PORTAGE PARK — Drivers slowed to a stop as a steady stream of pedestrians walked across the new raised crosswalk outside Portage Park Elementary School on Thursday morning.

Just a year ago, the scene in front of the school would have been far more chaotic, said Patrick Corcoran, a Portage Elementary parent.

The Chicago Department of Transportation has spent two years improving traffic safety throughout the neighborhood with speed bumps, curb extensions and a neighborhood greenway with bike lanes.

Portage Park Elementary students, parents and alds. Ruth Cruz (30th) and Nicholas Sposato (38th) gathered outside the school Thursday to celebrate the new traffic-calming measures.

“We built this for you,” David Smith, assistant commissioner of project development for CDOT, told a group of Por

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