Barbara Didrichsen, known locally as “Traffic Granny,” describes how everyday walks filled with close calls in her Pleasant Ridge neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio pushed her to start documenting crashes and traffic problems on her streets. She and Norm talk through simple first steps, like signs and flags, and how they used those results to argue for stronger engineering fixes. Their conversation shows what long-term, resident-led traffic calming looks like on the ground.
Hi. I'm so glad that you are listening to this Bottom Up Short today. I'm Norm with Strong Towns, and part of my role is to connect with Strong Towns members in all sorts of different formats. Barbara Didrichsen is our guest today, and Barbara described herself in the Strong Towns Commons as "Traffic Granny." Traffic Granny, welcome to Bottom Up Shorts. Why don't we start with that — what gives you this honorific?
I've been doing this work since 2016 in my neighborhood. Around that time, I had become a grandmother for the first time, and I spent a lot of time after my family moved to Cincinnati walking around the neighborhood. Anytime my son and grandson both know that they can't walk anywhere or drive anywhere with me without my calling out all the infractions that I see. I'm not shy about pointing them out or telling drivers as they go by me that they're doing something they shouldn't be. So I kind of think the granny scold, if you will — Traffic Granny scold.
Observing those areas where we've created conditions in our communities that are less than safe — and the result being that we discourage people from participating in normal human activities, riding a bicycle, walking around, participating in a community. Can you describe the work that you're doing with the Cincinnati Riding or Walking Network, or CROWN, especially your Tri-State Trails project?
I am not specifically involved in working on those. I take advantage of them through our neighborhood community bike rides. I'm really pleased that Cincinnati has decided to go all in on creating a safer network for people on foot and on two wheels to be able to get around.
It's an old city, and I happen to live in a neighborhood that is bisected by two originally Indian trails that have gradually come into the modern era, still with very narrow lanes, but with a lot more traffic than they used to have. There are many ways that we can improve things, but sometimes the things that we would like to do, like add bike lanes, just simply don't work in an older city. So the CROWN and all the related bikeways and pathways that are being built all over the city and the surrounding area are just a really important feature, I think, of allowing more and more people in this area to be able to take advantage of ways other than their cars to get around.
That's great. I also wanted to pick up on your work with the Pleasant Ridge Community Council. I saw that you shared a presentation with the hashtag #SlowTheCars, which has been a Strong Towns rallying cry as well. Can you talk about how that effort is being received, and also some of the steps that you're intending to take as you continue to work as a community to slow the cars and create safe spaces for all?
I think it's important that it happened in the years leading up to COVID, where traffic really got out of control and we were already having pretty bad problems here. I officially retired in 2016 from my longtime job and began taking long walks through my neighborhood. It was the first time I think I'd spent that much time walking at all different times of day, and really being able to witness firsthand just how unsafe and uncomfortable it was to walk in a neighborhood that's essentially got an urban look and feel to it, but has suburban driving habits. By that, I mean two major commuting routes that kind of come together, and the cars are driving very fast; the sidewalks are very close to the street. I can't tell you how many times I was nearly hit by cars, whether I was in the crosswalk or just witnessing all kinds of stuff going on, and a lot of other people were having the same problem.
So in 2016, our community council president asked if there would be neighborhood residents interested in forming a committee, and two of the original people — myself and one other person — are, to this day, still involved in this committee. We began by putting together a list from everybody, just getting feedback from the community: Where are the pain points? What are we feeling? What are the issues? Out of that, we developed somewhere between eight and twelve projects that we'd like to see happen, and began advocating with the city for them. We did things like create slide documents — using PowerPoint as a narrative tool, a storytelling tool — putting together pictures and words and describing what we were seeing and what people were feeling. Documenting, just keeping track of all the crashes and all the other behavior we were seeing. We have a spreadsheet now going back to 2021 that captures everything that gets reported to us, with pictures when we have them.
We began communicating with the city. It helped that the city was starting to hear more, not just from our neighborhood, but from others. We were one of the early ones, and we were pretty vocal — always polite, but vocal — and advocating for what we wanted. We began making some incremental changes. Our first win was to get no-right-turn-on-red signs in our neighborhood business district. We were able to get a couple of speed limit changes down to 25 miles an hour on a couple of secondary roads, but still pretty heavily trafficked streets.
Then in 2021, we elected a new mayor and new city council that were much more predisposed towards expanding the bike network and making our streets safer. One of those city council members was actually the traffic committee person for his neighborhood, and also an avid cyclist. They have been very much in the forefront of leading efforts to make our streets safer, to adopt legislation like a Complete Streets program that's aimed to make all of our streets safer and to add more traffic calming features. Nothing is perfect. No city is perfect. The things I would like to see happen in the city, a lot of them probably won't happen in my lifetime, but we're working towards it.
What are some of the ways that you've gotten around the concern that any changes or interventions are going to be costly and contentious? What stands out to me in some of what you've done here is that you've identified these are the things that are not costly, these are the things that are not contentious. Why is that an important strategy as you start to build up a general consensus that our community is not a speed track — and we don't need to treat it as such?
