Cleveland city planners want your input to develop a transportation plan for the community that makes walking, biking and taking transit safer and more enjoyable for people (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Five-year multimodal transportation plan to be updated
The City of Cleveland recently launched public engagement for Cleveland Moves — the city’s five-year multimodal transportation plan. Cleveland Moves will create a strategy that builds on the city’s ongoing work to make it safer, more comfortable, and more convenient to walk, bike, and take transit in the city. A presentation about the planning process and its goals was delivered yesterday to the City Planning Commission.
Features of the plan include:
- Updating the 2007 Bikeway Master Plan to recommend a connected bike network for riders of all ages and abilities for three-year rapid implementation.
- Building on the Vision Zero Action Plan by taking a deep dive into bicycle and pedestrian safety issues to identify priority investments to make walking and rolling safer and more comfortable for everyone.
- Reviewing existing programs and policies and address gaps related to walking, rolling, and riding bikes.
- Developing the look and feel of the Midway Bikeway Network.
- Integrating ongoing projects and new recommendations into a 5-year prioritization and implementation plan as required by Cleveland’s 2002 Complete and Green Streets Ordinance.
Making Cleveland safer for bikers, pedestrians and transit riders is the goal of the city’s updated multimodal transportation plan (Google).
“Our streets can and should be so much more than thoroughfares from one place to the next,” said Mayor Justin Bibb in a written statement. “Streets are for people, and we want to hear from Clevelanders about how we can make them safer, more enjoyable, more sustainable and more accessible for everyone.”
Clevelanders can get involved by submitting preferred routes, common destinations, and barriers that inhibit safe and comfortable travel via an online interactive map
designed to inform the planning process. Interested residents and stakeholders can also sign up to receive email updates about the plan as the work progresses.
City representatives will be conducting outreach at events this August, including Senior walks, the Metroparks Summer Concert Series, Slow Roll Cleveland Monday bike rides, and festivals. Other engagement activities include drop-in sessions at grocery and convenience stores and focus groups centered on reaching people without cars, households that speak languages other than English, and more.
“During our 2022 Vision Zero outreach, we heard overwhelming concern about speeding and other dangerous driving behaviors,” said Sarah Davis, Cleveland Moves project manager and the city’s active transportation senior planner.
“To complement our analysis that identifies the corridors with the most crashes, we also need to hear from Clevelanders what connections are missing and where they would prioritize changes,” Davis added. ” Safety, comfort and convenience for everyone using the street — especially people walking, biking, and rolling — will guide this work.”
The updated transportation plan could result in major-new infrastructure projects like the new bike/pedestrian bridge over the lakefront railroad tracks on Whiskey Island (KJP).
Residents who are interested in street safety and mobility can also get involved with neighborhood Better Streets Committees organized by local multimodal advocacy nonprofit Bike Cleveland, a nonprofit bike advocacy organization.
“It’s clear that residents want changes to our roads and are excited to make it happen,” said Jenna Thomas, advocacy and policy manager at Bike Cleveland. “Our Better Streets resident groups build community among safe streets advocates, permit physical changes to streets to improve safety, meet with elected officials and city staff to advocate for changes, and much more.”
This planning initiative begins as the city adopts new regulations for shared mobility device providers. Shared mobility devices include electric bikes and electric scooters (e-bikes and e-scooters). The policy updates are aimed at expanding consistent access to devices beyond downtown and increase the number of e-bikes available. Currently Veo, Lime, and Bird operate in Cleveland.
Other ongoing City efforts related to transportation and mobility include the installation of 100 speed tables this summer to limit high speeds on residential streets and the design of the Superior and Lorain Midways, two key segments of Cleveland’s future network of protected bikeways.
For more information, visit the Cleveland Moves Web site. To add routes, barriers, destinations and more to the plan, visit the interactive map. And to learn more about shared mobility devices available in Cleveland, visit the city’s Shared Mobility Web page.
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