Open House 1.0
When: Wednesday, April 3 at 5:30 PM
Where: Cleveland Heights Community Center, Room 7
(1 Monticello Boulevard, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118)
Thank you to all community members who attended the first Public Open House event on April 3rd. Over 30 individuals joined with the City of Cleveland Heights and consultant partners Kimley-Horn and Seventh Hill as we kicked off the Comprehensive and Equitable Safety Action Plan (CESAP).
The CESAP is being completed with funding obtained through the United States Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) initiative, which aims to support communities throughout the United States in the drive toward Vision Zero. During the event, the project team collected community input through multiple engagement stations regarding existing safety concerns throughout Cleveland Heights for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists alike.
Once attendees arrived, they were greeted at the welcome table and provided with background information on the Safe Streets 4 Cleveland Heights process. The format for the evening’s engagement activities were explained, then attendees were free to visit the various stations at their own pace.
The image above illustrates the layout of the open house event. Multiple engagement stations were arranged within the Cleveland Heights Community Center meeting room.
The event was organized as an open house format, allowing attendees to take their time sharing feedback at five different engagement stations. Each station had a facilitator from the consultant team to explain the activity and provide support during the exercise. Attendees shared their safety concerns and preferred actions through a variety of interactive maps, survey questions, and comment cards.
Station 1: My Personal Experiences
The first station’s activity was designed to provide the consultant team with an understanding of the participants’ current mobility experiences. This station asked attendees to answer three questions. The first asked which mode of transportation they use on a daily basis. Next, what is their most frequent destination while travelling. Finally, which of three possible safety concerns is most relevant to you.
Attendees were given orange stickers to place on their corresponding answers. By the end of the event, 109 stickers were placed on the board. The quantified responses to each of the three questions are shown below.
Station 2: My Biggest Safety Concerns
The second engagement station invited attendees to indicate locations of their biggest safety concerns. Attendees placed small dots on a large map of Cleveland Heights to visualize the spots where they feel unsafe walking, biking, driving, or using some other mode of transportation.
A large map of Cleveland Heights was used at Station #2 during the open house event, where attendees indicated the locations of their biggest street safety concerns. Multiple sticker colors were available, but the colors do not represent different categories. Each sticker dot represents a point of concern.
While attendees were placing locations of their safety concerns on the map, facilitators were able to discuss why the locations mattered to the participants. Therefore, the station not only provided a visual display of safety hotspots, but also encouraged conversations between residents and City staff. These conversations revealed meaningful insights the consultant team will incorporate into the plan’s recommendations.
The close-up view of the map above shows safety concerns at numerous intersections, but also indicates particular long corridors with continuous safety concerns.
Station 3: My Idea for Improving Safety Is…
In addition to asking community members to share the location of their safety concerns, attendees were also invited to share their ideas for improving safety. Station 3 provided a board where individuals could use post-it notes to write their ideas for increasing street safety in Cleveland Heights.
Participants contributed 55 different ideas for improving street safety:
Physical barriers between people & cars
Intersection Mayfield & Coventry (North bound). Drivers are not stopping 4 peds.
Advocate at the State level for updated Driver's Ed which covers bicyclists rights, explains sharrows, etc.
Signs telling you how to bike safety from point A to point B map style
Clean the bike lanes and curbs
Narrowed lanes for traffic
Solid barrier dedicated for cycle lane
Harcourt Speeding
Quickbuild a complete, connected bike network
Park Blvd light synch needs to take place, especially left turn lights at Lee
Bike lanes on Blvds.
Traffic circles, rotaries
Align intersections
Crosswalks with lights
Poor pavement eg. Mayfield & Warrensville, & side streets
Pedestrian refuge island at Lee Library
Cul de sac roads by business districts ie. CF
Increase # of bike paths / separated bike lanes
Noise from Motorcycles
Raised crosswalks and curb extensions etc. in commercial districts, parks, by schools, etc.
