Safer Roads

I Want To

Everyone wants safer streets. Let’s create change.

The Comprehensive Safety Action Plan aims to stop fatal and serious injury crashes on Lorain County roads by 2040. The plan will be ready by the end of 2024, and projects will start based on funding in 2025.

What safer roads look like:
The Safe System Approach is a framework that aims to completely eliminate deaths and serious injuries from traffic crashes for everyone using the roads, while also promoting safer, healthier, and equitable transportation options.

Crosswalks with signage and more time to cross safely.
Lights on streets so people can see better at night.
Trees, plants, or other greenery between sidewalks and roads to keep pedestrians safe.
Roundabouts to slow down cars and make intersections safer.
Partnering with schools and driving programs to teach people how to stay safe on the road.

In February 2023, Lorain County Public Health (LCPH) was one of 510 entities nationwide to receive a $200,000 federal grant as part of the new Safe Streets and Roads for All Program (SS4A). This grant requires the creation of a countywide Comprehensive Safety Action Plan. The plan aims to make our streets safer by applying the Safe System Approach to eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes for all road users.

LCPH has been working with transportation consulting firm Toole Design to develop this action plan, using traffic crash data to identify the biggest problem areas across the county. Also, the team is studying driver behaviors, user access to safe roads, and transportation methods.

Listen to a podcast episode about the Comprehensive Safety Action Plan:

Complete Streets

Complete Streets is an approach to design a community so all users can stay safe on the road - including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities. There is no one-size-fits-all approach for success. A complete street in a rural area looks different from a complete street in urban area, but both balance safety and convenience for everyone using the road.

Complete Streets are streets for everyone. A complete street may include: sidewalks, bike lanes (or wide paved shoulders), special bus lanes, comfortable and accessible public transportation stops, frequent and safe crossing opportunities, median islands, accessible pedestrian signals, curb extensions, narrower travel lanes, roundabouts, and more.

The Complete Streets approach helps create livable communities for many types of users, including children, people with disabilities, and older adults. It also improves equity, safety, and public health, while reducing transportation costs and traffic issues. Vision Zero is a strategy to end all traffic fatalities and severe and increase safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. Vision Zero can complement the Complete Streets approach. In Lorain County, communities implement Vision Zero and Complete Streets with policies and strategies that work for them. The City of Oberlin passed a Complete Streets Resolution in 2015.

Safe Communities

Since 1989, the Safe Communities Coalition (SCC) has worked to reduce injuries and deaths on Lorain County roads through community initiatives that involve engineering, enforcement, and education. SCC members represent businesses, law enforcement, healthcare agencies, local and state engineering offices, insurance agencies, and Lorain County residents. Lorain County Public Health (LCPH) coordinates and conducts SCC with our dedicated partners. To prevent traffic-related injuries and deaths, we:

Review and analyze Lorain County crash data using OSTATS and GIS Crash Analysis Tool (GCAT).
Raise awareness via interventions, campaigns, events, material distribution, and social media.
Educate about the importance of wearing a seat belt, driving sober, driving focused, and the safety of people walking, biking, or on motorcycles.
Facilitate the Traffic Fatality Review Committee, which reviews local fatal vehicle crashes to identify trends and develop possible countermeasures and interventions to prevent similar crashes.

SCC is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration through a grant from the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

Learn more about initiatives conducted by the Safe Communities Coalition: