Ride your bike to City Hall on St Patrick's Day to show that you want Cincinnati to include bike lanes on our streets!
When: 1:30 pm - 2:00 pm, Tuesday, March 17th, St Patrick's DayNothing will speak louder of our commitment to liveable streets and neighborhoods than to be there with our bikes as Council Member Harris makes this important announcement to the press.
Where: Cincinnati City Hall, 9th & Plum, Downtown
What: City Council Member Greg Harris to Ask for Bike Lanes on Spring Grove
The ordinance will ask that the City Administration report back within 30 days on the feasibility of creating dedicated bike lanes on Spring Grove from Spring Grove Village continuing westward through Northside and southward via Dalton Avenue to Downtown and the riverfront.
The primary neighborhoods that would benefit along the route are Spring Grove Village, Northside, Clifton/CUF, Camp Washington, Over-the-Rhine, Queensgate, and Downtown/West End. Spring Grove is also a major link for cyclists heading to or from Carthage and Hartwell and points north and west.
Bike lanes on Spring Grove would provide a bike-safe alternative to I75 and help the City reach its goal of increasing by over 400% the number of bicycle trips to work by 2012, and thereby reduce green house gas emissions by 6,300 tons per year (See The Green Cincinnati Plan.) They also create a safer, on-street bicycle route to and from the proposed Queen City-South Mill Creek Trail that is part of the Mill Creek Restoration Project.
We need to act now because the City will be issuing a request for proposals (RFP) in the next few weeks for improving Spring Grove from roughly Clifton Avenue to Ludlow. Thanks are due to our allies in the Clifton Town Meeting for recognizing this as an immediate opportunity to get more bikes on the streets.
Queen City Bike will be working with our allies on policies to give bicycles their due in all transportation and neighborhood improvement projects in the region. As part of the same funding package, funds were also approved by the Ohio Public Works Commission for Madison between Brotherton and Ridge. The list can be found on Building Cincinnati.
2 Comments:
Please do not support bike lanes.
I do not ride for fun. I do not drive. I ride for transportation. Roads are for transportation.
Many motorists believe bikes should not be on the road. They see bikes as toys and cyclists as recreationalists tying up their "serious" roadways.
By making bike specific lanes and paths this belief is reinforced.
When a cyclist makes a left turn, he must exit "his" lane and move to his proper place in the roadway. If motorists are convinced that the cyclist should stay in "his" lane he will not be looking for the slow cyclist anywhere else.
The idea of being in the right side of a center lane is a difficult notion for the average motorist to grasp already. Making him think more is dangerous as it will confuse him and cause him to make mistakes.
Bicycles should be part of the natural traffic pattern.
Restriping lanes to give the curb lane a few extra inches, keeping the curb lane clear of debris is all that is needed.
I know that it is nice to have something of "your own" but this is a bad idea.
I can't think of a city anywhere in Europe, North America, or developed Asia where bikes are a significant means of transportation and bike lanes are not part of the mix.
They are simply a practical means of separating faster moving from slower moving traffic. I could not agree more that driver education is needed in any case.
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