City staff outline draft "Cleveland Moves" mobility plan, set rapid-build goals and urge council support for implementation funds

City of Cleveland staff on Feb. 5 presented the draft Cleveland Moves five-year multimodal transportation plan to the Transportation & Mobility Committee and asked council members to support a rapid-build implementation approach, including quick-build protected bike lanes, neighborhood greenways, signal timing changes and speed tables.

Kelly Merzman, senior strategist for transit and mobility in the mayor’s office, introduced the presentation and said the draft plan is in public review and the city is seeking council and neighborhood feedback before finalizing recommendations for adoption by the City Planning Commission this spring. Sarah Davis, the city’s active transportation senior planner, summarized engagement, data and proposed interventions. Adam Davenport, manager of neighborhood planning, described coordination with capital projects and neighborhood planners.

Staff presented data showing 75 traffic fatalities in Cleveland in 2024 and said fatalities and serious injuries have increased since the city adopted a Vision 0 (Vision Zero) goal in 2022. The plan would prioritize "high-comfort" all-ages-and-abilities bike facilities (separated bike lanes, neighborhood greenways and shared-use paths), pedestrian safety upgrades (daylighting, curb extensions, high-visibility crosswalks and refuge islands), signal-timing changes such as leading pedestrian intervals and shorter cycles, and systemic changes to prioritize safety on high-crash corridors first. The draft network published for comment would extend the high-comfort bikeway network from roughly 60 miles (currently concentrated in off-street trails) toward a proposed 250-mile network over time, with an aspirational target that every Cleveland household be within a five-minute walk of a high-comfort facility.

Staff emphasized quick-build approaches — changing striping, adding posts and curb-tightening treatments that can be installed faster and cheaper than full capital reconstruction — and said rapid implementation in 2025–2027 could produce visible safety gains. The city plans to upgrade existing wide bike lanes, install its first parking-protected bike lane on Payne Avenue this summer, and change signal timing on multiple corridors. Staff said neighborhood greenways would use signage and speed tables; they described an in-house speed-table program that deployed roughly 100 speed tables in a recent cycle and estimated in-house average costs at about $3,500 per table versus about $8,000 per table under an external concrete contract. Staff also said they are coordinating with police on enforcement and plan to hire a Vision 0 coordinator; the city’s traffic engineer position remains open.

Advocates from Bike Cleveland praised the plan and urged rapid implementation, and multiple council members said they support quick-build measures, want staff to prioritize community-identified locations, and asked staff to work with council on using discretionary funds to accelerate work in neighborhoods. Council members asked staff about data sources, equity of engagement (staff said in-person outreach better reflected city demographics than online responses), where projects would be built first, how resurfacing work interacts with speed-table siting, and where to direct constituent requests for traffic calming. Staff offered to be the intake point for council and to follow up with ward-specific data, lists of high-crash intersections and cost estimates.

There were no committee votes in the Cleveland Moves presentation segment; the session was informational and staff said they will continue public engagement for about a week after the meeting, finalize recommendations for spring adoption and begin implementation planning and design work.