CHICAGO CITY HALL (WBBM Newsradio) -- City and school leaders are touting changes designed to improve safety for children going to school across Chicago, and dedicating those changes to a city worker who was passionate about improving traffic safety.
"Traffic safety is truly community safety," Mayor Brandon Johnson said Thursday morning during an appearance outside Benjamin E. Mays Academy, 6656 S. Normal Blvd., one of six schools in the South side Englewood community benefitting from the completion of speed bumps, pedestrian islands and other changes designed to reduce danger for children trying to get to and from school.
"We are delivering a coordinated set of improvements in this corridor to help students get to school and help residents move through the neighborhood safely," he added.
"We see a lot of cars coming through too fast and the kids are trying to get to school safe and sound," said Safe Passage supervisor Wallace Foss of the driving he's seen in the area, a concerned echoed by Mays principal Nancy Marseille Jones.
"These improvements will help create a more welcoming environment for our students and their families," she said.
And during the announcement of the completion of projects under the School Zone program, the mayor paid tribute to a Chicago Department of Transportation employee whose work was instrumental in the project.
"I also want to acknowledge CDOT planner Riley O'Neil, who worked on this project and was tragically killed in a bike crash this past summer," said the mayor, noting June's death of O'Neil, 35, who was "doored" while riding in a bike lane near his home in Bridgeport. Officers cited the driver of the car that hit him.
"Riley's work will continue to benefits students, families and residents every single day in this city," Mayor Johnson said.
Speed bumps, bike lanes part of reconfigurations across city
Speed bumps, bike lanes part of reconfigurations across city
