Stoplight at 25th and Broadway to remain

QUINCY — The lore of the 25th and Broadway stoplight lives on.

The Quincy City Council voted unanimously at its meeting Monday night to keep the light after completion of the Illinois Department of Transportation’s (IDOT) traffic study, which only occurred because the city had requested it after receiving so many comments and questions about the light’s necessity.

The vote came after input from businesses surrounding the intersection, like that of Culver’s owner Lindsay May.

“We receive daily complaints about the difficulty of pulling out of our lot onto Broadway,” May said. “We have many guests who are older and are now refusing to patronize us because of the traffic conditions.”

May said that her restaurant experienced a negative impact on sales growth of more than 10 percent after the study began on Oct. 7. She then read an email from one of her patrons that complimented the business’s friendly service, but said they “pray (the city) wakes up from their study to see that the stoplight is necessary.”

The study “analyzed traffic volumes, crash data and public feedback” throughout the course of the 90-day study. In conclusion of its findings, IDOT recommended the lights be removed, as did the city’s traffic commission.

A few of the study’s findings were:

• Drivers turning left onto Broadway from 25th experienced an average wait time of 60 seconds during peak traffic hours
• Pedestrians took an average of one minute 38 seconds to find a gap in traffic and cross Broadway on 25th.
• Pedestrians took an average of four minutes and 50 seconds to take a detour down to 24th, press the pedestrian crossing button, cross from one side of Broadway to the other and return to 25th.

Additionally, roughly two-thirds of vehicle crashes that occurred in the vicinity of the light in the last five years were found to be “intersection related.” Half of those were rear end collisions. No crashes were observed throughout the study.

Nearly 25,000 vehicles frequent Broadway on a daily basis. The volume of traffic on 25th — roughly 250 to 750 cars daily — was found to be similar to several other streets that intersect with Broadway without stoplights, such as Ninth, 14th, 16th and 28th Streets.

The overall cost of removing the light would have been around $40,000. City engineering manager Steven Bange estimated the city would only have had to pay $10,000 to $20,000 of the costs. The study also notes that the signals at 24th and Broadway “will be modernized as part of the upcoming improvement scheduled for Broadway” with optimized signal timing and accessible pedestrian signals.

Now that the council has voted in favor of reinstating the signals, new signals will be installed which will cost 10 times more than the cost of removing them. The city’s contribution will only be a fraction of the $400,000 cost of new signals, though, around $46,000. Maintenance costs to operate the light are $1,620 annually.

The study states that accessible pedestrian signals and traffic signal heads per lane will be provided with the new signals, and the timing will be optimized.

In Bange’s summary of the study’s findings to the council, he identified five pros and five cons of keeping the signal:

Pros

• Protected turns for drivers turning left onto Broadway from 25th St.
• Protected crossing opportunities for pedestrians
• Easier access to nearby businesses
• Traffic flow familiarity
• Signal modernization

Cons

• Unwarranted by standards established by the Manual on Uniform Traffic Devices
• A potential 70% crash reduction
• Cost
• Unnecessary delays for the nearly 25,000 vehicles per day on Broadway when cross-traffic of the 250 to 750 vehicles per day on 25th St. is minimal
• Federal Highway Administration research, which indicates that “removing unwarranted signals can reduce crashes, eliminate red light violations and reduce intersection wait times”

The lights were installed in 1974 to accommodate traffic from nearby Madison School. Broadway Street expanded from a 2-lane to a 4-lane street at the same time.

Additionally, the council approved a taxi/limousine license for Integrity Community Taxi, LLC, a transportation company owned by Jay Albert and Landon Tenhouse.

According to a memo written by Lt. Chad Scott in summary of a public hearing held May 31, 2024, Albert has a history as a paramedic/EMT and Tenhouse has a history as a firefighter/EMT. In their work, they discovered a need for medically-related, non-ambulatory transportation services, such as for patients with mental health conditions, in wheelchairs and on stretchers, and have already been fulfilling that need in collaboration with area hospitals and agencies.

The council also approved the city’s commitment to purchase 600 tons of rock salt totaling up to $290,000 for the 2025-2026 winter season.

Lastly, the council heard the second reading of:

• An ordinance vacating a public alley in the 4th Ward.
• An ordinance granting a special use permit for the expansion and improvement of various Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc. locations.
• An ordinance vacating 27,500 square feet of undeveloped road in the 3rd Ward bounded by Northbrook and Southbrook Roads.