City Council Hears Mobility Concerns
Mobility issues stood out at Cleveland City Council’s meeting Monday night. Three individuals spoke to different transportation issues facing Clevelanders:
Jenna Thomas, Bike Cleveland’s Advocacy and Policy Manager, spoke in support of an updated Complete & Green Streets ordinance that would transform the way that the city designs streets. During her public comment, Jenna stated, “ A Complete & Green Streets ordinance would address the livability and environmental needs of our community by creating a transportation system for all of us, including walkers, transit riders, wheelchair users, and bike riders alike. The ordinance should establish best practices for street design, it should outline resources that the city should consult when redesigning a street, and require that the street prioritize vulnerable road users first.”
Angelo Trivisonno, who spoke as a Cleveland resident, Bike Cleveland member, and frequent bike rider, called out the economic costs of traffic crashes and the importance of the Vision Zero initiative. “Last year, this city’s traffic crashes inflicted over $2 billion in preventable wealth loss on Cleveland’s families and visitors,” Trivisonno said in his statement.
Joe Schwarten with Clevelanders for Public Transit discussed the decriminalization of fare evasion, one component of their campaign to “End the Transit Death Spiral.” As it stands, a transit rider who does not pay their $2.50 fare could face up to 30 days in jail and fines up to $250.
Read Jenna’s full statement below:
Thank you Council President Griffin and members of council for giving me this opportunity to draw your attention to the need for a Complete & Green Streets ordinance updated in the City of Cleveland. A Complete & Green Streets ordinance would address the livability and environmental needs of our community by creating a transportation system for all of us, including walkers, transit riders, wheelchair users, and bike riders alike. The ordinance should establish best practices for street design, it should outline resources that the city should consult when redesigning a street, and require that the street prioritize vulnerable road users first.
The ordinance is also critical in the Vision Zero initiative that council and the administration are working on to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries.
In 2011, Council took first steps in passing an initial Complete & Green Streets Ordinance, but unfortunately, this legislation is essentially unenforceable and it lacks many key pieces such as the creation of an oversight committee, a public hearing requirement for exempted projects, and mandated metrics that must be reported on annually.
We’ve been working with Councilman Kerry McCormack for almost three years to update this ordinance and we are hoping that the new legislation will eliminate the loopholes that exist that have created numerous missed opportunities for transformative street design.
In the packets that I emailed to you, it outlines many of those missed opportunities and you’ll see when looking at those packets that Clevelanders have time and time again been deprived of safe, green, functional, and frankly more beautiful streets.
Your constituents need safer and more inclusive streets. In some neighborhoods of Cleveland, as many as 60% of residents do not have access to a vehicle. Across the whole city, a quarter of residents do not have access to a vehicle. So we know that our neighbors are often relying on their feet and their bikes to get them from place to place. You have the power to improve the health of Clevelanders, to foster economic growth, and offer safer options for the most affordable modes of transportation.
If you choose to support this ordinance, you’ll be joining organizations like the American Heart Association, ADA Cleveland, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, many of our neighborhood CDCs, and others. We were also thrilled to see the ordinance prioritized in Mayor Bibb’s transition plan, and we would love to see a united front between the administration and council in support of this ordinance. If you do not choose to support this ordinance, I think it is likely that you will have to answer to your constituents as to why council is once again settling for sub-par, unsafe, unattractive, inaccessible, and generally less functional streets when we all know that Cleveland can do so much better.
Stay tuned for ways to make your support heard through our Advocacy Center! We will be calling on our community to email and call Cleveland councilpeople and Mayor Bibb to show the need for Complete & Green streets.
If you don’t already receive action alerts, sign up here: https://www.bikecleveland.org/advocacycenter/