The Department of Transportation and Engineering’s (DOTE) 2024/2025 Vision Zero/Street Calming program focuses on improving safety for Cincinnati’s most vulnerable street users – pedestrians. 

You can submit your suggestions here: Vision Zero Project Suggestions

Direction this year from DOTE/Vision Zero staff:

We’re also starting to develop our work plan for FY24/25. Based on community feedback, we will be realigning the Pedestrian Safety program to focus more on actual traffic calming. I am asking each community council across the city to send me up to two street segments for consideration for traffic calming.

The tools we will be using to calm traffic are bump outs and/or speed cushions. A bump out (or curb extension) extends the sidewalk into the parking lane where 24-hour parking is present. The bump out visually and physically narrows the roadway, which can result in slower driving speeds.

A speed cushion is similar to a speed hump, but has wheel cut outs to allow emergency vehicles to pass through unimpeded. Regular-sized cars and trucks however must reduce their speed to the speed limit in order to drive over the speed cushion comfortably. Speed cushions cannot be used on streets with steep grades.

The street segments you submit for consideration should be no more than ½ mile long, but you can send a specific address if that is easier than defining a street segment. It’s also helpful to include a short sentence or two for each location explaining why traffic calming should be prioritized here. For example, is the location adjacent to a school or community center, or on a heavily traveled walking route to a popular destination? The more information you include, the better. Funding is limited, so this is a competitive program. Each request will be scored on several factors, including:

• # of pedestrian crashes within ¼ mile between 2021 and 2023.
• # of cars speeding in a 48-hour period
• Proximity to a neighborhood business district, park, recreation area, health center, school, library
• Equity data (% of residents without access to a vehicle, % of households with income 125% or less than poverty level, etc)

All requests received will be scored, and then ranked. Funding will be allocated to the most urgent/at-risk locations first, until all funding has been expended. Due to limited funding, it is unlikely that all locations will receive funding.

Oakley 2023/2024 Approved Project Updates:

The following projects were selected as our top 2 priorities for last year, and were approved in the second round of city reviews:

1. Madison Road/Oakley Square
   1. Installation of raised crosswalks on each side of Oakley Square, replacing the existing marked crosswalks.
2. Brotherton Rd Corridor Street calming - Madison to Sherel
   1. Installation of 5 sets of street cushions, between Madison Road and Sherel Lane.

This will provide us with increased measure to help slow down traffic through the Oakley Business District, provide increased safety for residents accessing Oakley Square, and help slow down traffic on a portion of Brotherton Rd (our highest rate of crashes and speeding complaints). Just part of the ongoing effort to make Oakley safer.

The Oakley Business District will now have:

• Rapid Flashing Signals on both the Eastern and Western gateways
• Three raised crosswalks in the heart of the business district, where we see the heaviest pedestrian traffic
• Five sets of speed cushions on Brotherton Rd, a route many take to/from the Business district.

Unfortunately, due to increased costs since the city budget was approved, the city is not able to fully fund each of these projects. So, at our November 14th meeting, we voted to proceed with the process of requesting that the city authorize the use of some of the Oakley TIF District funds to help offset/match the city funding.  This will allow us to have both projects completed at the same time, versus attempting to get them approved and implemented separately.

We will be adding a page with more Oakley TIF District details shortly.

The following projects were selected as our top 2 priorities:

1. Madison Road/Oakley Square
2. Brotherton Rd Corridor - Madison to Sherel.

Oakley 2021/2022 Projects (Approved, awaiting design & installation):

• New crosswalk and curb cuts - Brotherton & Pillars/Fielding.  Approved & going through final design.

Oakley 2020/2021 Projects (Approved, Installed):

• Madison @ Flaggs USA - new raised crosswalk and signage - installation underway.  Zebra striping and warning signs to be done soon.
• Madison @ Romana - new RRFB (Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon) installed, similar to one @ Fleet Feet/Essencha Teas)
• Taylor & Paxton - new updated zebra striping

Development related project/improvements - There are several approved/proposed development projects which include pedestrian and traffic safety improvements as components of their development.

• Three Oaks/Neyer - street calming on Robertson, still in design with DOT/E.  Curb bump outs, new paved crosswalks, new 4 way stop, RRFB @ 34^th & Robertson, parking on both sides being discussed. Looking into options for Robertson/28^th/Millsbrae
• Wasson Way Bike Path - New/updated painted crosswalks at Michigan, Shaw, and Eastern Hills. Hyde Park Ave – new painted crosswalk, bump outs on North side of Wasson, RRFB installed
• Paxton Ave Infrastructure Fund Rehab - this DOTE approved project will address changes to the Paxton/Wasson/Isabella intersection, and street calming efforts between this intersection and Marburg.