In an attempt to improve the safety conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists on Franklin Boulevard in Ohio City, the City of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency have joined forces to lead the Franklin Boulevard traffic calming study.
Franklin Boulevard is home to residents, schools, institutions and a multitude of businesses alongside the neighborhoods of Ohio City and the Detroit-Shoreway, and it’s also an area prone to excessive crashing, boasting more than 160 accidents in recent years and at least three deaths.
Beginning Tuesday, July 24, the City of Cleveland will conduct a three-week demonstration of traffic diverters, particularly suited to encourage pass through traffic to use more appropriate arterial roads such as Detroit Ave. (which is under construction), Lorain Ave. and the Shoreway.
Diverters will be installed for eastbound traffic at the intersections of Franklin and West 85th Street and Franklin and W. 65th Street, and for westbound traffic at Franklin and West 54th Street through August 10.
After the three-week installation, the project team will measure the impacts to traffic speed and traffic volume to determine the effectiveness of the diverters and analyze the potential changes in traffic patterns on adjacent streets.
The project team is actively encouraging public engagement during and after the temporary demonstration, as it will be an integral part of the final recommendations for the study. Citizens can participate and provide feedback by doing the following:
- Attend on-site Q&A sessions at the corner of Franklin and West 65th Street on Saturday, July 28, from 2-4 p.m or Tuesday, July 31, from 4-6 p.m.
- Call 216-816-1512 and leave a voicemail with your comments.
- Take a survey, available online and on paper (at Detroit Shoreway CDO’s office at 6516 Detroit Ave.) beginning August 6.
This article appears in Jul 18-24, 2018.
NIMBY
Detroit, Madison and the Shoreway are all under construction, and now Franklin has roadblocks??? Why should taxpayers commutes be under siege? Cleveland has already used a lot of taxes to build bike routes that aren’t even used that much and are worthless in the winter. I now have to tack on more commute time to zigzag and congest residential streets where children play. This group of bike riders have plenty of parks to ride safely on. Cars do not drive on the sidewalk so residents can use the sidewalks, that’s what they are there for, This is just not right. Why would this be done when traffic arteries are already a mess under construction? Not a brilliant idea.
Recommendation for post-study changes to Franklin: rather than confuse drivers with a bunch of no-turn signs hidden behind the branches on the wonderful tree-lined street that is Franklin, I would recommend that the lights be re-programmed so that they are not in sequence. If that doesn’t prove effective in dropping vehicle speeds, a 30-mph speed limit could be imposed. Agreed with user taxpayer that the project’s timing was very poor, what with Detroit, the Shoreway, and Clark all under simultaneous construction. The study should also include an analysis of the effect upon adjacent streets like Bridge, to which much of the usual traffic is being diverted during this three-week study.