The most recent Cincinnati budget included record-high funding for pedestrian safety: about $7 million total, mostly from federal stimulus.
Some of the funding is being used to pilot new ideas to calm traffic and make it safer to walk or roll (via bike, wheelchair, or other mobility assistance) throughout the city.
WVXU sat down with Mel McVay, a senior city planner and manager of the city's pedestrian safety program (sometimes called Vision Zero). Here are six projects the city is piloting right now.
1. Centerline hardening
Centerline hardening, also called hardened centerlines, is the most recent pilot project for the city.
Rubber bumps and sometimes vertical rubber paddles are placed on the double yellow line in an intersection, forcing drivers turning left to dramatically slow down and preventing drivers from crossing the line.
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"This is a tool that's currently being used in New York City, Washington, D.C., Seattle, and they've all seen huge reductions and conflicts between drivers and pedestrians," McVay said. "So we're hoping to see that same type of success here in Cincinnati."
2. Speed cushions
Speed cushions are similar to the more-familiar speed humps or speed bumps: a raised surface that forces drivers to slow down.
But while speed humps span an entire lane or even the entire width of the street, speed cushions have cutouts that allow emergency vehicles to continue without having to slow down.
The city first started piloting speed cushions in late 2021, installing rubber cushions on Winneste Ave in Winton Hills. The results were pretty dramatic: average speed dropped from 37 mph to 20 mph and the percentage of vehicles going over the speed limit dropped from 95% to 11%.
"They worked great, but had some issues over the winter, which we expected but wanted to test and find out for sure," McVay said.
Next, they tried asphalt speed cushions, but McVay says that material proved difficult to work with for this purpose.
Monday morning, city officials plan to show off Phase 3 of this pilot project: concrete speed cushions.
"We are very optimistic that these are going to be just perfect and do exactly what we want in terms of calming traffic," McVay said.
3. Leading pedestrian intervals
"Leading pedestrian interval" (or LPI) is a fancy term for change to traffic lights to give pedestrians a three to five second head start to cross the street at an intersection.
"And what this does is it makes the pedestrian more visible to drivers that are turning, and it also helps the pedestrian establish that they have the right of way and that drivers should be yielding to them," McVay said.
The city plans to add LPIs to more than 130 intersections this year, focusing first on neighborhood business districts, schools and recreation centers.
Unfortunately it's not as simple as updating a bit of code in a centralized system.
"In most corridors, multiple intersections are linked, and the timing is synced; so if you go out and make one change at an intersection, you almost always have to also adjust the signal timing at the other adjacent intersections," McVay said. "So it's way more intensive than people would think."
See a Leading Pedestrian Interval in action below:
With DOTE's rollout of Leading Pedestrian Intervals (LPIs) over the next year, we decided to check out an intersection with one already in place. Thanks to @RoadmapCincy for their work; I'm looking forward to seeing these installed near schools and rec centers! pic.twitter.com/9wz2yzrWZC
— Councilman Mark Jeffreys (@ccc_jeffreys) December 6, 2022
4. In-house work crew
Late last year, the Department of Transportation and Engineering had an idea: what if some pedestrian safety infrastructure could be installed in-house instead of finding and hiring a contractor?
DOTE pitched the idea to Council and got about $900,000 approved through the end of June 2023.
The city is still hiring one or two more people to finalize the five-member team, but the crew is already out working in the meantime.
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"It is working exactly the way that we had hoped it would it — it's an opportunity for us to do things cheaper and quicker," McVay said.
For example, a resident suggested a location for a hardened centerline. It fit all the criteria, so McVay says they decided to move ahead with it.
"The engineers are drawing it up, we'll have it sent over to the pedestrian crew in the next two or three days, and they should be able to have it installed by the end of next week," she said. "So, much faster than waiting to include it in a bid package, putting it out to bid, and months of construction as part of other projects."
Plus, she says, the crew can be proactive, fixing issues they notice as they're out working.
"Typically, we're just completely reliant on citizens to report via 311 when things need to be repaired," McVay said. "And sometimes there will be things broken or damaged for months before we even find out about it."
5. Plastic curb extensions
A curb extension does exactly what it sounds like: extends the curb out into the street, shortening the distance a pedestrian has to walk through a traffic lane.
Curb extensions are typically made of concrete, which can cost up to $100,000 for a set of two.
"We recently have started installing them using plastic or rubber paddles and bumps instead, and found that we can do this at a fraction of the cost — maybe $20,000 for a set of two," McVay said.
She says it's also a great opportunity for community art with pavement murals, plus a related pilot: thermoplastic.
"Thermoplastic is what we use to stripe the lane lines in streets — like the double yellow line, or the white dashed line lines — so it's very durable," McVay said. "Last year, we used purple preformed thermoplastic to color the inside of a plastic curb extension over on Linn Street. And the hope being that the bright color sort of draws attention to the area, slows people down, creates this sense of place."
6. Rightsizing
"Rightsizing is when we repurpose a part of the street," McVay said.
That could mean turning a travel lane into a 24-hour parking zone, or a bike lane.
"Typically, this results in a street that has one travel lane in each direction, and sometimes maybe a center turn lane," McVay said. "But it forces traffic to slow down; it creates a pace car effect where no one can go faster than the car in front of them."
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McVay says one of the first places they tried this was Delta Ave. in Mt. Lookout.
"Delta is kind of a straight street, it's downhill; they just had all kinds of issues with people just speeding and knocking side mirrors off of cars — it was a racetrack," she said. "And when we changed that street design and right-sized it to be the one lane each direction with the center turn lane and the bike lane, traffic just immediately was significantly calmer."
One in progress right now is on a two-mile stretch of Glenway Ave. in West Price Hill.
A new traffic pattern between Beech Ave. and Shirley Place reduces traffic to one lane in each direction, adds a two-way left-turn lane and full-time on-street parking in the curb lane on either side of the road. The changes will be in place until August while the city collects feedback through an online survey.
McVay said they're planning similar pilots for Beekman Ave. later this summer, and Harrison Ave. in another year or two.
How to ask for safety projects in your neighborhood
McVay says the best way to request a crosswalk, speed cushions, stop sign, or any other project is to go through your Community Council.
"That allows us to prioritize the requests," she says. "As I'm sure you can imagine, we receive a very large number of requests for everything imaginable."
That's just where things start, though; funding for pedestrian safety infrastructure goes through a consistent investigation that includes speed data, crash data, proximity to things like schools, parks, business districts, and equity.
"We look at the percentage of households in that area who do not have access to a vehicle, the assumption being if you don't have access to a vehicle, you're going to be more reliant on transit, or you're going to be walking around a lot more," McVay said.
Projects are prioritized based on how they score, and then DOTE funds as many as possible before the money runs out. If more money becomes available, the next project on the list is the top priority.
You can see the list of projects submitted and funded for Fiscal Year 2023 (which ends June 30) online at this link.
