Randall Road

Randall Road is a major north-south county highway in McHenry and Kane County, Illinois. The road is named after Norman Randall, a prominent area landowner in the 1930s. It serves as the western extent of the Fox Valley suburbs in the Chicago metropolitan area. Its southern terminus is in Aurora, Illinois, at Marseillaise Place. Its northern terminus is not so clearly defined. As Randall Road runs north into Crystal Lake, it intersects McHenry Avenue at a stoplight. A short distance after the intersection, the road makes a 90-degree bend, and its name changes to James R. Rakow Road- although there is no sign indicating this- which runs east-west until it terminates at Illinois Route 31. The road is 31.4 mi (50.5 km) in length, and 34.1 mi (54.3 km) in length if James R. Rakow Road is included in the length measurement.

Towns Served

Randall Road runs through sections of the following towns from north to south: Crystal Lake, Lake in the Hills, Algonquin, Carpentersville, West Dundee, Sleepy Hollow, Elgin, South Elgin, St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, North Aurora, and Aurora.

Multilane Artery

The road is four lanes for the majority of its length, except for two small sections. The road is six lanes wide for a half-mile stretch in Algonquin, to accommodate traffic generated by the large outdoor malls Algonquin Commons and the Algonquin Galleria. Randall Road narrows to two lanes where it crosses over Interstate 88. A busy north-south artery, traffic counts average around 50,000 cars per day on some parts of the road.

Some of Randall Road's more important intersections are with Illinois 31 via Rakow Road in Crystal Lake, Algonquin Road in Algonquin, Huntley Road in Carpentersville, Illinois Route 72, Big Timber Road, and U.S. Route 20 in Elgin, Illinois Route 64 in Saint Charles, Illinois Route 38 in Geneva, Fabyan Parkway in Batavia, Orchard Road in North Aurora, and Indian Trail Drive and Galena Boulevard in Aurora. Randall Road has a complete interchange with Interstate 90 in Elgin, but does not have an interchange at Interstate 88, probably because the original East-West Tollway terminated just a few miles to the west. As a result, travelers will usually use Orchard Road to access Interstate 88.

Retail and Business Corridor

The road is well-known for being lined with retailers for nearly its entire length, with shopping centers being most concentrated in three clusters: Geneva/Batavia, South Elgin/Elgin and Algonquin/Lake in the Hills. Additionally, the large lifestyle centers Algonquin Commons, Algonquin Galleria, and Geneva Commons are all found along the corridor. Also in Elgin, Randall Road serves as a major corporate corridor and employment center near the I-90 interchange, from Route 72 to Big Timber Road, with major corporations running regional operations here, as well as two hotels. Development of the Algonquin Corporate Campus, further north, is also expected to add office buildings, industrial warehouses, and create high-paying jobs. In a few years, the Algonquin-Elgin area along Randall Road could become an edge city.

Other points of interest located on or near Randall Road include Kane County Fairgrounds and Government Center, Delnor Hospital, Provena St. Joseph's Hospital, Randall Oaks Park & Golf Course, Elgin Community College, Lake in the Hills Airport, and Aurora University. Sherman Hospital, currently located on the east side of Elgin, is currently constructing a new hospital at the northeast corner of Randall and Big Timber Roads, which is expected to open in 2010.

Contributor to Sprawl

Randall Road is often considered by many to be a poster-child for urban sprawl due to the proximity of mass single family and multifamily home developments, the multitude of big-box retailers and large industries, lack of walkability, limited public transportation options, traffic congestion, and so forth.

Randall Road was once considered to be the western frontier of Chicagoland, but as the area grows, Illinois Route 47, several miles to the west, is considered to be the new western frontier.

afety

Randall Road remains unique, due to its speed limit and amount of reckless driving. When rural roads are widened and built up, the speed limits are typically lowered. For much of its length, including some very high traffic zones up and down the corridor, the posted speed limit remains at 55 mph (88 km/h), the maximum allowed for a non-expressway under Illinois state law. However, short sections of the road have speed limits of 45 or 50 mph (72 or 80 km/h). Because of the high speed limit and high traffic volume, Randall Road has a lot of car accidents, many of them fatal. For example, Algonquin reports that at least 50% of traffic accidents within its boundaries occur on Randall Road.

In July 2006, municipal policing bodies with jurisdictions on Randall Road teamed up together to tackle hazardous driving and improve safety on the road. The program aimed to increase awareness, promote safety, and go after aggressive drivers, speeders, and those who run red lights. In an eight-hour period, more than 400 citations were given up and down the road.

Several municipalities, such as Algonquin and Lake in the Hills, have also begun installing red-light cameras which take photographs of vehicles that run red lights, and then issue the owner a speeding ticket in the mail. This initiative aims to curb reckless driving behaviors, particularly the tendency of high-speed traffic to run red lights, which poses significant danger and also causes delays.