Mark Oprea
Tom Rosenberger, a consultant for WSP, an engineering firm working for NOACA, presented a transportation plan that could change how University Circle's main street looks in 2024.
"Re-Imagine Euclid Avenue," a new transportation plan backed by NOACA and the RTA, suggests that the main artery linking Midtown to Uptown is in dire need of a restructuring, from dedicated bike lanes to an extension of RTA's HealthLine further into East Cleveland.
Tim Rosenberger, a consultant for WSP, an engineering firm working with NOACA, said in a speech dissecting Euclid's ills that past plans—including 2015's Eastside Greenway and University Circle's Transportation & Mobility—have fallen short, and failed to curb pedestrian crashes that plague the western side of the corridor. (That is, where Chester, Carnegie and Cedar converge into one two-way street.)
Though Rosenberger urged the need for bike lanes, enhanced streetscape and more dedicated lanes for HealthLine buses, the sheer amount of traffic snaking into the Circle remains a primary impediment.
But a Rubik's Cube needing to be solved: 58 crashes, 46 with pedestrians and 12 with cyclists, have occurred along the corridor in the past three years, Rosenberger said. Those crashes mostly happen near Euclid and East 105th, where nearly 15,000 trips occur, on average, per day.
WSP
Fifty-eight car crashes, 46 with pedestrians and 12 with cyclists, have occurred along the corridor in the past three years, as shown by WSP's data map.
"It looks like these traffic volumes may make it impossible to do a dedicated bus lane or dedicated bike lane in this area," Rosenberger said, from a podium in the Museum of Contemporary Art lobby. "It could be very challenging to do that without worsening these traffic volume adjustments here to the point where people would really have a difficult time getting through."
WSP and NOACA's study, which could be sent to City Council as early as the fall, coincides with several other plans to bring Northeast Ohio's main transportation routes into the 21st century.
The Superior Avenue Midway, a center lane bike corridor which will connect Public Square with East 55th, will be the city's first modern cyclist corridor of its kind when its constructed—as planned—in 2025.
And Shaker Heights' $23 million Lee Road Action Plan, which was approved by council in March, will give the street its own road diet, adding a sidewalk-level, two-way cycle track, along with expanding sidewalks, seating and boosting lighting.
But would NOACA propose a connection, or some kind of link, with the Midway? When Scene posed this question, Rosenberger was a little vague. He suggested that the best option, minding the already tight street width, may be for cyclists to share a dedicated lane with the HealthLine.
That is, a road marked with sharrows, or street directions for bikes, typically the lowest on the safety totem pole.
"It's unlikely we'll have both a protected land and a bus lane," Rosenberger said.
As for eliminating pedestrian crashes and fatalities, Rosenberger said the imminent installation of seven flashing pedestrian signals along Euclid—mostly in East Cleveland—would help counter the negative effects of the road's widening after Coltman Rd.
Or, Rosenberger said, maybe traffic signals might be a bit better.
"I'm just not totally convinced about people stopping," he said, matter of factly. "I see people blow through these pedestrian signals all the time."
As for pedestrians themselves, the talk on Tuesday quickly veered to the focus of newer University Circle residents.
University One, a recent high rise luxury apartment complex close to Euclid, along with the proposed Infinium on East 117th, Circle Square off Stokes Blvd., and a redesign of the nearby branch of the Cleveland Public Library, will only beckon for the fruits of the re-imagining: to enhance University Circle's walkability. On and off its roadways.
The same goes, attendees Tuesday agreed, for the railroad bridge over Coltman, the ugly, nondescript, longstanding divider of the Circle and East Cleveland.
Or, as Rosenberger dubbed it, "our nemesis."
"Proper lighting needs to be maintained there—it definitely needs some kind of paint job," David Leff, the captain of University Circle Police Department, said in the Q&A portion of Tuesday's talk. He contrasted the structure, which carries both railroad and RTA lines, with the bridge in Little Italy. "It's a fear factor, I will tell you. People are afraid of that bridge."
The "Re-imagining" plan will, Rosenberger said, go through a review by its steering committee in September and October. A final report will be submitted to City Council by November.
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