Stories
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Crashes routine on infamous curve
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As neighbors witness daily, cars collide on stretch of Lake Shore Drive
Jon Hilkevitch
Getting Around
February 13, 2006
"Black Mercedes spins out, ends up facing north in the southbound lanes. Street salted 10 minutes earlier."
"Sedan hits wall, woman runs from car. Other cars braking hard not to hit the car."
"Three-car pile-up. Police, tow trucks and ambulance are needed."
They read like the narratives of police accident reports, but the author is not a cop.
By day, Kevin Shanley is a publishing consultant in the Loop. In his free time, Shanley uses Excel spreadsheets and a camera to chronicle the traffic mayhem on what city officials acknowledge is the most dangerous stretch of Lake Shore Drive: the wide sweeping curve at about 1000 North, near Oak Street Beach.
Sitting with binoculars by a window inside his eighth-floor condominium at 900 N. Lake Shore Drive, Shanley can be certain there will be a demolition derby of cars gone wild any time the pavement is moistened by rain, snow or ice.
It's not unusual to witness a half-dozen or more bang-ups per sitting, he says. On a bad day it can be 20 spinouts, by his count totaling several hundred injuries each year just below his window.
Since 2002, Shanley has written letters and placed phone calls advising, pleading and ranting at city officials about the problem of cars taking the curve too fast, colliding, wiping out against the median barrier or flipping over. His spreadsheets log the time and date of the accidents, weather conditions, number of vehicles involved, city services responding, injuries and how long traffic is backed up.
"I get sick every time I see a car hit the wall and see thousands of dollars in repairs and people being dragged out of the cars and into ambulances and schlepped to Northwestern Hospital," said Shanley, 53, a lifelong Chicagoan.
He says the city is playing "Russian roulette" with the lives of drivers. "More people are hurt in crashes along the curve than in an airplane skidding off a Midway Airport runway or a train crossing in Elmwood Park. And it goes on year after year."
Shanley has designed a prototype for an illuminated overhead warning sign that he says should extend across all lanes on the curve. Among his other recommendations, Streets & Sanitation trucks should spread more road salt on Lake Shore Drive in winter, a practice currently done sparingly to minimize damage to plants in the median.
"All I've heard back from the city is what they cannot do. I look forward to hearing what they can do," Shanley said.
About 120,000 vehicles per day travel around the S-shaped bend on the lakefront roadway--many of the drivers going faster than the 25 m.p.h. speed limit, following the car in front of them too closely or changing lanes improperly, police and transportation officials said.
Many of the minor accidents result in drive-offs and are not counted in official accident reports. Police records point to as many as 200 crashes per year. On average, there are three accidents for every 1 million cars that navigate the curve, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation.
"This curve is the highest accident location along the entire [Lake Shore] Drive," CDOT spokesman Brian Steele said. "That said, a vehicle traveling through the curve at the proper speed limit will have no problems at all."
Signs alerting drivers to the curve ahead, flashing lights and black-and-yellow stripes on the median walls have been added over the years, he said.
The Police Department is considering using video cameras and radar equipment to intensify the ticketing of speeders racing around the curve, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said. One problem, however, is the lack of space for a squad car to park next to the traffic lanes, she said.
CDOT painted elongated solid-white lane markings through the curve in late 2004 as a visual aid to help drivers stay in their lanes. In addition, the city now power-washes the pavement surface to remove rubber build-up from tires, Steele said. Friction tests after the hydro-cleaning showed a reduction in skidding by as much as 37 percent, he said.
The number of reported accidents at the curve has declined, to 131 in 2005 from 202 in 2004, according to CDOT records. Steele conceded that other factors could account for some of the change, and the city will wait for 2006 data before pointing to any positive trends.
But other city officials and neighborhood organizations are already pointing fingers.
Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd) said the city has not done enough to protect drivers traveling in his ward on what he calls "the most dangerous curve in the United States."
Natarus said Friday that he is frustrated by the situation. He said he'll spend some ward money on a study to see how much it would cost to "impregnate the pavement with permeated asphalt, like they have as you drive up to toll booths," along the length of the curve.
Translated, the alderman is talking about rumble strips. The idea perhaps would result in one of the longest rumble strips in the United States.
One thing is certain--it would be noisy. But would it make drivers take notice and slow down?
"All right, yes, there is noise, but there are crashes there all the time. I have been asking the city to do this for years, and it's time we accept the tradeoff between noise and public safety," Natarus told Getting Around.
He would have to persuade the state to go along with his plan. Lake Shore Drive, most of which is designated U.S. Highway 41, is officially the responsibility of the state. The Illinois Department of Transportation oversees major reconstruction of the roadway, while Chicago is responsible for pothole patching and other repairs as well as providing police patrols.
IDOT could consider re-designing the segment of Lake Shore Drive to soften the curve during the next overhaul of the road, which currently is not funded or scheduled. Such a plan, however, likely would require reducing the size of the popular beach.
Meanwhile, an IDOT spokesman said the agency has not been contacted by Natarus. From the city's perspective, Steele said, the constant washboard sound of 120,000 cars going over rumble strips daily would be unacceptable.
Still, the doormen and janitors in the building at 990 N. Lake Shore Drive--ground zero for watching accidents on the curve--agree with Natarus.
"Rumble strips are needed on the whole curve because even if it's a light rain or snow, as soon as they clean up one accident another occurs," said Samuel Fisher, 20, a maintenance worker in the building. "The guys working in the garage stand out front and watch, waiting for accidents," Fisher said, pointing to areas of missing concrete in the median wall.
More certainly can be done to warn drivers to pay attention to the perils of the curve's sharp turning radius, especially during bad weather, said Jim Houston, president of the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents.
"What is out there now is normal signage, which drivers ignore because they know they can get away with going a lot faster when the road is dry," Houston said. He and other organization members will ask city officials to install an electronic message board that can be activated when conditions warrant to warn drivers, "Slippery pavement ahead, slow to 15 m.p.h."
As for Natarus' rumble-strip idea, Houston said: "I think the alderman would get a lot of phone calls from angry, sleepless residents."