Josie Lyon recalled that when she lived in Pittsburgh, many residents reacted negatively to bike lanes being installed on their streets — and how, over time, their unfavorable assessments proved to be unfounded. She is hoping the same set of circumstances will play out closer to home.
“A lot of other cities have implemented bike lanes, even Pittsburgh,” Lyon, the 7th Ward Citizens Coalition’s president, said. “There was pushback there, but people understood them and the pushback subsided.”
She is hoping for the same fate along the Midlothian Boulevard corridor, which also has received negative attention from some residents because of the bike lanes added there a few years ago. So Lyon joined about 40 others who registered for and took part in a YO! Motion Mobilizing Midlothian Community Bike Ride and Health Fair on Sunday afternoon.
The 10-mile, 90-minute ride on eBikes, which began and ended at the Youngstown Playhouse on Glenwood Avenue on the South Side, was to demonstrate that the bike lanes along the Midlothian corridor can be viable and useful for another mode of transportation.
Lyon noted that along the way to Pemberton Park and back, stops were to take place at the original Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream & Yogurt location near Market Street and Midlothian Boulevard, where riders were to learn about the business’s 80-year history in the Mahoning Valley. Also included was Schwebel’s Bakery on Midlothian near Simon Road.
The riders’ first stop was along Mineral Springs Drive across from the Playhouse, where the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. spearheaded the construction of six new homes as part of the city’s redevelopment and revitalization efforts.
To read the full story from the Vindicator, click here.
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