Focus Areas: Hilliard-Rome Road Corridor (south toward I-70) & Cemetery Road Corridor (at I-270 Interchange)

Reporting Platform: GoHilliard Community Intelligence

1. Executive Summary

Resident and commuter feedback submitted to GoHilliard highlights mounting frustration with Central Ohio’s primary western arterials: the Hilliard-Rome Road corridor leading down to I-70 and the Cemetery Road corridor flanking I-270.

The submissions center on three interconnected issues:

• Severe Peak-Hour Stagnation: Capacity limits on four- to six-lane arterials serving regional commercial centers and logistics nodes.
• Flawed Signal Synchronization: Persistent out-of-sync cycles between municipal and ODOT-managed lights, leading to gridlock and “spillback” across critical turn lanes.
• Neighborhood Cut-Through Spillover: Aggressive cut-through traffic infiltrating residential collector streets and subdivisions to bypass arterial bottlenecks.

2. Core Arterial Breakdowns

Hilliard-Rome Road (South Toward I-70)

• Retail and Logistics Friction: The convergence of big-box retail, commercial curb cuts, distribution traffic from southwest logistics hubs, and I-70 interchange ramps creates severe queue spillbacks.
• Weave and Merge Conflicts: Southbound vehicles queue past Roberts Road during evening rush hours. The multi-lane weaving movements between right-turning commercial traffic and vehicles queuing for I-70 East/West on-ramps exacerbate delays and lead to frequent rear-end collisions.

Cemetery Road (At and Approaching I-270)

• The Highway Gateway Squeeze: As the primary eastern gateway linking Old Hilliard and central residential zones to I-270, Cemetery Road bears significant regional east-west traffic.
• Ramp Bottlenecks: Left-turn lanes feeding I-270 North and South ramps routinely back up into through-lanes during both AM and PM peak windows, blocking cross-traffic at adjacent intersections (e.g., Leap Road, Britton Parkway, and Trueman Boulevard).

3. Signal Synchronization & Technical Failures

Community submissions repeatedly identify signal coordination as a major pain point rather than pure vehicular volume alone.

• Split-Jurisdiction Disconnect: Traffic signals along these corridors fall under overlapping management boundaries—the City of Hilliard, the City of Columbus, and the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) near interchange ramps. Feedback indicates that timings frequently operate in isolation rather than on an integrated closed-loop or adaptive system.
• Short-Cycle Traps & Phantom Greens: Motorists report waiting through multiple signal rotations at intersections like Hilliard-Rome & Roberts or Cemetery & Britton, only to encounter a red signal at the very next block. Conversely, side-street sensors frequently trigger full cycle interruptions for single vehicles or non-existent queues, stalling arterial flow.
• Inadequate Left-Turn Clearance: Left-turn phases onto freeway access points consistently fail to clear existing queues, spilling stationary vehicles into through-travel lanes.

4. Residential Cut-Through Impact

When arterials fail, navigation apps (Google Maps, Waze, Apple Maps) redirect drivers through adjacent residential streets. GoHilliard messages highlight specific neighborhood impacts:

Corridor Bypass Routes:

• • Subdivisions east and west of Hilliard-Rome Road (including routes cutting between Roberts Road, Renner Road, and Alton Darby Creek Road) report sustained rush-hour bypass traffic.
  • Neighborhoods buffering Cemetery Road, Leap Road, and Norwich Street experience drivers bypassing interchange queues at high speeds.
• Safety Concerns: Residents cite speeding in 25 mph residential zones, failure to stop at neighborhood stop signs, and heightened risks near school bus stops and pedestrian crossings during morning drop-off and afternoon dismissal windows.

5. Key Community Recommendations & Policy Considerations

Based on the patterns identified across GoHilliard submissions, actionable points for administrative and engineering review include:

1. Multi-Jurisdictional Signal Retiming: Coordinate with Columbus Traffic Management and ODOT District 6 to implement cohesive corridor-level timing plans, prioritizing progression bandwidth along peak directions.
2. Adaptive Signal Deployment: Evaluate upgrading high-friction intersections to adaptive signal control technology (ASCT) that adjusts green times in real time based on actual queue depth.
3. Neighborhood Traffic Calming: Conduct targeted speed and volume studies on top-reported residential bypass streets; consider deploying temporary speed feedback trailers, chicanes, or turn restrictions during peak commuter hours.
4. Access Management Audits: Restrict left-in/left-out movements at secondary commercial driveways near major ramp approaches to minimize mid-block friction.