Vision Zero Akron brought media and government attention to a death trap. Now, Akron is spending $66,000* to study it.

Uhler Ave to Towpath Trail is deadly. After we were covered in the Beacon, we agitated with City Council and the Office of Integrated Development. The City learned of our campaign and was interested in further work. As a result, the federal government has allocated around $66,000 for a traffic study for this critical bike and pedestrian corridor.

The City of Akron will receive $464,000 to conduct supplemental planning activities to develop corridor-level safety plans for six [sic] corridors identified in the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study Action Plan. Deliverables include data collection, safety analysis, stakeholder engagement, and ADA-accessible feasibility studies recommending Federal Highway Administration Proven Safety Countermeasures to inform future implementation.

- U.S. Representative Emilia Sykes (D) (There are actually 7 roads in the study. This may be an artifact of Memorial SAFEway only being added due to our agitation.)

Michelle DiFiore, PE, PMP, Development Engineering Manager at the Akron Office of Economic Development said via email (links added):

The following corridors were submitted for the grant.
We have not developed a scope of work for this yet, but I’m excited we received this!
I know these were developed with information from the AMATS High Injury Network.

Ms. DiFiore reported these are the segments being studied:

Road Segment	Deaths	Fatal or Serious Injury (FSI) Crashes	Total Crashes
Memorial Pkwy from Merriman to Cuyahoga Falls Ave	1	5	64
Tallmadge Ave from Gorge Blvd to Home Ave (west)	1	3	70
Tallmadge Ave from Home Ave to Brittain Rd (east)	1	6	81
Waterloo Rd from Main St to Arlington St	5	4	135
North St from Market St to Arlington St	2	3	19
MLK from Broadway to a point west of Howard St	1	2	36
Darrow Rd from Eastwood Ave to Newton St	1	3	41

First, the good news. Memorial is being studied, and traffic studies are one of the most viable ways to make a street safer. It’s incredible that a group of a few dozen people was able to get this train rolling. This is our first year of existence, and we’re already making a difference. The lessons we learned from this campaign are informing our goals for 2026.

But, our win is bittersweet. We’ve spent the last year agitating for Memorial SAFEway, but our efforts have only resulted in a study so far.

Chris Jonke, P.E., Engineering Bureau – Design is the project manager for the SS4A study of all 7 corridors. She said via email (bold and link added):

… I’m the project manager for the SS4A study. Though we’ve been officially awarded money, we are waiting on the Grant Agreement from the feds before any work can start. You’ll see more on this, hopefully later this year, more likely in 2027.

Also your map looks about right. That corridor was chosen based on AMATS High Injury Network (2017-2021). … [K]eep in mind that limits may change. As more data is collected the scope will be refined.

Part of our scope will be public outreach. Keep an eye/ear out for announcements … feel free to check in.

My guesstimate is that Memorial Parkway will not become one iota safer until at least 2028. Based on what I’ve learned about Akron traffic engineering, that would actually be warp speed for the city. A future post will go over our agenda for 2026 and our vision for Akron. In short, we believe “quick build” projects are vital for preventing traffic violence in Akron.

Quick-build projects are things like traffic cones and concrete barriers that can be installed quickly to make a street safer. As one city put it, “unlike major capital projects that may take years to plan, design, bid and construct, quick-build projects are constructed within weeks or months”. Having attended an AMATS citizen involvement meeting in which projects for 2031 were discussed, this is a mandatory change. I am talking with Ms. Jonke to try to understand how quick build is currently used, and possible limitations in Akron that don’t seem to affect other cities.

We are strategically putting Memorial on the backburner having secured this win. But, if Mayor Malik, City Council, and Engineering are feeling ambitious, it would be totally reasonable in 2026 to:

1. Set the speed limit in the Memorial SAFEway segment to 25 mph. This would be done under Ohio Revised Code 4511.21. Akron’s Engineering department typically prepares legislation for speed limit changes. For 3 other roads in 2025, it “took about 9 months to review the streets,” prepare the legislation request, pass in city council, install new signs and flags, and notify residents. I’m writing this on March 1st. This could be done as an early Christmas present in December!
2. Install traffic cones or some other countermeasure in the SAFEway segment. One official told me a hesitation with the concrete barrier plan (below) is that it might make things more dangerous for cars. Left unsaid is that these drivers of killer machines would otherwise crash into any cyclist or pedestrian trying to get to the trail. Not to mention the 5 Fatal or Serious Injury (FSI) crashes that have already happened on Memorial. By this car supremacist logic, there should be no problem using lightweight traffic cones at the site. I know for a fact that cones were used at least once in that very spot sometime from 2022 onward. I might even have photos.
3. Close the bottom (West) segment of Uhler Ave to cars. It serves, get ready… ONE driveway. One singular extra special driveway. 214 feet from a perfectly good other road. I walk and bike by it all the time. If the residents of that house are offended by this suggestion, no joke, I am happy to meet up with them and talk about how closing the bottom of Uhler could save lives. They have at least one kid, so they might even support having less noise and less killer cars where their kids play. The other apparent purpose of the bottom of Uhler is to be an extra-light-duty alternate route from Cuyahoga Street and the rest of west North Hill. I’ll admit, I use the route sometimes, but mostly because Google told me to. I’ve taken the other route via Cuyahoga Street, and it’s just as good and not significantly slower. It’s also not nearly as bumpy (good for your car and your comfort) because Uhler is brick. I took a video and it was hilarious the ratio of cars using the other 3 segments vs. the ones following the red brick road to the bottom of Uhler. It was like 10 to 1.

