Tag: planning

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Development News Transportation

Cincinnati becomes first Ohio city to install green bike lanes

Construction workers installed bright green bike lanes at three conflict points along Ludlow Avenue yesterday. The new green bike lanes are a first for Cincinnati as it continues to work towards making city streets safer for area bicyclists.

According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), experimentations with specially colored bike lanes first took place in the mid-1990s. Then, between 1997 and 1999, the City of Portland worked with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to mark 10 conflict areas with blue coloring and accompanying signage. Since that time, the FHWA has determined that green is a more appropriate color for bike lanes on public streets, so as not to be confused with accessibility parking.


The City of Cincinnati used NACTO’s standard design for a truncated bike lane through an intersection as the basis for its green bike lanes on Ludlow Avenue. The installation makes Cincinnati the first Ohio city with green bike lanes.

Green bike lanes have begun to appear in cities throughout North America in recent years to not only mark areas of conflict, but also delineate entire bike corridors. In the Midwest, Chicago has led the charge using green bike lanes for entire cycle track corridors, bike boxes at traffic signals, and at special conflict points.

According to city officials, Cincinnati’s first application of green bike lanes will mark Ludlow Avenue where it intersects with Old Ludlow Avenue, Central Parkway and a driveway entrance to Cincinnati State (map). City planners also say that there will be additional green bike lanes to come.

“We are considering using green markings where the Gilbert Avenue bike lane will intersect with the right-turn lane into the casino,” explained Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE) planner, Melissa McVay.

McVay went on to say that City is using NACTO’s design guidelines and specifications for these projects, and that going forward, green bike lanes will be considered at all high conflict areas where motorists must cross a bicycle path.

The idea behind the green markings is to improve the visibility of bicyclists, and in the process, improving safety.

“In this [Ludlow Avenue] case the green lanes help negotiate cars desiring a right hand turn through a bike lane that continues straight ahead,” said Frank Henson, President, Queen City Bike. “By giving the bicycle lanes a different color, motorists realize that, in making their turn, they are crossing into another travel lane reserved for cyclists, and that they must yield to bicycle traffic in order to complete the turn.”

The City of Cincinnati Bicycle Transportation Program has installed 35.8 miles of bicycle facilities to-date, with an additional 289.9 miles planned in a citywide bicycle network.

And when asked about what could be done to continue to improve safety for Cincinnati-area bicyclists, Henson concluded that, “The best thing the City of Cincinnati can do to improve safety for street cycling is to continue to carry out the Cincinnati Bike Plan, improving the network of bike routes, lanes, trails, and paths in the area. Better education and enforcement of traffic law for both cyclists and motor vehicle operators is also necessary.”

We sat down with Melissa McVay on Episode 8 of The UrbanCincy Podcast to discuss Cincinnati’s bike culture – where we stand, how we got here, and what needs to take place next. You can stream that podcast online for free, or subscribe to The UrbanCincy Podcast on iTunes so that you don’t miss an episode.

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Development News

$450,000 donation from Duke Energy to advance construction at Smale Riverfront Park

Thanks to a $450,000 donation from Duke Energy, the Cincinnati Park Board will be able to move forward more quickly with the development of what was previously called the Main Street Garden at the Smale Riverfront Park.

The area is located immediately south of Great American Ball Park, and is now called the Duke Energy Garden. The narrow piece of park space is expected to be completed by spring 2013, and will connect the Smale Riverfront Park with additional riverfront parkland to the east (Sawyer Point, Bicentennial Commons, Theordore M. Berry International Friendship Park).


The Duke Energy Garden will include 12 “family-sized” porch swings, walking paths, and will help connect the Smale Riverfront Park with additional riverfront parks to the east. Rendering provided.

According to Cincinnati Park Board officials, this connection will be further established with the completion of the Ohio River Trail to Paddlewheel Park in fall 2013.

“The Cincinnati riverfront is more than just an entryway into our community,” Julie Janson, President of Duke Energy Ohio/Kentucky, stated at a Monday morning press conference. “It serves as the front porch to Ohio. That’s why Duke Energy, through our foundation, is happy to be able to support the creation of the Duke Energy Garden in the new Smale Riverfront Park.”

According to park officials, the Duke Energy Garden will include 87 trees, thousands of smaller plantings, walking paths, a 150-foot granite seat wall, and 12 “family-sized” porch swings.

The porch swings will be suspended from “undulating” pergolas that will also offer park-users a bit of shade and protection from the elements while enjoying the swings, which have long been anticipated at the park due to their popularity elsewhere throughout the country.


