Proposal for improved street safety in Ohio

1. The current state of affairs
2. Where change is needed
3. The proposal
4. The reasoning
5. How you can help
6. Notes

The current state of affairs

It's hard for Ohio municipalities to lower speed limits on their roads.

In early 2023, the City of Columbus had to designate its entire downtown as a "business area" in order to lower the speed limit on several roads to 25mph. The city of Cleveland Heights had to redesignate several streets as not thru streets in order to lower their speed limits to 25mph. These cities couldn't simply change the speed limits on their roads; they had to change how the road was classified.

The reason for this procedure is because of how speed limits are set in Ohio: Section 4511.21 of the Ohio Revised Code prescribes the speed limits for certain types of roads, which sounds quite simple and straightforward. There's three¹ general ways that Ohio cities can create a lower-speed zone:²

1. Change the road's designation from "through" to "local" (4511.21(B)(2)) — but only if the road is not a state route outside a business district (4511.21(B)(3))
2. Designate an area as a "business district", which requires that "fifty per cent or more of the frontage between such successive intersections is occupied by buildings in use for business" (4511.01(NN))
3. Conduct a speed study to determine the "safe" or "reasonable" speed limit for that piece of road (4511.21(H)(1))

For example, consider the stretch of Cleveland Avenue where a driver hit a family of four, killing two children and hospitalizing the mother and remaining child: It's Ohio State Route 3, so the starting speed limit is 35mph. Changing the road designation from "through" to "local" doesn't override that, because it's a state route. There isn't a high density of businesses there, thanks to historical disinvestment and population declines, so it cannot be designated a "business district". The only way to lower the speed limit would be to conduct a speed study.

Here's a flowchart of the speed study process. The speed study depends on USLIMITS2, a program which uses the 85th-percentile rule to determine the appropriate speed limit:

Traffic engineers record how fast vehicles are traveling on a road, determine the speed that 85 percent of drivers are traveling at or below, then set the new speed limit by rounding from that speed to the nearest 5 mph increment. Traffic engineers who use the 85th percentile method are instructed to raise the speed limit when more than 15% of drivers are driving faster than posted signs. This method forces engineers to adjust speed limits to match observed driver behavior instead of bringing driver behavior in line with safety goals and the law. When it comes to safety, this method is designed to fail. Designed to Fail: The Problem with Percentile-Based Speed Limits, National Association of City Transportation Officials

If municipalities want to lower their speed limits on high-speed roads, the process is not designed to support that.

We need a way for Ohio municipalities to control their own speed limits.

Where change is needed

The places where change is most sorely needed are the places where there are significant mixings of vehicles with other forms of traffic. This means places like school zones, roads without sidewalks, and areas with lots of bike and scooter riders. How do we make these areas safer? Well, studies show that lowering the speed limit reduces the chance that a crash kills someone³, whether that person is on a scooter or on foot or in a car.

The greater the speed of a vehicle at the time of a crash, the higher the risk of death for a pedestrian struck. Speed management is key to road safety, Federal Highway Administration, 2022

The proposal

First, amend 4511.01 to define some terms that aren't currently defined in Ohio law. New text is shown in green with a dotted underline:

• (WWW) "Low-speed micromobility device" means a device weighing less than one hundred pounds that has handlebars, is propelled by an electric motor or human power, and has an attainable speed on a paved level surface of not more than twenty miles per hour when propelled by the electric motor
• (XXX) "Bikeway" means a way improved, designed, or ordinarily used for travel by bicycle and low-speed micromobility device, whether that way is part of a street or highway or is on an independent alignment. A bikeway does not include shared lanes, sidewalks, signed bicycle routes, or shared lanes with shared lane markings, but does include bicycle boulevards and bicycle lanes.
• (YYY) "Bicycle lane" or "bike lane" means a lane marked on a roadway for the exclusive use of bicycles and low-speed micromobility devices. Bike lanes may be designated by means including signage, road markings, and alternative pavement coloration.
  • (1) "Paint-only bike lane", "painted bike lane", or "striped bike lane" means a bike lane with no horizontal or vertical separation from motor vehicle traffic or adjacent parking lanes, other than lane markings.
  • (2) "Buffered bike lane" means a striped on-street bike lane paired with a striped or painted horizontal buffer space separating the bike lane from the adjacent motor vehicle travel lane and/or parking lane.
  • (3) "Separated bike lane" means a bicycle lane that is physically separated from motor vehicle traffic by non-crashworthy vertical elements and a horizontal buffer space.
  • (4) "Protected bike lane" means a bicycle lane that is physically separated from motor vehicle traffic by crashworthy vertical elements such as a curb, Jersey barrier, railing, bollard, or other object capable of stopping a motor vehicle from entering the bike lane.
  • (5) "Sidewalk-level bike lane" means a protected bike lane which is elevated above the adjacent roadway to the level of the adjacent sidewalk, and which is separated from the roadway by a vertical curb.
• (ZZZ) "Bicycle boulevard", also known as a "bike boulevard" or "neighborhood bikeway", means a roadway designated by local authorities which gives priority to pedestrians and users of low-speed micromobility devices by minimizing motorized traffic volumes and operating speeds.
• (AAAA) "Bus lane" means a lane on a roadway designated for the exclusive use of public transit buses, or other bus operators as designated on signage by the local or state authority which established the bus lane. Bus lanes may be designated by means including signage, road markings, and alternative pavement coloration.

