MANSFIELD, Ohio — During Richland Moves!’ regular monthly meeting Tuesday evening, chairman Nelson Shogren excitedly announced that the Mansfield City bike loop posts for signage have arrived, meaning the wait is almost over.
“Now that we have the posts, we’re going to contact OCA to figure out when they come in to install the loop,” said Shogren.
As part of the original plan, volunteers from the Ohio Contractor Association will provide the bike loop installment’s labor — Richland Moves! provides the equipment and supplies. Richland Public Health Educator Melissa Culler said she ordered 122 signs, galvanized posts, three different stencils, five gallons of reflective paint and five signs that read “Bikes May Use Full Lanes” in June 2015.
The cost for the materials was covered by a partnership with Richland Public Health and the Communities Preventing Chronic Disease grant.
The 5.73 mile loop designates certain city streets as bike routes with the placement of appropriate signs and road stencils called sharrows. It does not involve road-widening, painting of lanes, placement of lane-division curbs or other physical construction.
Also during Richland Moves!’ meeting, the group discussed a strategy for placing printed maps of the bike loop that include bicycle and motorist laws in downtown shops and restaurants.
“We’d like to do something to where shops could offer a 5 to 10 percent discount to customers who bring their helmets in,” said Shogren. “It’ll just help encourage more cycling and let people know that we are a bike friendly town.”
Safety was talked about at length at the meeting on Tuesday. In addition to an informational article on bicycle and motorist rules published in September, Shogren and Y-Not Cycling & Fitness Owner Eric Peterson offer advice and rules in this video.
Richland Moves! co-founder Paul Bender shared a few last words during the meeting as well. Bender intends on moving out of Mansfield in the coming weeks.
“This will be my last meeting … I just wanted to say that we’ve done a great job and I hope [the group] keeps meeting. To make active transportation work you really need grassroots people and top down leadership to work together, so I hope this continues,” said Bender.
The next Richland Moves! meeting is Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Mansfield/Richland County Municipal Library in downtown Mansfield.
