Transportation Planning

Planning for the future transportation & mobility needs in the City is important to ensure that our financial resources are used wisely and prioritized using data to inform decision-making. In the past, peak hour vehicle level of service (LOS), which is a measurement of delay and queuing during peak hours, was used 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 5-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 safety of all street users over peak hour vehicle capacity.

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

In 2022, Hilliard City Council adopted the Safe Streets for Hilliard Plan.  This is an action plan that 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 primary emphasis areas in Hilliard:  intersections, speed, and young drivers.  Overlapping all three of these emphasis areas are vulnerable road users (pedestrians & bicyclists), which are over-represented in severe crashes of all types.

The City’s 5-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for the Transportation & Mobility Division reflects this philosophy.  Each fall, the City develops and updates this plan based on fiscal constraints and City Council priorities.  All new projects in the 2022-2026 CIP have components that address safety needs, such as roundabouts (mostly single lane), crosswalk improvements, medians, and installation of shared-use path and sidewalks.  These projects are listed & mapped on the Capital Projects site.

The Transportation & Mobility Division maintains several long-range transportation plans that help to guide capital investments as well as respond to development proposals to ensure that streets and trails are built as part of Developer-initiated projects.  These long-range plans include:

These two documents will be updated in 2022 as part of the Comprehensive Plan update.  Citizens are encouraged to provide comment on street and pedestrian/bicycle/trail needs as part of this process. 

Additional resources to assist in evaluating development proposals with respect to transportation matters include: