City begins Safe Streets for All planning after USDOT grant; consultants flag speeding and pedestrian/bicycle crashes

Columbus staff and consultants updated City Council on work being done under the federally funded Safe Streets for All planning grant. The planning phase is intended to produce a data‑driven Safety Action Plan and to position the city for later infrastructure funding to reduce fatalities and serious injuries on the roadway network.

Key findings from the early analysis: Consultants reported that speeding‑related crashes, pedestrian and bicycle crashes (about one‑third of fatal and severe injury crashes), and roadway departures are prominent contributors to serious crashes in Columbus. The team identified a high‑energy network — roughly 4% of the city’s roadway miles — that accounts for about 45% of fatal and serious injury crashes; focusing on those corridors would concentrate limited resources where they can achieve the greatest safety benefit.

Public engagement and next steps: Consultants ran multiple public events and an online survey; about half of survey respondents said they feel less safe on local roadways than five years ago. Common public priorities included constructing more pedestrian and bicycle facilities, reducing speeding and aggressive driving, and improving lighting. The Safe Streets planning team will translate the findings into prioritized infrastructure and non‑infrastructure recommendations (enforcement, education and speed management), produce a mechanism for tracking implementation, and complete the plan by the end of the calendar year. The planning team noted that the process also includes a sidewalk and trail framework, a safe routes to school sub‑program, and a quick‑build pilot program for low‑cost safety interventions.

Why this matters: The Safe Streets for All grant is intended to accelerate a systemic approach to traffic safety that looks beyond individual engineering projects to broader policy, speed management, enforcement and post‑crash response. Councilors asked staff to explore enforcement resources and whether the plan could include analysis of enforcement staffing and alignment of enforcement with high‑crash locations.

Ending: Consultants said they will return in the fall with a fully developed set of program and project recommendations and an implementation framework tied to measurable goals and public reporting.