Key Facts
Location: Bexley, Ohio
Partners: City of Bexley, Bexley City School District, Ohio Department of Transportation
Summary: Over the past two decades, the City of Bexley, a land-locked community completely surrounded on all sides by the City of Columbus, with three major east/west routes serving as the main artery roads in the city, has invested significantly in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure to make the community safer for road users of all types and modes.
Context: Bexley is a landlocked community of 2.5 square miles with approximately 48 miles of public roadway. The two main arterial roads in the city are continuations of major Columbus roadways. East Main Street, which serves as the main commercial district in the city, carries U.S. Route 40 (the National Road) through the southern end of the city, while East Broad Street, a residential street, carrier Ohio State Route 16. While E. Broad Street is primarily residential, the roadway is also the location of the Columbus School for Girls, one of the largest and most prominent private schools in the region. E. Main Street, the commercial corridor, is also features the main entrance to Capital University, a private college, and the Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
Planning has been a central element of the work that the City of Bexley has undertaken over the past 24 years to make the improvements throughout the city.
The earliest of these plans was the City of Bexley Strategic Plan, a requirement of the City Charter which was added by voters in the late 1990’s and codified by city Ordinance in April 2000. The purpose of the strategic plan is to provide a framework to guide issues of residential and commercial development, infrastructure, finances, safety, and quality of life within the community.
The first strategic plan was adopted in 2003 and was in place for six years (2003-2009). A second plan was adopted in 2009 and was modeled in large part on the previous plan, updated for current issues of the time. It was in place from 2009-2012. The city’s current Strategic Plan was adopted in 2013 and is currently in the process of being updated.
Main Street Improvements
Main Street Design Guide, development of which began in 2000 and adopted by the city in 2002. To date, this plan has not been updates (however the city does state on its website that a tentative update to the plan is set for 2023).
The Main Street Design Guide established a set of design guidelines to ensure that new buildings, additions, and renovations along the roadway maintain and improved the character, function, and livability of the corridor. Additionally, the design guides objectives included:
Promoting a pedestrian-friendly, aesthetically pleasing consistent streetscape that considers all the elements of the urban envelope
Develop standards for the Main Street corridor, such as street frontage types and building massing
Maintain the street as a thoroughfare and scenic byway
Create a climate and a built environment that attracts new businesses and sustains and promotes existing businesses
Increases the residential component of Main Street, in particular the upper floors of buildings
Encourages existing and future development to enhance the quality of sites (including buildings, lots, parking, landscaping and signage)
Address the parking situation on Main Street with general recommendations on the amount necessary to implement the vision and the best location for it
Maintain the ‘historic character’ of Main Street
Anchor complementary civic structures and spaces on Main Street
Accentuate the ‘Garden City’ qualities of the area
Promote the creation of a continuous street front of buildings and pocket parks
Build upon the history of US 40 as the Historic National Road
Old meets new on Main Street. The Historic Drexel Theater, with updated streetscapes, sits across the street from a new grocery store. Designed to fit within the neighborhood. The grocery is two stories, sits directly up against the sidewalk, and features a full-service restaurant, sushi bar, and second story patio for outdoor dining.
The second of the 12 stated goals of the design guide was to make Main Street a pedestrian-friendly and aesthetically pleasing place to be where people wish to stroll along the street, shop, visit, and relax.
The development of both the Main Street Design Guide and the streetscape plan culminated in the 2012 with the year-long Main Street improvement plan known as the ‘Bexley Mile’. Utilizing $1.8 million in funds generated from tax increment financing, or TIF[1], the city undertook the years-long work of making the main commercial artery of the city more pedestrian friendly. This work involved:
Uniformity in street signage
Installation of brick crosswalks
Addition of hanging plants and new landscaping at key intersections
Islands constructed along various points on Main Street designed to improve the visual appearance of the roadway and assist in the slowing down of traffic along the busy corridor
Main Street in Bexley in June, 2012 before the street was redesigned to add traffic calming islands. Image via Google Maps
Main Street in Bexley in October, 2022 after the street was redesigned to add traffic calming islands. Image via Google Maps
The completion of the work has had a positive influence on the character of the neighborhood, which has seen continuous improvement and development since it was completed a decade ago.
Safe Routes to Schools
2012 also saw the City of Bexley, in a partnership with the Bexley City School District, adopt the Safe Routes to School Travel Plan. Bexley has three elementary schools which holds students in grades K-6, a middle school for students in grades 7-8, and a 9-12 high school. Additionally, the Columbus School for Girls, a private school for grades pre-K-12, is also in the city. The Safe Routes to School Travel Plan is designed to align with the city’s vision of making the community more pedestrian friendly.
