VIDEO: ODOT installs flashing wrong-way driving detection system in Cleveland

While wrong-way crashes made up only 0.01 percent of all crashes in Ohio last year, they are 40 times more likely to be deadly.

That’s why the Ohio Department of Transportation unveiled northeast Ohio’s first wrong-way detection corridor this week.

 The $3.2 million system was constructed at 25 exit ramps on I-71/I-90 between W.154th St. and E.140th St in Cuyahoga County.

The section of I-71/I-90 was selected based on a statewide analysis of wrong-way crashes that occurred between 2016 to 2019.

That evaluation also considered the number of alcohol-related crashes occurring within a quarter mile of potential wrong-way entry points, the number of bars and restaurants serving alcohol near the exit ramps, and the amount of traffic using the ramps.

The corridor was selected with the intent of providing the most complete coverage to capture wrong-way entries onto the highway.

When a detector senses a vehicle traveling in the wrong direction on an exit ramp, it immediately triggers a pair of “WRONG WAY” signs with lighted borders that flash rapidly to alert drivers of their mistake.

A second detector looks further down the ramp to determine if the vehicle has continued down the ramp, which triggers a second set of “DO NOT ENTER” and “WRONG WAY” signs, also with lighted borders, to flash rapidly.

An alert is sent to the Ohio Department of Transportation Traffic Management Center in Columbus which notifies local law enforcement.

Each installation has a camera that provides a short video clip that is received by ODOT’s Traffic Management Center. This video can be reviewed to confirm whether the system was accurately triggered by a wrong-way driver. Click

The first system of this kind was installed on an 18-mile stretch of I-71 between downtown Cincinnati to Fields-Ertel Road in Hamilton County. Since this system was deployed in the fall of 2019, ODOT has seen a reduction in wrong-way entry, according to ODOT.

The system has been triggered more than 50 times by wrong-way drivers, verified by the system, and nearly all of them turned around before they entered the highway.