Data from the city of Cincinnati shows that between 2023 and 2025, approximately 24% of the city's 35,474 car crashes occurred within 1,000 feet of a school. That number jumps to over 32% when considering total crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists.
During a joint meeting on Tuesday, Cincinnati Board of Education members and Council's Youth & Human Services Committee said they'd like to see more traffic calming measures and enforcement in school zones to alleviate the issue.
While road diets and speed cushions have been added near some schools, they haven't stopped some drivers from exceeding the posted 20 mph school zone speed limit elsewhere.
In April, the city collected speed data in front of six Cincinnati Public Schools. At all of those schools, only around 1% or fewer drivers exceeded speeds of 40 mph, but at Woodward, Withrow, and Dater high schools, more than 70% of drivers exceeded the school zone limit. Withrow High School had the highest, with 87% of drivers going faster than 20 mph during enforced hours.
Council member Anna Albi says a solution could be a greater investment and expansion of traffic calming measures outside of schools, rather than upping the police presence to catch speeding drivers, which she says could make incidents more dangerous.
"If you have a cop who's sitting there doing a traffic stop ... if a car speeds by, then suddenly you have two cars speeding through a school zone," Albi said. "That's why some of the structural improvements we've made with speed cushions and road diets have been so helpful, because it is a way to calm traffic without increasing risk."
Others suggested adding traffic cameras in school zones could also reduce the number of speeding drivers.
Though she says she dislikes traffic cameras, school board member Eve Bolton said it might be necessary to keep students safe near roadways.
"There is probably a greater need for camera activity, campus and street-wise," she said. "I hate to say that, but I think that could be helpful."
Traffic cameras haven't been used in Cincinnati for more than 15 years, after voters approved a city charter amendment to ban them in 2008. In 2023, Council member Jeff Cramerding attempted to get a repeal of that ban on the ballot, but other council members halted the effort.
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