CINCINNATI — The number of pedestrian-involved crashes in Cincinnati decreased last year, but city leaders say there's still work to be done.
A new report from the Cincinnati Police Department shows there were 291 pedestrian-involved crashes last year. It was a roughly 13% decrease from 2021.
"We know what we're doing is working and that's engineering, enforcement, education and we just need to continue driving those forward," council member Mark Jeffreys said.
There is a lot of collaboration going on to work towards further reducing the number of these crashes this year.
CPD regularly meets with the Cincinnati Department of Transportation and Engineering. The two share data and what they hear from community members and community advocates.
"They know the places where they feel uncomfortable, where they see near misses and those things aren't really tracked anywhere," said Mel McVay, manager of the City of Cincinnati's pedestrian safety program. "It's really helpful for us to be able to have those one-on-one conversations with folks in the neighborhoods and figure out, in addition to the crash data, what they're seeing, what they're hearing, what they're feeling."
The departments are then able to plan areas for enforcement as well as pedestrian safety improvements for specific street segments or specific intersections. For example, CPD issued more than 100 tickets on Colerain Ave between West Fork Road and W. North Bend Road last week.
McVay said there are already 45 spot improvement projects planned for this year and even more projects planned for certain corridors, like Glenway Ave. in West Price Hill.
The corridor-wide projects include repaving the road and restriping it with a traffic-calming design. The projects will also include some other pedestrian safety improvements, similar to what's planned for the spot projects.
This includes things like curb extensions, speed bumps and raised crosswalks.
The city also plans to roll out leading pedestrian intervals this year. This shows pedestrians the walk signal a few seconds before a traffic light turns green, giving them a head start in the crosswalk to make it easier for drivers to see them when they make a turn.
Jeffreys said these will be rolled out around schools and recreation centers first.
All of these projects are possible because of a record amount of money allocated towards the pedestrian safety program from the city's budget.
McVay said the program usually receives up to $1 million, but last year, the city allocated a record $8 million.
