OH: Cleveland mayor commits to building 50 miles of comfortable bike lanes in 3 years

Cleveland leaders and transportation safety advocates met in City Hall Friday to celebrate Mayor Justin Bibb’s newly approved Cleveland Moves plan – and his commitment to build 50 miles of protected bike lanes in Cleveland over the next three years.

Advocates, however, made clear in their remarks at the event that they are looking for even more, saying they were excited for “50 plus” miles to be built.

The press conference was held to announce the start of Cleveland Moves, a 5-year multimodal transportation plan that is supposed to make driving, biking and walking and using public transit easier.

It’s the first time Cleveland has enacted this kind of plan since 2007, and it was adopted by the City Planning Commission Friday.

It’s also a chance for Bibb to deliver on an old campaign promise, as he begins campaigning for re-election. In addition to Cleveland Moves, the city has launched Vision Zero, a plan to reduce traffic deaths.

Bibb and Councilman Kerry McCormack were also key drivers of Cleveland’s new Complete and Green Streets ordinance, legislation that requires the city to think about multi-model transportation and environmental concerns as they design roads in the future.

Cleveland Moves calls for building 50 miles of what are called high comfort bikeways, which are defined as lanes that most people would feel safe riding in – and not just a narrow lane on the side of a busy street.

The plan said the city will accomplish this by adding more separation and safety features to existing bike lanes, and by restriping streets to add new “quick-build” bike lanes throughout the city.

Cleveland Moves also promises to modify traffic signal timing and to improve cross walks for pedestrians, and to do “centerline hardening” at 10 intersections in 2025.

Centerline hardening is when cities install infrastructure to stop drivers from cutting diagonally through intersections when they make left turns.

Cleveland also committed to turning at least 150 parking meter poles to bike racks. And the plan proposes another 100 speed tables in 2025.

In an interview, Bibb told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that Cleveland has already started on this work, pointing to the 100 speed tables that have already been installed throughout the city.

But he said he’s also excited to move out of the planning stage and to get more shovels in the ground.

One example of that, he said, is the Superior Midway project, which will put a protected bike lane in the center of the downtown throughway from East 55th Street to Public Square. Design work is wrapping up and physical construction is expected to begin in spring 2026.

Calley Mersmann, Cleveland’s planning director and previously Bibb’s senior strategist for transit and mobility, pointed to another project that has already started.

Payne Avenue is being reconstructed from East 13th to East 50th streets. When the work is done, Mersmann said Cleveland will change the road layout to add a “parked car protected” bike lane. Instead of cars parking next to the curb with a bike lane beside them, the new setup will put the bike lane next to the curb, then parked cars, and then moving traffic.

Doing so puts the parked cars in between bicyclists and drivers, creating space and a barrier.

Sarah Davis, a senior transportation planner for the city, said the idea is to create bike lanes without having to reconstruct streets or widen them. Instead, Cleveland will look at ways that they can move lanes or change the existing infrastructure.

This will allow Cleveland to build quicker, she said. It will also let the city find ways that they can create bike lanes and walkways that people feel safe using.

Bibb said one of the “biggest complaints we get is that our streets aren’t safe.” He said the city has been working to create a strong foundation so that it can address those concerns.

He also said that vibrant cities are places where people have access to great transportation. Bibb told reporters that Cleveland needs these kinds of changes to be a lively and growing city.

And when it comes to getting state or federal grants to pay for these improvements, he said he’ll continue to stress to lawmakers that if they want people to move to Cleveland or Ohio, the city needs to embrace multi-modal transportation.

The Cleveland Moves plan was lauded by activists like Jacob Van Sickle, who leads Bike Cleveland and was among those pushing for “50 plus” miles of protected lanes.

He said rapid implementation of these changes would be key “to making sure our streets are safe for everyone, no matter how they travel.”

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