Raised crosswalks coming soon to Main and Vine Streets.

 

 

Devou Good working with Findlay Market for some data driven solutions to Elm and West Elder:
 

 

13 minutes ago, Dev said:

Devou Good working with Findlay Market for some data driven solutions to Elm and West Elder:
 

 

 

Glad they are looking into some more permanent solutions in this area. People drive very aggressively down this part of Elm speeding through crosswalks and a lot of cutting in and out of lanes.

 

I think the solution for most streets in OTR is going to be converting them back to two-way. There seems to be a dramatic difference between the way people drive on two-way streets like Vine and how they drive on one-way streets like Main/Walnut and Elm/Race around Findlay Market. Unfortunately Race can't be converted to two-way due to the placement of the streetcar tracks, but I don't see any reason Elm couldn't be converted...the city could literally make Elm Street two-way from Second Street to McMicken (it's already two-way south of Second) and I don't think it would cause any problems.

New raised crosswalks on Main are about half complete and already appear to be working.

 

 

50 minutes ago, taestell said:

New raised crosswalks on Main are about half complete and already appear to be working.

 

 

Agreed, but it also helps that the construction takes traffic down to just 1 lane… which shows that the street really only needs 1 lane of traffic. 

I agree the construction equipment has some impact as well, but I was surprised how many cars I was seeing slow way down before going over the raised crosswalks. Other than making the street two-way, this is probably the most effective thing the city can do to cut down on the excessive speeding and ATV cruising that happens on this street.

On 7/1/2021 at 8:46 PM, taestell said:

 and ATV cruising that happens on this street.

OR... they use it as a ramp on purpose? The kind of person who drives an ATV is often a thrill seeker so you cant make the raised sidewalks too appealing haha. 

In that pic the sign post is gonna put a halt to your fun real quick if you try jumping the bumpout on a quad

I saw somewhere that speed humps are being installed on Vine in OTR. Anyone know if these are going to be raised crosswalks or just speed humps? Raised crosswalks are a much better idea. Best to slow people down at greater points of conflict (intersections and crosswalks) than just some mid-block location where they will slow down and speed up again once they're past it.

 

I think OTR could use some raised intersections.

9 hours ago, Robuu said:

I saw somewhere that speed humps are being installed on Vine in OTR. Anyone know if these are going to be raised crosswalks or just speed humps? Raised crosswalks are a much better idea. Best to slow people down at greater points of conflict (intersections and crosswalks) than just some mid-block location where they will slow down and speed up again once they're past it.

 

I think OTR could use some raised intersections.

Same as on Main. Raised crosswalks. 

The City's page for the Neighborhood Street Calming Program has been updated. The previous list of requirements has been removed and there is no mention of petition paperwork. It just says to contact Brad Johnston at [email protected]. I've already been making a list for Madisonville based on feedback the Community Council has been receiving and it's 19 streets long! I've got another 8 listed that are not likely to be eligible as well.

More here.

1 hour ago, Dev said:

The City's page for the Neighborhood Street Calming Program has been updated. The previous list of requirements has been removed and there is no mention of petition paperwork. It just says to contact Brad Johnston at [email protected]. I've already been making a list for Madisonville based on feedback the Community Council has been receiving and it's 19 streets long! I've got another 8 listed that are not likely to be eligible as well.

More here.

 

Unfortunately, you still have to do the petition. I have a list of streets as well, but don't have the time to canvass every person on each of them and try to get them to sign. Will probably focus on a couple really bad ones.

Sidewalk bumpout at Vine & 15th, and 15th closed to cars for on-street dining:

 

New raised crosswalk between Warby Parker and future MadTree Alcove:

 

Sidewalk bumpout at 14th & Vine:

 

New raised crosswalk between Imagination Alley (currently being renovated) and The Mercer, with a new sidewalk bumpout on the east side of the street:

 

Center line shifted over on 13th Street to allow for a streatery for The Lackman:

 

New raised crosswalk in the 1200 block of Vine near the future Pearlstar:

 

New streateries for Senate and Bakersfield:

 

Taste of Belgium streatery on 12th Street:

 

Multiple new streateries on 12th Street for Taglio, Gomez, Revel, and Rhinehaus:

 

I am so glad the city finally got kinda serious about street calming measures in its urban core. The raised crosswalks are exactly what was needed. There are so many more neighborhoods that would benefit from the side walk bump outs, raised crossings, and streeteries. Hopefully, we dont just do OTR and call it "mission accomplished"

1 hour ago, taestell said:

Sidewalk bumpout at Vine & 15th, and 15th closed to cars for on-street dining:

When they were seeking input on Liberty Street, I suggested doing this exact thing. They were saying they couldn't change the north side of Liberty because they would have to redo all of the storm drains. The DOTE head at the time (I think it's a new guy now) said they won't use those because of the maintenance required for those drains. I'm glad whoever is at DOTE now thinks otherwise. Hopefully we can reduce Liberty at a later date by another lane with something like this. It wouldn't cost nearly as much as the newest diet.

