I would have to make a guess and say that our age is the median of those that are haters

Sad

 

Got caught by the Cleveland Critical Mass monthly bike ride tonight in Hingetown...

On 4/8/2019 at 10:52 PM, KJP said:

Got caught by the Cleveland Critical Mass monthly bike ride tonight in Hingetown...

Judging by the shirts I think that's slowroll, either way, cool shots!

And

And

 

Edited April 14, 20196 yr by KJP

 

Not quite Dutch levels of cycling, but awesome to see kids riding their bikes to school en masse! 

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/10/metroparks-awards-6m-to-build-wendy-park-bridge-connecting-lakefront-to-towpath-lake-link-trails.html

 

Metro parks awards $6M  to build wendy park bridge connecting lakefront to towpath lake link trails

 

Kind of bike advocacy? More people on bikes=more advocates down the road? 

 

https://www.togetherwerise.org/fundraise/cuyahogakids

 

I'll wipe this out if it doesn't gel with the guidelines...

Edited October 31, 20195 yr by GISguy

Tonight I attended the first of two upcoming public meetings for the Cleveland Midway cycle track and now I’m more excited than ever for this project to take off. It truly will be transformational for the city, connecting people, places and neighborhoods with safe and functional multi-modal routes.

 

 

Edited November 22, 20195 yr by urbanetics_

I was there as well!  Good meeting!  I just wish it would start earlier!!!

Was there any sense that this project would address the entire width of the street? Or just the center lanes? There are a lot of mismatched streetscaping elements and dead trees or empty tree pits along the length of superior

48 minutes ago, CbusTransit said:

Was there any sense that this project would address the entire width of the street? Or just the center lanes? There are a lot of mismatched streetscaping elements and dead trees or empty tree pits along the length of superior

From my understanding, it will involve the entire street from curb to curb. The sidewalks will remain intact as to not disrupt utilities/make the project more expensive. Therefore the traffic lane widths will also be considered to determine how narrow to make them, in addition to the medians and actual bike midway.

I know it's still relatively early in the process, but did they give a timeframe? Or estimated construction window?

They're anticipating engineering and finalized designs to occur next year in 2020, with construction in 2021.

Edited November 22, 20195 yr by urbanetics_

https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/cleveland/funding-approval-wendy-park-flats-cleveland/95-c7a86e65-788d-4d9d-968e-9613a4a411cb

 

Detailed writeup on a bunch of Northeast Ohio bike trails.  Includes maps and elevation change charts.

 

21 bike trails to explore in Northeast Ohio - cleveland.com

 

https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2021/03/21-bike-trails-to-explore-in-northeast-ohio.html

 

Detailed maps of all area counties, for example:

 

$6M Red Line Greenway opens after more than a decade of planning:

https://www.thelandcle.org/stories/6m-red-line-greenway-project-open-after-a-decade-of-planning

 

My favorite photo of the ribbon cutting ceremony 

I rode it a handful of times before it was 'officially' open and it's pretty darn cool having the RTA pass by while you're riding. Much much more enjoyable than riding parallel to 90 on the other portion by Zone Rec. Here's to more bike connectivity!

1 hour ago, GISguy said:

 Here's to more bike connectivity!

I'd  like to see this area start taking some more steps toward more segregated bikeways, whether it's narrowing streets to make room for them or whatever.  After recently learning about how they do things in the Netherlands, we have a long way to go. 

2 hours ago, gildone said:

I'd  like to see this area start taking some more steps toward more segregated bikeways, whether it's narrowing streets to make room for them or whatever.  After recently learning about how they do things in the Netherlands, we have a long way to go. 

One million percent. 

 

I was on Bike Cleveland's Annual Meeting a few months ago and I couldn't help but be disgusted by my councilman acting like we've made real progress/it's safe for non-drivers. If you're not in the hip neighborhoods (and even then!) you're often risking your life getting on our roads. The fact that all our roads are at least ten feet too wide or too many lanes just makes it even more apparent. So many studies show that more people cycle when it's safer for them to do so (protected bike lanes, dedicated lanes, etc.), yet our leadership just redid W. 65 with nothing bc of concerns over traffic congestion...

