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Only 0.7 percent of federal transportation funds are spent on improving pedestrian facilities.

Construction on Humboldt Park "road diet" begins

A few months ago, 26th Ward Ald. Maldonado and the Humboldt Park Advisory council hosted a public meeting at the Humboldt Park Boathouse to solicit input on a traffic calming safety plan for the park.

src=http://www.activetrans.org/sites/default/files/humboldt.jpgThe plan is being put together by Sam Schwartz Engineering with plenty of community input and involvement. The meeting was well attended. Whether it was a pedestrian, bicyclist or motorist, everyone agreed that something needed to be done to make access to the park safer and more convenient.

We are happy to see that construction has started on a project to reduce the speed of car traffic through the park and make it easier for pedestrians, cyclists and even motorists to access the park more safely.

Ald. Maldonado has been a strong advocate for slowing down traffic near the park, and has allocated menu funds to complete a “road diet” this summer.

The project includes reducing the number of lanes of traffic from four to three; one southbound, one northbound and a center turn lane. The changes will also include new pedestrian crosswalks along with median planters and some pedestrian refuge areas. Read more about the public meeting in May.

Also, here's more background on the Humboldt Park project and a nifty video that offers a good overview of road diets.