Three additional phases of work are planned to follow the completion of the Duke Energy Garden at Smale Riverfront Park. Image provided.

“Duke Energy’s commitment to the vitality of this region has been demonstrated again and again by the company’s substantial investments in economic development, education, environmental and energy efficiency efforts throughout the region,” said Willie F. Carden, Jr., Director of Cincinnati Parks. “The establishment of the Duke Energy Garden in Smale Riverfront Park is another such gift that will provide a stunning new public greenspace in Greater Cincinnati’s grand new front yard.”

The majority of phase one work at the Smale Riverfront Park was completed in May 2012, but several features of phase one have yet to be funded or built, in addition to future phases of park construction to the west. Some of those features include a transient boat dock, playgrounds, additional gardens and tree groves, a carousel, and more promenades and fountains connecting the central riverfront park with the Ohio River.

Three additional phases of construction work will take place following the completion of the Duke Energy Garden, and it is expected that once fully built out that Smale Riverfront Park will attract approximately 1.1 million visitors annually.

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Up To Speed

What happens when urban farms get too big?

What happens when urban farms get too big?.

Urban farms are all the rage nowadays. Cities across North America have been incorporating them into the cityscape to fill the void left behind by shuttered industry, or abandoned housing. While the benefits seem to have been fully vetted, is there a risk to allowing urban farms to grow too large? More from Grist:

More than a few environmentalists have argued that urban farms must remain small or risk suburbanizing the city. One of the most prominent is Kaid Benfield, a smart-growth guru with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Benfield worries that urban farming, if practiced on a large scale, will dilute the walkability and density that defines cities.

“I support the growing of food in cities, and have even done it myself,” Benfield cautions. But it should be done in ways that support urbanism and not displace it…I’m not sure we’re talking about a city any more if we’re going to have fields of 20 acres and more.” By seeding large farms in the city, he says, “we risk locking in long-term environmental problems in terms of not having a healthy urban core. Central cities are starting to revive.”

One problem is that most of the best para-urban land (or land just outside cities) — which was once seen as ideal for growing food without huge transportation costs — has already been swallowed up by suburban development.

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Up To Speed

The value proposition of large urban trees

The value proposition of large urban trees.

We all know the intrinsic value of trees. They’re beautiful, consume carbon dioxide, provide shade, and help keep us cool. But new research finds that large trees (those over 77 centimeters in diameter) provide even greater benefits to humans than do small trees (those less than 8 centimeters in diameter). More from Next American City:

When we talk about street trees and the urban forest, sometimes we miss an essential truth: Not all street trees are created equal. Mature trees are an order of magnitude more valuable to us than young, small ones.

There is no shortage of scientific evidence supporting the incredible benefits that mature trees provide to urban neighborhoods. Yet many local policies seem to focus only on the quantity of trees being planted rather than the quality…Planting a million trees is great. But planting even 500,000 in conditions that allow them to survive, thrive and mature is exponentially greater.

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Up To Speed

What does the decline of the nuclear family mean for America’s cities?

What does the decline of the nuclear family mean for America’s cities?.

What has long been considered to be the traditional family household in America is changing. People are living longer, young individuals are putting off marriage, women are increasingly becoming dominant in the workforce, and same-sex couples are taking a more prominent role in our society. These changes mean a variety of things socially, but it also means that our types of housing are and need to continue to change. More from Urbanophile:

As affluent people who choose to remain childless remain in more urban areas, and those who choose to have kids live in suburban ones, we’ll have legitimate matters of interest driving them apart politically. In a piece called “Geographies in Conflict” I noted how different economic geographies in the same physical space is an inherent conflict. Red states and blue states don’t just have different political points of views. They increasingly do different things. If you are Texas and are in the business of energy, chemicals, logistics, and manufacturing, the things that you need to be successful are very different from a Silicon Valley or Manhattan, which specialize in ultra-high end, high value service industries. The conflicts are as much a product of legitimate self-interest as political philosophy.

I think we’ll see similar conflicts between the needs, wants, and desires of the childless urban population and those of the suburban families with kids. It’s kind of nice to do your shopping daily on foot or by bicycle at the local market and such when you don’t have three kids to buy for and haul around with you. Bloomberg’s proposed micro-apartments in New York are an example of a market designed to cater to singles, not families. It’s not a matter of one being good and another bad. It’s merely that singles (or childless married couples) and people with children have very different priorities and concerns in life.