Naperville city planners expect Naperville’s population to grow to 155,000 by the year 2020. This population growth sparked the Naperville City Council to create the Comprehensive Transportation Plan (the “Plan”), which represents the desire to maintain mobility and safety throughout the City of Naperville.
The City of Naperville’s Comprehensive Transportation plan has 14 component parts. They include:
1. Master Thouroughfare Plan 2. Trip Reduction Plan 3. Transit Plan 4. Pedestrian Plan 5. Bicycle Plan 6. Neighborhood Traffic Mitigation/Calming Plan 7. Traffic Safety Plan 8. Traffic Enforcement Plan 9. Intelligent Transportation Systems Plan 10. Truck Route Plan 11. Air Quality and Noise Management Plan 12. Coordinated Roadway Improvement Plan 13. Arterial Landscape Plan 14. Parking Plan
While each part of the plan is important for the future of transportation in Naperville, the pedestrian and bicycle plans may prevent a significant number of injuries, particularly broken bones, back and neck injuries, and shoulder injuries because these injuries often result from pedestrian and bicycle accidents.
Pedestrian Plan
The City of Naperville’s Pedestrian Plan implements policies, practices, and programs designed to create a pedestrian-friendly city. The Pedestrian Plan also recognizes that safety is a primary concern when designing and implementing future pedestrian projects. Pedestrian accidents are common in mixed-use areas because pedestrians encounter bicyclists and motorists, which move at higher rates of speed.
Naperville, one of the most populated cities in Illinois, is a highly developed city. Due to this fact, the plan recognizes that it will be difficult to make some areas of Naperville more pedestrian friendly. Still, the pedestrian plan encourages the creation of pedestrian walkways. If this plan is successful, more pedestrians will be utilizing the Naperville’s sidewalks, pathways, crosswalks, etc. Although it’s not inevitable, more pedestrians mean more pedestrian accidents. If an accident does occur, contact the DuPage County personal injury lawyers at The Law Offices of John J. Malm and Associates to discuss your legal rights.
Bicycle Plan
The Bicycle Plan recognizes that bicycles present their own unique problems. Bicycles are more or less designed to be mixed-use vehicles. On a daily basis, bicyclists share roads with motorists and paths with pedestrians. Implementing a comprehensive plan, which takes these unique characteristics into account, is more difficult than designing a comprehensive pedestrian plan. However, in order to limit the number of bicycle accidents on roads, the City of Naperville developed a bike path system which seeks to connect to some of the regional bike trails, such as the DuPage River Trail and Illinois Prairie Path.
Strategic Initiatives
Each year, the City of Naperville releases the specific strategic initiatives that it will be tackling that year. The strategic initiatives outline the areas the city believes are strategically important to the success and vibrancy of the Naperville, and they include specific transportation initiatives that are designed and developed in the context of the above Comprehensive Transportation Plan. For Fiscal Year 2011-12 the specific transportation initiatives include:
- Evaluate alternative transit opportunities consistent with the Transportation Plan, and continue to measure the success and cost-effectiveness of transit projects.
- Identify and pursue funding for regional grade separations along the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad.
- Continue to aggressively support development and funding of the STAR Line.