Here’s The Next Traffic Calming Device Coming To Rockford

The next phase of traffic calming at Brendenwood and Chelsea is right around the corner (pun intended.)

The intersection of Brendenwood and Chelsea in this quiet Rockford neighborhood has caused quite a commotion over the last month and a half.

Alderman Chad Tuneberg joined the show to talk us through the city's thought process of how to slow down traffic at this problem intersection.

First, they introduced the roundabout (NOT a traffic circle.) This scared people. This town can't handle them for some reason. I have bad news folks. There will be more coming, just not in this intersection. It was too big and some larger vehicles had a hard time maneuvering around it.

Then they installed the bump outs. Basically just extending the curbs to create a little bottleneck at each of the four corners. This was the worst of the ideas. Not my words, Chad said this himself. They work in downtown Rockford, but again there wasn't really enough room to allow them to function properly.

This last idea might be a winner in my opinion. They will simply install small medians on Chelsea as you approach the intersection. I think this is how they will look. They will be installed in the next few weeks.

The idea is that they basically will make people realize they are approaching an intersection and will slow down to make sure they are staying in their lanes.

The part I really love about this plan is the city is using temporary barriers while testing this out. Once they figure out the final plan they can take those temporary barriers and try something at a new intersection.

Whatever the final solution, it will be better than installing ANOTHER stop sign or speed bumps.

Thanks to Chad for joining the show. He's one of the good guys that really cares about the city.