What does the future hold for biking in Downtown Cincinnati?

This is part of The Enquirer's Future of Downtown series.

Cincinnati is not much of a bike town. Why is that?

It is partially a topographical problem. Cincinnati is a city of hills. Hills make it hard to bike. A Clifton resident might be able to smoothly commute down Vine Street to their Downtown office, but even a juiced-up Lance Armstrong would struggle to make it back up the same road.

But it is also an infrastructure problem. Cincinnati's biking infrastructure ranked 131st out of 160 large American cities in a recent study by PeopleForBikes. (Cleveland and Columbus ranked only slightly ahead of the Queen City, at 124 and 125, respectively.) Downtown is still without a single designated bike lane. City residents rarely bike because there are few locations to do so safely.

There is no changing Cincinnati's topography. The Queen City will always be a city of hills.

Building better bike infrastructure, however, is a much more achievable task.

Here's a look at the newest plans for improving Cincinnati's bike infrastructure:

Coming soon to Cincinnati streets near you

In late July, I spoke with City Councilman Mark Jeffreys, an active member of the council's Public Safety & Governance committee and the Climate, Environment & Infrastructure committee. The councilman discussed four bike infrastructure projects coming to the Queen City:

1) The Crown, connecting Wasson Way to the Little Miami Scenic Trail. Wasson Way connects neighborhoods between Ault Park and Xavier University. Connecting the popular outer-neighborhood trail to the proposed 34 miles stretch of the Crown and the Little Miami trail would allow those outer neighborhoods residents to safely travel downtown, along the Ohio River and more.

2) Adding a bike lane on Central Parkway from Plum Street to Eggleston Avenue. As it stands, Downtown Cincinnati is without a bike lane. From Central Parkway to The Banks, pedalers have no designated place to ride. Adding a bike lane on Central Parkway would allow residents to cross Downtown east to west, opening up access to Downtown's only supermarket, Court Street's Kroger-on-the-Rhine.

3) Extending Central Parkway bike lane from Marshal Avenue to Ludlow Avenue. Extending the Central Parkway bike lane from Marshall Avenue to Ludlow Avenue would allow bikers to travel on a continuous bike path from Northside to Downtown, and everything in between.

4) Spokes to the wheel. All of the aforementioned biking infrastructure projects are part of the larger project of creating "spokes to the wheel" of the Crown. The Crown is an in-progress 34-mile pedestrian and bike path that surrounds the city. Jeffreys said these spokes would come in the form of "protective networks," allowing bikers to follow an unbroken path of designated, protected bike lanes throughout the city.

The city's main focus for cyclists right now is creating protected bike lanes.

"Overwhelmingly what we hear from the public is that they want to have physical separation from the cars," Wade Johnston, executive director of Tri-State Trails, told me.

"I don't know if anything is more important to get people on bikes than protected bike lanes," long-time Cincinnati biker Bob Schwartz added via email. "If people feel comfortable they'll get on their bikes."

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The culture problem: chickens, eggs and Red e-bikes

Maybe Cincinnati is not suffering from a topographical or an infrastructure problem. Maybe it is a cultural problem.

What good are bike lanes if people do not want to bike? And how can Councilman Jeffreys, Bob Schwartz and other Cincinnati bike supporters turn the Queen City into the biking-positive metropolis that they would like it to be?

"It's a little bit of a chicken and egg problem," Jeffreys explained. Better biking infrastructure fosters bike usage and a more robust bike culture, but without widespread support from a constituency invested in the city's bike-ability, it is hard to implement bike-supportive policies and justify their finances. Enthusiastic bikers pave the way for bike infrastructure, which in turn (literally) pave the way for increased bike usage and a community of bikers.

"It's a bunch of chickens and eggs," Red Bike executive director Doug McClintock told me, upping the ante. "It's an omelet with chicken in it."

Red Bike was introduced to Cincinnati in the fall of 2014. The now ubiquitous local bike-share non-profit is going about the problem of developing Queen City bike culture by listening to its user data.

In 2022, electric bikes (e-bikes) accounted for 70% of Red Bike's total rides, despite making up only 30% of Red Bikes' total bike arsenal. The non-profit's e-bikes are pedal assisted, meaning when riders pedal as usual, a battery-powered engine connected to the bike's back wheel boosts their speed up to 17 mph.

The data tells a clear lesson: Cincinnati bike riders would rather ride e-bikes than their traditional alternative. Red Bike has responded accordingly.

By July 2023, Red Bike had already updated its fleet to be 50% e-bikes. By 2025, the company plans to transition 100% of its traditional bikes to e-bikes.

Accessible e-bikes would greatly reduce Cincinnati bikers' topographical issues. It does not take an Armstrong to make it to Clifton Heights on an e-bike, just an able pedaler.

Red Bike has also introduced a community ambassador program to accompany its newest station expansions in Avondale, Evanston and Walnut Hills with the explicit intention of growing bike culture in those same neighborhoods.

"Bike infrastructure only succeeds when it is surrounded by social infrastructure,” McClintock explains on Red Bike's website. “... By working with the Community Ambassadors, we hope to further empower the neighborhood and usher in new bike leaders – people who grow bike riding in their neighborhoods, in their way.”

Looking for a fun bike adventure? Check out The Enquirer's trip to the Loveland Bike Trail Beer Trail

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Is it safe to bike in Downtown Cincinnati?