From 바카라게임 this is Let's Talk Cini presented by Western and Southern Financial Group. Put our financial strength behind you. Hello everyone, I'm Curtis Fuller, and welcome to Let's Talkini. Today we're going to talk pedestrian safety, and here with me, someone who's been leading the effort on this whole pedestrian safety issue is Cincinnati City Council member Mark Jeffries, and it's good to see you. Thank you for having me, Curtis. Let's talk about this, um. You know over the years it seems like more attention has been focused on pedestrian safety. Talk about why you have been at the forefront of this. Yeah, there are *** couple of reasons. First, uh, as *** city we've seen people either they forgot how to drive, uh, during the pandemic or or don't care about the rules, but we've seen increasing crazy driving. Um, and as *** result, uh, we're hearing from all of the communities, all the neighborhoods that they want something done about this issue on *** personal level, I actually lost my mother-in-law. She was 81 years old. She survived the Holocaust but was crossing the street and got run over by *** car and died. And so uh there are *** lot of stories here in Cincinnati of similar, you know, the Rodriguez family on the west side uh lost their daughter, um, so *** lot of families have gone through this, um, and, uh, there's *** real personal connection and fundamentally our goal as government first and fore. has to be keep keep people safe, have to be safe from crime, from, you know, being able to walk across the street and be able to get across the street safely. So that's *** fundamental charge of local government, uh, and something that I think, uh, we have taken very seriously in the last few years in particular. And fortunately over the past 10 years this issue has, has been at the front of issues. Fortunately, sadly it is because of. Things that you mentioned, but I think people are focusing more on it now. I, I, I remember doing some stories back about 10 years ago and people didn't understand why we were doing those stories. It just seemed like, well, people understand the rules but we realized people don't understand the rules. Pedestrians and drivers need to understand the rules better. You, you pointed out as I was listening to you that you have been hearing from communities, uh, all over the city. *** need to address this and that's important because as people see changes they need to know the genesis of this change. Yeah, so it's *** couple of things. First, the city does an annual survey of residents of thousands of people. This consistently in the last few years has been *** top 1 or 2 issue for residents. Uh, it's not just one or two people being concerned and so what we do is we ask the community councils to take the lead. You know, at *** neighborhood level, I mean, you know how it is, uh, outside your house in your neighborhood, you know what the issues are, uh, you know, at this intersection people are, you know, going fast that that this stoplight, they don't stop or whatever the issue is, uh, we can't determine that as *** city council because we don't know it as well as people who live in the community so we ask the community councils every year to come up with their top issues, uh, top traffic, uh, issues, uh, and they list them out usually 2 or so. Uh, not necessarily what the solution is. Department of Transportation can do that. Uh, and then they submit that Department of Transportation goes through and kind of triages it. They look and where are the most crashes. Unfortunately you have to go there first, uh, and, um, and then they kind of go down the list. So *** lot of the changes that you see from *** physical design in roads, which is one of the solutions, there's really 3, that's one of the solutions, um, is *** result of that. The other two are education, uh, and, uh, enforcement. Uh, and education is *** big one. CPS about 15 years ago stopped doing driver's ed in school. Uh, that's certainly *** part of it, you know, kids coming out of high school, I think they should know the rules of the road as *** driver or pedestrian, you know, when you, how, how you, you stop at *** stop sign for 3 seconds, you count to 3. You know, and then go who has right of way, just simple stuff, uh, so that's really imperative and you touched on the other part distraction distraction from drivers, people, you know, we all have cell phones now people are on their phones, uh, it is illegal in Ohio now, but also from pedestrians, you know, people in your schools or universities who are walking across and just caught up in their own world, uh, people need to be aware of their surroundings, um, and the last one is there's *** role of enforcement. You know I've got 4 kids. You know when you have kids you have rules and you don't enforce them, then people say, well, who cares? Uh, and so CPD has been doing more thoughtful, uh, enforcement, just, you know, stopping folks, not often, not always citing, but if you're going 15 miles over, you get *** citation which is very fair, you know, no one wants to live in front of *** house where people are going 60, 70 miles an hour and people routinely in Cincinnati are. So you know we need thoughtful enforcement we definitely need more education and some of these