^ The Vine Street approach was probably cheaper by a significant amount, but I will admit that it doesn't look nearly as nice as what was done on Main Street with "proper" bumpouts.

 

Leadership at DOTE does seem to be getting onboard with some new ideas like this, but I have heard that there are still a few dinosaurs holding things back. I would love to see our next mayor do a national search and bring in a new DOTE head who is willing to shake things up and really make Complete Streets a priority citywide.

Some nice quotes in this article from John Brazina, director for DOTE about how streets need to be physically modified to force cars to slow down:  

https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2021-08-03/9-cincinnati-streets-with-lots-of-crashes-prioritized-for-street-calming

 

9 hours ago, jwulsin said:

Some nice quotes in this article from John Brazina, director for DOTE about how streets need to be physically modified to force cars to slow down:  

https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2021-08-03/9-cincinnati-streets-with-lots-of-crashes-prioritized-for-street-calming

 

PowerPoint slides he brought with him are here

Some other random notes.

 

• Brazina mentioned that the intersection of Vine and Ehrman, which was recently named Sharesse ‘ReRe’ Crossing by the City, will get a full traffic light
• The speed cushions to be installed in Winton Hills are semi-temporary, and not made of asphalt. This is for test pilot purposes, though if the City owns them, they could temporarily install them elsewhere in the future. There was some back and forth from Seelbach about this because he doesn't understand the difference between the usage of speed humps, speed cushions, and raised crosswalks. To his credit, Brazina didn't have the clearest response. He also said that the extra $500k will be used to install these in business districts, school zones and near recreation areas. He gave an estimate of $10k for each so that's a lot of speed cushions!
• Jan-Michele Kearney asked about Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons. Brazina expressed skepticism about their effectiveness so it will be interesting to see if they don't recommend them anymore. In any case, the new set at Romana Place and Madison Road in Oakley just got installed. He also said that they cost $50k-80k, which seems really, really high.
• Landsman, the chair of the committee, did bring up changing speed limits and implementing "urban tacticalism." He also acknowledged that lower speeds reduce the severity of injuries.
• They also discussed an ordinance about e-scooters. The City Administration wants to update the municipal code now that the General Assembly has updated the ORC. It was held for later discussion because Mann wants to increase liabilities for e-scooter users.
• On Twitter, the Pedestrian and Bike page, mentioned that the previously approved Vision Zero projects, specifically the other raised crosswalks, may get delayed into spring of next year due to COVID furloughs. They were originally scheduled to be completed by September of 2021 and the first one was installed back in December.
• For the street calming program, I received confirmation residents will have to start the petitions all over again if they had submitted them in the past, but didn't get approved. They will look at streets with traffic counts up to 5k with speed limits up to 30 mph. I think it was 3k and 25 mph before, but I'm not sure. I was told that if a street with a 35 mph speed limit has less than 5k cars, they can "sometimes" get the speed limit reduced to make them eligible for speed humps. They are also looking at creating a program for streets above 5k cars a day and I assume that's the speed cushions. 

Can anyone clarify for me. When they say they want to add these speed cushions to school zones and biz districts does this mean neighborhoods/schools that are on large streets like Montgomery, Madison, Glenway or Erie? 

4 hours ago, cincydave8 said:

Can anyone clarify for me. When they say they want to add these speed cushions to school zones and biz districts does this mean neighborhoods/schools that are on large streets like Montgomery, Madison, Glenway or Erie? 

They have not specified.

 

So someone on Twitter just posted this and it would truly transform downtown. Apparently it's an unannounced project?? It would recess the highways. 

 

Found it here 

While I'd love that level of "spaghetti-reduction", I'm struggling to believe it's anything other than someone's fantasy project. There are zero exits to 2nd/3rd from 75 nor is there a way to get to eastbound Fort Washington Way from 75 south which seems like something ODOT would never in a million years allow to happen. Unless there's some other piece that I'm not seeing.

 

Realistically, I think the most we can hope for is a reduction in the interchange's size by minimizing the number of roads that connect directly to the highway, a simplification of the FWW/75 ramps, and a reintroduction of the street grid westward. Trenching 75 would be nice but I'd imagine the numbers don't make sense to do it like FWW and we'd only get it at key points to help maximize critical street grid and built-environment connections.

^ unannounced as in someone playing around on theiry computer.