Why do the specific types of bike lane need to be enumerated? To provide a clear list of what is meant by "protected" and "unprotected", because there is some disagreement on whether "protected" allows for flexible plastic posts or whether it requires barriers capable of stopping cars.

Then, amend the prima-facie speed limits defined in 4511.21 to provide for lower default speed limits in residential districts:

• (B) It is prima-facie lawful, in the absence of a lower limit declared or established pursuant to this section by the director of transportation or local authorities, for the operator of a motor vehicle, trackless trolley, or streetcar to operate the same at a speed not exceeding the following:
  • …
    (2) Twenty-five miles per hour in all other portions of a municipal corporation, except on state routes outside business districts and residence districts, through highways outside business districts, and alleys;

This is necessary because Ohio law currently only allows speed limits to be lowered by designation of a "business area", which Columbus recently did for its downtown. If you have a road running through a dense walkable housing area, like most streetcar neighborhoods in Columbus, the default speed limit is 35mph and cannot be lowered without traffic studies. This is why the speed limit on Cleveland Avenue is 35mph, despite residents asking the city to lower the speed for decades.

While we're in 4511.21, add a speed limit clause to allow municipalities to lower the speed limit on roads where there are higher amounts of Vulnerable Road Users sharing the roadway with vehicles:

• (B) It is prima-facie lawful, in the absence of a lower limit declared or established pursuant to this section by the director of transportation or local authorities, for the operator of a motor vehicle, trackless trolley, or streetcar to operate the same at a speed not exceeding the following:
  • …
    (17) Fifteen miles per hour on:
    • (a) all designated bike boulevards
    • (b) all streets and highways within a residence district, provided that the street or highway has two lanes or fewer and lacks sidewalks or shared-use paths on at least one side of the road, or has more than two lanes and lacks sidewalks or shared-use paths on both sides of the road.
    • (c) a street or highway that is directly connected to, and within half a mile of, a school zone as defined in division (B)(1) of this section, provided that the street or highway has two lanes or fewer and lacks sidewalks on at least one side of the road, or has more than two lanes and lacks sidewalks on both sides of the road.
  • (18) Twenty miles per hour on all streets and highways within a municipal corporation which have a bike lane, provided that the bicycle lane is not a protected bike lane or a sidewalk-level bike lane.

Finally, extend the list of locations in 4511.68 where parking is not allowed, to add two more places where parking creates an obstruction to the orderly flow of traffic and introduces new hazards:

• (A) No person shall stand or park a trackless trolley or vehicle, except when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic or to comply with sections 4511.01 to 4511.78, 4511.99, and 4513.01 to 4513.37 of the Revised Code, or while obeying the directions of a police officer or a traffic control device, in any of the following places:
  • …
    (17) Within a bike lane;
  • (18) Within a bus lane.

The reasoning

This set of changes is designed to allow Ohio municipalities to lower speed limits where they believe it is necessary, using a toolkit that is designed to encourage good street design while rewarding protective upgrades. Because the Ohio Revised Code recognizes that signage trumps the prima facie speed limits in the ORC, no delay in implementation is necessary. The revised speed limits will go into effect when a local municipality adjusts their signage to match the new speed limits, which they can do immediately, or as part of a road redesign to incorporate protections for non-drivers.

This bill isn't just about bicycles, though most of the new definitions are about classes of bike lane. This bill would improve safety for children walking to school and other pedestrians. It would improve service reliability for bus operators. Faster, more-reliable buses mean that people will switch to buses, which are safer than cars. It'll also help school buses get to school on time, and shorten commutes. It would also reduce the amount of damage from motor vehicle crashes on these streets by lowering vehicle speeds.

Finally, the new speed limits in 4511.21(B)(17-18) are low, and could be adjusted higher,⁴ but do we allow people to drive more than 15mph in parking lots? Why should drivers be allowed to go faster in other places with similar volumes of pedestrians? This proposal is somewhat radical, I know.

Less radical is the notion that municipalities should have the power to set safe speed limits, instead of begging unelected Columbus bureaucrats for permission to make streets safe. ODOT does care about street safety, and often allows municipalities to set their own speed limits, but if ODOT is going to approve the changes anyways, why should municipalities be forced to waste money on traffic studies to justify a lowered speed limit? It's time to apply Ohio's Home Rule provisions to lower speed limits.

Also note that this bill doesn't remove street parking to create bus lanes or bike lanes. It just reserves those lanes for their intended use, protecting them against blockages.

I believe that these changes could be pitched to the House as a "Safe Streets for Kids" law, with a particular focus on making streets safe for children to walk and bike to school, and allowing children to develop healthy independence in a responsible and age-appropriate manner.

How you can help

Organizations: Review this bill, then be prepared to testify in support when it comes before committee. ⁵

Individuals: Contact your reps and ask them to support Rep. Ismail Mohamed's street safety bills.

You can also contact your legislators to ask them to reintroduce A bill to permit locals to request stop sign or lower speed limit, last seen as HB 436 in committee in January 2018, and you can speak in favor of some current bills addressing bus safety, drunk driving, and drivers who kill parents.

Notes

• Discuss on Bluesky →
• Discuss on Mastodon →