 

When I'm in the office, my commute is ~6 miles from OB into the city and it involves W25/Pearl for a healthy portion and ooooof, no bueno. I've debated a move to Slavic Village but the only true route into the city goes down Broadway - I just rode that yesterday around 6PM and yeah, not great. I consider myself pretty fearless on the bike, but know I'm a huge exception compared to the majority of the biking public, we need more bike/ped infra and with that more connected bike/ped infra. Every road should have some element, no excuses.

Edited May 13, 20214 yr by GISguy

1 hour ago, gildone said:

I'd  like to see this area start taking some more steps toward more segregated bikeways, whether it's narrowing streets to make room for them or whatever.  After recently learning about how they do things in the Netherlands, we have a long way to go. 

 

Yup....

 

 

Nice video about how easy it is to commute by bike in Amsterdam:
 

 

Designing cities that allow car access, efficient transit, and segregated bike infrastructure aren't as difficult to achieve as many might think:

 

Nice to see a fully positive article from Sam Allard:

 

https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2021/05/12/redline-greenway-is-now-open-and-its-an-instant-cleveland-gem

 

"The Redline Greenway, the $6.6 million bike and pedestrian trail adjacent to the RTA Red Line on Cleveland's west side, officially opens today after a private ribbon cutting ceremony."

 

The article has a bunch of pictures. Here are a few:

 

 

(The truck was a landscaping crew finishing up some work)

 

Yay trash cans!

 

4 hours ago, GISguy said:

When I'm in the office, my commute is ~6 miles from OB into the city and it involves W25/Pearl for a healthy portion and ooooof, no bueno. I've debated a move to Slavic Village but they only true route into the city goes down Broadway - I just rode that yesterday around 6PM and yeah, not great. I consider myself pretty fearless on the bike, but know I'm a huge exception to the biking public in general, we need more bike/ped infra and with that more connected bike/ped infra. Every road should have some element, no excuses.

 

East end Lakewood baby! 

 

Some sketchy weird intersections for sure, but I do miss taking the scenic route through Edgewater Park. That being said Most of Lakewood isn't really in on the cool bike paths...yet.

 

I'd really like to see how the housing prices in vicinity to the redline-greenway are affected. Bicycle connectivity is truly a beautiful thing. 

Indianapolis converted portions of several miles of downtown streets to protected bikeways... 7 years ago!  The Indianapolis mayor championed the project and raised a lot of private dollars to pay a portion of the cost.  Cleveland should not have allowed itself to be lapped by Indianapolis on this one.

 

Edited May 24, 20214 yr by gildone
to adjust wording to fit previously unknown info.

Time for me to dial back my criticism.  My foray into learning about bicycle planning in Cleveland is very recent, so I'm not yet fully up to speed.  I didn't know about the Midway Cycle Network.  I scrolled back through the comments here and while there was discussion about it, I didn't see a link to this September 2019 video posted in this thread.  I do have a question for folks... Indianapolis didn't put their protected bikeways in the middle of any streets.  It seems to me that this hampers the relationship between the bikeway and businesses along the street.  Thoughts? 

 

Edited May 24, 20214 yr by gildone
To fix wrong Video link

On 5/24/2021 at 9:09 AM, gildone said:

Time for me to dial back my criticism.  My foray into learning about bicycle planning in Cleveland is very recent, so I'm not yet fully up to speed.  I didn't know about the Midway Cycle Network.  I scrolled back through the comments here and while there was discussion about it, I didn't see a link to this September 2019 video posted in this thread.  I do have a question for folks... Indianapolis didn't put their protected bikeways in the middle of any streets.  It seems to me that this hampers the relationship between the bikeway and businesses along the street.  Thoughts?

 

Somewhat, yes, but with some other benefits (as long as it is a protected bike lane as depicted). 