What is the context of this "project?" I have an incredibly hard time believing that ODOT is going to spend hundreds of millions burying I-75 in a tunnel through the West End and removing Fort Washington Way West to I-75 North access. They can't even figure out how to build a new bridge over the river (although a lot of that is due to Kentucky). 

 

Don't get me wrong, this is an incredible vision. But this seems like someone's idealized dream, not something with basis in reality at the moment.

Edited September 1, 20213 yr by OliverHazardPerry

My biggest take away is that 75 really needs less connections to it right there. There's just so many that all just go to the same street and direction.

He's not wrong about being able to recess that part of 75. If you look at the area today, 5th, 6th, 9th and Court all viaduct over the highway as is. It looks like if you create a second Fort Washington Way and disperse the local traffic a la 2nd and 3rd into the rest of the city this can work. 

 

Judging by the way this looks, it appears someone has put more thought into it than for it to just be a fantasy project.

I'd clarify, by "like Fort Washington Way" I'm personally referring to less being sunken, but being sunken in a walled trench to minimize its width and allow it to be potentially built over in some manner at key locations (though this proposal doesn't show that aspect).

 

Reading through this posts and comments, it sounds like it's not one person's fantasy, but rather some sort of think tank's vision which they may be planning on taking to the city and state and ODOT to potentially press for changes. But it doesn't sound like there's any official "project" from any government agency here.

 

Good luck to them honestly. But I'm just looking at that level of infill and thinking about how long The Banks has taken and hope we can actually achieve something along these lines at some point.

I know it says "recess" but it actually looks like 75 and FWW are boulevards that are at grade.

18 hours ago, Dev said:

I know it says "recess" but it actually looks like 75 and FWW are boulevards that are at grade.

It's really hard to tell, but on 75, there appears to be frontage roads and the lines for the roads that cross don't break to show an intersection. Might simply be the result of graphics being in development though and the intention is a boulevard.

 

If the plan is to full out bury 75, tunnel under the river, and turn 75 and most/all of FWW into a surface level boulevard, that would be incredible for the city. But given how quickly the tunneled 75 proposal was tossed out, I have little faith that it could be a viable project.

Wonder what the price tag of this vision vs. the existing plan for a new BSB companion bridge would be. Comparable? 
 

perhaps one could combine this vision with a west side Cincy bridge directly to CVG/I-275 in KY for a transportation project that would be much more transformational to the region than the existing BSB plan 
 

On 9/1/2021 at 2:15 PM, OliverHazardPerry said:

What is the context of this "project?" I have an incredibly hard time believing that ODOT is going to spend hundreds of millions burying I-75 in a tunnel through the West End and removing Fort Washington Way West to I-75 North access. They can't even figure out how to build a new bridge over the river (although a lot of that is due to Kentucky). 

 

Don't get me wrong, this is an incredible vision. But this seems like someone's idealized dream, not something with basis in reality at the moment.

It looks like FWW would connect to Freeman Ave (which looks grade separated) for access to I-75N.

 

agree in that i don’t think any of the powers that be are or would be championing this, I would be shocked if it was more than a concept

Yesterday, during the Major Projects & Smart Government committee meeting, Wade Johnston of Tri-State Trails gave a presentation about Complete Streets. It was just a broad overview, but was really good. He even used the sad crosswalk in front of the Wendys in Mt. Washington as an example of what the City is doing wrong. He went through some local examples and I was glad to hear him state that sharrows are not good enough for most people. He was joined by a representative from the Ohio Sierra Club who mentioned that of Ohio's 6 largest cities, Cincinnati is the only one without a Complete Streets policy and that several of the regional planning organizations have them as well, yet OKI does not. Landsman, the chair of the committee, stated that an ordinance is being drafted and will be soon forthcoming. He had previously told me at his last town hall event that his office was working with the Sierra Club and Tri-State Trails to craft a Complete Streets ordinance. Smart Growth America hosts the National Complete Street Coalition which I use as a reference point to compare policies. They provide grades of new policies as well so I hope his office will use them for feedback and guidance.

 

 

The PDF of the presentation can be found here.

^I like the proposed improvements in that presentation for the Gilbert and McMillan intersection in Walnut Hills. 

I hope that a formal complete streets policy is introduced and adopted.

 

Maybe I am being negative... but with the mayors race going on I get the feeling that this will be framed as some sort of 'left wing agenda' by local media and become toxic as opposed to something that benefits the majority of residents within the city with low-cost improvements to NBDs, around schools, etc.. 

14 minutes ago, wjh2 said:

I hope that a formal complete streets policy is introduced and adopted.

 

Maybe I am being negative... but with the mayors race going on I get the feeling that this will be framed as some sort of 'left wing agenda' by local media and become toxic as opposed to something that benefits the majority of residents within the city with low-cost improvements to NBDs, around schools, etc.. 

