Cincinnati: Complete Streets, Road Diets, and Traffic Calming

[IAGuy39]

Yeah it's definitely backed up a lot especially Linwood.  The funny thing I figured out if I am coming home that way from EWH is take Observatory all the way to Delta then down.  Literally no traffic from there.

 

The other thing I think they could do to fix that is take off street parking from 4-6 to 4-7. I can't tell you how many times at 6:10 cars speed down Linwood in the right only to hit a solo parked car then have to merge back in creating even more delay.

 

And actually south from Delta I've seen it backed up almost to Kroger many times, definitely goes past Spring Hill usually daily.

[taestell]

A bunch of traffic cones recently appeared on Main Street, leading me to believe that the second phase of the Main Street road diet project is underway. The first phase was completed last fall. It's interesting that the city is now referring to the project simply as a "streetscape" ... I believe they were openly calling it a "safety improvement project" a few months ago.

[taestell]

^ Update: There are no parking signs in the 1200 block of Main (west side) saying no parking for the next two days. Utility crews are also doing work in front of 13th & Main.

[taestell]

Work has started on a new bumpout on the west side of Main Street across from New York Groceries:

 

[taestell]

The Main Street project is in full swing. The new sidewalk is complete between the intersection of 13th & Main and Goodfella's (including the two new bump-outs), but still in progress between Goodfella's and 12th & Main. Work has also started on the bump-outs in front of Mr. Pitiful's and MOTR. During all of this construction, Main Street is down to 1 travel lane and ... it's actually quite nice. Can we keep it this way permanently? :)

[troeros]

Are any of the other otr streets scheduled to get the same treatment?

[taestell]

No. Main Street businesses and residents had to fight very hard for many years to get this one relatively small traffic calming project to move forward. I don't think residents of any other OTR streets are making a similar effort. Hopefully, when it's complete, it can be used as a model for other streets though. Vine especially should be getting more bump-outs and clearly marked crosswalks because of the amount of foot traffic on that street.

[jwulsin]

^Agreed. Bump outs on Vine would make a ton of sense.

[taestell]

Unusual sight at 12th & Main. Old sidewalk has been removed revealing a basement that actually extends out of the building and underneath the sidewalk. I have no idea how they pour a new sidewalk on top of this.

[jjakucyk]

Basements under sidewalks are super common around downtown, and the city hates them.  Previously they might be supported with steel, iron, or stone vaults.  Reinforced concrete became common around the turn of the 20th century.  Now the city wants a structural slab below with a 5" non-structural topping slab to allow them to attach things like parking meters, sign posts, and other street furniture.  Older sidewalks generally had a pretty thin topping slab of only 1"-2" like what we can see in your photo in front of the door. 

[Jimmy Skinner]

The owners of that building are really lucky because as part of the sidewalk work, the city is re-building their structural slab sidewalk.  Mine was such a maintenance nightmare, I removed all the utilities from that area and filled it in.

[BigDipper 80]

Somewhat unrelated, but that Aladdin's sign is comically small and hard to read.

[taestell]

The owners of that building are really lucky because as part of the sidewalk work, the city is re-building their structural slab sidewalk.  Mine was such a maintenance nightmare, I removed all the utilities from that area and filled it in.

 

I believe that Urban Sites is the contractor in charge of the Main Street streetscape project, as well as the owner of that retail space, as well as one of the parties that pushed for the streetscape to happen in the first place.

[troeros]

Urban Sites has been killing it. I feel like once 3cdc steps back from OTR development, we will be in really good hands if Urban Sites decides to pick up where 3cdc left off. They seem super competent as developers.

[Guest jmecklenborg]

Somewhat unrelated, but that Aladdin's sign is comically small and hard to read.

 

Businesses come and go from OTR all the time and I've never heard of them thanks to the lack of signs.  I think some business owners assume that everyone is using their phones to navigate the real world, but many are not. 

[GCrites]

Signs are still deathly important.

[neilworms]

Yet the city has draconian sign laws... :/

[taestell]

So, about those complete streets...

[Ram23]

^^ I think our sign laws are decidedly antagonistic to the historic character of Cincinnati. Here's 5th Street (perhaps, at the time, a "complete street?") looking north in 1907. Some of these signs are 20+ feet long. Compare them to the tiny signs currently required by code:

 

[taestell]

Work began this morning on the Main Street bumpouts in front of MOTR and and at the corner of 14th & Main. There is a ton of construction in the area with some sort of water main replacement happening on 14th & Clay, and the installation of the new Woodward Theater marquee.

[taestell]

...And they are already pouring concrete. It seems like they've streamlined the process since they started up a month or two ago.

