Monday, November 23, 2009 East Central Illinois
The Answer Book 2005
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Getting around town:The quick and the dread BY MARY SCHENK © 2009 THE NEWS-GAZETTE Need shampoo, Ramen noodles, a DVD player, gas, printer ink cartridges and a Red Lobster fix and want to do it in one trip? Head for North Prospect Avenue in Champaign. Transportation engineer Rita Black believes a "lot of development and a lot of traffic signals close together" have teamed up to make the northwest Champaign shopping mecca, located north of Interstate 74, a bit of a headache for motoring patrons. "The volume of traffic is so high, it's difficult for traffic to move smoothly and you have a lot of accesses along the way that delay the traffic," said Black, the engineer for the Champaign-Urbana Urbanized Area Transportation Study group.
"In general, the big volume in Champaign and Urbana occurs more in the afternoon than in the morning or at noon," Black said. That "rush hour" is between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m., when most people who work at the University of Illinois head for home. Black noted other heavy traffic thoroughfares: Lincoln Avenue, from Interstate 74 all the way south to Florida Avenue in Urbana; Florida, which turns into Kirby Avenue when you head west into Champaign; the intersections of Oak Street and Kirby Avenue near the Assembly Hall, Kirby and Neil Street, just west of the Assembly Hall, and First Street and Windsor Road, just south of the Assembly Hall. While Springfield Avenue, which spans both cities in about their centers from east to west, can be congested, Black said traffic usually moves at a steady pace. Champaign police Lt. Holly Nearing, a veteran patrol officer, suggested avoiding Springfield at rush hour if you're in a hurry. "It does not seem to bear the traffic as Kirby does," she said, noting that it's three lanes between State Street and Prospect Avenue in Champaign. Green Street, which runs through the heart of campus, has recently been re-engineered from four lanes of traffic to three between Wright and Neil streets to make it more pedestrian-friendly. "There is a mix of feelings about it," Black said. "I think it's working better because our idea is to make campus more pedestrian- and bike-friendly. It's easier for drivers to turn because they have a turning lane. "The speed is lower, but the flow is better," she said. "There is a lot of vehicular delay, but we knew that and planned it that way. The idea is to keep cars away from Green Street." Nearing reminded that the 25 mph speed limit on Green and in other areas of campus is taken seriously by police. "You don't want to be speeding around schools or where there are a lot of pedestrians, like downtown and Campustown," she said. "That's one of the things our officers pay attention to. We have the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP), which involves having extra officers on the street whose sole duty is to enforce traffic laws." Other streets more accommodating to the lead-footed driver include Windsor and Curtis roads, which run across the south side of Champaign and Urbana and are good routes for those coming from the south to get to the heart of campus or to get from one city to the other. Vine and Race, north-south streets in Urbana, also are good choices to get into the city. Randolph and State streets in Champaign are also popular for making good time from north to south and vice-versa. Randolph is one-way north, and State is one-way south. And Nearing said it's a good idea to jump on I-74 on the north side of Champaign and Urbana to get across the cities quickly. Black's advice for avoiding congestion: "Try to use the buses whenever possible" or work somewhere where your hours are flexible so you can leave before or after the rush hour. |
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