The next highly-visible addition of bike lanes came to Kenmore Boulevard, an older neighborhood commercial district that was laid out along an old streetcar line. Four lanes went to two, with bike lanes inserted at the curb, protected by a separate parking lane of cars. At this location, the reaction has been slightly more mixed; while there are plenty of nay-sayers who find the new configuration confusing, most of the people promoting change and improvements on the Boulevard are encouraged by the new look.

“The street only handles about 6,000 cars a day,” explains Akron planning director Jason Segedy. “It can certainly manage the new configuration.”

While most of the businesses in Kenmore are happy that the Boulevard is getting more attention and understand that the changes are designed to help bring more people into the area, everyone accepts that there will be tweaking in the future.

“There are always bumps and bruises along the way,” said Tina Boyes, president of the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance. She’s already asked the city to make some adjustments, like adding bollards to keep cars out of the bike lane.

Whose Idea is This, Anyway?

The controversy over bike lanes may have come to a head in late October, when local Beacon Journal columnist Bob Dyer took “Bike Fanatics” to task. Dyer questioned whether the City’s long-term strategy of accommodating and encouraging more bike ridership was practical or even feasible.

“If you make the entirely reasonable assertion that thousands of Akron-area residents are not suddenly going to start riding bicycles

to work if the city adds dedicated bike lanes, you will be bombarded by a small but zealous group of people who believe the world should revolve around bicycles.”

Besides laying out the controversy for all to see, Dyer’s column also brought into focus the wide divide between different groups—local residents reaching out to him using phone, email or Facebook—and the Twittersphere, which tends to be younger, and in many cases, from out of town. While a strong core of bike riders exists in Akron, it’s also clear that ridership is nothing like you’ll find in many other metropolitan areas—or in Europe, which is the example often mentioned.

This is one reason why the city hosted an event at the Civic Theatre last June on ways urban cycling can connect Akron. With the help of a Knight Foundation grant and utilizing the services of consultants like Copenhagenize and 8 80 Cities, Akron is trying to improve connections throughout the city to create a safer, more integrated and more useful bike network. To that end, it has become a strong advocate for encouraging and promoting greater bicycle use.

The question may be: How much in terms of money, resources and road surface can we reasonably devote to making that happen, and making bicycle use more prevalent? What Bob Dyer’s column made clear is that the job will not be easy, especially in a town like Akron, where the hilly topography can present some challenges.

“If you asked most people where I come from, they would not say they were cyclists,” says Morten Kabell, the former Mayor of Copenhagen, who spoke to the crowd at the Civic Theatre. “They are just people trying to get to work.”

In the case of his city, bicycle use grew due to higher gas prices and his city’s leadership, who bought into the benefits of greater bike use. Another factor was the idea that it offered another way for the city’s residents to “take their streets back” from the automobile. To make it a reality, he believes the absolute focus must be on safety. Planning director Jason Segedy agrees.

“I think it is a matter of creating those separated bike lanes,” he says. “People kind of dip their toe in the water, so to speak. They try it and build some confidence.”

Separating Bikes from Cars

Today, while the effort to integrate cars and bikes on the public roadways continues to be a challenge, there’s a lot of enthusiasm for the dedicated off-road bike trails that exist throughout the area, as well as all-new trails being planned in Akron.