Visit any major U.S. city and you’ll see plenty of protected bike lanes, which physically separate cyclists from traffic to make streets safer for everyone.
In Cleveland, not so much. Cleveland has scattered examples of protected lanes across the city, particularly on bridges, but no examples Downtown. That’s about to change.
In mid-June, the city will turn Prospect Avenue and Huron Road between Ontario Street and East Ninth Street from two-way streets into a one-way pair. Huron will be eastbound, and Prospect westbound. The project will include Downtown’s first protected bike lanes.
The city is calling the weeklong installation a “Streets for People Quick-Build Project.’’ A webinar describing the work will be held on June 2 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
The goal, officials say, is to enhance pedestrian and bike safety and simplify traffic flow in a highly active area just north of the Gateway Sports District, home to the Guardians and Cavaliers.
Thousands of pedestrians surge through the Gateway area before and after games, while police direct traffic. For many years, police have routinely turned Huron into a one-way eastbound road and Prospect into a one-way westbound road during games.
The arrangement smooths the flow of traffic, particularly in and out of garages, said Matt Moss, a member of the city’s planning staff.
The streets are treated as a pair because they intersect at an acute angle just west of East Ninth Street.
About 18 months ago, the administration of Mayor Justin Bibb decided to explore whether to make the one-way arrangement permanent. The new project grew out of a planning study that followed.
The details
Moss said it is not the city's intention to use one-way streets to reduce traffic congestion without regard for pedestrian or bicycle safety, which is often how they're used.
The number of traffic lanes on Huron and Prospect will be reduced from four in both directions to two lanes in one direction. Reducing space for cars, planners reason, will create more for bikes.
On Huron, bike lanes will be inserted between the parking lane and the curb. On Prospect, the lanes will be protected by a row of batons, or delineators, fastened to the pavement. The bike lanes will be two-way and a total of 12 feet wide.
The $200,000 project, funded through the city’s general fund, will be “quick build’’ in the sense that it requires paint and delineators, but not heavy construction.
“It’s cheaper and faster,’’ Moss said.
Eventually, some features of the project, including pedestrian bump-outs at intersections, could be constructed in permanent materials with new curb lines. The city’s rendering of the Huron-Prospect projects depicts this hoped-for condition in the future.
For now, the installation is seen as a downpayment on a new vision for traffic calming and road safety announced by Bibb in April in the city’s new Cleveland Moves plan.
The five-year plan calls for adding 50 miles of what planners describe as “high comfort” rights-of-way designed to encourage more use by bike riders of all abilities. That means the city could see more “quick-build” projects like Huron and Prospect.
The city currently has 171 miles of bike lanes, of which nearly 63 are considered suitable for “all ages and abilities,” a category that includes trails, protected lanes, shared use paths and “bike boulevards.”
An emerging network
The Huron-Prospect pair, which measures just over a half mile for both of its legs, is the first of several upcoming projects designed to improve the safety of driving, walking and cycling Downtown. All are made possible by population loss and declining traffic counts, which have made the city look for new ways to use unneeded lanes.
The upcoming projects include:
- The current repaving of Payne Avenue from East 13th to East 30th Street, with parking-protected bike lanes. The project is scheduled for completion this summer. A second phase will extend the project to East 55th Street.
- The construction of the Superior Avenue Midway with a two-way, grade-separated cycle path in the center of the roadway between Public Square and East 55th Street. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2026 and last until 2028.
- The conversion of a lane on Huron Road between Detroit Avenue and Ontario Street behind Tower City Center into a recreational path for cyclists and runners as part of the planned three-mile Memorial Bridges Loop. Work starts in 2026.
Eventually, Moss said, a network of protected bike lanes could extend across Downtown, connecting the Gateway area to Playhouse Square, Cleveland State University, the Warehouse District and the lakefront.
Improving safety, economics
The Huron-Prospect project is meeting with approval among local businesses and those familiar with bike infrastructure.
“We’re excited to see things happening on the ground,’’ said Jacob VanSickle, executive director of Bike Cleveland, the city’s leading nonprofit advocacy group for cyclists.
Bike Cleveland recently released its second annual survey of traffic safety, showing that 603 people on foot or bikes were hit by vehicles in 2024, up from 550 in 2023.
The report, based on publicly available data, said that 15 of the 2024 crashes were fatalities, up from nine in 2023.
Moss said that projects like the Prospect-Huron pair “are designed to slow speeds and to separate road users in space and time, which are strategies to reduce the severity of crashes.’’
Improving bike infrastructure and pedestrian safety will be attractive to restaurateurs, hotels and businesses just north of Gateway, said architect Mike Christoff, who is leading the apartment and hotel conversion of the Rose Building, a late 19th-century landmark at the intersection of Prospect, Huron and East Ninth streets. The project will include 154 apartments and 123 hotel rooms in a Marriott Tribute hotel.
Christoff called the two-way pair “a huge plus’’ for real estate activity and bars planned north of Gateway.
“You’ll have continuous activity along a new bikeway and one-way infrastructure and wider sidewalks,’’ he said. “I think it’s going to be a really good time to be in that area.”