You do the little things that you can, and they may not always be effective. We put out the traffic flags, and the kids love them, but they keep disappearing and they don't really make a difference. We put up the no-turn-on-red signs — people still violate that. We put up new speed signs and people, again, it's another data point you can go back to the city with and say: we've tried all these things, it's not working, we need something more. We need some engineering that's going to help us calm these streets. We need more police presence at school pick-up and drop-off time. Then we gather the data we need — the sheer number of accidents or crashes — and use that in asking for additional features like speed cushions or other traffic calming measures.
You've noted here in one of the slides: over the past six months, there have been three houses hit by speeding cars, five parked cars smashed and sometimes dragged, three cars that jumped curbs or hit other obstacles, hitting fire hydrants, fixed signs, or other stationary objects — and that daily reminder of the onslaught of speeding vehicles just plowing through the neighborhood.
What's so striking about that is it's contrary to the goal that each person would have. Slow-speed neighborhoods are also much more associated with growth and increasing property values. Do we have to put little signs on the back of our vehicles saying "I'm a neighborhood pace car, and I'm just going to model the right behavior"?
I have one of those on my car. It at least warns people that they have to go slow when they're behind me.
So you have dual credentials — not only are you the Traffic Granny, but you also have a pace car logo on your car. I really appreciate that. As a citizen of your community, you don't have a choice — you have to live with the conditions as they are. You probably also feel a deep conviction that you don't have a choice but to not stand by idly, and that requires something of you. Can you share a little bit about what lights that fire in your belly and gives you the capacity to be at this for a considerable period of time? Many people listening to this may feel they don't know if they have the stomach or the energy to do this for the long term. Can you share some strategies for keeping yourself in this fight?
One of my favorite quotes that has resonated with me for many years is: find something to care about and live a life that shows it. I really do care about this, because getting out and walking and being able to enjoy my community is a huge part of how I live my life. I take a lot of long walks. I've traveled enough. I've been to large urban areas in this country and elsewhere where it's much easier to walk, get around, enjoy being outdoors, run into people you know on the street. I care about it.
The other important message is that you don't have to be a traffic engineer or a professional urban planner to advocate for these kinds of things in your community. If this is something that's a passion for you, most neighborhoods — whether they're in towns or large cities — have some kind of a neighborhood organization. Find the people you can connect with in those areas who share your concerns, and organize them.
Don't be shy about contacting city officials. Find out what the pain points are in your community, document them, and write your city leaders. Show up at city council meetings. In our city, every Wednesday there's a city council meeting with public comment from 1:30 to 2:00 p.m. prior to the meeting. There are also committee meetings at various times that you can show up to. We have done that — we've gone to those meetings, taken our presentations with us, and given impassioned speeches about almost being hit by a car in a crosswalk, for example. It gets their attention and they listen to you. Not every city is lucky enough to have neighborhoods with their own semi-governmental organizations that can represent them, but there are ways for you to get involved in your city.
Out of that, I would imagine the Pleasant Ridge Community Council is stronger because it has a few key topics that it focuses on. As there's activity, it starts to generate its own momentum. Can you share some guidance on how to be a great member of a community association, a community council, or a neighborhood group?
Show up for their meetings. Volunteer to do things — they are always looking for volunteers, and we are continually looking for volunteers. Communicate what you're doing. We put out a newsletter after every meeting and periodically throughout the year, trying to generate more knowledge of what's going on in the community. Every community needs you. If you have a passion and something in the neighborhood that needs fixing, I can guarantee you that if you have any kind of community council, they'll be very open to having you be part of that.
What's something that gives you hope in your community?
A couple of different things. First of all, the fact that we now have an administration that appreciates all of the effort that we're doing and is trying to do their very best within the constraints of city financing, which is tough these days.
Another thing that gives me hope is the Cincinnati railroad situation. Cincinnati used to have a railroad — we sold it a couple of years ago. The proceeds are invested and intended to be used only for infrastructure replacement — not for new infrastructure, but for maintenance kinds of things. Already in the first year, it generated twice as much money for infrastructure improvements as it had before. That gives me some hope. The city is still trying to figure out how to manage this, as they haven't been used to having this big of an influx of money coming in. I'm hoping that some of the things that have seemed to take forever to address in my city might start getting addressed more quickly in the future.
Establishing those core priorities early on — through insistence from key leaders within the community that this is what our values express — is so important. It's not going to be some award-winning pedestrian bridge that sails through the sky that very few people use. It's about addressing those pain points, those critical junctions, those spaces where people are leaving roadways.
Barbara, this has been fantastic. I hope that as you're listening to this, you're also inspired — no matter what stage in your career or your life you're at, no matter how many grandchildren you have. This is a fantastic way to, as she said, show up, be involved, and participate. Barbara, thank you so much.
Thanks, Norm. I appreciate you talking with me today, and thank you to Strong Towns, because you've been a big help to me on this journey.
We really appreciate that as well. Thanks. As you go out, take notice — go for walks in your own community, take note of where people are struggling, identify what is that next smallest thing you can do to address that struggle, and then work together or do it yourself. Go and do those things, take those actions, and ask for more. We can expect more of our communities, and I think in time, those expectations will be met. So take care, and take care of your places.
This episode was produced by Strong Towns, a nonprofit movement for building financially resilient communities. If what you heard today matters to you, deepen your connection by becoming a Strong Towns member at strongtowns.org/membership.