Superior Midway Bike Project Could Be Threatened by Proposed State Budget Bill Revision From Rep Tom Patton

In the past 12 years, the Superior Midway project, which would create a protected center lane for cyclists from Public Square to East 55th Street, has overcome a decent list of obstacles to achieve full funding and approval.

On Tuesday, after the release of a proposed revision to the state’s biennial budget bill, the Midway’s decade of work could be halted.

“With respect to political subdivision with a population of three hundred thousand or more, according to the most recent federal decennial census, a prohibition against the construction of a bicycle lane in the center of a street or highway,” the language, proposed by State Rep. Tom Patton of Strongsville, reads.

The bill, which decides state budgeting priorities for transportation every two years, will be debated this week by the House Finance Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Jim Edwards. If the bill, which will move on to the Ohio Senate later this month, is passed with the added language, advocates and city officials say the Midway will not only be dead on arrival but there will be lingering repurcussions for the city down the road.

Cleveland city councilman Kerry McCormack, whose Ward 3 includes most of the project area, expressed disdain for the state reps that fail to comprehend the lasting negative impacts canceling the Midway would surely create.

“I’m very disappointed to see this poisonous amendment inserted into the State’s transportation budget,” McCormack said in a text message. “If this amendment is adopted, it will kill hundreds of good paying union construction jobs, cancel $25 million infrastructure project to modernize our city and set Cleveland back years on our ability to innovate and retain/attract talent.

“If the state unilaterally kills this critical infrastructure project,” he added, “not only could we lose millions in federal infrastructure dollars, but we could jeopardize our ability to get federal funding in the future.”

The proposed ban has led to action from city officials and other advocates, including
Bike Cleveland. Jacob Van Sickle, the organization’s president, drafted witness testimony to Rep. Edwards and 30 other state congressional members after learning of the revision.

(Both Rep. Edwards and Rep. Tom Patton  did not respond to calls for comment.)

Bike Cleveland has also posted a template for the public to petition the committee in defense of the Superior Midway. As of Tuesday afternoon, 835 emails, Van Sickle said, have been sent.

“This language added to H.B. 23 is not rooted in any real engineering principles or safety concerns,” the statement reads. “It is an attempt to stop a bikeway project that has years of planning, design, and community support. We need you to urge the Ohio House Finance Committee to remove this language.”

In an interview, Van Sickle was confused as to why Sen. Edwards, a Republican from Nelsonville, and Patton, a Republican from the suburbs, would target the Midway with such specificity. As, Van Sickle and others have noted, the H.B. 23 proposed edit arrives just five weeks after Cleveland city council approved the Midway project and its west-side, Lorain Avenue counterpart.

Van Sickle senses a wide gap between what state representatives feel about the project and what they know.

After all, more than a year has been dedicated to analyzing traffic patterns, configuring lane widths, holding public listening sessions, surveying the public and forming a steering committee of 11. These are efforts, Van Sickle believes,that politicians outside Cleveland may not be attentive to.

“When cities are designing their roadways, they understand the roadways and the lane width and the curb cuts, and the issues that come up when you’re in design, right?” Van Sickle said. “The locals are really the ones that understand what would work best on their roads.”

Nancy Lyon-Stadler, a Midway engineer and one of a handful of advocates that wrote testimony to the committee, agreed.

Long before some members of the committee cited “concerns” from Superior Ave. businesses and possible complaints from delivery truck services, Lyon-Stadler said she’s worked to cover all potential bases of concern. The Midway’s primary lane, a width of 12 feet, she said, is sufficient road room for 18-wheelers.

Citing her contribution to the NOACA traffic study, Lyon-Stadler, in her letter to the committee, reiterated the importance of the Midway for protecting cyclists — by providing “improved visibility” and limiting the instances of “right hook” crashes when turning cars collide with parallel bikers.

“I think this level of ignorance is ridiculous,” Lyon-Stadler told Scene. “Why would you put this into a law without doing the due diligence to figure out what it’s about?”

As for businesses along Superior, several either weren’t aware of the Midway’s advancement to state concern, or felt miffed by the potential loss of benefits—increased property values and better business, namely.

At Stefanec’s, a barbershop located off Superior and East 33rd Street, manager Devon Sauve has been debating the “pros and cons” of the Midway since it’s inched closer to realization.

Though the family at Stefanec’s been cutting hair since the late 1960s, Sauve and her business partner have seen growth recently, new clientele from Downtown and Asiatown, and have put some of those profits into renovations. If the Midway ends up going forward, Sauve said she’ll fret about the potential loss of clients during the year or so of construction—especially the customers that, for the most part, use a car and park streetside.

Yet, that’s temporary.

“If they’re not going to have access to us, they’re going to go somewhere else,” Sauve said Tuesday. “We only have this little set space, and we’re not going to have that set space for x amount of months or however long it is. That’s the thing that we’re concerned about.”

Sauve added, “But after that, it should be good. When you’re riding your bike, I think you’re a little bit more aware of your surroundings.”

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This article appears in Feb 8-21, 2023.