The Village of Bellwood, located about 13 miles west of Chicago, hosts a wide variety of regionally connecting roads and trails, making the community a hub for pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, and freight traffic. As the village continues to grow and develop, it will become an even more prominent place for pedestrian and freight activity.

To address the mobility goals outlined in its 2013 comprehensive plan, Bellwood worked closely with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) and Jacob Engineering to develop a safety action plan. The plan identifies and proposes strategies to improve safety performance.

This safety project focused specifically on the intersection between the Illinois Prairie Path and 25th Avenue. The Prairie Path is a regional bicycle trail connecting 61 municipalities throughout DuPage and Cook counties. It crosses 25th Avenue, a major thoroughfare of that experiences high volumes of traffic.

Through community planning, traffic safety research, and historical safety data analysis, the safety action plan proposes recommendations and strategies that will make this intersection safer for all users of the Prairie Path and 25th Avenue.

On January 28, 2022, Jacobs and CMAP held stakeholder interviews to present a variety of questions to various people and interest groups. Stakeholders included Village of Bellwood employees; utilities, adjacent property occupants; the Chamber of Commerce; the Illinois Department of Transportation; various public transit representatives; cyclists and pedestrians; and non-profit organizations. Mural was used to conduct these interviews in an online format. Stakeholders were split into groups, and each group was asked a specific set of questions. Some questions overlapped among the groups while other questions were curated for each group.

Responses and feedback from these interviews were incorporated into the existing conditions report (ECR, found below) and were instrumental in shaping the recommendations as well as their prioritizations in the final safety action plan.

Tommy Myszka, project manager, Jacobs Engineering

Vickie Barrett, project manager, CMAP