This is the work we are meant to do.

This march of marking sticks and the tree tagged for removal plot out the realignment of Sag Valley Trail’s crossing at 104th Avenue in southwest Cook County, just south of Route 83. In August, Patrick Mizwicki was killed by a car while crossing here. He was training with his high school cross country team on the breathtakingly beautiful trails around Swallow Cliff. He was 14.

Patrick’s family is a strong and courageous bunch. Nearly all of them run. They responded to the tragedy in an amazing way: With a call for help to make the 104th Ave. intersection safer to better protect trail users, and their families.

I’ve worked with local park districts for years, and the Mizwicki’s inquiries with them led them here, to Trails for Illinois.

The Sag-Valley Trail doesn’t cross 104th in a straight line; the trail is offset on each side by about 20 feet, so the marked crosswalk angles across the pavement at maybe 45 degrees. Remember Pythagorus? At an angle is the longer way across a road.

We timed crossing the street in the crosswalk and compared it against crossing at a right angle. Using the crosswalk nearly doubled our time on the road, in traffic lanes, in the way of traffic.

We videoed trail users. Lots of times people start in the crosswalk, then try to shorten the trip by veering straight across. You can see for yourself why - you feel like you’re exposed for too long.

We shared these observations with the Mizwickis, and suggested a quick improvement: realign the trail crossing. It would cut crossing time, and exposure to danger, by half. We offered other ideas too that do more, but take more money, and/or more bureaucracy and time, to realize. Moving the crosswalk to straight across just seemed to be the biggest improvement in the shortest amount of time. The Mizwickis shared the data and the recommendations with the Cook County Highway Department.

Just two months later, there are sticks plotting a realignment, and trees marked for removal.

Yes I feel bad about the 3-4 trees. But I’m so used to things getting built or fixed over years—overall I feel elated. Cook County Highways and the Forest Preserve District are, from a bureaucratic perspective, realigning this trail at a “shock and awe” pace. Their response is rising to the gravity of the situation. For Illinois agencies, too often that’s not the norm.

It’s the most important thing I think that Trails for Illinois has ever done. And this has legs—Cook County Highways will do a speed study this spring on 104th to begin evaluating other recommendations. And the Forest Preserve has begun thinking about evaluating all of its trail crossings.

Raising the profile of trails in our state’s planning, our economic development, our health decisions is a core activity of Trails for Illinois. We do not want tragedy to be a necessary prerequisite for that work. We want to bring about trail design that prevents tragedies, not responds to them—that’s where the war is won.

We are so grateful that we were given the opportunity to help the Mizwickis and all the trail users out in Palos.

This is the work we are meant to do.