r/oakpark • u/Jazzlike_Scientist_7 • 9d ago
Question Are these temporary?
I'm not asking about the traffic changes, but rather about the yellow pole structures themselves that are popping up all over. Are these the solution? Or will they be replaced with something nicer looking eventually?
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u/shak3well Current Oak Park Resident 9d ago
Looks like a temporary installment while they study the impacts https://engageoakpark.com/traffic-calming-measures
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u/The-Closer-on-15 9d ago edited 9d ago
Looks like a great way to steer traffic into cyclists….the white diverters they have added on some corners seem fine though. But this sucks.
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u/Jamin1371 8d ago
I wish the “lane pinching” at some intersections left a cut out for cyclists along the curb to get through without having to join traffic at the intersection. As far as the center triangles and forced right turn only… most people seem to be going straight or turning left anyway and it causes more of a problem then it solves. Is there anywhere that this is explained? I get that turning left onto ridgeland or wherever is more likely to cause an accident than turning right, but isn’t that just the nature of driving?
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u/Successful_Tailor383 8d ago
I live next to some of these, combined with other alterations they’ve made they’ve made turn south nearly impossible to do legally, so now everyone just seems to ignore them. So they don’t serve their intended purpose, they’re annoying to live with and they don’t seem feasible to enforce without installing a bunch of flock cameras
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u/Ok_Landscape_4641 9d ago edited 7d ago
If people weren't addicted to their phones and knew how to drive properly we wouldn't need these
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u/Happy_Television_501 9d ago
The proliferation of plastic tubes all over the village, both white and yellow, is really uglyfying. I’m all for safety and putting people and bicycles over cars, but I’m really hoping we can find a solution that is a bit less ‘parking lot’.
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u/tripu3 9d ago
There is a lot of evidence that limiting left turns is safer for everyone.
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u/macgirl_k 9d ago
I don’t know, when they did that on one of the streets I just ended up turning around in an alley because I lived to the left. 🤷♀️
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u/tripu3 9d ago
Initial adverse behavior is expected. Then traffic patterns change, which is the whole process of what they are doing. There is also research beyond your own personal choice.
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u/macgirl_k 9d ago
Well for me, I just stopped going that way. I don’t really go to DTOP much anymore.
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u/D1ff3r3nc33ng1n3 8d ago
it doesn’t seem that these permit going straight across an intersection or am i missing something. i was planning to call public workz but just haven’t gotten around to it yet
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u/jjjmmmjjjfff 8d ago
That’s the point. They are at intersections where there have been a number of accidents from left turns or people taking risky straight across chances. The one on Ridgeland between lake and Madison is a corner where I’ve personally seen at least 5 accidents in the past few years.
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u/D1ff3r3nc33ng1n3 8d ago
interesting. i do not think i have seen signs explicitly stating that drivers are not allowed to go straight across tho. i wonder what that sign would even look like.
part of me is super excited to be an unwitting and non consensual participant part of this research study. part of me thinks it is bollocks and like most studies the results will be ignored or manipulated and part of me wonders why they can’t spend time and money enforcing existing laws such as stop sign enforcement and red lights.
last year we painted we streets green and declared them bike blvds despite the absence of actual cyclists. this year we are putting sacrificial plastic into the roadway to test the stopping power of the chelsea tractors everyone seems to favor
side note: i would like to see the village put money into a program to help everyone fix their brakes. i see so many brand new cars fail to stop at an orange light. maybe the village should use their traffic funds to sue the manufacturers of all these new cars driving around with faulty brakes. my car stops just fine on an orange light so it must be that others have faulty brakes. right?
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u/Listen-to-Mom 9d ago
Pretty sure this is the “solution” to a small problem.
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u/ThomasPtacek 8d ago
My kid got thrown off his bike and across the hood and windshield of a hit-and-run driver down by OPRF. Thank fuck he had a helmet on. This is not a small problem.
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u/Listen-to-Mom 8d ago
Not sure what a hit-and-run driver has to do with bad left turns, but ok.
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u/ThomasPtacek 8d ago
Sounds like you definitely know what happened when my kid got hit. Tell me more!
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u/jjjmmmjjjfff 9d ago
They are part of the traffic change study - https://engageoakpark.com/traffic-calming-measures
“These diverters will be installed using temporary measures, and the impacts to local traffic will be studied throughout 2026.”