 

not this time. I see support for this across the board. Reckless driving is an obvious problem

^ I agree. The amount of complaints has gotten to the point that they cannot be ignored. The traffic calming budget was only reinstated for this fiscal year because of complaints from around the city and was strongly supported by a super majority on council.

I remember one of the council candidates telling me last cycle that they were getting questions about complete streets and traffic calming, not just from people in the core, but from people all across the city. These issues have become much more mainstream as they've left the UrbanOhio/UrbanCincy/Streetsblog universe and have started to get coverage in larger publications that reach more general audiences.

Politically, I think it's best to frame it around pedestrian safety since everybody is at times a pedestrian. I love biking infrastructure, but politically I think the improvements are most likely to get funding if the projects are framed primarily around improving pedestrian safety. 

21 hours ago, thebillshark said:

not this time. I see support for this across the board. Reckless driving is an obvious problem

 

CPD's number of traffic stops in 2019 (20,741) was less than half of the number they made in 2009. Coincidentally, there was a 46% increase in pedestrians hit by vehicles from 2013 to 2019.

 

Since COVID, traffic stops are basically nonexistent - just 8,948 in all of 2020. 7,490 so far this year. I can't find data on pedestrians hit by vehicles.

 

"Complete Streets" will help to a point, but if nobody starts to ask CPD why they don't pull people over anymore, things are going to continue to get worse. There are really no repercussions in Cincinnati for wild and egregious driving and it is getting people killed. It's one thing to turn a blind eye to someone doing 30mph in a 25mph zone,  it's another to let dangerous drivers with suspended licenses, expired tags, no insurance, etc. remain on the road.

 

 

12 minutes ago, Ram23 said:

"Complete Streets" will help to a point, but if nobody starts to ask CPD why they don't pull people over anymore, things are going to continue to get worse. There are really no repercussions in Cincinnati for wild and egregious driving and it is getting people killed. It's one thing to turn a blind eye to someone doing 30mph in a 25mph zone,  it's another to let dangerous drivers with suspended licenses, expired tags, no insurance, etc. remain on the road.

You have it backwards. Enforcement will only help to a point. No matter how aggressive CPD is about traffic enforcement, they can not be everywhere at all times. If they stop designing streets for speed, it will be harder for people to speed. If you stop designing streets that prioritize autos at the expense of all other modes, a lot of those people with expired licenses, tags and no insurance, will be able to use other forms of transportation.

2 minutes ago, Dev said:

You have it backwards. Enforcement will only help to a point. No matter how aggressive CPD is about traffic enforcement, they can not be everywhere at all times. If they stop designing streets for speed, it will be harder for people to speed.

I see it as a "both/and" dynamic. We need better designed streets AND we need CPD to enforce. I live in OTR and even on fairly "well designed" streets, I see a lot of reckless driving with speeding and running stop signs. 

11 minutes ago, jwulsin said:

I see it as a "both/and" dynamic. We need better designed streets AND we need CPD to enforce. I live in OTR and even on fairly "well designed" streets, I see a lot of reckless driving with speeding and running stop signs. 

The streets in OTR are not well designed. Your experience living there is an indication that they need to be redesigned.

Enforcement should be largely focused on spots where design cannot be used to reduce prevailing speeds, i.e. steep declines, unusually tight turns

We need both better designed streets and better enforcement.

The planned raised crosswalk in Oakley is finally being installed. Of the 4 approved raised crosswalks from the initial Vision Zero round of funding, this was the only one in a business district. While the 5 raised crosswalks that were recently installed in OTR are also in a business district, Oakley square is less dense so it will be interesting to see if this leads to a increase in consideration in other residential business districts.

59 minutes ago, Dev said:

The planned raised crosswalk in Oakley is finally being installed. Of the 4 approved raised crosswalks from the initial Vision Zero round of funding, this was the only one in a business district. While the 5 raised crosswalks that were recently installed in OTR are also in a business district, Oakley square is less dense so it will be interesting to see if this leads to a increase in consideration in other residential business districts.

Where in Oakley is it being installed?

11 minutes ago, jwulsin said:

Where in Oakley is it being installed?

It is an upgrade to this existing crosswalk that connects 3075 Madison, flag store, and 3066 Madison, an interior design store.

Linn st improvement meeting tonight in the West End!

 

https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/dote/dote-projects/linn-street-safety-improvement-project/

On 3/15/2021 at 12:05 AM, carnevalem said:

I found the thread I was thinking of. Lots of fun ideas. The quote above analyzes how the "canal" could impact the subway. 

 

 

 

Bring back the canal!