By: Diane Benjamin
This is a case of: Tell me who you vote for without saying who you vote for.
The re-invent Veterans Parkway Plan: https://mcplan.org/plans-and-programs/transportation-planning/veteranspkwy
Quote:
The most critical employment and commercial corridor in the region, Veterans Parkway is also the most dangerous road in Bloomington-Normal. In 2024, the McLean County Regional Planning Commission (MCRPC), the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), and local partners launched a planning study to reinvent and re-envision Veterans Parkway with a Corridor Plan by all and for all, focused on safety, equity, and sustainability. Of particular importance is the safe accommodation of all vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transit users.
Built in 1941, the 84-year-old Veterans Parkway has grown from a 4-lane bypass to an outdated, car-centric major arterial with 6 to 12 lanes today, carrying the highest traffic volume of any road in the Bloomington-Normal metro area. The current roadway design provides minimal accommodations for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users. Veterans Parkway also presents a substantial barrier to cross-community access and is the frequent location of serious crashes, including more than 75 life-altering injuries and deaths in the past 10 years.
Really want to make Veterans safer?
Start by enforcing the speed limit!
Ticket people who run stop lights!
Start ticketing the maniacs weaving in and out of traffic.
Want empty buses stopping to pick up few riders and blocking traffic to do it?
Should pedestrians and cyclists be on busy streets with vehicles that can kill them?
See PDF page 29 and following. It has depictions of possible reinvention of the road.
Veterans has a pedestrian and cyclist underpass at GE road. Note, nothing pictured shows adding them at other intersections. The word “underpass” is only mentioned once in the whole document.
Quote PDF page 40:
Corridor Vision Considerations
While the 2021 study focused primarily on vehicle operations, safety, and engineering feasibility, the Reinvent Veterans Parkway process considered the intersection within the context of a broader corridor vision. Throughout the planning process, residents expressed a desire for Veterans Parkway to become a safer, more accessible, and more attractive multimodal corridor that better serves all people, including those walking, bicycling, riding transit, and accessing nearby destinations.
What residents? The ones that bothered to complete the survey?
PDF page 43 has possible funding options. Keep in mind it is all taxpayer money whether the State or Feds pay for it.
It would be one thing if our population was increasing or expected to increase but I don’t think in Illinois it is.
As far as being the most dangerous road goes – well yes because it is the most traveled road. That would be expected.
Maybe it’s time to put a pause on massive spending for projects that would be nice but aren’t really needed.
Route 9 is currently in the middle of its resurfacing project by the state. On the north side of Empire, from Towanda to Veterans, they’ve added a wide bike path, which I assume is part of the Constitution Trail.
The thought of people walking or biking across Veterans at Empire seems extremely dangerous. Even with proper crosswalk signals, which currently aren’t there, I have serious concerns about the safety of that crossing.
This whole approach to intermodal city planning seems to be creating situations where pedestrians and cyclists are being put in harm’s way. I’m afraid it’s going to take someone getting seriously hurt before the safety concerns are addressed.
If they drastically reduce the number of lanes and speed limit on veterans, it will dramatically worsen traffic congestion, increase time to travel around town, and force many drivers to seek alternative roads in town. That means more residential streets like Hershey, Towanda, main street, etc will all see a marked increase in traffic. And you will probably start to see a lot more traffic in neighborhoods as well. No one wants that. That will be the result of any sort of public transportation, bike, and pedestrian dis-improvements to veterans.
I have noticed a degradation of the signal timing on Veterans Pkwy since I left the City’s employment many years ago. When I retired, it was the City’s responsibility to develop signal timing plans for all coordinated signal systems within the city. It is not feasible for the Illinois Department of Transportation to perform this work as the District headquarters for Bloomington is located in Paris Illinois, a several hour drive.
I think the responsibility for signal timing should return to City staff. The signals on Veterans Pkwy were design so that the considerable data collection effort can be performed by the cameras install at each intersection. All that is required to generate new timing plans is for City staff to download the traffic count data and process it into the required data input form needed by the traffic signal timing software. Before I retired, two staff members were trained in the use of the signal timing software.
The city should avoid hiring consultants to perform this work. Timing plans must be tweaked every time traffic flow changes. In the B-N area tweaks are required when major employers reassign locations where employees report to work, or when new businesses open. This timing adjustment process is best performed by local staff as the changes as being installed locally.
Signal timing improvements can greatly enhance safety for all forms of transportation. In addition, changes will result in less fuel consumption for drivers.
Planners plan until they can’t plan no more then they are in the unemployment line. Looking forward to the local hacks getting to that point.
Mark Adams, candidate for Ward 8, is an urban planner. He used to be employed by the MCRPC. He is a proponent missing-middle housing and dense walkable neighborhoods. Of course he lives in a neighborhood where cars are needed and missing-middle housing is prohibited.
Wanna bet bicyclist are who are really behind this? Bicycle lanes are the “thing” now in uppity communities.
Maybe in upper communities but have you really seen bicycles in the bike lanes here? I can count on one hand how many I have seen in the years they put them in.
Mostly I see UPS and FedX
I ride a bicycle 2500 miles a year. Mostly in southern McLean County. I would NEVER even consider riding anywhere near the Parkway!. Pedestrians? Are you crazy? However it does make me very nervous with all the pan handlers along Veterans. Nothing against helping the needy, but my concern is their safety AND drivers who take their eyes off the road in heavy traffic.
Another stupid idea by the communists trying to disguise themselves as socialists, progressives and democrats with various names.
Here some ideas for the brainwashed leftists…
How about bridges over Veterans? Or hot air balloons? Or teleportation? How about tunnels? Or how about creating a government that will eat you first after they are done using you?
Based on current election results, I have concluded that I, and multitudes of others, wasted years of our lives going nose to nose with people who have the same ideology as what has infiltrated our academia and media.
Firsthand I saw what leftists did to East Berlin. All of that is forgotten now.
God save America from this evil