By 1812Blockhouse
On MIckey Road in Shelby, the edge of the pavement has long doubled as a sidewalk.
There was never a marked path. No curb. No separation. Just a narrow shoulder beside a busy corridor linking homes, workplaces, and Mansfield Avenue. For years, residents walking this route did what they had to do: they stepped carefully along the roadway. That stretch is now set to change.
Shelby has been awarded funding through the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Highway Safety Improvement Program to build a continuous sidewalk from Mansfield Avenue to Mullins Drive. The total project cost is about 882,000 dollars, largely covered by state HSIP funds with a required local match. On paper, it is a sidewalk project. In reality, it is the result of a hard lesson about what happens when streets are built almost entirely for vehicles.
The Tragedy That Forced a Conversation
At about 6:30 AM in November 2024, 61-year-old Barbara Warner was walking along Mickey Road near Martin Drive. With no sidewalk, she was struck and killed in a hit-skip crash. The tragedy focused attention on a problem that had long been familiar: people walking where cars dominated.
Mickey Road had recently undergone roadway work without funded sidewalks, leaving pedestrians at the edge of traffic even as volumes and speeds made that space unforgiving. The fatal crash gave the city a clear safety case that aligned with HSIP priorities: severe crashes involving vulnerable road users at high-risk locations.
Turning a Safety Problem into a Funded Solution
HSIP is tightly focused on safety outcomes supported by crash history. Shelby’s application did not have to stretch. A fatal pedestrian crash on a sidewalk-less corridor, combined with evidence that people routinely walk this route, created a compelling justification.
As programmed in the 2026–2031 HSIP cycle:
- Preliminary engineering in 2027
- Right-of-way and construction in later years
- Design, right-of-way, and construction covered in the total cost
This is a multi-year process typical of state safety projects, but the funding commitment is now in place.
A Corridor That Connects More Than It Appears
To drivers, Mickey Road may feel like a simple vehicle corridor. To residents on foot, it is a link between neighborhoods and Mansfield Avenue, used daily despite the risks. The absence of a sidewalk did not stop people from walking. It made walking dangerous. The new sidewalk changes that geometry of risk.
Part of a Broader Sidewalk Push
This project is not happening alone.
Shelby is also receiving about 609,000 dollars through a Safe Routes to School award for roughly 3,300 feet of sidewalk on Shelby Avenue near schools. Different funding source, same goal: creating streets where pedestrians are expected, not forced to the margins.
In transportation terms, this is a sidewalk funded through a highway safety program. In community terms, it is recognition that Mickey Road has not worked for everyone who uses it. When construction is complete, people walking from Mansfield Avenue toward Mullins Drive will no longer balance along traffic. They will have a defined, protected place to be.
On Mickey Road in Shelby, that simple change will matter.
PinchyCC, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons