City Profiles / Large Cities / Columbus, OH

Columbus, Ohio

Taking advantage of its flat terrain, Columbus aims to be the bicycling capital of the country. Its Bicentennial Bikeways Plan, finalized in May 2008, calls to double the city's 50 miles of biking lanes and trails by 2012, when the city celebrates its bicentennial. By 2018, the city plans to add another 200 miles for biking by connecting greenways and activity centers, and it proposes 1,000 new bike racks by 2028. The improved bike system is part of a plan intended to increase bicycle ridership, public transport and walking in the city to 10 percent of all commuter trips in the next ten years—which would mean just two bicycle trips per month for each resident—with goals of reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality and encouraging fitness in the community.

Columbus has active and abandoned railroad lines that often obstruct bike paths, and east-west cycling is a challenge because of the Olentangy and Scioto Rivers, which run north-south through downtown. But as a part of the new bike plan, the city aims to develop bike paths alongside existing tracks to help connect these areas.

Although the flat topography is ideal for bicycling, it provides the city with no natural barriers to contain sprawl. Mayor Michael Coleman, who has been in office since 2000, has approached this challenge by bringing more than 4,700 new housing units to the downtown area since 2002. The city supplies tax incentives for residents and businesses to move in town to revitalize the area. With billions of dollars in investment from the public and private sector, ground has already been broken toward developing downtown riverfront parks and promenades with plans for completion by the bicentennial.

For more on what Columbus is doing to go green, see ColumbusGreenSpot.org, a community website created by the city to educate residents and businesses on environmental awareness—more than 1,000 businesses and community members have registered to make the commitment to become "Green Spots" since the site's launch in July 2008.