AKRON, Ohio -- To create a “clean and welcoming space,” all Akron METRO RTA properties will become tobacco-free on Jan. 1, 2020, the public transportation agency announced this week.

METRO properties include the Robert K. Pfaff Transit Center in downtown Akron, Rolling Acres Transit Center on Romig Road, the Independence Turnaround, METRO offices on Kenmore Boulevard, park-and-ride lots and facility parking lots. A METRO news release does not say whether the tobacco ban would apply to bus stops.

The Independence Turnaround closed Sunday for about one year for construction of a new facility. Buses serving the area will lay over in the Chapel Hill Mall parking lot near JCPenney, according to METRO.

All forms of tobacco will be banned from the properties, including cigarettes, cigars, pipes, water pipes (hookah), bidis, kreteks, electronic cigarettes (vaping), smokeless tobacco, snuff, chewing tobacco and any non-FDA approved nicotine delivery device, METRO said.

The change was announced about a month after an Ohio law went into effect raising the age to buy tobacco and vaping products from 18 to 21.

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