City officials cut a ceremonial ribbon marking the official opening of the Hilliard Boulevard bike lanes Sunday. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Hilliard bike lanes officially open
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published April 4, 2007

With the warmer weather upon us, many people will be out on their bikes. And Westlake residents have a new route to ride them on.

The bike lanes on Hilliard Boulevard between the Rocky River border and Dover Center Road were officially opened by city officials at a ribbon cutting ceremony Sunday afternoon.

“Actually this bike lane has been in the works for a number of years,” Clough said.

“We laid out a plan a few years ago but we’ve really never gotten to implement it until this past year,” the mayor added just before the ribbon cutting.

Then several city officials, including Development Director Bob Parry and Ward 1 Councilman Ed Hack, led a small group of citizen cyclists down a short stretch of the path at Clague Park. Several Westlake Police officers, led by Lt. Ray Arcuri, also participated in the ride using the department’s police bicycles.

Pat Wearsch, followed by her husband, Pat, ride on the Hilliard Boulevard bike lanes Sunday. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

City Council members and Clough administration officials were initially divided on the question of whether bike lanes in roads were safe. Police Chief Richard Walling expressed concerns against putting a bike lane in the roadway and instead advocated widening the sidewalks along Hilliard for a bike lane.

The lanes were painted in the fall, and road signs indicating the bike lanes were also posted. But city officials chose to hold off a formal inauguration of the bike lanes until Sunday. The reason was safety. Motorists needed time to get accustomed to sharing Hilliard with cyclists, and the lane markings and signs prepared them for the official opening of the lanes.

On Sunday, Walling, who participated in the ribbon cutting, told West Life many of his safety concerns have been alleviated.

Walling said he plans to recommend council’s safety committee consider a new ordinance governing bike lanes. Such ordinances would define a bicycle lane as exclusively for bicycles and say that cyclists in a bike lane are subject to all applicable traffic laws. A new law would also prohibit parking a bike in a bike lane except for an emergency, the police chief said.

“No person can make a left turn from a bicycle lane at an intersection; you’ll have to basically go out into the left turn lane as a car would,” Walling said in regard to another section of the possible ordinance. “We don’t want people making left turns from bicycle lanes going across four lanes of traffic.”

What about mopeds?

“A moped can use the bike lane as long as it’s being operated by pedal power and not motor power,” Walling said of the planned law.

Walling said state law already covers many bike lane regulations.

Bicycle riders along Hilliard are not obliged to use the bike lane, Walling said. They can still use the sidewalk.

“There’s nothing that says they have to use the bicycle lane,” Walling said. “They can use the (road) lane just like any other motor vehicle does. But we’re to try to have them stay in the bike lane because we think it’s safer the closer you are to the curb.”

Clough said the opening of the Hilliard bike lane was just the first phase of adding bike lanes throughout Westlake.

The Westlake portion of the Crocker-Stearns extension (from Center Ridge Road south) will also have a bike lane, Clough said, adding that he hopes the North Olmsted section will add one, too.

Parry, an avid cyclist who had argued last year that bike lanes were safe, brought his 21-speed bike, which he rode in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France and Italy.

“People need to get out more and bike and exercise, and bike to work and bike for exercise,” said Parry, who was credited by the mayor with first suggesting the addition of bike lanes in the city. “It’s healthy. It’s a really healthy form of exercise.”

Parry said in addition to the bike path on the new section of Crocker Road, long-term plans include bike lanes for the rest of Hilliard Boulevard and perhaps even Detroit Road.