other interventions in road design are also community up yeah and this need for speed. I mean I've been driving *** long time, uh, and but I see people just. Uh, speeding at levels that quite frankly, it seems unnecessary because I, I said, uh, someone recently I said, you know, let's just think about it let's think that, uh, OK, you, you're trying to get someplace. The reality is. Even if you're going 20 miles over the speed limit. To get to your destination you're only going to cut maybe *** couple of minutes. Is that worth the danger that you put yourself in and others? It just doesn't make sense. Nothing makes sense in this whole process of, uh, of the, the speed and the erratic driving, um, and it has reached *** point, um, uh, maybe I'm just getting older I. But it has reached *** point where it, it is frustrating to be and it and of course it's dangerous. I, I, we're gonna take *** break and then I, I wanna talk about some of the changes we've seen. I, I know people call your office every day talking about the speed humps and the barriers that are put up in the neighborhoods, uh, so I wanna talk *** little bit about that. We're gonna take *** break and then we'll be back. Welcome back everyone. I'm Curtis Fuller. Uh, person sitting next to me that doesn't really need an introduction. He is *** Cincinnati City Council member Mark Jeffries. We're talking about pedestrian safety. Uh, people have seen in neighborhoods, Avondale in particular along Reading Road, these speed humps, and I hear from everyone, oh, I hate those things. Oh, I hate these, and you're here too. However, people should know. Those were put in place because *** lot of residents said we need that we need to slow down traffic so talk about that. I know Avondale College Hill, those are two in particular that. Yeah, people have *** love-hate relationship with them. Uh, it comes back to something you touched on. What do we value? Do we value safety or do we value speed getting to your destination maybe 30 seconds faster and if you put yourself in that neighborhood, whether it's Avondale or College Hill wherever. And you are walking in that neighborhood or you have *** house, of course you don't want people going 60, 70, or even in some cases 90 miles an hour in front of your own house so we live in community we need to be considered of each other, um, so all of those interventions are based on what that neighborhood wants so city doesn't come and say this is what we're gonna do. Avondale says hey, we, you know, have ***, uh, an issue with speeding on these intersections Reding road, for example. And we need it to slow down. And so they say, can we get some speed humps or some other inventions and that's how that's how it comes about um so it really is from the ground up, um, which I think is important for folks to realize. I call them barriers, but uh there's another name for you know you're down the street and right at. The corners they're my boots yeah they're called, they're called bump outs bumps and part of the theory is, uh, it's not theory, it's also it it works is think about yourself if you're driving down an alleyway. What do you do? Naturally you slow down because you don't wanna hit the sides of *** narrow alleyway, right, and destroy your car. Uh, well, if the road is designed in *** way that invites you to go *** little slower. Then you're going to, and here's the reality of the speed humps. They are designed and we have data pre and post for people to go the speed limit. So in Bond Hill, for example, in Mount Washington, two areas where we continue to monitor speeds, we did *** pre and post and people were going 1015 miles an hour over before now they're going the speed limit. Which is the point, um, you know, so you don't have to slow down to nothing you don't have to stop, but slow down to the speed limit, which of course we should always be doing anyway. Have they been effective, uh, because, uh, I know in College Hill in particular, uh, I saw some stats that showed before the uh devices were put in. The number of speeders very high and as you pointed out, at least in College Hill that number decreased dramatically. After some of these devices were put in, have you been seeing that? Uh, we have, I mean, we see ***, uh, I mean, it's, it's very single variable looking at this intersection before the speed hump, this intersection afterwards, so, uh, and we've seen consistently it reduces speeds down to the speed limit or maybe *** little bit above, which is fine. Um, so they work, um, and this is why it's funny. I mean, we're close to Mount Auburn here went to the Mount Auburn Community Council, and they were complaining they weren't getting their fair share of speed hubs. So, uh, you know, as an elected official, that's often what happens is people will complain when. They see it or but they want more of it and what what actually you see is there's, you know, typically uh close to 100 requests from neighborhoods and we can't fund them all so there are more requests than than not um and it just comes back to, um, you know what kind of community do we want to live in? Uh, I think we wanna live in *** community where we respect each other and it's fair. We follow the rules, uh, and, uh, we, we have, uh, respect and dignity for