Cleveland Transportation Academy

Apply for the third cohort of the Cleveland Transportation Academy!

The Cleveland Transportation Academy is an educational course & campaign planning workshop designed to teach biking & walking advocates why our streets look the way they do and how to advocate to make them better.

As part of this program, you will work in small groups to design your own campaign around a specific safe-streets project. You may apply with neighbors, friends, or colleagues as a team with a campaign in mind. You also may apply without a team or campaign and find one once the course begins. 

Phase 1: The Academy

From October 13th-November 10th, weekly Tuesday night classes from 6pm-8pm will dig into the basics of safe street design, how street projects come to be, and the tools we have to advocate for them to be better.

Phase 2: Project Planning Summit

Following the 4-week intensive training, students will participate in a Project Planning Summit on Sunday, November 15th from 10am-5pm to craft your campaigns and create a presentation. 

Phase 3: Project Presentations 

The final class will be Tuesday, November 17th where students will present their final project presentations. 

Selected applicants will receive a $500 stipend for their full completion of the course, including attending all sessions and completing all assignments. In addition, the final project presentations will come with the potential to earn a $1,500 grant to implement your project. A panel of local advocacy experts will attend the final project presentations and award the grant funds at the close of the course.

Check out the full schedule below.

Applicants must be able to attend all of the course sessions and the campaign planning workshop.

Project examples:

• Add traffic calming to a major intersection to make it safer
• Add a new crosswalk to connect to a park, school, library, etc.
• Improve bike and pedestrian connectivity to a neighborhood destination
• Support an existing city street project (see a list for Cleveland here)
• Advocate for a policy that improves biking, walking, and safe streets

Good projects:

• Are small in scale, feasible, and could be complete in a 1-year period
• Would have an impact on safety, mobility, connectivity, and/or accessibility

All sessions will take place at Bike Cleveland’s offices at 1900 Superior Avenue. Tuesday sessions will run from 6pm-8pm and the Project Planning Summit will take place from 10am-5pm. Meals will be provided at all sessions.

This is a competitive application process! Incomplete applications will not be considered. 

Applications close: Sunday, August 30th at 11:59pm

Students notified by Friday, September 3rd