Drivers should pay extra attention while navigating Algonquin’s neighborhood streets because more stop and yield signs will be popping up throughout the village.
Algonquin police and public works are putting up new stop or yield signs at more than two-dozen uncontrolled four-way intersections throughout the village.
Police began taking a look at intersections after noticing crashes occurring in residential neighborhoods last summer, Algonquin Police Chief Russell B. Laine said. The department’s Traffic Safety Unit wanted to see if there was appropriate signage and do an inventory of where signs were posted, he said.
What the unit found is 32 uncontrolled four-way intersections, including two where the crashes occurred, Laine said. Uncontrolled intersections means there are no signs, neither a stop or yield sign, posted. Additionally, there were over 80 signs that were not listed in the village’s Stop and Yield Intersections Ordinance.
There were also stop signs in the wrong locations and signs that were listed in the ordinance but were not on the street, according to village documents.
Uncontrolled intersections can cause problems because the driver on the left has to yield to a driver on the right, regardless of the type of road, according to the village. The rule can cause safety problems on major streets like Stonegate Road and Huntington Drive, Laine said. The lack of signs has something to do with the way the neighborhoods were designed, but police want to prevent crashes on those streets, he said.
Algonquin police updated the village’s ordinance to correct the discrepancies and the Public Works Department has begun putting up signs at intersections, Laine said. So far, five new signs have been placed at the uncontrolled intersections, reducing the total from 32 to 27.
“We are always looking for ways to make the streets safer for people. We think this will do that,” Laine said.
