COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Three Colerain Avenue intersections and more than a dozen in the Greater Cincinnati area are included in a list of the state's most dangerous intersections recently released by Ohio Department of Transportation.
The worst in our area is Reading and Elsinore near downtown, with state data showing an average of 55 crashes there each year.
ODOT's list shows Colerain Avenue at Virginia Avenue, North Bend Road and West Galbraith in need of a close look.
"It's very dangerous," Darryl Newman said after walking along Colerain Avenue during rush hour. "They don't have enough stop signs in the area."
Drivers and passengers in the area said traffic issues are accelerating on that busy stretch of U.S. 27.
"Looks like you might have to have speedbumps all the way up Colerain Avenue to slow it down," Newman said.
"We're looking for trends," ODOT spokesperson Matt Bruning said. "Are there things that we can see are commonly occurring at locations that feel like engineering solutions could maybe reduce the risk of crashes from happening in this location?"
Those changes could be as simple as upgraded signage or as complicated as a total redesign.
"It's a process that works its way through," Bruning said. "First, it's identifying what kinds of problems we're seeing; then there's the designing of the solution, selling the contract, building it."
Some drivers blame the sheer volume of traffic on the road.
"I feel like the real issues is these roads are taking more traffic than they were designed for originally," said Joel Cotton, who has driven on Colerain Avenue daily for the past 20 years, "and because the highway's always being in a state of disrepair and lanes broken down."
ODOT hasn't given an exact timetable for studies or potential redesigns of those intersections.
