As RTA Teases Plan for West 25th Street Bus Rapid Transit Line, a Debate About Design and Bike Lanes

Fifteen sections of Ohio City’s streets will see ParkMobile stations in the next month and a half. Credit: Mark Oprea

Eleven years ago, RTA’s HealthLine, that seven-mile stretch of dedicated bus lane from Downtown to University Circle, reached what might be literally called peak service. Both on-the-ground and on a national level.

Due to its boarding rates, added bike lanes and stop frequency, the Institute for Transportation & Development felt compelled to mark the bus rapid transit (BRT) system up and down Euclid of the “highest-quality.”

“We consider the HealthLine to be a best practice for BRT in the U.S.,” ITD chief Walter Hook told press at the time. “And our hope is that it encourages other U.S. cities to adopt this cutting-edge form of mass transit.”

Last Thursday, during a two-hour-long media day, RTA officials teased the system’s next BRT project: a four-mile long bus rapid transit system up and down West 25th Street from the tip of Ohio City to the southern fringe of the Cleveland Zoo.

Twenty new bus stations would line the street, plans unveiled at RTA’s headquarters showed, including weather-tight shelter enclosures with real-time schedule information on LCD screens. Twelve-foot-wide bus lanes would span the stretch in both directions.

Since fundraising began late last year, RTA’s marked about $51 million for its third BRT project—one, like the BRT on Euclid, to be at least partially subsidized by the street’s main employer, MetroHealth.

Local advocates in November presented data and complaints that the HealthLine has suffered since its heyday. Which brings up the question of what lessons RTA has learned from that project and how they might inform the design of the West 25th corridor.

Plans for RTA’s third bus rapid transit service, spanning four miles up and down West 25th, were first released in late 2023. Credit: RTA

Namely bikes. A conceptual plan was released last fall sparked debate among Cleveland planners, City Council, community development corporations and cycling activists as to how exactly bike riders should be accommodated—if at all, and to what extent. Some feel Ohio City’s entertainment district should be marked for cyclists; others feel that tampering with delicate on-street parking spots would draw complaints from businesses.

Those conversations will come to a head in late 2025, when RTA said they plan to wrap up the MetroHealth Line’s plans.

When asked by Scene his stance on the bike lane debate, Chief Operating Officer Floun’say Caver said that it was too early in the design phase to tell. West 25th widens by a full lane after Jay Ave; repainting anything more than two 12-foot bus lanes may be improbable.

“The area near Lorain may act different than the area near Carter, just given the road construction,” Caver said. “So we’re looking at how to make sure that most modes of transportation by pedestrians, cars and buses could work.

“It will not exactly look like a dedicated line down [the street],” he added, “because there’s not the infrastructure to do so.”

As Cleveland nears mid-decade, West 25th in general has a growing list of development gems that warrant a major street redesign—with construction for Irishtown Bend Park topping that list.

And there’s the current successes: the TREO apartment complex in the middle of Tremont and Clark-Fulton, the Intro complex across from a West Side Market nearing its own renovation, MetroHealth’s own $1 billion new medical center down the street.

As newer apartment complexes began installing more bike racks or bike lockers for residents, it will be more pertinent to provide citygoers streets for them to feel comfortable riding on. (In 2023, 133 who were hit by vehicles, a recent study showed.)

Jacob VanSickle, head of Bike Cleveland, told Scene that the MetroHealth Line having its own dedicated bike lane may be too much of an ask for a street that’s—in most parts—cramped for space already.

A dual bus/bike lane, as plans shown Thursday depict, may be enough. As long as, he said, RTA considers cement curbs or posts to keep drivers away. (Cyclists can ride legally in most bus lanes in general.)

“It definitely won’t feel like you’re on the Towpath,” VanSickle said, “or you’re on the Midway. But it’s definitely an improvement to what exists now.”