Naperville will collect speed data on East Gartner Road in the coming weeks after a half dozen residents pleaded with Transportation Advisory Board members recently to slow down traffic in front of their homes.
Rosanne Nielsen, who has lived on East Gartner Road for eight years, said her road has become a racetrack.
“It’s a safety factor for goodness sakes. It’s an accident waiting to happen,” she said.
Nielsen said while the speed limit on her residential neighborhood street is 25 mph, drivers exceed the limit all the time.
“Everyday somebody is up your tailpipe as you’re driving somewhere going the speed limit. They’re angry you’re not going fast enough,” Nielsen said. “I should have a right to drive the speed limit without somebody up my tailpipe.”
She asked for more stop signs, as did Bob White.
White said the bend on Gartner Road just west of Charles Avenue where he lives “seems gentle, but it’s dangerous.”
White said he’s lost several mailboxes to vehicles that drive over the curb, and his next-door neighbor lost a tree halfway between the house and the sidewalk.
Across the street, he said a neighbor lost at least five mailboxes before it was moved to the other side of his driveway.
“We still occasionally see tracks across the yard, but the vehicles are missing the mailbox, which is a plus. If there is little or no damage to the vehicle, (the drivers) do not stop; they keep on going. We know only by the tire tracks,” White said.
The number of bicycles on the streets has increased in recent years, and Gartner Road has become a preferred route for cycling enthusiasts and families, he said.
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“Nearly everyday we have large packs of bicyclists passing our house. Many of these packs are probably traveling close to the speed limit of 25 miles an hour,” White said.
With the popularity of battery-assisted bicycles, he said more older riders are pedaling too.
“Bicycles always lose out to a contest between a bicycle and a motor vehicle,” White said.
Bret Laughlin said his family bicycles along the West Branch DuPage River Trail daily and he doesn’t want tragedy to strike twice in his family.
He said his mother-in-law died this summer after her bicycle was struck by a vehicle in Burr Ridge.
Laughlin said he sees distracted drivers looking at their phones or listening on their ear buds all the time where Gartner Road intersects with the river trail.
“It’s not a matter of if, it’s just when someone’s going to get hurt,” he said. “I see people slamming on their brakes, close calls.”
Neighborhood resident Marilyn Schweitzer said stop signs are not a good idea, but encouraged police to enforce the speed limit and encouraged more compliance from those who use Gartner Road.
In response, city traffic engineer Andrew Hynes said the city would collect speed data in September.
Based on the results of the study, he said the Transportation, Engineering and Development, or TED, staff will evaluate what measures from the city’s traffic calming toolbox are available to address the concerns.
However, he said the city will not install stop signs to control speed.
Hynes said studies show, rather than slow vehicles down, stop signs encourage noncompliance.
TAB member Matthew Seeberg said he’d like the East Gartner Road issue placed on an agenda once the study is completed.
Seeberg said he bicycles around Naperville and understands what Gartner residents are saying.
He’s observed motorists on Julian Street inch out onto Gartner Road trying to figure out when to make the turn.
“More often than not, I’ve seen cars pull out way too early there, so I think we definitely ought to have an agenda item later,” Seeberg said.
Traffic Sgt. Ricky Krakow said Gartner Road east and west of Washington Street have been a problem in the past.
Krakow said the TED study will provide police with data that can be used to determine the best times for patrol units to provide enforcement.
But residents don’t need to wait until the report is finalized before they see more of a police presence in the neighborhood.
“I do not need a speed study to have officers assigned from my traffic unit to go out there,” Krakow said.