[taestell]

Half of the new MOTR bumpout was poured today. So they're moving pretty fast...

 

Unfortunately, the reaction hasn't been all positive. I have heard/read several community members complaining about the loss of a few parking spaces, including one woman who approached the construction crew today and chewed them out. Also, someone scrawled "3CDC+Urban Sites can bite me" into the wet concrete yesterday and crews had to buff it out this morning.

[Cincy513]

Loss of parking is laughable.  A brand new parking garage just got built a block over. 

[taestell]

^ Exactly, the Ziegler Garage never seems to be more than 50% full. So there is plenty of room for people to park in OTR. When Cincinnatians complain about a lack of parking, they're complaining about a lack of free parking directly in front of their destination.

[taestell]

Work is wrapping up on the MOTR and 14th/Main (West) bumpouts. The bumpout in front of the former Black Plastic Records space (1411) is still in progress. Work began this morning on the bumpouts in front of The Pony (still labeled H&R Block on the diagram below) and the Woodward Theater. The most dramatic change will be at Orchard & Main where the entire bus stop will be bumped out, similar to what was done in front of the New York Deli at 13th & Main.

[ryanlammi]

I love this project. I especially like the bumped out bus stop. This will be a huge improvement on the pedestrian experience on Main Street, and will hopefully be repeated on Walnut and Sycamore as development continues.

 

Hopefully they let the businesses set up outdoor seating in those bump outs as much as possible.

[ucgrady]

Especially Motr, they have the tiny gated area where you can smoke/take beers outside but even a few tables there would be great. I also like that one of the bumpouts is directly in front of the new marquee for Woodward allowing more space for queuing for busy events.

[ColDayMan]

"Hip Office?"

[taestell]

Haha, I just noticed that. I have no idea what that means, I guess it was an aspirational statement that they want to turn that storefront into hip office space!

[jwulsin]

Not exactly a road "diet"... but the stretch of Vine St near the VA has been re-striped, removing the curbside 15' lanes, resulting in an extra lane (2 lanes northbound, 1 center turn lane, 2 lanes southbound, 1 lane parking). Previously, the western curbside lane was quite awkwardly always designated for parking, with a 5 ft half-lane next to it.

 

Streetview: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1405141,-84.5093739,3a,75y,180.57h,67.03t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYBEGJtyyFPdQJbt4N0Nz2Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

Updated striping:

 

 

 

[ryanlammi]

I drive that stretch all the time, and the number of people driving in the parking lane was concerning. A lot of near misses as cars don't realize it isn't a driving lane until too late. Good change IMO.

[jjakucyk]

The "wide right lanes" are/were supposed to be bike-friendly designs that allowed room for cars to pass cyclists while also allowing those cars to keep the entire lane swept of debris and reducing the need for extra line striping.  They've been mostly deprecated now however, because the wide lanes encourage speeding and probably still run afoul of 3-foot minimum passing laws.  They also give no indication what they're there for  When cars are parked in those wide lanes, the space left over is even greater.  So I'd call this Vine Street re-striping neutral at best, but I'd actually call it road glut because it adds a lane for moving traffic while squeezing out what little accommodation for cyclists there was. 

[ryanlammi]

I would feel safer biking in a full lane that has a lane next to it to pass than an 80% wide lane with parking.

[jjakucyk]

That's a turd sandwich vs giant douche kind of choice.  But there's no 80% wide lane, it's a 140% wide lane regardless of parking.  I think 14-feet is the standard for that, which if you have a parked car snugged up to the curb can look like there's juuuuuust enough room to drive next to it, but not really. 

[Guest jmecklenborg]

There used to be telephone poles on the left side of the road (next to the VA):

Updated striping:

 

I remember those wires because I went out for my first ride a week after breaking my ribs in a water bottle-related fall when I was 22 or 23.  I was riding on that sidewalk and I got pooped on by some birds roosting on the wires.  So I had to turn around and go back to my house to change shirts. 

[taestell]

According to a construction worker, the Main Street sidewalk construction will be finished in the next 3 weeks, and the whole project (including the street repaving) should be finished by October. Also, I did not know this until today, the RedBike station at Orchard & Main will actually be moving out onto the new bumpout at that intersection.

[bfwissel]

According to a construction worker, the Main Street sidewalk construction will be finished in the next 3 weeks, and the whole project (including the street repaving) should be finished by October. Also, I did not know this until today, the RedBike station at Orchard & Main will actually be moving out onto the new bumpout at that intersection.

 

The message from Redbike on that Orchard location change was a riot.  They really played up that the location was going to move once the bump outs were done.  They then followed that up with the change of location was to move it seven feet west.

