Mary Dunbar

Cleveland Heights City Council Member

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Bicycle Safety Added to PE Curriculum This Year

This year, the Cleveland Heights University Heights District Schools are adding bicycle safety education and training to the PE curriculum for third, fourth and fifth graders.  This curriculum has been developed and piloted by PE teachers at Canterbury, Gearity and Fairfax Elementary Schools.  This year it will be implemented at all of our public elementary schools.  PE teachers will use the children’s bike fleet acquired for educational purposes by the City of Cleveland Heights.

Bicycling is a healthy, environmentally friendly activity which can be used for commuting, recreation and short shopping trips.  Some children have learned to ride a bicycle for the first time in the bike safety classes offered so far.  It can be an important life-long skill and source of pleasure.

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Making Routes to School for Children Safer

As you may know, I’ve been working since 2010 to make it safer for bicyclists in Cleveland Heights.  City staff has embraced this cause, and as a result, we have much better bicycle facilities now – bike racks everywhere, bike lanes and multipurpose trails to name a few.

Some years ago, then City employee Jennifer Kuzma and I worked on a first application for Safe Routes to School grants to improve walking and biking to school for our school children.  Since then, Joe Kickel, Capital Project Manager, has taken over the application process, and I’ve faded out.  As a result of our efforts, Cleveland Heights has received almost $1 million in SRTS grants, which may take years to actually come to fruition, as you can see from the list below. This is an example of “If you don’t ask, you don’t receive.”  We did it!

Here is a list of Cleveland Heights SRTS Project Numbers and the awarded funds:

2016 – 98324 – $291,711 Bike racks at Canterbury School, and Roxboro School, new curb ramps at Roxboro School and Canterbury School, speed feedback signs at Canterbury School, Monticello Middle School, Roxboro School, and Hebrew Academy

2017 – 98332 Non Infrastructure- $7,650.00 Bike Trailer, Bikes, Helmets, educational materials

2019 – 101112 – $190,620 New Traffic Signal and pedestrian upgrades at Quilliams/Noble (Oxford school)

2020 – 103700 – $298,791 – New curb ramps at Roxboro School, Hebrew Academy, Installation of Pedestrian Refuge Islands and Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons at Pennfield/Monticello (Monticello Middle School)

2022 NEW AWARD 2019 – $200,000 – new curb ramps at Oxford Elementary School, New curb ramps at Bradford Path (Canterbury School), and new bike racks at Monticello Middle School.

Total Funds Awarded $988,772

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Cleveland Heights is Bicycle Friendly!

Cleveland Heights is Bicycle Friendly!

On October 15, 2013, the League of American Bicyclists recognized Cleveland Heights as a bronze Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC), making our city one of only eight in Ohio to earn this distinction. Others are Lakewood, Dublin, Westerville, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton. Ohio has no silver, gold or platinum Bicycle Friendly Communities. The bronze level BFC award recognizes Cleveland Heights’s commitment to improving conditions for bicycling through investment in bicycling promotion, education programs, infrastructure and pro-bicycling policies.

The BFC program is a way for communities evaluate their quality of life, sustainability and transportation networks, while providing a measuring tool to gauge their progress toward a more bicycle friendly community. There are now 291 BFCs in 48 states. [Read more…]