Cleveland City Council has signed off on accepting roughly $1,640,368 in Ohio Department of Transportation grants to fund safety improvements at 18 locations across the city. WOIO has identified East 93rd Street and Kinsman Road as a location with several serious or fatal crashes, and residents and city officials alike have flagged the stretch as dangerous for as long as anyone can remember.
The ordinance, covered by WOIO, authorizes the city to apply for and accept the state funding, which state grants typically require be matched with local dollars. Cleveland City Council records also reference Emergency Ordinance No. 353-2026, according to Cleveland City Council records.
A Corridor Residents Already Know Too Well
Trevor, who lives in the Kinsman neighborhood, told WOIO that Cleveland streets feel unsafe because drivers routinely run red lights and ignore traffic laws. He suggested installing speed cameras and increasing vigilance specifically on Kinsman Road, per the same station’s report. Kinsman Boulevard and Shaker Boulevard are both state roads running through Cleveland, and East 93rd and Kinsman has experienced several serious or fatal crashes over the years, WOIO reported.
That stretch of Kinsman Avenue, between East 75th Street and East 140th Street, is designated a primary high-crash corridor on the city’s High Injury Network, and it passes almost entirely through census tracts classified as historically transportation-disadvantaged, according to a City of Cleveland grant application. Council President Blaine Griffin said speeding and poor traffic patterns rank among the city’s top three resident complaints, the station reported, and he expects additional safety upgrades now that the ordinance has passed.
Why Cameras Aren’t Part of the Plan
Trevor’s call for speed cameras runs into a legal wall. Under Ohio Revised Code § 5747.502, upheld by the Supreme Court of Ohio in 2022, the state reduces local government fund allocations to cities dollar-for-dollar based on traffic camera fine revenue collected, and state law also requires a full-time law enforcement officer be present at automated speed camera enforcement sites for civil ticketing to proceed…