The city of Dayton is looking for feedback on transportation projects for two major West Dayton thoroughfares, West Third Street and Gettysburg Avenue.
Engineers and city officials gathered at City Hall on Tuesday, inviting community members to voice their ideas and learn more about the projects aimed at improving road safety and aesthetics.
Share your feedback
Feedback on the plans can be shared to Engineer Joe Weinel by email joe.weinel@daytonohio.gov or through a form on the city's website.
"We want to get comments back here in the next month so we can start developing final plans on this," said Chief Engineer Joe Weinel.
Weinel said they have received around $10 million in federal funding for the two projects, covering 75% of reconstruction costs.
Gettysburg Avenue
Gettysburg Avenue will start seeing aesthetic updates in Spring of 2028 with improvements to the pavement, curbs, walkways and street lighting.
Lanes will be narrowed from 12 to 11 feet.
"Then we're also putting a side path, which is a bike path-slash-sidewalk on one side, and we'll also be replacing the speed tables," he said. "Those are the speed humps that are out there. We put those in in 2022, and we're already seeing good data in that they're making it safer."
West Third Street
Reconstruction will start on West Third Street in Spring of 2027, looking at reducing the roadway from five to three lanes and installing a two-way cycle track.
Weinel said there's not much bicycle infrastructure on the west side currently.
"Is it that there isn't bicycle traffic or is it they don't feel safe? So we're hoping that if we give them safe travel that there will be more," Weinel said.
Weinel said decreasing lanes on a road can reduce crashes by 50%, and they hope to make driving on West Third Street safer through this kind of update.
“It was averaging almost 86 crashes a year on the average with, I think, 12 or 13 fatalities. And this is a 10 year period, but still," he said. "So that's what we cannot have, we do not want. Our goal is zero fatalities.”
While some concerns about travel delays due to lane reductions have been expressed, Weinel said in reality, those delays are less than a minute long.
"Over this West Third Street stretch, we expect it to be under 30 seconds," he said. "Which when you're in a rush, that's a pain, but it's worth it for the safety, you know?"
Community feedback
Another aspect of both projects that has raised local concern is the proposed removal of existing traffic signals at Westown Shopping Center, Young Avenue and Elmhurst Road.
"Where are people going to cross if they get dropped off by a bus and they need to get to the other side of the road? How do they get there," asked resident Jason Thomas at the public meeting.
Thomas said he came to the open meeting to express those concerns about pedestrian safety and pitch ideas for better alternatives.
“I think Shroyer in Oakwood is a very good example of a way they could solve that," he said. "Having the dedicated crossings you can turn on just every once in a while at the logical places, line them up with the bus stops, give a way to do it.”
Weinel said it is important for the community to give this type of feedback so they can work within the guidelines of their federal funding to meet resident needs.
"There's data you have to put in to warrant whether there should be a traffic signal there and with these projects, there's five traffic signals that are planning to be removed because the federal won't fund them," he said. "If they really want them, we can petition the state for it and then the city will have to find money to replace these."
