Why Columbus is working to lower its speed limits
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Columbus drivers tend to drive faster than the national average on roadways shared with pedestrians, making our streets more dangerous for people on foot.
Driving the news: Just 26.7% of Columbus' major pedestrian roadways had average vehicle speeds under 25 mph as of October 2022, compared to the national average of 36%, Axios' Joann Muller reports.
- The finding is based on a report from StreetLight Data, a company that tracks mobility trends using anonymized cellphone data and other sources.
Why it matters: Pedestrians are twice as likely to be killed in a collision when a car is traveling at 30 mph compared to 20 mph, and over five times more likely when the car is driving 40 mph, according to the AAA Foundation.
Of note: The biggest danger zones are fast-moving roads alongside busy retail areas with lots of foot traffic — think Morse Road, Dublin-Granville Road or Broad Street.
- In urban areas, such arterial roadways make up about 15% of all roads but account for 67% of pedestrian deaths, per StreetLight Data.
Reality check: It's difficult to change drivers' behavior on multilane streets, which are common in Columbus. Our street designs make roads feel like speedy highways — and consequently make them more dangerous, Ohio State University researchers found.
The big picture: Over 7,500 pedestrians were struck and killed by cars in the United States in 2022 — the most in 41 years — per a Governors Highway Safety Association report.
Zoom in: Columbus' fatal pedestrian crashes are also trending upward, from 15 in 2016 to 25 in 2022.
The latest: City Council voted in February to lower the speed limit from 35 to 25 mph in our downtown business district.
- Workers installed over 100 new signs and retimed 134 traffic signals to accommodate, per the city's latest Vision Zero action plan.
What we're watching: The plan calls for further improvements and increased police enforcement to reduce local fatalities through 2028.
- That includes reducing speed limits on at least 10 more streets and reconfiguring lanes on at least five corridors.
- Work is currently underway to convert Front Street and Marconi Boulevard from one-way to two-way traffic to help slow more downtown vehicles, a Department of Public Service spokesperson tells Axios.