10/05/2026
Read The Road
As part of an integrated response to increasing bicycle and pedestrian crashes on Ohio's roadways, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and its partners recently launched a new statewide safety effort called Read the Road: There's space for all of us, aimed at reducing crashes and saving lives through education and awareness.
After declining from a peak in 2021, fatal and serious injury crashes involving bicyclists and pedestrians are again on the rise. There were 900 Ohioans walking or bicycling who did not reach their destinations last year.
The safety effort is focusing on documented crash causes with educational messages that reinforce safe driving behaviors:
Yielding for pedestrians
Obeying the speed limit in areas with high levels of pedestrian and bicycle activity
Remaining alert and visible while walking or bicycling
Sharing the road responsibly
While there are fatal and serious bicycle and pedestrian crashes in all of Ohio’s 88 counties, a recent crash analysis highlights that the state’s urban areas rank among the highest — Franklin, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Montgomery, and Lucas counties. The Read the Road safety effort has a particular focus on these and other high-crash locations across Ohio. Those other locations include Holmes County, as traditional forms of transportation (walking and biking) are frequently used among the Amish population.
