The Hatlen Heights Traffic Calming Study is scheduled to be presented to the Transportation Safety Commission at their September 8th meeting at 7 PM at the Emergency Operations Center, 1720 West Central Road. The public is invited to this meeting. The Commission will review the revised plan and the result of balloting along with public comments to decide if the project should move forward to the Village Board or not. The agenda packet, including the result of balloting and Staff’s recommendation, will be available online or by request to Public Works by September 3, 2025.
The Transportation Safety Commission agenda and agenda packet can be found on the Village website here once available:
https://mountprospectil.portal.civicclerk.com/
A full history of traffic calming studies on Audrey Lane dating back to the mid 1990’s is available in the documents section on this website, see Audrey Lane Traffic Memorandum. This current study was initiated when a petition was submitted to Public Works in October of 2024 and will include all previous traffic counts and discussions as outlined in the memorandum. This petition requested the Village consider supplemental traffic calming measures to the new speed feedback signs or different traffic calming measures altogether. Concerns relate to speeds of vehicles on the street and cut-through traffic.
Public Works staff reviewed the petition and recent traffic counts on the street. The traffic volume and speed data showed the street qualified for the Friendly Neighborhood Streets Program. Staff then updated the project area to include Hatlen Avenue, Connie Lane and Bonita Avenue as well as changes to Audrey Lane could impact these streets as well. Initial public outreach was sent out to all residents in the project area to introduce the study and solicit input.
Surveys were sent to 134 residents and 27 surveys were returned (20%). Engineering Staff used comments received to help develop the preliminary preferred alternative to address traffic issues in the neighborhood and is now seeking neighborhood input on the design. Please see the Alternative Analysis Memo in the Documents section to see the preferred alternative.
The Engineering Division investigated possible street closures in the neighborhood to address traffic concerns and determined them not to be feasible for the following reasons:
- Closing just one street (Connie Lane) would push traffic issues onto other streets
- Closing multiple streets would increase response times for emergency vehicles
- Closing streets would not impact vehicle speed in the neighborhood
- Dead end streets create maintenance issues for Public Works
A neighborhood wide traffic calming project, as presented in the revised design, will better address perceived traffic issues in the neighborhood.
Staff presented the preliminary preferred alternative to residents at the March 10th Transportation Safety Commission Meeting, see Transportation Safety Commission Minutes in the Documents Section. Comments on the preliminary preferred alternative were received from 24 addresses and used to make revisions. Staff then installed temporary traffic calming measures to collect traffic counts to determine effectiveness of the trial and to solicit additional comments from the community. The trial showed a 50% - 70% reduction in vehicles going over 35 MPH on the street. See Second Public Outreach Comment Summary in the Documents section for all comments received on the initial design and during the trial.
Staff used the results of the trial and comments received to revise the design, see Revised Design Memo in the Documents section. Staff is now sending out the revised design and a ballot to all residences in the Hatlen Heights Neighborhood to voice their opinion on the revised design. While the result of balloting is not binding, the results will be used to inform Staff’s recommendation and will be presented to the Transportation Safety Commission. Ballots are due (postmarked) to Public Works by August 25th.
More information on traffic calming and the Friendly Neighborhood Streets Program can be found here:
https://www.mountprospect.org/departments/public-works/engineering/traffic/traffic-calming
