The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Metro Parks making push for U.S. Bike Route designations
Lorain County commissioners have unanimously voted their approval for a plan to rename bike routes in the area.
However, the Lorain County Metro Parks leaders say there are more steps to complete.
In the commissioners’ July 11 meeting, they voted to support the Ohio Department of Transportation’s intention to designate existing routes as part of the U.S. Bike Route system.
The routes will be identified as U.S. Bike Route 30, U.S. Bike Route 130 and U.S. Bike Route 136.
The routes will include areas of Wakeman that parallels U.S. Route 20 east to Green Road and going to the North Coast Inland Trail heading toward Kipton and Oberlin to Elyria.
U.S. Bike R30 then will leave the North Coast Inland Trail through Elyria east to North Ridgeville on U.S. 20 to Case Road, Otten Road, Avalon Drive and Stoney Ridge to Mills Road into Cuyahoga County.
Also, U.S. Bike Route 130, now known as U.S. Bike Route 30A, parallels the shoreline of Lake Erie and passes through Vermilion, Lorain, Sheffield Lake and Avon Lake.
The commissioners’ vote is only the latest in a series of resolutions supporting the designations by the communities through which the routes pass.
James Ziemnik, executive director of the Lorain County Metro Parks, said these designations are part of a national bike route system.
“Just like the federal interstate system or the federal highway system,” Ziemnik said. “These are federal designated, signed bike routes and in our very specific case here in Lorain County. We were fortunate enough we have two that were identified as ODOT to have two in our county.”
Ziemnik said the routes can’t be put on maps or be identified for tours until they receive the designation, which has led him on a long odyssey to the other municipalities seeking the sign off.
Once all of the legislation is in place, the rest of the process will be fairly simple, he said.
“These are things that are in place,” Ziemnik said. “When we get our designation, they’ll ship us out a bunch of signs, we’ll put them up and then we’ll make sure we get onto these tour groups.”
Once the signs are up and the routes have been distributed, it will be up to the communities to advertise them and use them to spur economic development, he said.
Ziemnik said he sees the routes as highways for cyclists and the cities should advertise on them as such.
“(Signs like) a quarter mile to get a bite to eat,” he said as an examples. “If you’re tired, go another mile this direction and you give them arrows, just like you were on the highway.
“I think we’re sitting on this goldmine of drawing people in and we have a great opportunity to capture these people.”
What still needs to be done
Ziemnik said the cities of Oberlin and Elyria still need to approve legislation.
“A lot of city councils are on recess right now,” he said.
Oberlin is supposed to vote by Sept. 1; Elyria will have voted by Labor Day, Ziemnik said.
Turning up the heat
Once the legislation is passed, Ziemnik said he would like the community and elected officials to start putting pressure on ODOT to get the signs put in place.
He said his office has been hard at work on the designations for about three years and every time they believe the project is ready to move forward, ODOT has found something else that needs to be done or there has been miscommunication.
“I really want to see this happen on behalf of the county,” he said.