For years, runners in large numbers have been hoofing it over the Detroit-Superior and Lorain-Carnegie bridges in Downtown Cleveland as part of a scenic loop with spectacular views of the skyline and the Cuyahoga River.
But the three-mile route, with additional legs on either side of the river, is far from optimal. Runners have had to contend with choke points on Huron Road at Detroit Avenue and Ontario Street near Tower City Center.
They queue at those spots next to roaring traffic, waiting for signals to change so they can cross the six lanes of Huron to continue the run on the sidewalk next to Tower City. They can’t just turn directly onto the south side of Huron because there’s no sidewalk there.
At Ontario Street, runners need to cross Huron again to complete the route on a narrow sidewalk opposite the Gateway sports complex. The situation is the same regardless of which direction they’re running.
Now, after years of advocacy by recreational groups, the city is ready to fix the longstanding glitches in the loop.
New plans call for converting a mile of the southern lanes along Ontario and Huron into a continuous protected route for runners and cyclists that won’t require crossing any streets.
The project may sound minor, but advocates say it’s a big victory in a highly visible part of a city that has long privileged cars over people. Beyond serving residents, the improved loop will also benefit travelers during hotel stays.
“I think it’s great,’’ said Cleveland real estate broker Conor Coakley, a devoted runner who helped conceive improvements to the running loop in 2017 as part of a Leadership Cleveland class. “It’s a win for safety, for downtown livability and quality of life.’’
The city will formally unveil the long-awaited plans and seek comment on Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m., at the new Market Garden Brewery Irishtown Bend Taproom, 1849 W. 24th St.
The project will cost $1.5 million, with 14 months of construction starting in June 2026. Ideastream reviewed the plans earlier this month.
City officials said $432,000 in federal funding secured by U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Warrensville Heights, is safe from being clawed back by the federal government in its efficiency push. Another $1.1 million came from the city and from NOACA, the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency.
Good news for the public realm
Runners have been using the downtown route for years, without any official recognition from the city. The city now refers to the route as the Memorial Bridges Loop, after the Detroit-Superior and Lorain-Carnegie bridges, officially known, respectively, as Veterans Memorial and Hope Memorial.
In addition to the bridges and the mile-long section on Huron and Ontario, the route includes sidewalks on West 25th Street between the West Side Market and Detroit Avenue in Ohio City.
The typical width of the new protected path along Huron and Ontario will be a dozen feet or more. An additional buffer zone with vertical batons fastened to the pavement, called “delineators,’’ will separate the route from cars and trucks.
Improvements could be coming to West 25th Street, where the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is planning a new bus rapid transit line. Threading a recreational path along West 25th between Lorain Avenue and Bridge Avenue in the heart of Ohio City could be tricky because the right-of-way is relatively narrow there.
The city is discussing the issue with RTA as the BRT design evolves.
For now, the improvements planned and funded for Ontario and Huron are good news for running groups including the RunWithTheWinners Run Club, and the Sleeping Wieners Running Crew. They and others like them attract hundreds of participants at a time, often on weeknights after work.
“There’s such a humongous running community in Cleveland,’’ said longtime runner Matt Driggs, who manages commercial real estate and who runs with the Sleeping Wieners. He called the downtown loop “the central point’’ for all the groups, and “a rite of passage.’’
Driggs said he hasn’t seen any runner get hit by a vehicle, but he has always worried about standing at the corners of Huron Road at Detroit Avenue and Ontario Street as vehicles whiz by at more than 40 miles per hour. He also worries that a runner might trip on the narrow, crumbling sidewalk at the curb along Ontario Street and stumble into oncoming traffic.
“That would be the absolutely worst thing imaginable,’’ he said. “It would be horrific.’’
A long wait
Despite advocacy from Coakley and others in the late 2010s, an $11 million rehab of Huron Road between Detroit Avenue and Ontario Street, completed during the fourth term of former mayor Frank Jackson, did not include improvements for runners and cyclists.
Justin Bibb, elected mayor in 2021, added staff and reorganized the design process for city capital projects. New hires included Phil Kidd, a former manager for the nonprofit Northwest Neighborhoods Community Development Corp. in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.
Kidd works in the Mayor’s Office of Capital Projects as the planner for trails and “complete and green streets.’’ He writes a monthly public newsletter about the changing cityscape and how the public can get involved.
A runner himself, he blogs about city neighborhoods as part of his personal “Every Street Cleveland,’’ mission to run every street in the city.
More to come
Kidd said the downtown loop is part of a larger group of projects intended to make the city more bike- and pedestrian friendly. That’s especially important now that regional trails on the lakefront and in the Cuyahoga Valley, including the Towpath Trail, are converging around the heart of the city.
Upcoming projects include the Midway bike lanes planned for Superior Avenue from Public Square to East 55th Street, and on Lorain Avenue west of the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge.
On Friday, April 4, the city unveiled a new five-year Cleveland Moves mobility plan, which calls for adding 50 miles of bike paths to city streets.
Planners say Cleveland can make better use of roomy streets designed to accommodate a population that peaked near 1 million in 1950, before declining by roughly 60%.
Advocates, including the nonprofit Bike Cleveland, have complained at times that despite good intentions, the city hasn’t capitalized on opportunities to add bike paths and other amenities when rehabbing streets.
“It’s clear that in years past we left opportunity on the table,’’ Kidd said. But now, he said, “we’re showing what’s possible.’’ He said that every project like the Memorial Bridges Loop “is a precedent for the next project.’’
