CRESTWOOD, Ill. — A south suburban intersection once criticized as a notorious “red-light camera trap” has undergone significant upgrades.
The ABC7 I-Team first reported on this issue nearly a decade ago.
On Wednesday, the I-Team uncovered new information regarding the intersection, which is currently the focus of a class-action lawsuit.
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Both drivers who received tickets and a traffic safety expert had labeled it a “red-light camera trap.” However, recent developments have even won over the intersection’s harshest critic, who is now applauding the enhancements.
Although new red-light cameras have been installed, there are substantial modifications at the Crestwood intersection of Cicero Avenue and Cal-Sag Road.
Mark Wallace from Citizens to Abolish Red Light Cameras noted, “They’ve completely redesigned this turn…”
Mark Wallace from Citizens to Abolish Red Light Camera showed the I-Team the improvements.
“They’ve completely redesigned this turn,” Wallace said. “In this right turn lane, there was not a signal here before at all. And they were actually giving tickets to anybody who turned in this lane. So, they didn’t have a signal like they have now.”
Those signals on the right also have right-turn arrows. The white stop line is clearer, too. Drivers now approach it sooner. The other line was farther down the curve.
“This is where people would come up, and they would creep up… and they would make a turn if they thought it was safe but there as no traffic signal,” Wallace said.
In 2017, the I-Team reported on this and other suburban intersections that drivers called confusing: Designated right-hand turn lanes with a curve. The intersections had traffic lights to the left but no traffic signals to the right. And when drivers creep up the curve, they may not be able to see the light.
One traffic expert the I-Team talked to said the intersections violated federal guidelines in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. That’s because the traffic lights were outside of drivers’ “cone of vision.” The Illinois Department of Transportation maintained the intersections met federal and state standards.
Crestwood leaders had always disagreed, and now Mayor Ken Klein says the changes were not due to criticism. IDOT says it widened three area intersections, installed new traffic signals, ADA-compliant sidewalk ramps and new striping.
Wallace believes it’s the village’s response to a pending class-action lawsuit filed in October of 2017, after the I-Team’s reporting.
“They should refund every dollar that they received,” Wallace said.
The old cameras that generated that money were removed in 2023. Data obtained by the I-Team shows they racked up more than $17 million between 2016 and 2022. In a Freedom of Information Act request, the village said it couldn’t tell ABC7 how much revenue has been generated since the new cameras were installed in early 2026, after the intersection improvements, saying those citation reports “have not yet been reconciled.”
Wednesday evening, the village said it has made more than $50,000 in revenue since those cameras went back up in January.
The class-action case to recover money from the former intersection is slow going.
Crestwood has not commented on the lawsuit but has filed a motion to dismiss. However, the case is still active.
Year Total Municipality Revenue
2016: $899,412.00
2017: $3,112,064.37
2018: $3,413,381.04
2019: $3,232,511.59
2020: $2,472,188.30
2021: $2,198,139.99
2022: $1,841,171.81
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