the for our neighbors and, uh, you know, following the rules of the road, making sure you're, you're, uh, educated on the rules is, uh, is ***, you know, is *** part of that. And while Cincinnati is, has been very aggressive on trying to solve this issue over the past several years, we should point out that we're not on this island by ourselves. This is literally *** worldwide. Issue pedestrian safety and and no doubt you look at what is occurring in Milwaukee or Chicago or some other place to make some ideas come to reality here in Cincinnati. No, you're uh you're spot on. It's not *** Cincinnati issue, um, and, uh, it's in every city, every suburb, even New York City we've seen some some things in New York City where people think driving is crazy but they've slowed it down. Uh, dramatically there, exactly, exactly, no, because I think people realize, especially during the what happened during the pandemic is there were fewer cars on the road and so people with fewer cars, uh, and wide open roads will drive faster. I mean we know it. Think about *** highway, you know, when nobody's on *** highway, you feel, you know, you're inclined to drive *** little faster because it's so it's, it's safer when there are more cars on the road and you have to go closer to speed limit, you go to this closer to speed limit, so. Uh, as far as road design, we want to invite people to go the speed limit, like that's, that's what we want. Uh, the speed limits are there for *** reason to make sure that people are safe, and we all wanna live. It's the fundamental thing we all want to live in *** safe community and, uh, whether it be safety walking across the street from *** car or from gun violence or anything else, uh, safety is paramount. Uh, we're gonna take *** break, um, and come back and talk more about this issue and the responsibility of the pedestrian. I see *** lot of people walking, you know, not in the crosswalk against the light, so pedestrians have *** responsibility as well. Back in *** moment. Welcome back. I'm talking to council member Mark Jeffries. I, I, I said the pedestrians have *** responsibility in this as well, you know, you can even, you know, even if you're in the crosswalk, *** friend of mine always says you can be right or you can, you know, not be right, you can be dead right if if you see this car coming, um, so do you have these sessions where you talk to citizens about their responsibility. Of crossing with the light in the crosswalk, things of that nature, yeah, 100%. So actually there's *** group of kids recently that have developed different campaigns that should be PSAs of look up, look down. Uh, the problem is especially smartphones, you know, people are in their own worlds and they're kind of looking and they've got their, you know, Air buds in and you listen to music and. Uh, and there's *** certain sense of, I hate to say it, but *** little entitlement. It's like, oh no, I'm walking, you can wait for me like, well, the car's *** couple 1000 pounds and so I think all of us need to everyone, driver pedestrian, follow the rules. The rules are there rules of the road, uh, rules of crossing the street, um, and also as *** pedestrian, even as *** driver, I'm, I'm *** little more defensive. I think all of us *** little more defensive, even if the light is red. You know, *** lot of people are are blowing through red lights so you know just pause *** little extra as *** pedestrian to pause *** little extra, make sure that people actually did stop just because you have the right of way doesn't mean that somebody's gonna, you know, stop. So the responsibility is both uh people pedestrians have responsibility. um I think it's important to get back to teaching our kids that too, right? I mean all of us learned as kids in school look both ways. I mean every everything you learn. Uh, we need to reinforce that for, for our, for our young people. Yeah, no, no, absolutely, um, are you seeing, uh, any city in particular that you've sort of modeled what we do here? Is there one or two cities that you said they're really getting it right. Uh, there are some, uh, like Hoboken, New Jersey has resulted they've gotten down to 0, traffic fatalities, um, 0, which is obviously an inspirational, you know, goal that, uh, we would love as well, uh, and *** lot of it is those three Es making sure people are educated, uh, about the rules of the road whether you're *** driver or pedestrian. Uh, making sure there's some thoughtful enforcement, you know, where we're enforcing the rules, uh, and then finally, um, the engineering, the making sure the roads are designed in *** way that people are invited to go the speed limit. So they've had some success, but we look at *** bunch of other cities as well, anywhere where, um, you know, they have great results to keeping people safe. That's really what we're after. Another safety issue, I don't know if you get curious how many complaints you get on this. It seems as though there are more cars on the road now. With issues, one light out, um, uh, you know, cracked windows, uh, things of that nature, uh are you getting complaints about that and how do we resolve that? We do, and you know, we share that with CPD, um, you know, and CBD has to triage everything, right? I mean they, they, we