The Champaign City Council passed three measures in hopes of making Prospect Avenue safer for students walking to South Side Elementary School.

The council voted to install a school zone with a crossing guard at the intersection of Prospect Avenue and Daniel Street, update the city’s inventory of school zones and develop crossing guard criteria. The city will also consider evaluating accessibility improvements to the Prospect and Green intersection during evaluation of the city’s capital improvement plan.

“I feel this will go a long way in making travel to and from school safer,” said Bill Taylor, principal of South Side Elementary School. 

The measures were passed following an accident in September when a car struck a 7-year-old student on her way home from school, leaving the student with a broken leg. Although the accident brought safety concerns to light, Taylor said he was concerned about students crossing Prospect even before the accident. 

“There’s nothing stopping the cars from Green Street to Kirby (Avenue), so they get going really fast, and we have small children and families in the morning to get here and crossing it to go home in the afternoon,” Taylor said. “With the speed of the traffic and the amount of the traffic, it’s a dangerous situation.”

The accident prompted Taylor, the victim’s parents and other community members to urge the Champaign City Council and the Champaign Police Department to make Prospect Avenue safer for students.

Included in the council report was a picture the victim drew of herself in a cast and crutches with a crossing guard holding an American flag in one hand and a school zone sign in the other. At the top of the page, she typed “I got hurt on Prospect. Please make it safe!”

Mayor Don Gerard knows the dangers presented by Prospect Avenue because he grew up near it. Also, his two children attended South Side Elementary School and crossed Prospect Avenue on their way to and from school. 

“When I had my kids, oftentimes it felt safer and easier just to drive them a few blocks,” he said. “Granted, I was on my way to work. But when we did walk, it wasn’t just cross the street and go to school, it was go all the way up to the light and down back around.”

Students are advised to cross Prospect Avenue at the Green Street intersection because there is a stoplight. The changes will allow students to cross Prospect Avenue in the school zone at Daniel Street with a crossing guard, which leads directly to South Side Elementary School. 

“We’ll start to change the culture, get people’s attention and get them slowing down,” Gerard said. “If most of the traffic is slowing down, all of the traffic will be slowing down.”

At the meeting, Deputy Mayor Tom Bruno suggested that students who cross Prospect Avenue while walking to school could attend another elementary school that does not require them to cross the busy road.

Parents in Unit 4 School District can apply for admission to a variety of elementary and middle schools, according to Unit 4’s registration website. Because of this, students may attend a school that may not necessarily be closest to their house.

Bruno questioned whether students living west of Prospect Avenue could attend Westview Elementary School, which would prevent students from crossing Prospect Avenue, but the council does not have authority over where students attend school.

“Anything is better than nothing, and these are pretty substantial acts we’re going to be taking,” Gerard said.

Of the four issues presented at the meeting, three were passed. Council members rejected a fourth plan to direct staff to evaluate the feasibility of applying “Complete Street” standards to Prospect Avenue, which recognizes the need to accommodate all modes of transportation, including vehicles, transit, bicycles and pedestrians and would possibly reduce Prospect to three lanes of travel. 

Angelica can be reached at [email protected].