Mariemont schedules open house on experimental road closure after residents raise safety concerns

The Village of Mariemont's council agreed to present results of an experimental road closure and related traffic studies at an open house in October, after residents questioned whether the trial measured safety and not merely traffic flow.

Safety-committee member Matthew Ayre submitted minutes recommending an open-house format at Mariemont Elementary to walk residents through the experiment's data, alternative traffic-calming options and a public-comment period. The committee also recommended continued periodic radar monitoring, occasional placement of a decoy patrol vehicle and temporary deployment of a second speed feedback sign uphill near Mariemont Care Center.

The meeting followed public comments from residents who said the trial increased traffic on adjacent streets and that the data did not directly measure safety at the Miami Road crossing. Resident Joyce Longer said the town survey showed only “21% of the people that completed the survey thought the road closure was a good idea with 71% of the respondents responding negatively,” and asked the council to clarify decision criteria and recusal rules for any final vote.

Council discussion focused on the traffic study's headline speed finding. Members cited the DeVous evaluation indicating an 85th-percentile speed of about 33 miles per hour on the Miami Road hill; council members and police described the speed-feedback sign and increased patrols as helping reduce observed speeding but noted a lack of pre-intervention benchmark data. One council member summarized the trade-off: "The redistribution of traffic does not change the total amount of traffic at the crossing of Miami Road," a point residents said undermines claims the test improved safety there.

Officials emphasized that no final decision would be made at the open house and that the session will be used to explain the data, the metrics used (including the 85th-percentile standard), and the criteria that will guide any future action. The safety committee assigned Matthew Ayre to check elementary-school availability and schedule the meeting in October.

Next steps: the safety committee will pick a date for the October open house, present the compiled experimental results and resident comments, and later make a committee recommendation to council; no permanent road-closure decision was made at the meeting.