funded increased, uh, recruit classes to recruit more officers, but we, *** lot of people don't wanna be officers these days, so it's tough to recruit new officers. We're not at the authorized strength. And so CPD needs to triage first you have to go through the more serious crimes, make sure we're managing those, the more violent crimes, um, etc. and then, you know, more of the quality of life issues and crimes which, um, you know this in part, uh, is, but it also becomes *** safety issue, right? You have one light, you know, it, it becomes *** safety issue if you, um, you know, you're driving on the road and somebody thinks you're *** motorcycle or something else and you're not so, uh, those are important we share it with, um, CBD when it comes up and. Um, you know, they, they need to just like anything else kind of triage what's most important and unfortunately when they get *** call for, you know, uh, *** gun shooting or some other crime they have to handle that first and, uh, you know, and so we'll continue to invest in recruit classes, make sure we get up to authorized strength, uh, and, uh, make sure they have the resources they need. All right, I'm gonna take *** final break. Uh, well, so much that that I could talk about on, on this issue, um, but let's, uh, take *** break, come back with the council member Mark Jeffries back in *** moment. Here with me is Mark Jeffries, uh, council member for Cincinnati. Um, we've talked about this issue *** lot every time I see him, you know, I'm joking about doing this show where we just talk about, uh, pedestrian safety. I threw out something to you during the break. I said, uh, what responsibility, uh does the auto maker have in all of this and, uh, you brought up something that's really happening in California yeah so there's, uh, first of all, the technology has advanced so much obviously in cars we see it ourselves, right? Um, you know, *** lot of cars will, you might be on cruise control and it has *** sensor and then it'll slow you down to keep you on cruise control or ahead of the car or behind, you know, so technology exists that could help in the space in some states, I think California for one, is passing some laws that at *** state level, so it's not *** city anything city but where um it does force cars to kind of slow down if you're going excessive speed. Um, you know, obviously, um, there are technology solutions that, that can be effective that's that the automakers in Europe that have, uh, I've seen that where, uh, I, I believe over in Europe where you will come to an area and your car will just slow down, it takes control off, yeah, I mean it is at the automaker level and more at the state level, but, uh, there are things that can be done. Have to ask you about the like the red light cameras and things like that that's it's it's always been rather controversial the uh the speed check cameras I I know some of that's out of the hand of uh of *** local municipalities but. Um, still having discussions about that, yeah, so there are multiple discussions with different stakeholders on that. So both with CPS folks at the NAACP that have concerns, legitimate understand of where they would be placed, um, the, the discussion is really focused around school districts, right, because, you know, schools, I think we can all agree are areas where people shouldn't be going, you know, 30, 40 miles over the speed limit. Um, and so that's, uh, uh, uh, *** discussion of, hey, is there something that we could pilot there to see if it works is to take, you know, 10 different schools, um, but that's also something that would have to go to the voters because there's *** charter amendment that prevents, um, red light cameras right now. Yeah, yeah, I, I know some areas around the country are are using, you know, red light cameras and the speed cameras, um, and primarily just to get people's attention. Uh, in many cases they're just sending out warnings if they catch you, um, but, uh, you, you know, you, it's green, yellow, and red. There's *** purpose for those three colors and, um, what I see there's this tendency at yellow for drivers to pick up speed to try to make it through the light. It's not, it really isn't worth it. It really isn't worth it and I don't know how we can get that message across to people. Yeah, I mean, um, it's, it is simple green, yellow, red, uh, and the, the cameras is *** complicated issue, obviously, um, the state also says, you know, look, it's not *** moneymaker, it wouldn't be *** money maker for us anyway because we any if you do *** dollar for dollar offset in state funding outside of school zones, so we would have to absorb the full cost. So to be clear that is not an objective, um, but you know it's, it could be *** tool and I think that we need further conversation on it. Well, I've enjoyed this, um, uh, we've been talking about it for *** long time and I know throughout this year, uh, that we'll be talking about it much more, but thank you very much for for joining us. Thank you for everything you do. Yeah, well, that does it for the program today. Thanks for joining us, uh, for this, uh, first show of 2025. I'm Curtis Fuller. We'll see you next time for another edition of Let's Talk Censi. Have *** nice day and *** better day tomorrow.