CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — The wheels on the bikes are going round and round in Cleveland Heights.
It’s Cuyahoga County’s new Bike-with-a-Mayor series, which aims to provide residents with an opportunity to go on a bike ride with elected leaders while learning about the county’s dedication to providing greenspace and trails.
Cleveland Heights Mayor Kahlil Seren got ready to go on a bike ride with residents. Before the ride, he said he doesn’t cycle regularly, before someone interupted him, saying “yet.”
“I’ve had this bike for all of maybe a week and a half,” Seren said.
Seren said he’s committed to biking more often if it means better connecting with residents like Gordon Landefeld and Elaine Price.
Price is with the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, and the person behind the Bike-with-a-Mayor series.
“The whole idea is to help people understand that we have a county-wide greenway plan for trails and bikeways,” she said.
Price said biking is enjoyable in Ohio but there is still a long way to go.
“The end goal is to build out over 800 miles worth of trails and bike lanes, and we’ve got about over 200 and 300 already in existence, so we’ve got another four to 500 miles to go,” she said.
Price said she feels safe biking around the state but not everywhere.
“There are streets throughout northeast Ohio that are pretty busy with minimal shoulders and cars that are not necessarily respecting that they necessarily need to share the road, and I do not feel safe on those,” she said.
Price said people love biking for all kinds of reasons, and she has some of her own.
“It’s a way to get around, use a little bit of muscle, you see things when you ride a bike that you don’t see when you’re riding in a car,” she said.
As residents got ready for their bike ride with their mayor, they hoped this could help them connect with him as they look to continue building upon bike trails that surround the region, and he hopes the same.
“I’d like to learn more and experience it more so that I can be a better mayor around these issues that impact multimodal transportation in our communities, so I want to thank you all for being here,” Seren said.
