LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- This city of 52,000 on the western edge of Cleveland has seen an uptick in bicycle riding since 2012, when the local government decided to make the city more conducive to cycling.

At least that's what bicycle riders say.

"From the time I moved here (12 years ago) to now, I've seen a triple-digit increase in bikes on the road," said Ryan Sheldon, owner of Beat Cycles on Detroit Avenue.

Few statistics exist to track the number of riders peddling their way through Lakewood on any given day, but prominent members of Lakewood's cycling community say they've seen more cyclists than usual as the temperature has risen this spring.

With the summer approaching, we took a look at Lakewood's efforts to make the city more bicycle-friendly, interviewing city officials and people who live and ride in Lakewood.

City-led efforts began in 2012 when Lakewood implemented a cycling master plan intended to encourage more residents to take their bikes to the streets.

The city installed 16 bicycle signs in high-traffic areas, paved bike lanes along a mile and a half of Franklin Boulevard and plans to pave bike lanes on Madison Avenue this summer, city spokesman Colin McEwen said. A multi-purpose path through Lakewood is also planned for 2017, he said.

City officials also re-wrote Lakewood's parking code to require space for bicycles in commercial districts and helped businesses acquire affordable bike racks. More than 50 businesses now have bike racks, McEwen said.

So-called "sharrows" -- two arrows with a silhouette of a bicycle painted on the street to make it clear to motorists that roads are also for cyclists -- were added along two and a half miles of Detroit Avenue.

Detroit Avenue doesn't have enough space to put full bike lanes, Lakewood city planner Bryce Sylvester said.

Several repair stations were installed throughout the city featuring simple tools for riders to fix minor problems.

However several cyclists interviewed for this article said they rarely use them, if at all, because they have their own tools.

"They seem to kind of sit there and languish," said Mitch Gabel, who lives on the far west side of Cleveland but rides his bike to his job in Lakewood.

"The bike lanes are the biggest thing that helps people get out and ride," he said.

Rob Thompson of Bike Cleveland -- who has lived in Lakewood for 13 years -- said the bike lanes on Franklin are a "good first step."

"A lot of people have been using that corridor," he said. "I know I ride that myself quite a lot, especially when Madison (Avenue) was still unpaved. It was nice having my own space."

The city's efforts appear to have paid off. The League of American Bicyclists named Lakewood a bronze-level, bicycle-friendly community in 2013.

Cities must apply for such a status from the national organization, and only around 40 percent of applicants receive any kind of designation, program director Bill Nesper said.

"Lakewood has room to grow," he said, but acknowledged the city has made great progress.

The Gay Games selected Lakewood as the location for its criterium bicycle race in 2014.

"There's no city that's going the opposite way" by trying to encourage fewer riders, said Ryan Sheldon, owner of Beat Cycles on Detroit Avenue.

Crash statistics make it difficult to determine whether or not the city's efforts have made Lakewood a safer place for cyclists. Accidents involving bicycle riders were exceedingly rare -- with an average of less than one per month -- even before the city adopted its master plan.

In 2011, for example, the city only saw 13 crashes involving bicycles, 11 of which resulted in injuries, said Lakewood Police Capt. Ed Hassing, citing figures from the Ohio Department of Public Safety. Of the nine crashes involving bicycles in 2012, six resulted in injuries.

Both 2013 and 2014 had similar numbers, with 10 crashes involving bicycles in 2013 and 11 in 2014. Figures for 2015 were not available.

Lakewood cycling

The League of American Bicyclists considered a number of factors before deciding to name Lakewood a bronze-level, bicycle-friendly community. Did the city create safe spaces to park? Did Lakewood make it convenient for riders of all ages? Has the city fostered a bicycle-friendly culture? And has Lakewood created safe roads to make cycling a viable alternative to other forms of transportation?

The city had to show progress in all of those areas to achieve bronze-level status, Nesper said.

"On paper, it's a very pedestrian and cycling-friendly town," Gabel said. "It takes less time to bike four blocks than it does to drive four blocks. And parking is a nightmare."

Lakewood is a compact and densely populated city, with roughly 52,000 people squeezed into less than 7 square miles (With more than 9,000 people per square mile, it is more densely populated than Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus).

That closeness and a grid formed by Lakewood's roads make it ideal for bike riding, former City Councilman Shawn Juris told Cleveland.com in 2014.

City officials conducted a study in 2010 and found that many residents were riding their bikes as their primary means of transportation, McEwen said. Those findings, he said, helped give birth to the master plan.

Bike racks

The 2010 study found that cycling is popular -- cycling is common with all age groups and most residents ride their bikes between one and four times per week, the study found -- but Lakewood lacks consistent bike parking.

A key component of the master plan spawned by the survey was making it easier for cyclists to find a place to stash their bikes when they ride to a restaurant or bar.

Five years ago, The Root Cafe became the first business in the city to replace a parking space with a rack for riders to hitch their bikes. The rack came in the form of several yellow poles bent into half-circles.

"A lot of people didn't know what it was at first, but people caught on very quickly," Thompson said.

The rack is full of bikes when the temperature is conducive to cycling, especially during the cafe's busiest hours. Before it was built, employees said, riders would chain their bicycles to trees lining the street.

Other businesses have since followed suit. The nearby Melt Bar and Grilled has a bike rack, as does the Buckeye Beer Engine on Madison Avenue.

More than 50 bike racks have been installed throughout the city, McEwen said.

"Everyone on our block has one," Sheldon said of the businesses near Beat Cycles. The shop is on the 15600 block of Detroit Avenue in the heart of downtown.

Riders say they appreciate the racks, which they said makes it less of a hassle to ride to a faraway restaurant or bar in lieu of walking, or driving and spending 10 minutes finding a parking space.

Sharrows

The bicycle arrows placed at regular intervals along Detroit Avenue make it clear that Lakewood's busiest road is for riders as well as drivers.

"There's still a lot of people out there who still don't realize that bikes are legal road vehicles and they're allowed to ride in the lane," Thompson said.

He said he still prefers dedicated lanes for bikes.

"Ideally, for city riding, people feel safer and more comfortable knowing there in a lane designated for them," Sheldon said. "I ride to work along Franklin and I definitely don't feel like cars drive as close to me as they once did."

The sharrows were born out of not knowing what else to do, he said.

"Ideally they'd have bike lanes on every east west road in Lakewood," Sheldon said.