The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
CYCLISTS HIT STREETS OF SANDSTONE CITY
Bike advocates explore routes, traffic in Yay Bikes!
The sandstone capital of the world was the scene of a bike trip to discover the city via two wheels and pedal power.
On June 4, Amherst became the third Lorain County community in two years to host Yay Bikes!
The Columbus-based advocacy group guides bike tours around Ohio cities for local officials to learn more about streets, recreation, business and life on bicycles.
Yay Bikes! executive director Catherine Girves led the trip.
Her co-rider was Nelson Shogren, a Columbia Station native, who retired from Sprint and now is chairman of Richland Moves!, a bicycle advocacy group in the city of Mansfield and Richland County.
The riders included Kim Haney, medical health technology instructor at Marion L. Steele High School, and Katherine Bray, health education specialist for Lorain County Public Health.
Amherst police started a
bike patrol in 1999, so the ride included Sgt. Jacob Perez and Patrolman Jason Nahm.
On the road
The group started at Maude Neiding Park and headed west on Park Avenue into downtown Amherst.
From there, the traffic got busier as the group wound through the neighborhoods of Lincoln Avenue, to Main Street, onto Cooper Foster Park Road.
The group route included a stretch on Leavitt Road, complete with the shopping areas north of the interchange with state Route 2.
“I’m like, why are we here? Can we go a little faster? Can we go a little faster so we can get through with this?” Haney asked.
Trying to keep the group compact in size, Girves said she led a moderate tempo on the roadway, one of the main routes connecting Lorain, Amherst and Oberlin.
“I’m like, oh, my gosh, she’s so gutsy,” Haney said about Girves.
“But I survived,” Haney said with a laugh. “I survived and it was wonderful.”
From Leavitt Road, the peloton returned to Maude Neiding Park.
Quality of life
The ability to negotiate traffic is impressive and so is the economic effect that cycling can have in a community, Haney said.
Communities have seen increases in sales taxes for
small businesses along bike routes, Girves said.
Cyclists tend to spend less money per trip than drivers, but make more trips to businesses, she said.
Compared to cars, bicycles also are easier to park in small spaces, so one space can fit four bikes with four riders, instead of one car with a driver and passenger, Girves said.
Shogren noted the practical economic effect of riding: “Cyclists are always thirst and hungry,” which can lead to purchases at local merchants.
The quality of life is part of the plan to add cycling to a new effort to help Amherst residents and families get around the city, Haney said.
Working with Lorain County Public Health, Haney and her students have formed Move Amherst, an effort to improve the walkability of the community.
Health staff and the students have devised a fivemile move route, or walking route, around the city, Haney said.
They want to create a map of the route. S
Social studies students researched Amherst’s historic sites and the medical tech students made videos about them.
The map or sites could have scannable codes for smart phones so walkers could watch videos to learn about the area they are strolling in, Haney said.
Cycling cities
The ride was the third for Yay Bikes! in two years in a Lorain County community.
The group was in Elyria last year and in Lorain earlier
this year.
Amherst has “fairly dramatically different road surface” than Lorain, Girves said.
“Just having the budget to maintain roads,” she said. “Amherst clearly is a community that has a bigger budget to care for road surface.”
Yet, Lorain has bike lanes along Leavitt Road, leading to the Lighthouse Village shopping center, which can help shoppers and people seeking jobs, Girves said.
“Both communities, there seems to be a high interest in, how do we meet the changing requests of our community to accommodate this way in which people are either choosing to or needing to travel to get from their home to the places they need to go,” Girves said.
Amherst “looks like a very, very nice, kind of hometown community,” said Shogren, who also was in the Elyria ride last year.
He described it as his first “official” visit to Amherst, although he has made trips along the Lake Erie shore from Sandusky to Ashtabula.
“This Oberlin-Elyria-Amherst triangle is just wonderful,” Shogren said.
The communities have residents who care about their local heritage and architecture, the visiting riders said.
“People have paid attention to architecture and saved some historic architecture and then accented that,” Girves said. “From the seat of a bike, all three of those communities are really interesting to ride through. There are things to see. People are friendly.”