WHO: Short North Civic Association
WHAT: Monthly Meeting
WHERE: Columbus Metropolitan Library,
1423 N. High St., Columbus, Ohio 43201
WHEN: Thursday, May 4 – 2023 @ 6:30pm

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Meeting ID: 618 455 3150

VIEW MEETING AGENDA »

Agenda includes final SNCA Membership Committee plan and Maria Cantrell, Vision Zero Coordinator who will address traffic safety – more info about Maria Cantrell’s presentation below:

Vision Zero’s Maria Cantrell to Discuss Traffic Safety at May 4th SNCA Meeting.

Vision Zero’s Columbus coordinator, Maria Cantrell, P.E., has kindly agreed to address the SNCA at its public meeting at 6:30 pm on Thursday, May 4, 2023, at the Northside Branch of the Columbus Public Library. The SNCA views this as an opportunity to reopen its dialogue with the City of Columbus regarding how traffic safety, broadly viewed, can be improved in our neighborhoods.

In 2021, the City of Columbus joined several of its sister cities in the “Vision Zero” initiative, which “commits to protecting lives above all other objectives of our city transportation system.” “Vision Zero fundamentally changes the approach to traffic safety by looking holistically at our transportation system – using input from our local government agencies, institutions, and residents to prioritize safety for all users — motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit riders.”

Most recently as a Vision Zero initiative, Columbus City Council has reduced all downtown speed limits to 25 mph, in an effort to make that area safer and more inviting for pedestrians, cyclists and others.

In the Short North, population growth along the High Street corridor, in and near Italian Village, and nearby in Grandview Yard, has placed increasing stress on our Nineteenth Century street grid. Traffic speeds along Neil Avenue appear to have increased markedly in the late nighttime hours, after the installation of the more modern, camera-activated signal system along that street. Many residents have remained dissatisfied after the City’s decision to raise posted speed limits along several “through streets” from 25 mph to 30 mph in 2013. While High Street itself has benefitted from many traffic calming improvements that make that corridor more pedestrian, bicycle and transit-friendly, the same cannot be said for other areas of the greater Short North.

Among salient issues we intend to raise are:

• Reduction of posted speed limits on all area streets to 25 mph. Unlike most Columbus neighborhoods, ours was laid out well before the age of the automobile, its architecture and sight-lines are not comparable to more modern residential areas, and it is more densely populated and heavily travelled than ever;
• Timing of traffic signals to reinforce speed limit compliance, particularly late at night; and
• Increased use of “traffic calming” features, such as islands, bump-outs, etc.

Those who are concerned about traffic safety in the greater Short North are invited to attend.