking is a leisure-time activity or a way to get around for the economically disadvantaged who can’t afford a car,” he said.
He added that Vernon Hills hopes to do something about one of the more obviously sidewalk-free areas of town: north to Libertyville on 21, or Milwaukee Avenue. Talks between Vernon Hills and IDOT about the traffic building up on Milwaukee Avenue during rush hours may also lead to sidewalk installation, according to Laschen.
“We’re talking with IDOT about putting in a third lane of traffic north on Milwaukee Avenue between Libertyville and the mall (Hawthorn) so we may be able to do that (and also add a) sidewalk,” he said.
That’s the kind of talk that Ebner, the Lake Forest history professor, likes to hear. Leaving no doubt about where he stands on sidewalks, Ebner said, “By the way, I’m a 25-year resident of Lake Forest. My house has a sidewalk, and I am a walker.”
Another pedestrian, a buggy-pushing dad on Center Avenue in Lake Bluff on his way to the town’s weekly farmers market with his 6-month-old son and 4-year-old daughter, was asked for his point of view.
“Sidewalks? I love them,” Chris Hambleton said. Gesturing toward daughter Maggie, who had been riding her bicycle alongside him on the sidewalk and nodding toward Michael in the buggy, he added, “When you have kids, you don’t want them to walk in the street.”
Asked his opinion about sidewalks in high-traffic areas, he said, “The higher the traffic level, the more you need sidewalks.”
In Lake Forest, a pedestrian can run out of sidewalks, but that is a historic necessity, according to Lake Forest senior planner Cathy Czerniak. For example, in the tree-lined winding lanes on what used to be known as the Albert Lasker estate, south of Everett Road on Estate Lane, there are no sidewalks. Dotted as it is with architecturally significant homes and converted structures that were designed by David Adler, the area is a historic preservation district. Czerniak considers it “unlikely” that residents in that area or in the historic preservation district east of the city’s downtown would want to change the look to put in sidewalks.
“The feeling I get is that people want to preserve the streetscape as it is in those areas. Most people seem to like the streetscapes as they are,” Czerniak said. “In our new subdivisions, we do require sidewalks on one side of the street.”
When Lake Forest resident Dirk Kitzmiller leaves his house at Estate Lane and Everett Road to walk his dog, Lucy, he likes to head east to Waukegan Road, where there are shops. Everett is a secondary east-west feeder route that carries traffic west to St. Marys Road from Old Elm Road just east of Waukegan Road.
“It’s easier to walk there now that there are sidewalks on Everett. It was kind of risky before with the traffic. I live where the sidewalk ends,” he said.
When children’s author Shel Silverstein called his 1974 book of poetry “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” people interpreted the title to mean that sidewalks are confining.
But people such as Kitzmiller see sidewalks as enabling links that allow them to be care-free and car-free. To them, freedom is where the sidewalk begins.