DAYTON — New changes are coming to Dayton’s business district, and drivers will notice them right away.
The city is installing new speed cushions along West Third Street where just weeks ago a car crashed and nearly slammed into a historic building.
Everyone in the city, especially those living or working along the stretch of Gettysburg Avenue, know the chaos that high speeds and drag racing have caused, so the city installed speed tables and speed cushions.
It’s been so successful, that the same plan of attack is being used on Third Street to make the Wright-Dunbar Business District safer.
“We had to do it, look at all the traffic we’ve got right now,” said Shannon Jackson.
Shannon Jackson’s office is part of the rebirth of the Wright-Dunbar business corridor, but four crashes in a month, with one car hitting a building, had the community reaching out to city hall.
Workers installed a large speed cushion near Third and Williams Street. It forces drivers to slow down and makes it safer to walk on the sidewalks.
“The way the city did the speed bumps, they look professional, they’re nice, they’re clean, I think it enhances our neighborhood a little,” Jackson said.
The drive to block high speeds began on Gettysburg Avenue.
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Officers saw drag racing, speeds over 100 miles an hour, and lives destroyed.
A fatal crash in April of 2022 took the lives of four young people.
News Center 7 was there as city crews installed several speed cushions last October.
Dayton police told News Center 7 that in the five years before the cushions, North Gettysburg averaged 40 crashes a year, 18 of them serious, and nine people died in those five years. Over the same time span this year, just 18 crashes, only one serious and no one dying.
“It’s not an extreme slowdown, the speed limit on Gettysburg is 35 miles per hour, these cushions you can comfortably go over at 30 miles per hour,” said Dayton Police Sgt. Gordon Cairns.
The new large cushion on West Third Street is marked at 25 miles an hour and is already serving its purpose.
“The main thing was safety for everybody, I’m just excited that this is safer, better space for everyone to venture,” Jackson said.
Sgt. Cairns said the traffic services unit the cushions are best used in spots that are wide, four and five lane roads that are long and straight, where drivers build dangerous speeds too.
Other places like Salem Avenue or Smithville Road could be looked at.
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