La Grange Board Approves Stop Signs on Maple

Community members were vocal at a Monday night in La Grange on the issue of where and why to add or not add stop signs along Maple Avenue. Comments from residents ranged from those who believed there were already enough stop signs in the area to those who felt more were needed to protect the area's young children.

La Grange trustees were provided with three options submitted by the Department of Public Works, and in a unanimous vote, selected an option to install two-way stop intersections on Maple Avenue at Leitch and Sunset avenues. Additionally, two more stop signs will be installed on Goodman Avenue at Leitch and Edgewood avenues to create four-way stop intersections.

The new stop signs along Maple Avenue will help break up what one resident referred to as an "Indy 500 raceway" situation on the avenue. A seven-block stretch between Brainard and Gilbert avenues was without a stop sign. Area residents said at both village board meeting that drivers use Maple Avenue to avoid stopping and drive at unsafe speeds.

The stop sign issue was originally brought to the board's attention by a letter from a resident to public works asking for additional stop signs to be installed. , but voted against the proposed fix in order to spend more time looking at the issue.

Trustee Mark Kuchler, who led the discussion on the issue at the Oct. 24 meeting, said he now felt better about public work's initial decision to be selective in where they add four-way stop intersections in the village.

"If it were my block, I would say that I want a four-way stop sign," Kuchler told residents.

But, Kuchler said, the village generally puts stop signs every other street, and follows guidelines set in the Manuel on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTCD), published by the Federal Highway administration, which restrict the over use of four-way stop intersections.

Trustee Michael Horvath echoed Kuchler's statement and agreed with concerned residents that, "safety needs to be our No. 1 objective." But, he added, education and enforcement needed to play a role as well in slowing traffic down in residential areas—not just stop signs.

With any of the options, there would be positives and negatives, Horvath said, but said he felt that public work's recommended option [see photo] would be best.

Overall, trustees said they agreed with Kuchler that other streets in La Grange would need to be examined as well to break up streets without stop signs for more than three block stretches. Although the village still does not have uniform stop sign guidelines, trustees felt the discussions over the last two meetings—as well as the village’s prior practices—would provide a basis for future cases.