More Speed Tables, Roundabouts Being Installed on Near West Side

Residents in Ohio City and Detroit-Shoreway have watched in recent weeks and months as more traffic calming efforts have been deployed, joining the roundabouts installed on Franklin Blvd. in 2023.

Five more roundabouts now dot Bridge Ave. between West 25th and West 65th, and dozens of speed tables have been constructed on side streets.

That’s partially thanks to the work of new Ward 7 Councilman Austin Davis, who campaigned on street safety in his run for council.

The new infrastructure, he said, is affordable, and the city could use more. Around 100 cheap speed tables have been built across Cleveland, and the new roundabouts on Bridge only cost about $30,000, a bargain compared to ones on Franklin that used $3.2 million in federal ARPA dollars.

“I mean, it’s a true fact of life that no one intervention is going to solve all of our traffic needs,” Davis said. “And we just have to do a lot more across the board.”

While some residents have lodged complaints, and while buses and trucks have trouble navigating the tight corridors of some of the roundabouts, Davis said the evidence is clear that they work.

Almost two-thirds of all vehicles drove over the speed limit before Frankin’s six roundabouts were installed. After? Just 17 percent, a 2024 study found. Crashes dropped by 70 percent. Overall car traffic plummeted by a fifth.

Data that runs contrary to anecdotal observations.

“Honestly, the light we had was just fine,” Brian Warren, who’s worked at Franklin Plaza for the past decade, told Scene near the 38th St. roundabout.

“Those box trucks, garbage trucks and everything—a lot of times they just drive straight through them,” he said. “And crosswalks? Nobody pays attention to them. I’m nearly getting run over half the time.”

“I really forget that they’re there,” Haley, who lives near Franklin Blvd., told Scene walking her dog on Friday. “My poor shocks in my car have seen better days.”

“I don’t think any of it’s making a difference,” she said. “The speed bumps. The speed tables. I don’t think they do anything. The amount of people that I see like flying over them?”

On Friday, Scene stood at the corner of West 38th and Frankin for 15 minutes. In that amount of time, three cars or vans drove either partially or fully over the mini roundabout.

Facts Davis receives with a shoulder shrug.

“That’s what I love: even when they don’t work, they work,” he said. “Because even when someone drives over one, they’re still going a lot slower.”

Davis isn’t sure exactly where new speed tables in his ward may go. It’s likely new ones will be installed in high-demand areas: on streets with a history of speeders, close to schools or parks, or business districts.

“The mindset is, can we acheive similar ends, similar results around reduced crashes and reduced speeding for less cost and less time?” he said.

Even if traffic calming’s gained more enemies than proponents.

“It’s just annoying and inconvenient. But it does work,” Haley, the nearby resident, said. “I just don’t think we need more.”