Standing in front of Western Hills High School, the site of one of Cincinnati’s latest pedestrian hit-and-run accidents, Mayor John Cranley Jan. 18 announced steps the city will take to fight for pedestrian safety.
Among his proposals, Cranley voiced support for changing the city’s way of looking at traffic safety through an approach called Vision Zero, which creates specific benchmarks toward a goal of zero traffic fatalities. Transit activists and some Cincinnati City Council members have also voiced support for the approach, which cities like New York and Austin, Texas have adopted.
Cranley said the city will step up traffic enforcement and an estimated $500,000 will be used to improve streets in Westwood, Pleasant Ridge and Sayler Park. The city is also applying for a $400,000 Safe Routes to School grant to build a sidewalk at Sussex Avenue and Corbly Street in Mount Washington.
The city has a $500,000 annual Pedestrian Safety Fund, but Cranley said money from this fund will not be used on the improvements, but rather improvements will be funded through a tax grant and proceeds from the lease of the Cincinnati Southern Railway to Norfolk Southern.
Ferguson Road will be getting curb extensions to slow traffic in front of Western Hills High School and flashing lights at the crosswalks. Westwood will also have a crosswalk added to Glenway Avenue and Sidney Road as well as rush hour restrictions on Harrison Avenue from Montana Avenue to Boudinot Avenue — about a half-mile stretch of road near Westwood Elementary school.
“Northside recently got rid of the rush hour restrictions on Hamilton Avenue,” Cranley said. “They’ve seen a huge improvement in slowing down traffic and that’s essentially the lesson we’re bringing to Westwood.”
Sarah Cole was struck and killed by a car in Northside in September 2016, and Northside Community Council took action to prevent such accidents from occurring.
Before parking was allowed during rush hours, “Hamilton Avenue turned into a freeway during that time,” said James Heller-Jackson, former chair of the Northside Pedestrian Safety Committee, in a separate interview. The changes made were appreciated and helped the situation, but he said they should have come sooner.
“We, at that moment, were able to use the political expediency of the moment to give them a list of what we wanted,” Heller-Jackson said. “It wasn’t really until someone died and it really is a shame that this is the only way we can get policy change.”
Gabby Rodriguez is among the most recent casualties of pedestrian accidents — she was killed in a hit-and-run on Harrison Avenue in September 2018 while trying to catch her Metro bus to school. Her mother and father, Shawna and Eduardo Rodriguez, attended the announcement on Jan. 18 and Shawna wore a hoodie memorializing Gabby’s life, a reminder to those present and watching just what was at stake.
Following the announcement, Shawna said the efforts are “a start and hopefully this will save lives.” Now that their daughter is gone, Eduardo said city officials and supporters should be driven by the desire to protect their own children.
“Don’t do it for me, do it for your own kids,” he said. “Ours is gone and the way we feel is never going to go away.”
In order to get to her bus stop before school, Gabby had to walk across the four lanes of Harrison Avenue. Gabby had just started taking the Metro for the first time this school year, Shawna said.
Aside from Westwood, Pleasant Ridge will have a crosswalk and traffic light added at Grand Vista Avenue and Montgomery Road and Douglass Terrace will be closed to thru traffic.
Sayler Park will see a crosswalk and light added to Wilkins Short and River Roads.
In addition to these improvements, Cranley said the city will be seeking to pass an ordinance allowing for volunteer crossing guards, as currently people can only serve as crossing guards in a paid position.
“I know several people who are willing to volunteer to be crossing guards and if they go through the training and sign a waiver and are willing to do it on occasion for free, we should encourage that,” he said. “I am pledging today that I will become a crossing guard, assuming this law passes. I will do an hour a month and I am asking the citizens of this city to help children get to school by becoming volunteer crossing guards.”
Cranley also wants to amend the traffic code to give CPS-hired crossing guards the power to require drivers to stop.
The mayor’s endorsement of Vision Zero will likely please some of the city’s most passionate crusaders for pedestrian safety.
Derek Bauman, who ran for city council in 2017 and has been an outspoken advocate for safer pedestrian travel, said in a separate interview that Vision Zero is the change Cincinnati needs. He argues that pedestrians’ and bikers’ rights to the roadway should be just as respected and acknowledged as motorists’ are. He said cities used to be designed with foot traffic in mind, but now they have become “all about moving cars as fast as possible.”
“We got away from this notion that there should be user equity on our streets,” Bauman said. “City residents should think their streets should be for them and not just commuters blowing through it.”
This article appears in Jan 16-23, 2019.