[jwulsin]

It's not a huge game-changer, but anything that makes the stations more visible is good. The previous location wasn't "hidden", but it was tucked back a bit more from Main St, so the new location will be more visible as you drive/walk up Main St. And the more that people see the stations, the more likely they are to use the system because they know where to pick-up/drop-off the bikes. Seeing other people use the system (checking out and docking bikes) also helps encourage other users.

[taestell]

Update on the Main Street project going from south to north:

[taestell]

The Orchard & Main RedBike station has been reinstalled on the new bumpout. Both MOTR and The Pony have installed new outdoor areas taking advantage of the additional sidewalk space. Crews are currently grinding the road surface and putting down fresh asphalt.

[taestell]

Now that they have put down the first layer of fresh asphalt and paint on Main Street, I have noticed some strange behavior from drivers. Forgive the verbosity but this is sort of hard to explain.

 

For anyone who's not familiar with Main Street, what's odd is that none of the intersections between Central Parkway and Liberty Street line up. So heading north from Central Parkway, you have the following intersections:

1. 12th Street - left, with traffic light
2. 12th Street - right, no traffic light
3. 13th Street - the left/right sides do not line up exactly, but they are close enough that they are fudged into a single intersection with a three-phase traffic signal
4. Woodward Street - right, no traffic light
5. 14th Street - right, no traffic light
6. 14th Street - left, traffic light
7. Orchard Street - right, no traffic light
8. Melindy Street - left, no traffic light

As part of the project, a new crosswalk was added just south of intersection 5 (between MOTR and The Pony). Crews just painted the lines for this new crosswalk a few days ago. However, the temporary paint that they have put down uses transverse style markings rather than longitudinal ("zebra crossing" style) markings. (Here's a graphic illustrating the difference if you don't know what I mean.)

 

What I have noticed is that when drivers are heading north on Main Street and see a red light at intersection 6, some of them are actually stopping at that crosswalk before intersection 5, basically a half-block back from where they should be stopping, thinking that the line painted across the street is a stop line. Ultimately I do not think that this will be a major issue, as the permanent paint job for these crosswalk will be longitudinal markings, so it should not be mistaken for a stop line. If anything, this illustrates why we need to be painting all of our crosswalks as longitudinal, which drivers understand more clearly.

[Cygnus]

Surprised to see drivers in this city understanding what the stop bar is for.

[Guest jmecklenborg]

A similar situation exists for NW-bound McMicken at Walnut. 

[taestell]

The new crosswalks were painted today, meaning that the Main Street complete street project is done! Onward to Liberty Street!

[taestell]

I noticed a few traffic signals around the city today that were put into flashing yellow/flashing red mode. For example, on Auburn Avenue, several of the minor intersections' traffic lights were put into this mode. I wonder if this is intended to be permanent or perhaps part of some traffic study that's going on.

[jjakucyk]

It could also be due to a power outage or surge.  The default fail state seems to be to go to flashing mode.  It could also be a clock issue wherein the controller thinks it's the middle of the night.  There's apparently a citywide telephone or fiber-optic interconnect that is used to synchronize all the controller clocks.  I've wondered if there's some issues with that lately because the very closely spaced signals outside my office at Sycamore/Central and Sycamore/Reading have been out of sync with each other all week. 

[Ram23]

^ I've noticed the signals on Plum near City Hall are out of sync, as well. My first assumption was that they were reprogrammed to favor east/west traffic as a part of some sort of traffic study, but I wasn't convinced because they mostly just seem to be wonky.

[taestell]

I don't think it's related to a power failure because the Main & 14th light has been flashing for the past 2 days. And on Auburn it was only the minor intersections while the major ones were still operating normally. I think it could be beneficial to put some of these minor intersection into flashing mode permanently or even replace them with stop signs in some cases.

[taestell]

City Council's Major Projects committee just got its first presentation of the findings of the downtown traffic study that has been in the works for something like 2 years. It included a number of potential changes that could be made to the downtown/OTR street grid, labeled with either "green" for ready to move forward or "yellow" for requires more study. It even included two changes that have already been implemented around the streetcar route--the redesign of 12th at Main, and the addition of a left turn lane on Race at Liberty. However, Council made it clear that they were frustrated by the report, which laid out a number of possible changes (including signal re-timing, signal priority for transit at some intersections, pedestrian walk sign head starts, moving some bus stops), but left the decision on what to implement to the city rather than actually suggesting what changes should be made. It did not include an approximate cost associated with each change, and it did not include anything about bikes, scooters, additional transit-only lanes, or the Liberty Street road diet. Landsman asked that the city and consultants to improve the report and return to the committee by the end of the year with an updated, improved version.

[thebillshark]

The study was a complete joke, more insightful analysis is available on this website for free.