Opinion: It’s Time for Cincinnati to Embrace Vision Zero

Cincinnati City Council candidate Derek Bauman would like to talk to you about traffic safety. 

The city is in the midst of "a public safety crisis of immense proportions," the former police officer writes in the Cincinnati Enquirer. The statistics are damning: Since 2013, crashes involving pedestrians have risen nearly 50 percent. In 2018, more than one person was a struck by a car each day. And in the first three months of the current school year, 13 public school students were hit by cars on their way to or from school.

Bauman's proposed solution is for the city to adopt Vision Zero, a commitment to zero traffic fatalities that combines policy changes, street design, and more. That approach is supported by Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, who recently promised to increase traffic enforcement and street improvements in the city.

Several smaller cities around the country have successfully eliminated traffic fatalities by implementing a Vision Zero framework, while larger cities have had more mixed results—thanks in part, advocates say, to a lack of political leadership. "Successfully implementing Vision Zero in Cincinnati would involve bringing together traffic engineers, public safety personnel, education professionals, public health professionals, members of the public and other stakeholders to work collaboratively toward our own shared goal of zero fatal and serious injury crashes," Bauman writes.