For road safety that happens in less time than a college degree, join our movement.

Our original post is reproduced below.

Uhler Ave to Towpath Trail is deadly. Officials are concerned.

• Cars go 45 mph where we walk and bike.
• We are shut out from 75 miles of trails.
• 15 concrete barriers could save a life.

Memorial Parkway Now: Deadly

Memorial Parkway In The Future: Safe

Memorial Parkway: A Demolition Derby for Human Bodies

24,892 people live in North Hill. Most of us don’t use the Towpath Trail because we cannot safely reach it. Those of us that use the trail put our lives at risk. We need access to jobs, shopping, and green space via the Towpath Trail.

The 750-foot trek from the intersection to the park is deadly. To get to the Towpath Trail from North Hill, you take Uhler Ave to Memorial Parkway. Drivers routinely exceed the posted speed limit of 35 mph. They cross the painted lines because paint doesn’t stop 4,000 pounds of metal. This stretch is more dangerous than most of North Hill combined. Memorial has killed as recently as 2020 (Report Number T0019107).

Just 750 feet of concrete could save lives. Concrete barriers are the easiest, cheapest way to make Memorial Parkway safe enough to use without a car. The far lane is already striped off and not in active use. All Akron needs to do is place barriers between Uhler Ave and Hickory Street. Memorial Parkway was named in memory of three people who died due to unsafe road design. It does their memories a disservice to wait around for the next preventable loss of life on the very same street.

The above letter was published in the Akron Beacon-Journal.

You may view our detailed proposal here.

Why Memorial Kills

• Drivers routinely exceed the posted speed limit of 35 mph.
• 35 mph is ludicrous for these road conditions. 25 mph is the maximum speed drivers should go on this road.
• People drive faster at the bottom of hills. This area is at the valley of two hills.
• The road curves. It is a semi-blind turn. Westbound drivers enter the turn during their descent into the valley.
• The Towpath Trail is easily 10 times safer than anywhere in the surrounding area. Cyclists want to get downtown or to Merriman Valley. Walkers want to have a scenic stroll. They risk this unsafe road to access a much safer trail with no cars.
• I believe over 10,000 cars travel this road per day. I saw the stat via ODOT but don’t have time to confirm.
• Uhler Ave enters the demolition derby at the bottom of the hill where it’s most dangerous.
• Uhler is the safest way for bikers and walkers to visit the Towpath Trail from North Hill. So cyclists enter the derby at the height of its danger.
• Uhler’s design was changed. Between 1994 and 2003 it was changed from a “Y” merger intersection into a “J” on-ramp intersection. This change may have had good reasons, but seems to have made things deadlier for drivers and cyclists around Uhler.
• The only thing keeping cars and trucks out of the de facto bike lane and sidewalk is a striped off lane. It’s a suggestion which drivers routinely violate. I have ample video proof I hope to share.

An Identity Crisis

Memorial provides two contradictory services: access to the Towpath Trail, and a high-speed avenue between North Hill and Highland Square. Without a safety retrofit, Memorial Parkway cannot do both of its jobs. Residents of North Hill are waiting around for the next deadly car crash.

Locking cycling, hiking, and dog facilities behind a 35 mph road is like putting a playground behind a gun range.

AMATS Acknowledges the Danger

It’s not just us. The Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study (AMATS) has called this section of Memorial Parkway a “high-injury” street. Its unsafe design has contributed to 64 crashes and 5 fatal or serious injury crashes from 2017-2021. In 2020, there was a head-on collision at this exact location. AMATS partially attributes “negotiating a curve” to the death caused by this crash. An 80 year old woman and a 29 year old man collided. Odds are that the woman died, but we can’t confirm this.

AMATS recommends a $2.75 million roundabout near this location, at Memorial and Hickory. This would certainly help calm drivers and make things safer, but we have a much simpler, cheaper solution that can be done in ONE DAY.

Concrete Barriers: Make It Safe Before We Make It Safer

In an ironic twist, the above photo shows Portable Concrete Barriers… on Memorial Parkway. It can be done! In this case, they were used to ensure the safety of gas workers (I believe Enbridge). The gas company knew what we’re all thinking - you’d have to have a death wish to set foot on Memorial.

Roundabounts take a long time to build. Cars are getting larger and deadlier every year. Drivers are getting more distracted by the day. Concrete barriers are hunks of concrete. Akron has a demonstrated ability to move around chunks of concrete when it feels like it. We don’t need to waste time with studies. We don’t need to hunker down in committees and decide if it’s good to have people die or not. The solution is right here, and it’s cheap. To save lives of Akronites…

Concrete Barriers on Memorial

Please make this a reality and join our movement.

This post was updated on 2025-10-04 to transition our proposal from concrete planters into a proposal for concrete barriers. Additional photos and details were added in the update.