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Every year, 71 Chicago pedestrians are killed and 930 are seriously injured when they're hit by cars, according to the North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center. The most dangerous intersection for pedestrians is 79th and King Drive, where 13 people were hit in 2003 and 2005, the years for which information was available.
The City commissioned the study, which ranked the 48 most dangerous intersections. The 10 worst are:
- 79th and Martin Luther King Drive (13 people)
- 79th and Ashland (11)
- North and California (10)
- Madison and Cicero (9)
- Irving Park and Pulaski (8)
- North and Kedzie (8)
- 95th and Halsted (8)
- Monroe and Michigan (8)
- Washington and Clark (7)
- Randolph and Dearborn (7)
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North and California (10)
Actually the worst place to be is just before it where the Cermak foods is. You've got pedestrians running, walking, crawling between the market and the liquor store across the street. General poor driving going on here period, in the parking lot, people pulling out in front of cars instead of waiting for a break in traffic (gotta love that selfishness) and just Humboldt Park foolishness in full effect. I always go on red alert when I bike (or drive) through that little stretch.
North & Kedzie too? Geez.
I love that my bike ride to work passes through not just one but two of the city's worst intersections.
North and Kedzie and North and California are not surprising. Very heavy pedestrian traffic as both are right on Humboldt park. There's a gas station at North and Kedzie that is filled with cruisers who peel out all the damn time too.
Damn kids and their rock music.
Not sure if this one has had any fatalities, but nearly all of the intersections from East Argyle up to Loyola on Broadway are pretty dangerous. Lots of drag strippers.
Navin:
I haven't been over there in a while, doesn't Kedzie kind of twist a little right at north? Just a bit, but you have to reorient yourself driving it. Another factor?
And Humboldt park foolishness is CLEARLY a factor here.
fremo - i agree about broadway/sheridan and would extend the danger zone all the way north to at least morse. i got hit just last week myself north of loyola....
Cookie, you're right about up to Morse - I used to live on Morse and Sheridan and hated crossing on my way over to the lake.
I walk through Irving Park/Pulaski twice a day - haven't been hit yet but I have smacked a few hoods with my hand to make drivers stop for their own red light. I don't know if a red-light camera would change anything but seeing those flashes would give me such joy...
A bad one is Wrightwood and Kedzie, on the west side of the Eagle. Drivers who are going south and then want to make a right onto Wrightwood for some reason do not believe they have to yield to pedestrians. Whenever I exit the Blue Line and walk that way I always am almost hit.
I also remember reading somewhere that the worst intersection for car accidents is right where Sheridan curves onto Devon. Devon and McCormick is also where the Pigeon Man got hit. Whenever I'm driving that way I always avoid Devon and stick to Granville, the gem of crosstown commuting.
Albany,
Yeah, Kedzie kind does a weird curve on the north side.
The was a CTA L station for the Humbolt Park Branch (pre '50s) where that Citgo is now so that probably has something to do with otherwise mysterious curve in the road there.
BeeRockafeller: I used to live about three blocks from the intersection you're talking about -- there's really nothing that can be done at this point. There's a sign there and they added concrete barriers about a year ago to force cars to slow down in order to make it onto Wrightwood.
I'd go so far as to say that whole damn roundabout is perilous as hell for pedestrians.
try driving down devon between ridge and mccormick. people do NOT care when/where they cross... or double park, for that matter...
Another vote for Broadway, although I usually only experience it between Argyle and Foster. Just north of Argyle, lots of cars turn west off of Broadway through slow or stopped southbound traffic onto various side streets (Winnemac, Carmen, Winona) with little or no regard for pedestrians.
Foster and Broadway can be bad, too. I had one guy turning west onto Foster from Broadway almost hit me as I was crossing south across Broadway. His light had just turned red, so he was trying to sneak in front of the westbound traffic that had just gotten a green. I got in his way, so of course he shot me a look like I was the asshole. Asshole.
AlPark/Navin: That jog that happens at North Avenue and a lot of cross streets has something to do with how the land was surveyed/split up into townships/square miles waaaay back in the day. I've heard two plausible explanations; one is that the land north of North was surveyed by a different/incompetent crew. The second, and more interesting possibility is that the surveyors didn't take into account the curvature of the Earth properly when surveying out these giant squares, and, as a result, the streets don't quite line up. Most of the big streets from Western out to Harlem have some sort of jog.
/dork
@ Slaphappy
Yeah I agree with you that the whole roundabout is like some sort of twisted deathrace rally going on. A crazier one is the Golf Rd roundabout, boy I still remember my first encounter with it many years ago when I first started to drive. Being a city kid, I had never been through it before, and man I was freaking out haha. I think I went around like 3 times before I realized which street I needed to turn down. It was something out of a National Lampoon movie.
Thanks for that info By, very cool to say the least. I love stuff like that. Also regarding the BLVD system, did you know that it originally was supposed to also include Diversey? It was supposed to go all the way to the lakefront, but the businesses along Diversey objected to it since they would have had to get pushed back and what not. So it's actually not completed as intended.
I just read an article in the Sunday Trib about Hyde Park, there is some activist who wants to build on and get rid of their portion of the Blvd down there. That would be a shame IMO. I am quite fond of our Necklace.
/dork
No way Clarence,
That's interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing, the L stop was just my best guess.
Haha, oh wow I called Clarence "By." Sorry about that. I thought it was a weird name to have, but for some reason you're the only person who it only says that right next to the avatar.
That, mixed in with afternoon drunkenness led to my faux pa. Yes I am quite drunk. Shots on me!
You were very close on your answer.
Years ago one of the newspapers had that asked of them & they said that the surveyors forgot to correct plot the angle of the sun when the land was platted.
It's not just the main streets west of Western, it's almost every street.
There is another mistake like this for a lot of east/west streets in the south suburbs.
@ Scooter: Cool, that makes sense too. If I'm not mistaken, that "mistake" on the East/West streets in the south burbs occurs right along a diagonal "Indian Boundary" line, north of which land was granted/taken away from the natives in order to build the canal. I-57 roughly parallels this line around Midlothian/Posen.
Also, it seems my name is too long.
I work in the health field on the South Side. I've encountered a many persons over the years who have been pedestrians struck by autos.
Sorry for sounding like a "blame the victim" type, but about 90 per cent of the adults were in one of the following categories:
(1) Intoxicated
(2) Cocaine users
(3) Mentally ill (e.g., schizophrenic or bipolar)
(4) Very obese
(5) Elderly
Surprised that Ashland/Lincoln/Belmont is not on there. So many people cruise through the red light quickly on a left or right turn without paying attention to the pedestrians. You have to wait about 10 seconds before you get the ok to cross signal there to prevent being hit. Its ridiculous.