Hamilton Avenue in Northside has become a safer place for pedestrians since a Sept. 8 traffic death demonstrated the seriousness of widespread concerns about pedestrian safety in the neighborhood’s bustling business district.
Sarah Cole, owner of Tickle Pickle restaurant, was struck and killed that day during rush hour, when the quaint strip is known to transform into a high-traffic artery connecting Clifton with northern neighborhoods.
Police say the driver who hit Cole was found to have been obeying the law at the time of the accident and was not responsible for Cole’s death. But the heavy traffic flow along Hamilton Avenue — including cylists, pedestrians and motorists — along with the narrow street has been a recipe for problems for awhile, residents say.
“We have quite a bit of traffic coming through the business district, a lot of commuters coming to and from work, a lot of visitors coming to the business district to patronize the businesses here,” says Oliver Kroner, Northside Community Council president. “And they move at a fast pace through a fairly dense neighborhood. This neighborhood was designed before we had cars, so it wasn’t designed to handle this capacity of traffic.”
Northside isn’t the only neighborhood facing these issues. Hyde Park and Clifton residents have also requested safety improvements in pedestrian infrastructure, according to City Councilwoman Amy Murray, who chairs the city’s Transportation Committee.
Hyde Park Square in particular has considerable blind spots near the fountain and park in the heart of the neighborhood. It’s a common spot for people to relax in Hyde Park’s business district, but the shrubbery and landscaping also offer challenges to keeping pedestrians safe.
“There are huge issues there right now because it’s a heavily walked area,” Murray says. “At Hyde Park Square there are crosswalks, but it always worries me because the cars go very fast. What worries me too is there you have the shrubs and the plants — a car might not be able to see you until you’re in the crosswalk.”
Some safety measures are already in place, such as walkways from the center square that stop at the street and force pedestrians to turn right or left before entering the street. But, Murray says, more should be done. More signage and new lights could be added, she says.
Murray says the Northside improvements happened faster than usual due to the tragedy, but there won’t be a fundamental change in the way the city handles safety improvement requests.
“We try to be very responsive when a neighborhood has concerns about safety and signage,” Murray says. “The city responds wherever there is a need.”
Cincinnati City Council moved quickly to attend to Northside’s calls for help after the tragedy. City Councilman David Mann proposed upgrading the infrastructure along Hamilton Avenue, and City Council unanimously agreed to the proposal, which has resulted in additional signage, radar-actuated signs and crosswalk improvements.
“It struck me personally,” Mann says. “Because I was at the (Northside) Community Council meeting the month before and somebody stood up and said, ‘What’s it going to take? Someone to get killed?’ It was just awful. And, of course, that’s what happened. It obviously shouldn’t require that to get attention.”
The city has since installed new “reduce speed ahead” signs that can be seen when entering the business district and repainted crosswalks on Hamilton Avenue with what Cincinnati Department of Transportation and Engineering Director Michael Moore calls a “striped or piano-key style” paint scheme to make them more visible.
“These are more apparent and visible than the transverse bars that were there previously,” Moore says. “We also installed a new crosswalk at Palm (Avenue, at the northeast corner of Hoffner Park), although the installation of curb ramps will take a bit longer in order to design the ramps and grading.”
Moore says the city is in the process of obtaining a radar-actuated “Your speed is XX” sign that will flash when vehicles travel greater than the posted speed. These signs will also capture traffic data that can be used for additional, targeted enforcement and for vehicle counts. He says the police increased patrols and speed enforcement as well.
Kroner, of Northside’s community council, says these improvements are significant and that he is pleased they’ve moved forward. Besides Hamilton Avenue, Kroner says he would like to see attention given to Virginia Avenue, another busy commuter route that has visibility issues and could benefit from more traffic lights.
“I think for a long time, our engineers have given favor to auto traffic, and we have a neighborhood that is really pedestrian-heavy,” Kroner says. “I’d really like to see better enforcement of the pedestrian right-of-way, forcing cars to stop for pedestrians, as is state law.
“I can tell you from experience that the cars do not stop for pedestrians. They drive through. You really have to let them know that you’re there.”
Northside’s business district is growing. The mixed-use Gantry Apartments development at Hamilton Avenue and Blue Rock Street will bring additional residents and customers to a busy corner at Hamilton Avenue and Blue Rock Street.
“We’ve worked very hard to create a walkable neighborhood,” Kroner says. “We have strollers around, little kids, families trying to use the business district, and that doesn’t interact well with the fast pace of traffic. It’s been an issue that’s been growing as the neighborhood sees some success in the business district.” ©
This article appears in Dec 7-14, 2016.