When students return to Eisenhower High School in Blue Island this fall, there may be stricter speed limits in place for motorists along 127th Street.
State Rep. Bob Rita, D-Blue Island, sponsored a bill approved this month that would allow municipalities to lower speed limits on state roads to 20 mph along parks. The bill was in response to a rash of cars hitting pedestrian in recent years, including two fatalities last year. Another girl, a 14-year-old student, was struck and injured this year.
The change allows for lower speed limits on 127th Street from the high school east through the end of Memorial Park, adding several blocks to the existing school zone speed limit. The bill, which the governor has not yet signed, would also allow fines of $250 for a first speeding offense and $500 for a second offense. That is higher than speeding penalties in school zones.
Blue Island Mayor Fred Bilotto said the bill is a win, and said the City Council would consider lowering the speed limit as soon as it is signed by the governor. A spokesperson for Gov. J.B. Pritzker did not return a call for comment on when that might happen.
“On behalf of Blue Island parents, we greatly appreciate Rep. Rita’s work to help make the area around Eisenhower High School and Memorial Park safer for our kids,” Bilotto said. “His bill is the product of local and state government working together to advance good policy in response to a tragic event.”
Eisenhower Assistant Principal Tim Baker said he hadn’t heard the news about the lower speed limit until last week, but he was thrilled.
“That’s fantastic news,” Baker said.
For much of the legislative session that just ended, Rita worked on a plan to tackle pedestrian safety, though he faced opposition from lawmakers who weren’t keen to tacking on speeding fines — known as penalty enhancements — to existing speeding laws.
“The Senate had an issue with raising the school zone penalties,” Rita said. “The progressive caucus along with the Black Caucus were against any penalty enhancement.”
When Rita couldn’t get support to increase the fines in school zones, he introduced a bill to allow lower speed limits near parks along state roads, and set new penalties for those offenses.
“We had initial problems, but we had to compromise,” Rita said. “It passed out of the House and there was one vote against it.”
The approach treats state roads much like municipal roads, where cities can set lower speed limits for pedestrian-heavy areas such as near parks. Currently Blue Island authorities have little control over speed no 127th Street, a state road.
“I think this is one of those true instances of one of those grassroots issues being solved by community stakeholders,” Baker said. “We had three students hit by cars in recent years and several community members as well. It has been incredible to work and cooperate with the mayor’s office and Rep. Rita and parents and the student body was involved.”
Rita said the law will be a win for Blue Island as well as for any other community looking to slow traffic on state roads adjacent to parks.
“Yes, this is a big win,” Rita said.
Rita said the bill received lots of local support after a series of tragedies drew the community together.
“This is really important and it’s a shame that it took the amount of accidents it took in such a short amount of time, and people’s lives,” he said. “This is a positive thing that we’ve not only done for Blue Island but for any part of the state where there’s a park adjacent to a road with potentially high speeds to keep people self.”
Rita said he’s still open to other safety measures if the community believes they’re needed. Those could include speed cameras, though they are controversial. He said he wanted to tackle lowering the speed limit, as that seemed like as easier, quicker win.
“This was a solution we could do quickly,” he said. “This was a short-term solution. We could have asked for legislation to put a speed camera or a red-light camera in the area, but given the pushback I got, I don’t know if it would have been able to pass the Senate.”
But, he said, he’ll keep fighting if local leaders believe pedestrians are still at risk.
“What this ultimately does is it gets some tools to the municipalities and the police department,” he said.
For now, it’s just a matter of time for the governor to sign the bill into law. He has 60 days to do that, though Rita said he’s not aware of when that might happen.
“I have no idea, I’m hoping he does it quickly,” Rita said. “I don’t see any pushback for him not to sign it.”
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
