CINCINNATI — Cincinnati City Council passed a motion sponsored by Councilmember Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, asking the City Administration to report on the feasibility of building a temporary, two-way protected bike lane along Clifton Avenue in the Clifton and Corryville neighborhoods of Cincinnati.

Clifton Town Meeting, the community council representing Clifton, passed a resolution in August asking for the city to install a one-mile temporary bike lane from Calhoun Street in Clifton Heights to Ludlow Avenue in Clifton. The motion by Councilmember Kearney asks the city to study the possibility and report back in two weeks.

Clifton Town Meeting cited COVID-19 and the fact that temporary bike lanes “have been popping up literally overnight in cities around the world as a quick, efficient and cost-effective way to enable biking during the pandemic.”

The group also believes the route could better connect the Ludlow Avenue business district to the rest of Uptown. Clifton Town Meeting proposed putting the bike lane on the east side of Clifton Avenue and moving the current parking lane between traffic and the bike lane. The plan also calls for bike racks near the fountain at Clifton and Ludlow avenues.
 

Kara Kish, Director of Cincinnati Parks, wrote a letter in support of the plan, as did the Clifton Heights-University Heights-Fairview Neighborhood Association, University of Cincinnati, among other organizations in the surrounding area that would be serviced by the proposed bike lane.

"There are known environmental, economic, health and wellness benefits to increased access to bike lanes,” wrote director Kara Kish. Burnet Woods sits alongside the proposed bike lane.

If installed, the on-street protected bike lane would be only the second one in the city of Cincinnati. The first is the on-street Central Parkway bikeway that runs from downtown to Marshall Avenue. The city plans to complete that route to Ludlow Avenue by building a shared-use path when it obtains funding.

A Clifton Avenue bike lane also would connect to the shared-use path on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, which runs from Central Parkway to Clifton Avenue.