Residents, public safety officials press Beach Park board for action on Beach Road traffic and parking

Residents of Beach Park told the village board at a regular meeting that traffic, speeding and parking connected to the Waukegan sports complex and seasonal events are creating persistent safety hazards on Beach Road and nearby residential streets. Numerous speakers urged the board to work with Waukegan and Lake County and to deploy short- and long-term measures to reduce volume and speed.

The concerns ranged from near-miss collisions and unauthorized parking to emergency-vehicle access problems. “We had people over, and we had several close calls, of children almost getting hit,” resident Alan Anderson said. “We had more than 80 cars a day on average down our road at more than 50 miles an hour and more than 400 cars a day down our road that are over speed,” he said, describing older speed-study data his group had previously gathered.

Jordan Hasky, a longtime resident who described prior experience seeking roadway solutions from the village, said temporary measures such as speed trailers only partly help and urged the…