Shortly after starting his midnight shift as a doorman at a Gold Coast high-rise a few years ago, Julian Fuentes heard a screech on nearby DuSable Lake Shore Drive. As he and some residents streamed outside to investigate, he said, he saw a car on its side and a fiery wreck.
“You can kind of feel the ground kind of shake a little bit,” Fuentes said. “Unfortunately, it’s one of those situations where you kind of think to yourself, ‘Not again.’”
The fatal November 2021 collision was one of the more traumatic crashes Fuentes said he’s witnessed on DuSable Lake Shore Drive, but it’s far from the only one. He said he saw multiple crashes weekly, from minor fender-benders to fearsome wrecks that left vehicles in flames, during the four years he worked nights.
To rein in dangerous motorists on Chicago’s lakefront roadway, where a 40 mph speed limit is often seen only as a suggestion, North Side state Sen. Sara Feigenholtz is pushing for safety measures that could ultimately include the installation of AI-powered cameras aimed at not only catching speeders but tracking driver behavior.
“Our phone rings constantly about this, and it has for many years,” Feigenholtz said of the perils of DuSable Lake Shore Drive. “We have to push forward and take advantage of the new technology that’s out there.”
The bill, which passed the state Senate last week, directs the University of Illinois Chicago Urban Transportation Center to conduct a study exploring “risky” driver behavior and crash-prone corridors on North and South DuSable Lake Shore Drive, including the “potential effectiveness of cameras powered by artificial intelligence” in reducing collisions.
A six-month study is estimated to cost $90,000, said a spokesperson for Feigenholtz’s office. The request would be made “once the legislative process is complete,” she said.
While details of what could be implemented aren’t laid out in the bill, the cameras Feigenholtz has in mind would be able to “track vehicles” as opposed to focusing only on a fixed point, and detect violations beyond just speeding, the Lakeview-area Democrat said.
Feigenholtz’s legislation, which still has to go through the House, is pared back from a previous version as it calls only for a study, not a mechanism to allow automated speed cameras along DuSable Lake Shore Drive. State law largely allows such cameras around parks and schools but does not allow them on the DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
Critics of roadway cameras say they simply provide means for additional punitive measures against motorists.
But there is little question that DuSable Lake Shore Drive is one of the city’s most dangerous roads, according to data Feigenholtz provided.
From 2019 through 2024, there were more than 16,000 crashes on DuSable Lake Shore Drive and its intersections — 2.5% of all crashes and nearly 7% of traffic fatalities citywide in an area that represents less than 0.5% of all roadways in Chicago, according to an analysis of city data from Lakeview Safe Streets Union organizer Michael McLean, who provided the data to Feigenholtz.
Just last week, a 72-year-old man standing in the median was fatally hit by a pickup truck on DuSable Lake Shore Drive near Roosevelt Road, according to police.
As with many proposals involving surveillance, the legislation studying cameras flashed yellow lights for privacy advocates.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois has broadly opposed state moves for additional surveillance, though neither the ACLU nor any other organizations or individuals have officially filed opposition to Feigenholtz’s bill.
“In general, we believe that reducing traffic deaths is an important goal, but as technology advances, limits and guardrails are vital to protect our privacy and liberty against omnipresent AI surveillance,” ACLU of Illinois spokesperson Ed Yohnka said in a message. “Policymakers need to know that advances in AI means surveillance cameras will not just record, they will be unceasing and unblinking.”
Those advances include the possibility of photos taken of drivers, passengers or the inside of cars, Yohnka said.
Gov. JB Pritzker said last week that he hadn’t seen Feigenholtz’s proposal but pointed to his support for cameras intended to bring down shootings and other crime on interstate highways, although those differ from the AI devices the legislation would consider.
The study would look into implementation of cameras powered by new technology used in Europe, Feigenholtz said. In the United Kingdom, for example, cameras installed by local law enforcement can detect violations, including texting while driving. British media reported that the cameras, which use AI to find multiple types of infractions in their feeds, quickly resulted in speeding tickets for hundreds of drivers.
The bill’s intent isn’t to punish drivers or even necessarily to raise revenue, Feigenholtz said. Rather, she said, the goal is to change driver behavior through, for example, warnings from police.
Some transit advocates, like Lakeview organizer McLean, would rather see additional revenue raised from traffic camera enforcement to support infrastructure that makes streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Cameras would be a “harm-reduction measure that we know based on evidence will have an immediate positive effect on saving people’s lives,” McLean said. “However, it’s ultimately my preference that the revenue be used to directly have safety improvements on the road itself.”
Rony Islam, an organizer with Chicago, Bike Grid Now! said he generally opposes additional enforcement measures altogether but supports a study that could show the most dangerous points on DuSable Lake Shore Drive, as Feigenholtz’s bill would provide.
“We think engineering should be the first approach,” said Islam, whose organization advocates for safer streets for cyclists an pedestrians across the city.
Skeptical of cameras because of the possibility of discriminatory enforcement, Islam said he instead supports infrastructure changes to DuSable Lake Shore Drive that would likely be more expensive, such as redesigning lanes and curves.
Pro-transit advocates for years have suggested overhauling DuSable Lake Shore Drive to make it more friendly to bus commuters and pedestrians accessing the lakefront, but those suggestions were largely excluded from a plan for the northern portion of the roadway recommended last year by city and state officials.
Another traffic safety push in Chicago this year, 1st Ward Ald. Daniel La Spata’s effort to lower the speed limit on many streets from 30 mph to 25 mph, failed to win over City Council. Some aldermen raised concerns about disproportionate enforcement against Black drivers.
In the fatal crash near Grant Park last week, police said a 26-year-old traveling northbound fatally struck a the 72-year-old man. The crash, about 5 a.m. Monday, shut down lanes for hours.
That part of the lakefront is represented by Democratic state Sen. Robert Peters, a cosponsor of the bill. Sen. Mike Simmons, a Democrat whose district covers the northern stretch of DuSable Lake Shore Drive, is not signed onto the bill and did not reply to a request for comment.
Feigenholtz said she’s heard complaints about safety on DuSable Lake Shore Drive from constituents throughout her decades representing parts of the area.
“Everybody who lives nearby has a story,” she said.
Something needs to be done to improve safety on Lake Shore in the near term, Feigenholtz said, as longer-term efforts percolate.
Fuentes, the doorman, said he simply wishes drivers would slow down.
“There are so many accidents where people are speeding down [the road],” he said. “It’s kind of getting ridiculous.”
The Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner contributed to this report.
