Did You Know?
Progress made in Springfield for safer streets
This week state lawmakers considered several important bills that would make streets safer for people walking and biking.
Thanks to quick responses from supporters like you, we made progress with moving some of the bills forward.
A special thanks to Metropolitan Planning Council, Ride Illinois, and Chicago, Bike Grid Now!
Here are the bills and where they currently stand.
LOWERING DEFAULT SPEED LIMIT IN ILLINOIS URBAN AREAS
The committee asked for amendments to be made to HB 3530, and once amended, it will return to committee, likely within the next two weeks.
Details about the bill
Given that excessive speed is the most common factor in serious and fatal crashes, we know that one of the best ways to save lives is to get people driving to slow down.
- In collisions at 30 mph, 6 out of 10 pedestrians will survive.
- In collisions at 20 mph, 9 out of 10 pedestrians will survive.
In Illinois, the default speed limit is 30 mph. If we could keep traffic at 20 mph or less, we’d see a big drop in traffic fatalities.
Research shows that after lowering the default speed limits to below 30 mph, drivers actually slow down, with the biggest decline coming among people speeding excessively. This was true on all types of roads — arterials, collectors, and local roads.
ESTABLISHING A ZERO-FATALITIES TASK FORCE
HB 2131, as amended, passed out of committee and is headed to the house floor!
Details about the bill
In 2020, there were nearly 250,000 reported traffic crashes in the state of Illinois that significantly injured over 72,000 people and killed almost 1,200 people — this amounts to more than 200 people per day injured or killed in Illinois traffic crashes.
This bill will create a statewide task force that will help chart the path toward eliminating traffic deaths.
The task force — which would include local governments, transportation departments, public health experts, advocacy organizations, and others — will develop policies and evaluate our state’s approach to eliminating traffic deaths.
ALLOW COMMUNITIES TO BUILD SAFER, PEOPLE-FRIENDLY INTERSECTIONS
The committee asked for amendments to be made to SB 2278, and once amended, the bill will return to committee, likely within the next two weeks.
Details about the bill
This bill will give local communities the ability to build intersections that are safer for people walking and biking.
Currently, local communities are required to build intersections that will accommodate the turning of a 65-foot truck, which means there’s no space left for design features that will make an intersection safer for people walking and biking.
Proven safety features like pedestrian islands, curb extensions, and protected bike lanes aren’t even considered, resulting in an abundance of oversized intersections.
And all that extra space means that drivers often travel through the intersection and take the turns far too fast. The danger of faster moving traffic is compounded by the fact that pedestrians have a longer distance to cross.
SAFETY STOP FOR BICYCLISTS
No news yet on HB 3923; we’re still waiting to learn why this bill was not put up for a vote in committee.
Details about the bill
The Safety Stop bill would allow people biking to treat a stop sign as a yield sign. While it may seem counterintuitive, this law would increase safety on streets shared by people biking and people driving.
After a number of states have passed similar legislation, studies have found that crashes decreased as a result.
By not completely stopping, bicyclists don’t need to restart slowly and awkwardly, and so spend less time in intersections, the most dangerous parts of our roadways.
And, of course, this legislation does not allow people on bikes to blow through an intersection without regard for who has the right of way. If a driver arrives at a stop sign first, the person on a bike must stop and allow the driver to proceed through the intersection.
Thank you for taking action and helping make streets safer for people walking and biking.
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