Quote

BUT WHY BUILD IT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET?

The Midway’s center lane, two-directional, landscape-buffered design has many safety advantages:

It totally eliminates the potential for being “doored” by a careless driver

It eliminates the risk for right-hook and left-hook crashes at intersections caused when a motorists turns into the path of an oncoming bicyclist

It eliminates the potential for being struck from behind by a distracted driver and

It greatly reduces the risk of being struck by a motorist who fails to stop at a stop sign or traffic light, providing an additional 16’ to 20’ of recovery time before they come upon a cyclist

http://www.bikecleveland.org/midway/

 

The bigger problem seems to be a lack of funding.  Hopefully that is resolved soon.

 

Quote

The first segment of the Midway network, referred to as the “proof of concept corridor,” will run along Superior Avenue, from the east side of Public Square to East 55th Street. An $ 8.3 million Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation was announced by the NOACA Board of Trustees on 12/8/17. This grant represents over 50% of the funding needed for the Superior Midway segment, with discussions underway with additional prospective funders.

@foraker... Thanks.  The more I've thought about this, the more I've come to realize that having it in the middle of the street isn't that big of a deal.  It's still a giant leap forward. 

 

In the Netherlands, they put these off to the side and run streetcars or buses down the center, but sometimes, depending on the layout, the bike and pedestrian traffic intermingle a bit too much.

 

And the design in Indiapolis doesn't seem to create unsafe issues with cars, but from the looks of the videos I've seen, their downtown streets are more heavily trafficked than Superior and  aren't as wide, so they probably aren't comparable. 

 

It will be interesting to see what happens with re-development with the first leg.  Protected bikeways have been magnets for devopment elsewhere. 

 

As for funding, Indy got $15 million in private funds for their protected bikeway.  It shouldn't be hard to raise some private $$ here.

Edited May 25, 20214 yr by gildone

I'm a skeptic that the city and it's partners can actually build out a midway, and frankly I think money is better spent elsewhere at the moment. We need protected bikeways across the city and if we only go with a 'concept' I have a feeling public sentiment is going to be to trash the thing, especially when it'll just dump people off past 55. The city's network is growing but it's piecemeal and without vision, for instance I ride from Old Brooklyn into the city for work and the only bike lane I hit is on Broadview. Sure, I could take the towpath in but that adds 1-2 miles that I'm not willing to take on. I was just in Pittsburgh this past weekend and a huge proportion of streets are connected by a network (also wayfinding is a thing!). 

 

I think the Midway can coexist with other projects, but the city needs to focus on great bike infrastructure for the most people and that's going to involve removing lanes and turning them into bike lanes, adding protective elements (yo frank, move those jersey barriers to edges of bike lanes!), and a vision that the current mayor and his traffic engineer just don't have (see W.65 issues). Hopefully a new mayor brings in the right people to get the Midway moving while also recognizing the city is trash for alternative transpo. 

 

I've said it in other parts of the forum, but if you want people to bike, you need them to feel safe and frankly I don't feel comfortable riding with anyone who isn't a seasoned rider anywhere but the towpath.

The city needs.....a cycling czar! 

 

Remember when everything needed a czar? Ha, maybe I'm dating myself.

 

It is quite frustrating to see these peer cities making far more progress. Like the Towpath, these types of things just seem to move glacially; they're just not priorities. Easy to blame lack of leadership. What's more difficult is educating the commoners that cycling truly offers so much untapped potential. 

1 hour ago, GISguy said:

I'm a skeptic that the city and it's partners can actually build out a midway, and frankly I think money is better spent elsewhere at the moment. We need protected bikeways across the city and if we only go with a 'concept' I have a feeling public sentiment is going to be to trash the thing, especially when it'll just dump people off past 55. The city's network is growing but it's piecemeal and without vision, for instance I ride from Old Brooklyn into the city for work and the only bike lane I hit is on Broadview. Sure, I could take the towpath in but that adds 1-2 miles that I'm not willing to take on. I was just in Pittsburgh this past weekend and a huge proportion of streets are connected by a network (also wayfinding is a thing!). 

