CANFIELD — A bike loop has been on the backburner for the past three years. With the completion of the new pump track at Fair Park, a loop and connections to neighboring communities again have become a topic of discussion.

At Wednesday’s city council meeting, park board member and bicycling advocate Lex Calder addressed a plan to build a corridor for bike riders. He said that corridor could run from Canfield east through Poland Township and would involve each community in between.

“I am trying to build a consortium of communities,” Calder said.

He said the idea is to have a series of bike trails and pump tracks that would permit a bicyclist to spend the day riding on the different venues. The Fair Park pump track recently opened, and it has been gaining popularity. Calder said other communities could build similar tracks or trails for bike riders.

There is no dedicated connector to Fair Park for bike riders. Calder said the plan is to connect the city park to the Mill Creek MetroParks bike trail. That access could run along the Ohio Edison easement through Fair Park. Calder said there have been discussions with an Ohio Edison representative regarding the idea.

Canfield police chief and acting city manager Chuck Colucci said, “It’s a concept, and it is pretty cool.”

He said the city still has a study on file for a Canfield bike loop. That study was presented Jan. 24, 2020, and was done by MS Consultants Inc. and funded through Eastgate Regional Council of Governments. It shows a bike loop that connects schools and parks in the city as well as some neighborhoods.

The loop would run from the existing bike trail along Main Street to North Hillside Drive. It follows North Hillside to Neff Drive to Montgomery Drive and connects with Hilltop Boulevard near the elementary school. It continues west on Hilltop to North Broad Street, then flows south through the Village Green to Fair Street. It also continues south from that point to the Canfield Fairgrounds entrance.

The Fair Street segment would run from South Broad Street into the park. Then, if an agreement can be worked out, it could continue down the Ohio Edison right-of-way to the Mill Creek Park bike trail, completing a loop.

In the study, a variety of bicycle pathway types would be considered. Sharrows were considered for Hilltop, Neff, Montgomery, Hillside and Fair Street.

Sharrows are a shared environment indicated by road markings. It basically uses existing roadways and permits bike traffic with regular neighborhood traffic. The markings and signage would let motorists know they are sharing the road with bikes. Sharrows work best on low-traffic streets found in neighborhood settings.

Around the Village Green, a protected bike lane could be used. In this type of pathway, a lane for bike travel would be built, separated from automobile traffic by a barrier such as planters, bollards or parking. The protected bike lane would permit riders to circle the Village Green without sharing the road with vehicles.

The third type of pathway used in the plan is the multi-path, non-vehicular path. It would be separated from the normal roadways and permit two-way bike and pedestrian traffic. This type of path was suggested for the loop along U.S. 224 (Main Street) and along state Route 46 (Broad Street), where traffic flow is heavy.

The estimated cost to construct the proposed loop was $2,613,000 in January 2020, when the study was finalized.

Nothing has been done with the study to date, but the proposed corridor for bike enthusiasts could include segments of that study.

“The proposed bike loop never got past the initial planning (stage),” Colucci said.

Calder said he still wants to work on getting a connector to the Mill Creek bike trail next year. He added that he would further like to mark the walking trails in Fair Park for use in mountain biking. He said all that needs to be done is mow the trails. The bikes eventually will wear a path in the trail as it gets used.

jwhitehouse@vindy.com