Editorial: Build the Central Parkway bike path

As Cincinnati officials have worked to increase the appeal and livability of the city in recent years, there's been broad agreement on the need to provide alternatives to driving.

As a result, Cincinnati's bike infrastructure has grown rapidly, with bike lanes along some of the city's busiest corridors. But these changes haven't come without fights, with the latest conflict centering on a proposal to build protected bike lanes on Central Parkway.

The bike lanes make sense. They physically separate bikes from car traffic by white plastic bollards, reducing accidents and the discomfort many people have when bikes and cars share a space. They connect neighborhoods like Clifton, Northside, the West End, Over-the-Rhine and Downtown, where high numbers of residents use bikes as transportation and not just for recreation. And they would likely encourage more development along Central Parkway, where buildings now are underused and where cars race by on their way to I-75.

City planners did their homework on the protected lanes, which have become popular across the country because of all the benefits they offer. For more than a year they've been meeting with community councils in the affected neighborhoods and soliciting feedback on the proposal. Last year City Council voted in favor of the bikeway and the city was awarded $500,000 in federal funds to build it.

Yet even with the contract just days away from being signed, City Council is holding a hearing on the bikeway today to review the project, after a business owner on Central Parkway and some commuters raised objections to the plan.

They are upset about the lane changes required to accommodate the new bikeway. Parking will be prohibited in one southbound lane from 7-9 a.m. every day to allow for cars heading Downtown to use two lanes. From 3-6 p.m. parking will be prohibited in a northbound lane, freeing up that lane for cars headed out of Downtown. The extra space will allow for the bike lanes going in along either side of the street.

Traffic engineers estimate a lane can handle 700 to 1,000 cars at rush hour, and Central Parkway now carries 600 to 700 cars.

Business owner Tim Haines is upset because the on-street parking in front of his building will be unavailable two hours a day, and because car traffic will be down to one lane each way for 19 hours a day. Haines has done a great job revitalizing a blighted building and bringing tenants and businesses to Central Parkway, and his work has contributed to improving conditions along the street.

But other business owners who have feared the loss of on-street parking have been pleasantly surprised by the changes, and Haines is likely to feel the same way. There is parking across the street, and cars will be able to park in front of his building during traditional business hours. There are peak-hour parking restrictions throughout the city, and drivers are accustomed to dealing with them. Haines has discussed putting a restaurant/cafe in the building; having more cyclists on the street would boost the prospects of that business more than cars racing by at 50 miles an hour every day.

Certainly there's no harm in having a public hearing Monday, but it sets a bad precedent to allow a handful of complaints to stop a 13-month process that's solicited input from hundreds of people. There's talk of a compromise involving the berm in front of Haines' building, but that could add more than $100,000 onto the cost of the project and result in the loss of a dozen or more mature trees. The cycletrack is a good idea that deserves the widespread support it's attracted. City Council should trust its initial instincts and allow the track to be built as originally planned. ■