 

I think the Midway can coexist with other projects, but the city needs to focus on great bike infrastructure for the most people and that's going to involve removing lanes and turning them into bike lanes, adding protective elements (yo frank, move those jersey barriers to edges of bike lanes!), and a vision that the current mayor and his traffic engineer just don't have (see W.65 issues). Hopefully a new mayor brings in the right people to get the Midway moving while also recognizing the city is trash for alternative transpo. 

 

I've said it in other parts of the forum, but if you want people to bike, you need them to feel safe and frankly I don't feel comfortable riding with anyone who isn't a seasoned rider anywhere but the towpath.

The Midway and Towpath Trail are exactly what you are saying we need, but you're complaining about them, too.  Sorry they don't go right to your doorstep, I guess.

39 minutes ago, X said:

The Midway and Towpath Trail are exactly what you are saying we need, but you're complaining about them, too.  Sorry they don't go right to your doorstep, I guess.

No, I'm not. Below is what I'm advocating for (in addition to connected networks), the midway and towpath are suped up versions of a super basic concept. We don't need to spend a bajillion dollars for bike infrastructure and build pie in the sky things, we just need a city who knows what they're doing. Cycletracks and purely bike paths are NOT protected/buffered bike lanes or a connected network (what I'm advocating for).

 

Below is Cleveland's bike network (from NOACA, dark blue are bike lanes, light blue are sharrows) and below that is Pittsburgh's (anytime they redo a road, they're pretty much always adding bike lanes). PS- Sharrows are absolute trash and not even worth mapping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 26, 20214 yr by GISguy

1 hour ago, surfohio said:

The city needs.....a cycling czar! 

 

Remember when everything needed a czar? Ha, maybe I'm dating myself.

 

It is quite frustrating to see these peer cities making far more progress. Like the Towpath, these types of things just seem to move glacially; they're just not priorities. Easy to blame lack of leadership. What's more difficult is educating the commoners that cycling truly offers so much untapped potential. 

To be fair regarding Towpath, the last segments from Harvard Road into the Flats had things like brownfields issues that needed to be addressed and, if my memory serves, property acquisition negotiations.  Those things really slow projects down, particularly the brownfields.  Part of the trail goes through the old Harshaw Chemical plant site, after all.

 

That said, this is completely different from very easy and inexpensive changes to city streets that can be done much sooner to create segregated bikeways as GISguy illustrated with the pictures he posted.  This isn't rocket science.  Things like the Midway Network are great because they really enhance the aesthetics and feel of the areas they serve and would really be magnets for development.  But waiting for a Cadillac when a Chevy will get the job done just fine in the mean time isn't the most effective way to go about this. 

 

And I agree... sharrows are worthless.

One of the properties the Towpath had to get around was where uranium was enriched for the Manhattan Project during WWII. 

 

https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/radioactive_industrial_site_st.html

11 hours ago, KJP said:

One of the properties the Towpath had to get around was where uranium was enriched for the Manhattan Project during WWII. 

 

https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/radioactive_industrial_site_st.html

 

That was Harshaw Chemical.

I'm really expecting one heck of a cool historical marker at former Harshaw site. 

On 5/26/2021 at 12:19 PM, X said:

The Midway and Towpath Trail are exactly what you are saying we need, but you're complaining about them, too.  Sorry they don't go right to your doorstep, I guess.

I also generally think having bike lanes in the middle of the road is worse than on the sides. There's a reason why Dutch cities don't have center bike lanes. They're better than nothing and I'm not gonna oppose it, but I agree with GIS guy. We should focus on building a network of protected lanes that go where want to go. The Towpath Trail is nice but a bike lane on along any commercial street would probably get more riders just because there are more places people want to go. We can build a ton of paths like the Greenway or the Towpath Trail, but people won't use them if they have to ride with cars at the start and end of every trip. 

