Superior Midway, City's Biggest Bike Lane Project, Debuts to Public for Feedback

City Hall this week unveiled a banquet room full of designs for the Superior Midway bike lane, a two-way path for cyclists along Superior Avenue, from Public Square to East 55th St.

Wednesday evening, more than a hundred people showed up to Red Space off East 24th and Superior to give feedback — jotting down concerns or sticking Post-It notes to designs—displayed on long foldout tables— with thoughts.

The Midway, the city’s largest urban bike infrastructure project in its history, will cost roughly $24.5 million, about the cost of the same length of highway, when it wraps up construction near the end of 2025. With the scale and price tag, everyone wants to make sure it is built in its most ideal form.

“That’s what tonight is about,” Calley Mersmann, senior strategist for the city’s Transit & Mobility department, told Scene. “Every step of the way, as we get toward construction, we’re going to be getting more and more specific about what is locked in for the project and what is still open for input.

“We have the general content,” she added, “but there are a lot of details that we still need help understanding .”

Laid out along those foldout tables, the design presented Wednesday evening was as detailed as it was long. The revised street would cut down Superior’s six lanes down to four, leaving one each for buses and cars, going both ways. About a 25-foot wide midsection comprised of bike path and a tree scape would, the idea goes, eliminate a third of Superior’s hardscape. And give it to pedestrians and cyclists.

Attendees were excited about the possibilities and more than willing to scribble both praise and criticisms for Mersmann and her team to review. “Cycling on this bridge feels really unsafe,” one wrote, regarding the I-90 overpass. “Need physical separation here.” “This will encourage young people to move to our neighborhood and walk to businesses,” another one commented.

A good majority of worry came from Superior business owners, who were either anxious about removing easy access to parking for clientele or speedy entrances for their shipping and receiving. The concerns echoed the controversy in February, when Ohio Rep. Tom Patton proposed an amendment that would’ve effectively killed the Midway. (Patton sympathized with the trucker crowd.) It failed.

Businesses remained cautious about how the project will affect them. “Need break in center so that trucks can [turn] left while traveling east on Superior,” one wrote. “Concerns over on-street parking,” an owner of the Diamond Cut Barbershop off 51 St. wrote. “Could we install parking spaces in tree lawn?”

Mike Pelechaty, the owner of Masthead Brewing Co. off East 12 St., saw the Midway as a potential draw for Masthead fans roaming Downtown, but was apprehensive about the construction phase.

The HealthLine, built a decade ago, came to mind. “When Euclid was torn up, I mean, some of those business didn’t make it,” Pelechaty told Scene. “I do think there’s having a cognizant plan and making sure the street’s not torn up for too long. I think it’s really important making sure there’s still access, in spite of the parts I do like.”

But after it’s done? “It’d be nice to see all those trees,” he said.

Allusions to the HealthLine, which upped Euclid Ave.’s rent averages while supposedly injecting $9.5 billion into the area, were on Loh’s mind, as well. Safely entering and exiting a middle of the road pathway, for her, was a clear hazard for families biking with small children.

Attendees had the chance to write comments on Post It notes, or, in come cases, talk directly to the city’s Mobility Team. Credit: Mark Oprea

“Whoever designed that Health Line to have all the platform in the center. That person or those people. That person definitely is an orphan. And those people are definitely orphans,” Loh, a political advocate based in Asiatown, said. “Yeah, it’s totally unsafe. People will not care about ordinary people’s conveniences.”

The thoughts gathered at Wednesday’s event, one of several town halls planned for Midway revision process, will be used by the city’s Mobility Team to fuel an updated design sometime next spring.

This relatively new team—Mersmann, project manager Dave Bass, Complete & Green Streets manager Phil Kidd and city engineer Ron Mason—will also be heading to “about 50” businesses for one-on-one interviews, for more focused feedback on how to get Midway right.

If the Midway goes as planned, Clevelanders will be able to bike and walk those 55 blocks near the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026, about a year after construction starts that spring. Its build will complement similar bike lanes built along Huron Road, Lorain Avenue and Ontario St., along with any other additions that come from the city’s new Mobility Plan.

But, one might ask, will bike paths make for happier Clevelanders?

“I mean, we’re the mobility team, so we’re all going to say yes,” Mersmann said. “We all choose those ways of moving around whenever we can because it is a happier way of life,.

“But also recognize that that’s not necessarily the way of life here entirely right now,” Bass added. “And that change is difficult.”

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