A protected bike lane that runs from downtown to Clifton Heights along Central Parkway could get an extension connecting it to Clifton and Northside if the City of Cincinnati scores a $750,000 grant through the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana-Regional Council of Governments.
But the connecting piece wouldn’t be another on-street bike lane under the city’s grant application — it would be a shared bike path running next to the west side of Central Parkway.
City administration applied for the grant June 7. Cincinnati City Council today approved an ordinance allowing Cincinnati City Manager Patrick Duhaney to accept the Transportation Alternatives grant should the city receive it. The city would need to find money to match that grant, as well as funds to maintain the path should it win the grant. The city estimates the total cost of the project would be roughly $3.5 million.
The Central Parkway Bike Lane was constructed in 2014 in accordance with a comprehensive bike plan approved by city council. But it was never completed. The lane ends at Marshall Ave. between Clifton Heights and Camp Washington, about a mile from where a bike lane picks up at the Ludlow Ave. overpass into Northside. A separate, off-street bike path branches off Central Parkway about halfway between Marshall and Ludlow and runs up Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive into Clifton Heights.
The lane has been controversial. Detractors say it has snarled parking and caused more accidents along Central Parkway. Proponents say it adds a vital degree of separation between bike commuters and traffic along one of the city’s busiest arteries.
Mayor John Cranley’s administration has focused heavily on bike path construction over protected lanes during the mayor’s tenure — something not all bike advocates have been happy about. Those advocates, and some members of council, have pushed for completion of the lane.
Should the city win the grant, the plan could represent a compromise — a bike path that also finishes the long-incomplete lane.
This article appears in Jun 12-19, 2019.