Ranking the safety of Columbus streets
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Columbus streets are relatively safe compared to other large cities, but still have room for improvement, a new study finds.
Why it matters: Dozens are killed in local traffic crashes annually, and Columbus' Vision Zero plan seeks to eliminate those deaths completely.
Driving the news: StreetLight Data's new "U.S. Safe Streets Index" ranks the country's 100 biggest metros based on five key factors.
- Those include vehicle miles traveled, different speeds between vehicles, speed-based pedestrian risk, speeding in residential zones, and truck activity.
Zoom in: Columbus sits at No. 27 on the overall list, comparable to Midwest neighbors Detroit (24) and Cleveland (30).
- We score high marks in speed near pedestrians and truck-related safety risks.
- But our scores are tempered by low marks in differences in vehicle speeds and percentage of drivers speeding in residential areas.
Between the lines: Reducing speed is always a challenge, Vision Zero coordinator Katherine Swidarski tells Axios.
- She says the city is working with Franklin County, the Ohio Department of Transportation and other groups to lower posted speed limits and the speeds that roads are engineered for.
- "When all those things get lower and lower, that's when we're getting closer to what's a safe speed," she says.
What they're doing: Vision Zero is midway through its 2023-2028 action plan, which is working to reduce speed in key corridors.
- Swidarski says the city is already seeing reduced crashes and crash severity in those areas.
- The 2026 focus will be on "persistently dangerous" areas that have seen multiple deaths.
The big picture: "Larger metros tend to perform better overall for roadway safety, despite popular misconceptions that big cities are more dangerous," said the transportation analytics firm.
The bottom line: There's always room for improvement.
- "Our commitment is to zero fatal and serious injury crashes," Swidarski says.