Bike Cleveland, the advocacy group for bicycles, has alerted its supporters to upcoming action on a Complete & Green Streets ordinance in Cleveland city council, which was introduced on April 18 by ward 3 councilman Kerry McCormick and Mayor Justin Bibb.
“The streets of Cleveland are an important part of the livability of our neighborhoods,” they say. “They ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. Our streets should connect the places we need and want to visit, not serve as barriers because they are unsafe. Unfortunately, too often our streets are designed only for speeding cars. They are unsafe for people on foot or bike — and unpleasant for everyone.”
The ordinance would improve transparency and oversight in several ways. It would improve community engagement; create an oversight committee to review road projects to ensure the designs meet the needs of all road users; require any exception of complete streets elements be communicated to an advisory committee, city council, and posted publicly; improve coordination of road projects among city departments; and establish performance metrics that must be reported annually to track progress and support implementation.
Bike Cleveland is asking people to voice support for the ordinance, which will be heard in the City Planning Commission on Friday May 6, by signing onto a letter to city council members and the mayor’s office.
You can do that here.