For the past year, the RTA has welcomed public feedback and criticism on its plans for bus rapid transit lanes on West 25th, which would run from Detroit Avenue in Ohio City to Monroe Road in Old Brooklyn.
Much of the criticism has focused on Ohio City’s heart, the West Side Market, where business owners have argued that eliminating parking spaces and adding four lanes of traffic where there are currently only two would endanger pedestrians and cyclists.
On Wednesday, RTA unveiled its latest designs for the $51 million project to completely renovate West 25th. Mike Schipper, RTA’s deputy general manager of engineering, told a room full of attendees at Riverview Tower’s Welcome Centre that those plans are strongly leaning towards bus.
In other words, two bus lanes on the street’s curb sides will remain “continuous” throughout Ohio City’s Market Square.
The plan includes trade-offs.
[content-2] “That does mean that approximately 70 parking spaces would be removed in that section,” Schipper told the crowd. He nodded towards the parking lots behind the West Side Market, many of which are empty on weekends. “So we can probably find room for the 70 spaces, out of the 2,000” behind the Market, he said.
Transit advocates argue that uniformity and speed outweigh any parking concerns.
They claim that the buses require two continuous lanes to maintain their rapid transit speed. Mixing bus and car lanes would clog service in and around Market Square, defeating the purpose of a BRT.
In May, a letter supporting continuous lanes stated that 24 buses travel every hour on West 25th Street from Detroit Road to Lorain Avenue. Every day, hundreds of bus riders pass through this stretch of West 25th Street. They deserve to get to their destination quickly and reliably.
“And one key way to ensure that is to give their bus a dedicated lane,” the report said.
At Wednesday’s town hall, Schipper stated that at least one traffic table, a crosswalk raised three inches above the road, could be installed between the West Side Market and Market Avenue. 15 MPH warning signs would be installed on either side to keep “safety elements” in place, others argued, with parked cars added indirectly.
According to Schipper, those bus lanes would serve as bike lanes, just as the RTA’s HealthLine on Euclid Avenue has unintentionally bored. Rumble strips would separate the bus and car. Plastic posts, or delineators, would be placed in particularly sensitive areas of the road.
“These are three different cues,” he reiterated, “to say hey, stay out of the bus lane.”
Those present on Wednesday, mostly city officials and business owners, appeared to be satisfied with Schipper’s presentation of a street redesign that would affect business and car traffic for at least a year, as the HealthLine had done before it.
Critics of Schipper and designer Joe Schaefer’s presentation, however, warned against overcomplicating things. Keep things simple. Keep things simple so that, first and foremost, $51 million can be raised.
“Getting back and forth between [Cleveland Clinic Lutheran and Metrohealth] should be the priority,” a colleague said. “And having that focus first on making the efficiency happen between those two campuses I think would also justify further federal funding.”
Others reminded Schipper that widening West 25th would raise its own safety concerns, particularly late at night, when drivers are more reckless and willing to speed.
“I cross that crosswalk dozens of times a day,” said Sam McNulty, referring to a friend who avoided a collision that morning. “And it’s like playing Frogger, even with just crossing two lanes.”
“If we were to cross four—visibility aside—it would lead to loss of life and injury unfortunately,” he tweeted.
“Would you like us to take it out?” Schipper spoke, referring to the traffic table. “We could easily take it out of the plans.”
“No,” Mudry replied. “Then people would just jaywalk.”
Schipper said that once fully funded, construction on the 25Connects street makeover could begin in late 2026 or early 2027. It would take approximately a year to complete. [content-1]
