CINCINNATI — A group of Northside residents have joined the pedestrian safety improvement effort in Cincinnati.

In 2021 alone, the city had over 300 pedestrian-involved crashes, with nearly 50 people either seriously injured or killed, according to data from the city.

What You Need To Know

• A special meeting was held Thursday at Cincinnati City Hall to discuss pedestrian safety improvement in Northside


• A woman who was struck while crossing the street in Northside died last month


• Northside residents are meeting regularly with the city to discuss plans to better protect pedestrians

Now, more than $6.6 million has been poured into pedestrian safety projects in 2022.

“We do not feel safe from cars,” said Bree Moss, the Northside Community Council President. 

Moss said excessive speeding in her neighborhood is a huge problem for pedestrians like herself. It almost cost her life. 

“I’ve been hit by a car twice outside of Northside,” said Moss. “So it’s not just my neighborhood. It’s the whole city.”

Moss isn't alone. In July, a woman was struck while crossing the street in Northside. She died from her injuries last month. 

“When that happened, we felt like kind of enough is enough,” said Moss. “We were already being loud about this and we really needed to draw more attention to it and really talk through what a real solution could be.”

That’s when the residents of Northside met with Cincinnati City Council and Mayor Aftab Pureval to come up with a series of special meetings to discuss problems and solutions for improving pedestrian safety in their neighborhood.  Redesigning the streets on the Northside is just one of several solutions Moss has suggested. 

“Our streets are currently designed for cars to just hurry up and get to and from with no regard to people traveling in any other form,” she said. “Additionally it would be nice to see effective and equitable enforcement.”

Cincinnati Councilman Mark Jeffreys, who has been at the forefront of improving pedestrian safety across the city, has been instrumental in getting the Northside group together. He said getting the community’s input is crucial.

“Having that on-the-ground neighborhood perspective I think is so critical because then you’re not designing solutions on what you think the problem is,” said Jeffreys. 

Several problems and solutions were discussed during Thursday's meeting. It will be presented to city administration and will be assessed on whether the solutions are impactful and feasible. And that information will be shared during the next meeting in two weeks. 

“There’s an increase in frequency of the meetings now and so that also really helps with that productivity of it and I think we’ll only continue to have better outcomes from these meetings,” said Moss.