To this end, the Safe Route to School Travel Plan identified 17 infrastructure improvement countermeasures, ranging from short-term improvements such as the installation of road yield to pedestrian signs, painted ladder crosswalks and the installation of bike racks to properly store bikes during school days, to medium term improvements which have included ‘no turn’ changeable message signs that illuminate during arrival, mid-day, and afternoon dismissal periods, installation of curb bump outs to shorten the crossing distance and better define on-street parking areas and ADA ramps (both on sidewalks and landscaped islands mid-block) to better assist students crossing the street at intersections.
Cassingham Elementary School in 2011 before the Safe Routes to Schools Plan was adopted. Note the lack of bicycle racks in front of the school.
Cassingham Elementary School in 2021 after the Safe Routes to Schools Plan was adopted. Installed bike racks have led to an increase in students riding to school.
Active Transportation
By 2019, city leaders once again began the process of developing another plan to guide the work of meeting the vision of a more walkable city. Over a two-year period, which included the pandemic year of 2020, city leaders and residents worked to develop the Bicycle Friendly Bexley Plan, which the city adopted in 2021 to enhance bicycle safety throughout the community. Working with Toole Design, a plan was submitted to city council for feedback, and following minor revisions, the plan was approved.
The plan calls for a number of infrastructure improvements, along with recommendations to both encourage more bike use and educational campaigns to promote rider safety.
Create Four Bicycle Boulevard Routes
Bicycle Boulevards are streets with low motorized traffic volume and speeds, designated and designed to give people traveling by bicycle priority. Utilizing signs, pavement markings, and speed and volume management measures to discourage through trips by motorized vehicles and create safe, convenient bicycle crossings of busy arterial streets.
Recommended Bicycle Boulevard Routes
Cassingham Road/Roosevelt Avenue – distance 2.6 miles
Maryland Avenue – distance 2.5 miles
Sheridan Avenue/Mound Street – distance 1.8 miles
Sherwood Road – distance 1.8 miles
Better connect Alum Creek Trail to the city
The Alum Creek Trail is a City of Columbus Greenway Trail that travels North to South along Alum Creek, a 58-mile long scenic waterway. Stretching from Westerville in the north to Three Creeks Park on the sound side of the city, it passes through Bexley between Broad Street and Clifton Avenue.
The plan recommends basic maintenance improvements along the trail to address destabilized asphalt, as well as three “big ideas”
Bicycle Pedestrian Bridge to improve access from south Bexley and better connect Main Street business corridor to the Alum Creek Trail (development would require a partnership with the City of Columbus)
Development of two new underpasses at Main Street and Livingston Avenue. The trail currently has an underpass as Broad Street (within the City of Columbus) but both Main Street and Livingston Avenue have street level crossings, creating dangerous inflection points between motor vehicle traffic and cyclists/pedestrians utilizing the trail.
Main Street Improvements
Bike Parking – the plan recommends increasing bike parking in the public right of way, including allowing bikes to bark in on-street spaces normally reserved for motor vehicles (the plan notes that a space reserved for one car could accommodate 10 bikes)
Sharrows and “Bike May Use Full Lane” signs. The plan concedes that bike lanes along the Main Street corridor would “dramatically improve the comfort level for people riding bikes” but notes there is a lack of appetite for the removal of street parking, coming largely from the business community concerned about a loss of street parking leading to a reduction in the number of customers. Instead, the plan recommends adding sharrows and other signage on the regular travel lanes indicating that cyclists have the right to full use of travel lanes along the street
Open Street – An open street program, similar to when a street is closed to motor vehicles but open to pedestrians, cyclists, and other mode users operated seasonally designed to create a culture that supports active transportation and bringing new customers to local businesses, is recommended as an intermediate step to change public opinion around dedicated bike lanes along the Main Street corridor
Broad Street Improvements
Prior to the adoption of the report, improvements had been made to East Broad Street, the other major east-west corridor in the city, that is predominantly residential in its use. This has included the construction of islands in key areas of the street that function as traffic calming devices. Still, the current design of Board Street has more capacity than is needed, resulting in conditions that induce higher travel speeds and sees the corridor function as a cut-through when nearby highways are experiencing heavy congestion.
The plan recommends that Bexley work with adjacent communities (Columbus as well as nearby Whitehall) to consider Board Street as a priority corridor for dedicated transit or bike lanes.
