Dayton Daily News

Dayton officials, public talk North Main safety

Lane reductions, crosswalk changes among ideas discussed.

- by Cornelius Frolik Staff Writer

Dayton officials say they are committed to making a dangerous and high-crash corridor on North Main Street safer, but there’s disagreeme­nt in the community about how to do that.

“There isn’t a pole in front of my house that has not been hit,” said Laura Jinkerson, 52, who lives on North Main Street.

North Main Street had 900 crashes between 2015 and 2017, including 356 that caused injuries and 7 that were fatal. The corridor is home to some of the more dangerous intersecti­ons in the region.

Some people support putting North Main on a road diet, reducing the number of lanes to slow down traffic and to potentiall­y re-route vehicles to other nearby streets.

“I think there’s a good chance” (North Main) will be put on a road diet,” said Joe Weinel, Dayton’s senior engineer III. “But it’s a big expense and ... the public has some say in what we’re going to do.”

Other local residents and property owners point to dif- ferent ways to address safety.

The city of Dayton on Tuesday night had a public meeting to share some initial concepts and recommenda­tions about how to make North Main Street less dangerous.

The city, along with the Ohio Department of Transporta­tion and Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, hired engineerin­g and architectu­re firm Burgess & Niple to study a section of North Main Street from the Great Miami Boulevard to Shiloh Springs Road.

The consultant already collected feedback from some neighbors, transporta­tion officials and city traffic, planning, police, fire and engineerin­g staff. On Tuesday, consultant­s accepted comments from community members to help put together final recommenda- tions for the corridor.

Flashing beacons, raised crosswalks

Some ideas that were presented included pedestrian improvemen­ts like “pia- no-key” style cross walks, flashing pedestrian beacons and raised crosswalks.

Lowering street lights and spacing them closer together would make it easier to see pedestrian­s, some said.

There were 36 crashes involving pedestrian­s in the corridor between 2015 and 2017.

The consultant­s also suggested softening a bend in the street in the Santa Clara busi- ness district that neighbors call “Dead Man’s Curve.” That might require obtaining and removing some buildings along the turn in the road, officials said.

One idea for making the Siebenthal­er Avenue inter- section safer is to limit and block off some driveways that are close to the inter- section.

There were also sugges- tions to add protected left turn lanes. Left-turn crashes are the second most common type of crash in the corridor, after rear-end collisions.

Road diet ideas

But one of the most ambi- tious and likely expensive ideas is to put Main Street on a road diet. Burgess & Niple presented seven options for accomplish­ing this.

North Main Street has four lanes: Two headed north, two head south. Each lane is 10 feet wide.

One proposal is to create one very wide lane in each direction, with a center turn lane. Another option calls for one lane in each direction, a center turn lane and bike lanes on both sides of the street.

Or there could be one lane in each direction and parking on both sides of the street. There also could be one lane in each direction, a parking lane and a cycling track on one side of the street.

Another alternativ­e is for two lanes, two bike lanes and a 4-foot buffer between motor and bike traffic.

The road also could be shrunk to only one lane in each direction and very wide sidewalks. There also could be one lane in each direction, a center turn lane and parking on the side of the street.

Though not cheap, a road diet should make North Main safer for pedestrian­s and motorists and wouldn’t likely dramatical­ly alter travel times, said Weinel, the Dayton engineer.

The case for Riverside Drive

The traffic from North Main could move over to Riverside Drive, especially since there are many cross streets linking the two thoroughfa­res, he said.

Weinel said there’s other reasons why it might make sense to relocate traffic to Riverside Drive.

Main Street has 10-footwide lanes, while Riverside Drive has 12 foot lanes.

Main Street has a speed limit of 35 mph, while it’s 40 mph on Riverside Drive.

The North Main Street corridor has 16 intersecti­ons with traffic signals. There’s only five intersecti­ons with signals on Riverside Drive.

Average daily traffic counts are 18,400 on North Main Street and 14,400 on Riverside Drive, Weinel said.

The consultant estimated that putting North Main on a road diet might only increase motorists’ travel time by a matter of seconds for each intersecti­on, he said.

However, if a road diet comes to pass, it would be necessary to figure out how to prevent Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority buses from backing up traffic, Weinel said.

 ?? CORNELIUS FROLIK / STAFF ?? A man walks along North Main Street as cars drive past. The North Main corridor is being targeted for upgrades to be safer for motorists, pedestrian­s and bicyclists.
CORNELIUS FROLIK / STAFF A man walks along North Main Street as cars drive past. The North Main corridor is being targeted for upgrades to be safer for motorists, pedestrian­s and bicyclists.
 ??  ?? North Main Street targeted for safety improvemen­ts
North Main Street targeted for safety improvemen­ts

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