By: Diane Benjamin

Thanks again to Doug Fansler who started me off mapping crashes in the area from this story: https://blnnews.com/2022/04/05/isu-kids-show-up-for-public-comment/

All of the maps below are from Normal’s new Open Data Portal, access it at the bottom of the main screen: https://normal.org/ Page down to IDOT McLean County Traffic Crashes.

Start with the number of accidents in the area of concern from 2021:

12 Total crashes for a whole year is only once a month. If you click on one of those markers it will provide more information. Many are failing to yield, improper lane usage, and following to close.

Since 2021 might have been affected by COVID, look at 2019:

Total crashes is higher but injuries are lower.

One more map – this one has all the crashes since 2005 – over 16 years. There was one fatality in 2015, cause listed as undetermined. It happened at the corner of College and Fell.

371 divided by 16 years is still less than 2 a month. 123 injuries in 16 years is less than 1 a month.

One pedestrian fatality in 16 years is less than Veterans Parkway where pedestrian traffic is low.

This is the only information available on the fatality:

Note: Hit and Run and Drug Related, we don’t know if that was the pedestrian or the driver. I found one article from 2015 where two pedestrians were hit, but that was on the corner of Linden and College late at night. I didn’t locate anything on this accident.

The total crashes mostly didn’t involve pedestrians. Pull up the map yourself, it’s pretty easy to use. Evidently so is crossing a road without getting hit – according to the data.

.

.

.

.

.

.