More dedicated bike lanes
Cedar and Taylor Crosswalks need to be fixed
All of Euclid Hts. Blvd. 25mph
No more rush hours restriction on Euclid Hts. Blvd.
Let right lanes be for parking + biking on Euclid Hts!
On street parking for low income renters who live in historic buildings—no more moving cars twice a day!
Enforce proper street parking. Delivery / Uber Eats vehicles double parked create hazards. Please enforce
Traffic calming features
Ped injured 12-23 Intersection Cadwell & Hampshire neighbors asking 4 3-way stop
Things that physically slow cars
Noble elementary drop off - pick up times are too many vehicles - need one-way
one way grandview. one way bellfield
Traffic circles, speed bumps or other slow methods
Sobriety checks
Bike lanes on boulevards
Yellowstone + Monticello crosswalks need to be fixed
25 near ALL playgrounds + parks
20 mph on side streets
Lee Rd crosswalks need to be safer
Speeding on Monticello, Forest Hills, Lee
Warrensville Center Rd. needs sidewalk
Will live in a neighborhood, not a thoroughfare!
A demonstration separated bike lane - on one of our boulevards!
Roundabouts!
Raised crosswalks near libraries + primary schools
Road swivlegs
Ped. crossings on Coventry people are parking in the crosswalks
Roundabouts!
Chicanes
Road diets
Coventry / Fairmount / Scarborough traffic pattern change roundabout?
Shutting lanes or whole streets for dining / festivals / etc. People will walk or bike
North - South bike/pedestrian routes
Improve traffic-calming measures. Especially in business districts
Slower side streets
These ideas ranged across transportation mode, roadway infrastructure, enforcement, and education. All the comments received were documented and categorized, as shown in the spreadsheet below.
Community members shared 55 different ideas for improving street safety, which were transcribed and assigned to different categories of possible safety actions. Click on the spreadsheet to expand the size of the image.
“Raised crosswalks and curb extension in commercial districts, parks, by schools, etc.”
Based on the community feedback, a few initial insights include:
The most common mode of transportation mentioned in the comments is Bicycle (10), followed by Pedestrian (8), then Car (2).
67% of comments (40 out of 60) that referenced a safety measure were categorized as Infrastructure improvements (40), versus Enforcement (18) or Education (2).
The most common infrastructure element referenced in the comments was sidewalks (6).
- Bicycle
- Pedestrian
- Car
- Transit
- Bicycle
- Pedestrian
- Car
- Transit
- Infrastructure
- Enforcement
- Education
- Infrastructure
- Enforcement
- Education
The specific ideas for improving safety gathered from Station 3 will be compared with feedback from the other stations and location maps to help guide safety recommendations developed by the consultant team.
Station 4: Comment Cards
The fourth station provided three different comment cards with unique prompts which attendees could complete. Using their own words, participants wrote down their ideas for the following prompts:
My street safety concern is…
My idea for improving street safety is…
I want safe streets for…
Although the cards addressed similar questions as previous stations, this activity slightly reframed the issues and provided opportunities for participants to write longer responses. By comparing the responses from the comment cards with input from other stations, the consultant team can identify consistent themes and locations that emerge independent from the engagement activity’s format.
The comment cards submitted by community members were scanned, transcribed, and organized according to different categories. Images of all comment cards are visible below and paired with a corresponding spreadsheet.
My Street Safety Concern Is…
My Idea for Improving Street Safety Is…
I Want Safe Streets For…
After a thorough review of the community input, historical crash data, and overall connectivity within the City, the project team will identify projects and programs that will bring tangible safety benefit to the community. Projects and programs will be identified, reviewed by a Technical Advisory Committee comprised of community stakeholders, and prioritized according to their potential safety benefit and contribution to improving equity in Cleveland Heights.
“Vision Zero: A strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all road users.”
The completion of the CESAP will provide the City of Cleveland Heights with a basis upon which future funds can be obtained through the SS4A program and other federal grant programs to implement infrastructure and policy improvements seeking to reduce the number of fatal and serious injury crashes to zero on our roadway network.
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