Planning for future transportation and mobility needs in the city is important to ensure our financial resources are used wisely and prioritized using data to inform decision making.

In the past, peak-hour vehicle level of service was used as the primary – and sometimes only – factor in prioritizing transportation projects. This has led to the widening of some of our arterial streets to reduce vehicle queues, which in turn has resulted in increased vehicle speeds on some of our multi-lane corridors.

These five-lane arterial streets have become barriers for crossing and the “hot spots” for severe injury and fatal crashes. Because of what has happened in the past two decades in Hilliard and throughout Central Ohio, the City of Hilliard is prioritizing the safety of all street users over peak-hour vehicle capacity.

Today, transportation planning is focused more heavily on creating a street environment that improves safety, quality of life, economic prosperity, and walkability. Simply put, saving a few minutes in a driver’s commute is not worth risking lives.

In 2022, Hilliard City Council adopted the Safe Streets for Hilliard Plan. This action plan sets goals, priorities, strategies, and targets for eliminating serious injury and fatal crashes on Hilliard’s local street system. Through public engagement, stakeholder involvement, and evaluation of data, this plan identifies three areas of emphasis in Hilliard: intersections, speed, and young drivers. Overlapping all three of these areas are vulnerable road users (pedestrians and bicyclists), a group that is over-represented in severe crashes of all types.