Sasaki's Greenbuild presentation by Jason Hellendrung, "How BRT is Enabling the Renaissance of One of America's Grandest Avenues"

By Jason Hellendrung posted on Fri, 2009-11-06 12:35 , 1007 reads, 0 comments

How Bus Rapid Transit Is Enabling the Renaissance

Of One of America's Grandest Avenues

 

Cleveland's Euclid Avenue is an American "Main Street" on an especially large and historic scale. Once the home of Rockefellers and other magnates along its "Millionaire's Row," Euclid rode the crest of American industrial growth from the Civil War until the early part of the 20th Century. Euclid is now a mostly commercial street that links Cleveland's central business district with University Circle – its cultural and educational center – and the Avenue's fortunes have waxed and waned with Cleveland's history of economic challenge and upheaval.

 

But Euclid Avenue is in the midst of an unlikely renaissance, credited mostly to the HealthLine, the Cleveland Rapid Transit Authority's $200 million Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line that runs the entire 5.5 length of the avenue. Named in honor of the city's relatively robust healthcare industry, the HealthLine is the first federally-funded BRT line in operation in the United States.

 

As its name suggests, the HealthLine is producing positive effects across the economic, social and environmental spectrum. It is spurring close to $4 billion in private and institutional development activity; it is providing a vital service to urban minority communities that were formerly isolated and underserved by public transportation; and it is introducing a low CO2 form of diesel/hybrid buses that is the first and only mass transit technology certified under the Kyoto Protocol.

 

How did Cleveland, in some ways still a city synonymous with urban downturn, achieve this feat – one that has the support of a remarkable swath of the local population and business community?

 

Our panel will explore the strategy of the client and design team, including:

 

• Working with the local business community to achieve buy-in to the project, its positive effects and mediating business difficulties during construction.
• Programming process and how the early commitment was made to serve lower income, minority areas like East Cleveland and MidTown
• Gaining of approval from stakeholders including the Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, City departments, ODOT, FTA, eight community development corporations, and individual landowners. 
• Designing a mixed-use avenue to include transit, automobiles, bicycle lanes, and pedestrian sidewalks; Transit Oriented Development (TOD) principles; project design of the streetscape; integration of public art; security design associate with mass transit systems; and sustainability elements.

 

The economic benefits of the HealthLine are already very real and measurable. According to Steven Litt, architecture critic for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer: "Pundits have long derided the project, funded primarily by federal money, as a boondoggle . . . But the developers say they see what's coming . . . they're rushing to renovate empty buildings and buy vacant lots."

 

The HealthLine replaces what was formerly known as the Greater Cleveland Rapid Transit Authority's "Number 6" bus. On the social benefit front, ridership along the route is up 46% over the early 2008 level, clearly indicating use by previously underserved patrons. At the environmental level, the popular blog postcarboncities.net states: "The HealthLine is a strong Rx for Cleveland's Once and Future Main Street."