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player ready...The Lake Forest City Council voted Tuesday to place a temporary barricade at the eastern end of Atteridge Road to stop people from using the narrow residential street as a shortcut through the neighborhood.
The closure, which was part of the city’s 2005 capital-improvement plan to realign the Western Avenue and Woodland Road intersection, was requested by Atteridge Road homeowners, who say the number of cars speeding down their street is a safety hazard.
“Not only is the multiple intersection of traffic confusing, the non-local traffic speeding along Atteridge to avoid the Woodland stop sign is extremely dangerous,” residents wrote in a letter to Police Chief W. Michael Hosking, a member of the city’s Traffic Safety Coordinating Committee. “There were several incidents over the summer where injury to local children was narrowly avoided.”
Teenagers speeding to and from the nearby Burger King are a particular problem, according to homeowners, who formed the Atteridge Road Action Committee last summer.
“I’ve seen cars traveling 50 out of that parking lot,” said Marliss Turek.
The traffic committee, however, said it was unable to substantiate residents’ claims of high speeds, endangered children, high traffic volumes or a heavy cut-through traffic load of vehicles circumventing Woodland Road.
A 24-hour study of the road, conducted by the Police Department, revealed a rather low volume of 297 total vehicles scattered fairly evenly through the day. The speed data showed an average speed of 20.5 m.p.h., well below the posted 25 m.p.h.
The traffic committee recommended the road closure to the City Council Tuesday, based not on traffic-related problems but in anticipation of the Woodland Road realignment, which was recommended by the Central Business District Task Force and City Council.
Nearby residents expressed concern that the closure of Atteridge will dump more traffic onto their already congested streets. In response to those concerns, the City Council asked that a traffic study be conducted in the spring to determine what effect the closing has had on adjacent streets.