Key Facts

Location: Columbus, Ohio

Partners: City of Columbus, Ohio Department of Transportation  

Summary: The City of Columbus constructed the city’s first protected bike lane in more than 30 years on a major arterial roadway connecting the University District with the downtown business district. The project, stalled for many years, was revived when a planned resurfacing project by the state DOT renewed interest in the corridor.  Input from local bicycle advocates was critical in elevating the design and ambition of the project. This type of infrastructure is rare in Ohio, where a few protected cycle track-style bike lanes do exist, but not with as many permanent infrastructure and safety measures in place.

Context

Columbus, the capital of Ohio, is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. Since 1980, the city has seen its population grow by nearly 38 percent, while the metropolitan region itself is expected to add nearly one million additional residents by the year 2050. For years, motor vehicles have served as the primary means of travel in and around the city. As the city continues to grow, this has placed considerable stress on existing transportation infrastructure and fails to address growing demand for alternate mobility options.

From 1980-1986, Columbus had a protected bike lane on High Street in the University District adjacent to Ohio State University. However, the narrow lane was difficult to clean with standard street sweepers and was often covered in broken glass and other debris. In the winter it was not wide enough to accommodate a snowplow. The lane was quietly removed and reverted to traffic lanes and on-street parking by 1987, as it remains today.

About the Cycle Track Project

The City of Columbus in 2008 began a study of the Fourth Street/Summit Street corridors, major north/south arterial roadways linking residential northern neighborhoods with the downtown business district which also carries U.S. Route 23. The goal was to reduce speeds on the roadways in order to improve safety for residents.

The roads have operated as a pair of one-way directional streets since the 1950’s before the construction of the interstate highway system (I-71) nearby. The majority of the roadways run through residential neighborhoods with at least one school located along the route.

Public meetings conducted in 2009 presented a number of options for the roadways which included the two-way traffic conversions and reducing speeds on the roadway from the existing 35 MPH limit. Most of these options did not gain traction with area residents who were concerned about the streets being able to maintain the same level of service as they provided in the then-current three-lane orientation. The failure of the community to coalesce around a specific plan led to the project being stalled for a number of years.

Then, in 2014, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) announced plans to resurface Fourth and Summit Streets, which are in their jurisdiction because they carry U.S. Route 23. ODOT asked the City if, while work was underway, there were any other updates they would like to make to the roadway. The City decided to look at the previous plans and review potential new ways that the roadways could be made safer while maintaining the same speeds and level of service for at least the next twenty years.

This led the City to reference plans for the area made in 2008 as part of the Bicentennial Bikeway Plan, which called for the creation multiple new bike lanes throughout the city, including along Summit Street, one of the arterials in question. Plans originally called for the city to install marked, unprotected bike lanes on Summit. The City saw the scheduled ODOT resurfacing as an opportunity to implement this plan and began to move forward on the unprotected bike lanes.  Late in the process, local cycle advocates successfully convinced city staff and the then-mayor (a known champion for bike lanes on local roadways) to enrich the design and build a protected “cycle track” instead of the unprotected bike lane on Summit Street. Northbound Fourth Street, the second road in the pair, was not considered for the installation of a similar protected “cycle track” because the road is narrower, however an unprotected bike lane was created.

Ultimately, a protected cycle track was built on Summit Street between Hudson Street at the north end and 11th Avenue at the south end and an unprotected bike lane extends into downtown. The cycle track covers 1.4 miles while the unprotected bike lane covers an additional 2.9 miles. The Fourth Street bike lane stretches a full 4.3 miles from downtown to Hudson Street.

The project included:

• Bicycle signal heads at signalized intersections to indicate when people riding bicycles may cross.

• The relocation, removal, and addition of some parking spaces on Fourth and Summit Streets.

• The installation of queue box pavement markings.

• Restriping to add bike lanes (on Fourth Street from the southern end of downtown to Hudson Street; on Summit Street from 11th Avenue to the southern end of downtown where the cycle track terminates).

• The installation of bus bulbs on Summit Street for the benefit of transit riders who do not need to navigate traffic to board buses running towards downtown.

Funding and Cost

The project was funded by both the city and ODOT through various funding sources including a Surface Transportation Block Grant and National Highway Performance Program funds. ODOT reported their share of the project cost to the Federal Highway Administration at $7,038,546.21.

Key Factors to Success

There are a number of factors which helped to ensure that the project was successful.

1. Mobility Plan in Place. Columbus had an existing comprehensive bike mobility plan that called for the creation of multiple new bike lanes throughout the city, including on this specific corridor. Having the plan in place (which had already been vetted through community feedback during plan development) ensured that some of the planning work was already done and allowed planners to move forward quickly when they learned of the DOT resurfacing efforts.

2. Availability of Funding. Because resurfacing work was already planned by ODOT, funding for that project was pooled along with a variety of state, federal and local funds to complete the project in a timely manner.

3. Political Support. Multiple interviewees noted that the support of local government officials, including then-Mayor Michael Coleman, helped to make the project a success. Mayor Coleman maintained an unwritten policy during his time in office that, when feasible, roadway projects should include bike infrastructure. The mayor’s leadership was key in helping to overcome objections raised during the project development largely centered around the removal of parking in the downtown segment of the project to make room for the new unprotected bike lane.

4. Support from Bicycle Advocates. The last-minute decision to pursue the protected cycle track along the Summit Street corridor instead of an unprotected bike lane was, according to interviewees, the result of a proposal by local cycle advocates led by the advocacy group Yay Bikes! Their steadfast work and support also helped to garner the grass roots support needed for the project to clear any final hurdles.

5. Location, location, location. The project’s location, in the city’s University District, was a significant factor in its success because few neighborhood stakeholders came out against the project. The population of that area consists largely of students attending Ohio State University, who reside in the area for 8-9 months of the year, and many of whom do not own cars and rely on public transportation, biking, or walking in order to access school, work, and entertainment in the area. There are also a limited number of businesses in the location, which reduced the amount of pushback over changes street parking.

More Information

Columbus Bicentennial Bike Plan

City of Columbus – Protected Bike Lanes

Cover Image: Summit Street Cycle Track by Pi.1415926535 via Wikimedia