@Henryefry I agree.  Based on the video, which only shows the concept and may not ultimately be accurate,  it looks like the City thinks it's necessary to maintain two lanes of car traffic in each direction.  It's also being billed as a pilot project.  It will be an expensive pilot though.  I was just scrolling through the Columbus bicycling thread here and I see that even Columbus has lapped Cleveland on segregated bike lanes--and they are doing some things that are less expensive and easy to implement.  Starting simple is the best way to go.  That way if something doesn't work, the city hasn't sunk a lot of money into it.   Start with a Kia.  Build the Lexus later. 

Edited June 2, 20214 yr by gildone

Bike Cleveland Survey: How would you spend $500 million on bike infrastructure in Cleveland:

 

http://www.allourideas.org/bikeclevelandPB

 

Also, the Lorain Avenue Bikeway proposal is up for public comment.  Here's a 5/24/21 news story:
https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/plans-for-new-bike-infrastructure-on-lorain-avenue-is-the-latest-push-for-east-west-connectivity

 

On a separate note:  @surfohiosaid:    I'm really expecting one heck of a cool historical marker at former Harshaw site. 

 

Maybe it will glow in the dark.  🙂

Edited June 2, 20214 yr by gildone

Well, Sandusky has lapped Cleveland with a downtown protected bikeway (on Shoreline Drive).  I just posted this in the Sandusky Projects and Construction Thread:

 

 

That's because exiled, progressive ex-Clevelanders run Sandusky. 

So I went on the tour with Metroparks/RTA staff yesterday for the Heartland Trails Summit and some interesting tidbits about the Redline Greenway. I wish it was a bit more information on the planning and whatnot, but it is what it is haha - we went from the entrance across from the OC RTA station and down about 2/3 of the way and back. The main speakers were Sara Maier with Metroparks and Michael J. Schipper from the RTA.

• It was a collaboration mostly with RTA (duh) and Flats Industrial RR
  • The fence on the FIRR side can accommodate razor wire and additions (but metroparks pushed back on this idea)
• The one portion off of W25/Columbus that's 14% grade is the major access point for RTA on the west side to get their materials in for construction and any trackwork they need to do
  • They debated adding a fence at the top/bottom of that hill bc of the grade, but opted to keep it open bc of such limited access points as is.
• They anticipate adding more neighborhood connections throughout time, but wanted to punch it through when the timing was right
• The trail was meant to be accessible (no grades larger than 5%), but as with any project that goes along a ROW there'll be issues with that goal (mostly thinking that 14% section and the area going down by hooples)
• The trail by the section where N-S crosses over (there's a protective cover above the trail) was way below where it currently is - they had to add a bunch of fill to get this in
  • Fun fact, they augured the supports for that protective covering into the ground w/foundations because they weren't able to pound them in with the active rr above
• They have drawings/concepts for the RTA bridge over the Cuyahoga, but with funding issues they weren't able to do that, fwiw it also wasn't going to go the entire way across bc RTA uses the entire ROW once you get towards TC. 
  • Thoughts were provided on maybe going under the tracks once you get over that way, but obviously a pipedream at this point.
  • Also, RTA is about to put all new ballast down on a portion of the bridge, they're also using it as an opportunity to assess the 100yo structure.
• Everyone drove to the event lol

 

Edited June 9, 20214 yr by GISguy

I'll be going on the tour of the Wendy Park Bridge tomorrow, but the Industrial Heartlands conference just had a presentation on the towpath synergies, and a few quick hits from that (I'll post the video once they send it out).

• Whiskey Island Connector is 98% complete (bridge across RR, and area by NEORSD plant) with opening slated for 6/24
• 650' section of River Road that connects you to the bridge will be getting a connector piece - it's fully funded and in progress.

Irishtown Bend has been covered plenty so I'll skip on that. Watch out for the video, it was a 40k ft presentation, but some interesting tidbits sprinkled in- like a public day-use boat slip going on the Cuyahoga in '22 👀