City to study East Livingston Avenue traffic safety issues

After reviewing reports and hearing complaints from Driving Park and Old Oaks residents about speeding and crashes along East Livingston Avenue, Columbus officials plan to do a traffic study to determine how to make the busy corridor safer.

According to city police records, there have been 65 crashes this year through Dec. 13 at just five intersections along East Livingston Avenue: South Ohio Avenue, South Champion Avenue, Miller Avenue, Kelton Avenue and Fairwood Avenue.

“The residents’ concerns are what are leading us to perform this particular study,” said Reynaldo Stargell,

administrator of the city’s traffic management division.

Stargell said the traffic study, which will take in East Livingston Avenue between South 18th Street and Nelson Road, will determine possible lane reconfigurations.

“Reducing the number of lanes can reduce speeds,” Stargell said. He pointed to work the city did on Parsons Avenue on the South Side, with traffic now traveling on one lane northbound and one southbound with a middle turn lane.

East Livingston Avenue now is two lanes in each direction, with some left-turn lanes.

David Gray, who leads the Livingston Avenue Area Commission, said drivers often use Livingston as an alternate to Interstate 70, especially when traffic backs up on the freeway.

“I know there’s a lot of frustration with the city to do something,” Gray said. “I believe the community’s response is to do something sooner rather than later.

“They’re seeing people fly really fast, running red lights. It would help if they had a little more police presence there.”

Michael Aaron, executive director of the Rickenbacker Woods Foundation and a longtime Driving Park community leader, said he often sees the results of crashes, including a T-bone crash on Dec. 8 in front of flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker’s boyhood home at 1330 E. Livingston Ave.

Aaron said he’d like to see the city change some traffic patterns, including switching Miller Avenue south of East Livingston from two-way to one-way northbound, so westbound Livingston traffic couldn’t turn left on to Miller.

“There are two lanes that head eastbound. The traffic on the inside lane will stop. But the drivers in the outer lane heading east don’t know what’s going on.

“There’s a T-bone, always a T-bone,” he said, describing the type of crash he sees.

According to police records, there were 16 crashes at the Livingston-miller intersection this year through Dec. 13.

The city’s Department of Public Service already implemented these changes in November:

• Mounted a sign on a utility pole prohibiting traffic traveling westbound on East Livingston from turning onto southbound Miller Avenue. There is no traffic signal there.

• Placed new restrictions on eastbound and westbound East Livingston Avenue between Kelton Avenue and Lockbourne Road to prohibit on-street parking from 2 p.m. to 6. p.m. The hours had been from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

That is aimed at improving visibility at both of the Miller Avenue and East Livingston Avenue intersections — Miller north and south of East Livingston do not meet — and preventing vehicles from having to make abrupt lane changes, Stargell said.

The city is also exploring prohibiting right-on-red turns for southbound Miller Avenue traffic at East Livingston because buildings obstruct sightlines.

The planned traffic study will also help determine how to improve pedestrian crossings and designs to help manage speed and reduce crashes.

According to the city’s website for the Vision Zero project aimed at improving pedestrian and traffic safety in the city, there were three fatal and 13 serious injury crashes from 2016 to 2020 along East Livingston between South 18th Street and College Avenue, a stretch the city lists as part of its high-injury network of streets.

During that time, there also were 13 crashes involving bicycles and nine involving motorcycles along that stretch. Thirty-seven pedestrians were struck.

Stargell said the city hopes to hire a consultant by early spring 2022, with the work to take a year.

The city and the Ohio Department of Transportation also plan to resurface East Livingston Avenue between Ohio and College avenues in 2024. One section in that stretch, from Ohio Avenue to Studer Avenue, hasn’t been resurfaced since 1999.

There have been few recent traffic counts conducted along East Livingston in the Driving Park and Old Oaks areas, according to the Mid-ohio Regional Planning Commission. In 2013, close to 13,700 vehicles traveled along East Livingston daily near South Champion Avenue. Farther east, 17,579 vehicles were counted on East Livingston near Rhoads Avenue in 2012.

In 2020, east of Nelson Road, 24,043 vehicles traveled daily along East Livingston.

Dr. Clayton Hicks, whose Driving Park Vision Center at 1509 E. Livingston Ave. has been open for 51 years, said speeding continues to be a dangerous problem on East Livingston in front of his office.

“Just young kids, act like they don’t know where they are going,” said Hicks as he stood in his office.

The speed limit is 35 mph along East Livingston, but he’d like to see it reduced to 25 mph.

“It’s crazy,” Hicks said.

Sherman Willis, owner of Willis Beauty Supply at 1499 E. Livingston Ave., said motorcycles speeding along the avenue have been a problem as well. Willis, who opened his business in 1969, said speeding has grown worse the past three years.

Asked if he has contacted the city about it, he said, “The city doesn’t come out here. The police don’t come out here.”

Danielle Dillard, a Driving Park resident and member of the Livingston Avenue Area Commission, said she’d like the city to spend more time on beautification efforts along the East Livingston Avenue corridor, referring to the medians and trees placed only in the area near Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

She also wants better lighting and bicycle lanes. “Have Livingston Avenue be picturesque again,” Dillard said. “I hope the city will invest in this area.”

The cities of Columbus and Bexley had already started talking about ways to reduce the speed and number of crashes on another section of East Livingston Avenue between Nelson and James roads after residents complained about speeders there.

In 2020, officials said those steps would include engineering, safety and streetscape improvements to slow traffic. During a 15-month period, three vehicles had plowed into houses.

This story is part of the Dispatch’s Mobile Newsroom initiative, which is currently focused on Driving Park and surrounding neighborhoods. Visit our reporters at the Driving Park branch library.

mferench@dispatch,com