What Are Ohio Safety Corridors and Are They Effective?
Photo: OregonDOT via CC
If you regularly drive in or through Ohio, you’ve probably noticed a gradual increase in the state’s safety corridors. Here’s a brief look at what Ohio safety corridors do, who establishes them, and whether or not they really make roads less dangerous.
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What is a safety corridor and who establishes them?
As its name implies, a safety corridor is a stretch of highway that a state’s department of transportation designates as a high-risk, well-monitored area to help reduce instances of dangerous driving behaviors. Transportation officials push for safety corridors based on driving statistics that they analyze with state highway patrol officers.
If a certain area of a high-traffic interstate is experiencing a spike in car crashes due to dangerous driving behaviors, it’s likely that the state’s DOT will declare a new safety corridor with proper signage to alert motorists. These dangerous driving behaviors include distracted driving, speeding, and driving under the influence.
Safety corridors typically have signage at regular intervals to encourage drivers to focus on the road — and alert them to the reality of heightened law enforcement in that area. Lt. Tim Grigsby, commander of the Lima post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, shares his perspective on the corridors from a law enforcement perspective. “The purpose of the corridor[s] is two-fold: educate drivers about the dangers of distracted driving and make motorists aware of law enforcement’s intense focus on stopping it.”
Do they really work?
Though Ohio is fairly new to using safety corridors, the preliminary evidence indicates that safety corridors are indeed helping reduce distracted driving incidents. According to ODOT, Ohio inaugurated the first safety corridor back in April 2018. The corridor was a 17-mile section of I-80/1-76 located in Mahoning and Trumbull counties. After this corridor was installed, ODOT reported 30% fewer traffic crashes and 31% fewer injury crashes.
The Belmont County Distracted Driving Safety Corridor in eastern Ohio has also proven successful at reducing severe accidents, according to ODOT stats. There were 13 percent fewer crashes with injuries and fatalities from Aug. 14, 2020, through July 31 of this year compared to the previous year’s statistics, as The Intelligencer contributor Carri Graham confirms.
Ohio has implemented safety corridors in other areas of the state with similarly successful results. Two of these routes occur on stretches of I-75 from Findlay to Beaverdam and on I-71 between Delaware and Morrow counties. And the state plans on designating even more in the days ahead, including portions of State Route 161/State Route 37 in Licking County and U.S. 33 in Athens County.
Whitney Russell resides in Dayton, though her spirit can be found beach-bumming in Puerto Rico (the land of her half-Puerto Rican heritage). When not crafting car-related content, she can be found chasing after the most amazing toddler in the world, watching her “beaver” of a husband build amazing woodworking projects, hanging out with two crazy dogs, and visiting family and friends. She also enjoys traveling, crafting, and binge-watching period dramas when time allows. See more articles by Whitney.