Drexel Avenue Improvements
Drexel Avenue is the main north-south connector, carrying U.S. Route 40 from E. Broad Street in Columbus to E. Main Street in Bexley. While primarily residential, Drexel Avenue does feature the Columbus School for Girls and Jeffery Park. While the plan notes that protected bike lanes would dramatically improve the level of comfort for riders traveling along Drexel Avenue, it does note this would crate problems for the Main Street business corridor, as well as for the school, where drivers regular use on-street parking during the busy pick-up and drop-off periods of the school day.
The plan recommends a temporary demonstration project to evaluate the impact of medians, protected bike lanes, or a combination of medians and typical bike lanes.
This recommendation had met with the most resistance from the community. In 2022, the Mayor and city staff approached city council with a recommendation that the city proceed with a project that includes curb extensions (bump outs) at intersections and medians placed at select areas. This would be done to petition ODOT to lower the speed limit on the street from 35mph to 25 mph. Ultimately, the curb extension/median plan was adopted by the city and is currently in the construction phase, with completion expected in the fall of 2023.
Cassady Avenue Multi-Use Path
Cassady Avenue is another north-south running street which connects E. Broad Street with E. Main Street. Entirely residential, the street connects to Capital University, where is currently functions as a one-way street running northbound only near Capital’s football/athletic complex and the Bexley Public Library.
The plan notes this recommendation would be especially helpful to increase the level of comfort for those traveling by bike, particularity if the bike lanes are added to Drexel Avenue and/or E. Main Street.
As of September 2023 no bike lane is planned for either Drexel Avenue or E. Main Street
Additional Recommendations
Wayfinder signage to assist visitors and residents alike traveling on low-stress streets and trails to destinations on the E. Main Street business corridor.
Fix-it Stations to assist visitors and residents requiring minor maintenance for bike equipment, including tools and pressurized air at five locations in the city, including near Alum Creek Trail
Since the adoption of the plan in 2021, Bexley has continued to make progress on fulfilling the goals of the plan, though as evidenced by the earlier work on Main Street, the work to achieve all of the stated goals will take time. The city now maintains a website, bexley.org/bikefriendly with updates on the status of implementing the plan.
Alum Creek Trail entrance adjacent to E. Main Street along the Bexley/Columbus municipal line. The Bexley AT Plan calls for a Bicycle Pedestrian Bridge to improve access from south Bexley and better connect Main Street business corridor to the Alum Creek Trail (development would require a partnership with the City of Columbus).
Key Factors to Success
Planning, planning, planning. Every single step made towards improvement in Bexley, from the upgrades made to the Main Street corridor to the ongoing active transportation improvements has been the result of a long-range community planning process. Bexley is required by its municipal charter to have a strategic plan, and from that it was spawned the adoption of, in order of progress, the Main Street Design Guide, the Safe Routes to School Plan, and the Bike Friendly Bexley Plan. Presently, the city has 10 plane in place used to support development and other communities initiatives, including joint planning efforts done in conjunction with the City of Columbus (Joint Livingston Avenue Plan) and the Bexley City School District (Safe Routes to School Plan).
Availability of Funding. The use of TIF to support the developments along Main Street was an important factor in the success of the development, in large part because it was unnecessary to tap into the city’s general fund account. Implementation of some of the Bike Friendly Bexley plan has been supported by ongoing maintenance costs (such as the work being done on Drexel Avenue) or grants (the city/school district received a Safe Routes to Schools grant from ODOT to support some of the projects outlined in the plan) and will be looking for partnership on other projects, such as connections along the Alum Creek Trail, with, among others, the City of Columbus, Columbus Metro Parks, and MORPC.
Political Support. Bexley has benefited from strong support among the city political leadership, including three mayors (dating back to 2000), a succession of members of city council, and staff support as well. Currently, Mayor Ben Kessler serves jointly as Mayor and Planning Director, which enables consistency in planning and advocacy for many of the pedestrian-friendly initiatives which have been undertaken.
Strong Community Support. With limited exceptions, the public has strongly supported the work of the city as it has pursued the improvements to the community, from the Main Street improvements to the bike friendly planning and development. This has been enhanced by the city, which conducts regular public meetings and community discourse which helps to build consensus around project development. While there has been some push back around certain aspects of what the city political leadership would like to see (like more dedicated bike lanes on key corridors) the city is listening to the public and engaging with them in order to keep project development moving rather than leading to projects stalling and dying the slow death of government red tape.
[1] Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is an economic development tool to use future gains in taxes to finance current public infrastructure improvements for development that will create those gains.
[2] As noted above, Drexel Avenue has been ruled out for a dedicated bike lane and instead will feature curb extensions/bump outs designed to slow traffic and make the roadway for accessible for users of all modes.