WEAR Parking & Traffic Survey Results

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Thank you to all the residents who completed the recent WEAR Parking and Traffic Survey. We had a total 253 responses. Our top-level findings indicated the majority of resident respondents: 

• Support extending Zone 65 north of Rosehill and to open areas of Bryn Mawr, with the majority voting to restrict parking during the early morning commuting hours M-F 
• Do not support changing Zone 65 parking hours to provide open daytime parking on Rosehill 
• Support Paulina north of Thorndale being made one-way northbound 

What are our next steps?

•  To add Zone 65 to the additional areas, we will need to collect petition signatures from 65% of the city sticker holders that live on the specific streets impacted by the change. Per the Alderman’s office, that is representative of approximately 300 residents.  
• Twenty-six residents volunteered to collect signatures in the survey. Alderperson Vasquez’s office will be scheduling a petition collection training meeting in the coming weeks together with some of the other neighborhood associations in the area that are doing the same thing. We will provide details of the training to volunteers when we hear back from Alderperson Vasquez. 
• To make Paulina a one-way street, we will need to go through the same petition process; we can do this simultaneously with signature collection for Zone 65.  If we collect the required signatures, then the City Department of Transportation (CDOT) will conduct a traffic study. If CDOT approves, only then can it move forward to the City Council to make the change. 
• There is no further action required for Rosehill, due to lack of indicated support for a change. 

The full survey results are as follows: 

Should Zone 65 be extended north of Rosehill? Votes only counted for residents who live on the streets potentially impacted. 

No: 20% 

Unsure: 9% 

Yes: 71% 

What hours should have parking restrictions? The preference in order was: 

1. Restrict parking only during the early morning commuting hours Monday to Friday 

2. Restrict parking from evening to after morning commuting time Monday to Friday 

3. Restrict parking only during overnight hours Monday to Friday 

4. Restrict parking 24/7 

5. No parking restrictions 

Should Zone 65 be extended to the open areas of Bryn Mawr? Votes only counted for residents who live on Bryn Mawr. 

No: 38% 

Unsure: 8% 

Yes: 54% 

Should Zone 65 Hours on Rosehill be changed to provide open day time parking to support local businesses on Ashland and Clark impacted by the new bike lanes? Votes only counted for residents on Rosehill: 

No: 55% 

Unsure: 27% 

Yes: 18% 

Should Paulina north of Thorndale be one-way northbound. The results are broken into 3 groups. To impact the change, only residents who live on the section to be changed are eligible to petition.  

Residents on Paulina north of Thorndale: 

No: 20% Unsure: 

9% 

Yes: 70% 

Residents on Paulina south of Thorndale: 

No: 24% 

Unsure: 12% 

Yes: 64% 

All other WEAR Residents: 

No: 20% 

Unsure: 24% 

Yes: 56%  

Other Survey Feedback: In the free form question box, we asked for your input on other traffic concerns. We thank you for your candid feedback and are sharing all of your thoughts with Alderperson Vasquez. There were several common themes within the feedback received. We’ve outlined the most commons ones below for your information:  

Speed and Stop Sign Enforcement (27 comments) 

According to Alderperson Vasquez, there are limited police resources for added enforcement. Our other options include adding speed bumps and traffic circles, however, adding traffic circles would require funding—which is currently challenging to secure. The best option is to focus on adding speed bumps, however this will again require petitioning the residents of each street. We will add this to our plans to do this signature collection simultaneously with Zone 65 and Paulina petitioning. 

New Bike Lanes (16 comments) 

The Alderperson’s office is working with CDOT on new solutions. Work is still in the planning phase, so Alderman Vasquez is not yet ready to announce it. Work should start later this Summer. 

Ravenswood Speed and Traffic Issues (12 comments) 

Speed specific to Ravenswood is more challenging as it is classified as an “arterial” street, meaning it is not eligible for speed bumps. The Alderperson is taking these comments under advisement. 

Parking on west side of Ravenswood. The Alderperson understands there will need to be a resolution to this issue when the train station opens and is taking these comments under advisement. 

Eastbound One-ways on Three Consecutive Streets: Edgewater, Hollywood & Olive (5 comments) 

This one is challenging as there are strong opinions on both sides. Not too many years ago, residents on Hollywood successfully petitioned to change their street to allow only eastbound traffic. To make any changes, we would need to do a detailed survey on the subject for residents on those streets. Also, petition signatures would only be valid from residents of the street in question in which the direction of traffic would be proposed for changing.