Hamilton ranks lowest in Ohio for pedestrian, bicycle safety; looks to improve

The city of Hamilton is ranked among the worst in the state for both pedestrian and bicycle safety.

“We have one of the highest rates of crashes with pedestrians and bicyclists in the state,” said Allen Messer, assistant director of engineering in Hamilton. “Number one in the state with bicyclists involved in crashes and number 3 with pedestrians.”

City data collected over a five-year period shows there were 135 pedestrian crashes and 76 bicycle crashes.

City of Hamilton

Kristina Lattalandefeld lives on Ross Avenue. She says she doesn’t feel safe walking in her neighborhood.

“It’s a 25-mph zone but people are consistently going 35, 40, 45 miles per hour,” she said. “In addition to that we lost a couple of our own cars, we had to weigh out the cost of replacing cars with where we live.”

Lattalandefeld’s car was struck multiple times by drivers while parked in front of her house.

“It’s not about being in the intersection at all, it’s about really bad drivers,” she said.

During the study period there were also more than 130 vehicle crashes that resulted in either serious injury or death.

The city found nearly 50% of those crashes happened on 10% of their streets.

“It was terrible. For us it was cars thank goodness,” Lattalendefeld said. “But our neighbors were out on the sidewalk the last time our car got struck and it was really terrifying for them.”

The neighbors got together and went to city council asking for them to take action.

The Hamilton “Applying for Critical Transportation Safety” or ACTS plan takes a look at the intersections across the city and identifies those with the most crashes.

Improvements are in the works in those areas.

“It’ll be an $18.75 million project, $15 million of which will come from the federal government,” Messer said.

The money will help fund projects like new sidewalks, intersection improvements, new roundabouts and new traffic signals.

City of Hamilton

“I have always been so impressed with our city council who are so proactive. So yes, a lot of things happened for them to act, but I know that there were plans in place already,” Lattalandefeld said.

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