Tri State residents gathered at an informative meeting Thursday night at the McKie Recreation Center in Northside to learn more about where citizens want to ride, what keeps people from riding bicycles – and what types of improvements need to be made to Cincinnati area roads to facilitate those bike riders.
City officials say that they want bicycles to be a mode of everyday transportation for more Cincinnatians.
Thursday night’s open meeting is part of the city's efforts to develop a plan to turn Cincinnati into a more “bicycle friendly” city like Portland, Chicago or San Francisco.
Melissa McVay, a city planner with Cincinnati's Division of Transportation Planning & Urban Design, says, "I think as a culture we're more interested in green options, and cycling is one of those. Obviously, gas prices going up lately, that's another thing people who weren't thinking of it before are more likely to consider using a bike for short trips."
Michael Moore, interim director of the Department of Transportation & Engineering said, "We want average Cincinnatians to be able to incorporate cycling into their daily routine, for exercise, short errands – and even commuting to work. That might mean we need to build more trails, more on-street bike lanes, or offer bicycle safety classes. We need the public to tell us what it would take to get them back on a bicycle."
In an effort to gather information from the public, the city is providing an online survey, where residents are encouraged to leave comments. To leave your opinion, go to the Bike Plan website at
www.cincinnati-oh.gov/bikeplan.
