As the Ohio Department of Transportation’s statewide safety design consultant in 2019, LJB developed Ohio’s inaugural Pedestrian Safety Improvement Program (PSIP).
The program provides $10 million in funding to eligible high-risk jurisdictions and assistance to implement proven low-to-medium cost pedestrian safety countermeasures in high-risk locations.
LJB’s role was to help develop pedestrian crash countermeasures, provide guidance on the applicability of those countermeasures to specific conditions, and to assist cities in selecting locations and countermeasures. The first year included the cities of Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown.
LJB managed the program for ODOT by receiving and reviewing applications, which included a desktop review, selecting sites for further review, conducting in-person field reviews with city staff, and estimating construction costs. Our team worked with several subconsultants to design improvements to 528 locations with a wide spectrum of countermeasures, including curb bump outs, curb ramps, signing and marking, overhead sign supports, rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFBs), pedestrian hybrid beacons (PHBs), and street lighting. We reviewed many unusual and non-standard locations, which required innovative approaches and problem-solving.
The program streamlined the ODOT project development process by batching the environmental documents by District, managing utility risk within both the design and construction phases, and utilizing biddable construction plan formats. This enabled the team to position the program to support ODOT-let projects in early 2021.
