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ODOT to spend $51.1M on pedestrian safety improvements
KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: May 20, 2022
The Ohio Department of Transportation announced a plan to invest $51.1 million in traffic safety improvement projects that specifically address the rise in pedestrian-involved traffic crashes and fatal roadway departures on state and local roads.
According to ODOT, fatal crashes involving pedestrians and roadway departures hit a decade-high level in 2021––176 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes last year, accounting for 13 percent of all traffic deaths, while another 703 people were killed in roadway-departure crashes.
Data record another 530 people were seriously injured in pedestrian crashes and another 3,390 people were seriously injured in roadway departures.
Transportation director Jack Marchbanks said he believes investment in the projects is both bold and creative.
“A goal we share with our partners in local government is significantly reducing deaths on Ohio roads, so we must work together to get there,” he said in prepared remarks.
ODOT plans to invest $25.6 million into roadway-departure prevention projects, such as widening roadway shoulders, installing center and edge-line rumble strips and modifying ditches and culverts. Transportation officials define roadway departures as incidents in which drivers leave the travel lane and sideswipe another vehicle, hit an oncoming vehicle or collide with an object on the side of the road –– accidents that typically cause more than half of all traffic deaths and nearly half of all serious traffic injuries in the state.
The department plans to invest the remaining $25.5 million in pedestrian projects, such as sidewalks, high-visibility pedestrian crossings and road diets, which reduce the number and width of traffic lanes to prompt drivers to slow down.
Funding will be funneled to 44 roadway safety projects in 32 counties, a press release detailed. Nearly $30 million ––about 58 percent––will be awarded to local governments in municipalities, townships and counties for projects under their jurisdictions.
Remaining funds are to be used for projects on ODOT-maintained roads and highways.
The funds will be awarded through the department’s Highway Safety Improvement Program, which annually invests $158 million into safety projects, education and training.
Officials said that construction timelines vary for each project, but expected some projects to begin as early as this year.
Gov. Mike DeWine, who joined Marchbanks to announce the investment, blamed distracted driving, in part, to the rise in pedestrian-involved and roadway-departure crashes and challenged lawmakers to come up with a solution.
“The funding, most of which is going to local governments, will be used to make the physical changes needed to help prevent crashes, but a cultural change around distracted driving is needed as well,” DeWine said. “I continue to encourage members of the Ohio General Assembly to pass legislation to put more restrictions around mobile device usage while driving to make it clear that distracted driving won’t be tolerated in Ohio.”
The Transportation and Public Safety Committee in the House of Representatives has yet to schedule a further hearing of a Democrat bill that would make a driver’s use of a hand-held device a primary offense.
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