Correspondent photo / Sean Barron Ronnell Elkins, who owns YoGo Bikeshare, far right with microphone, prepares eBike riders for the YO! Motion Mobilizing Midlothian Community Bike Ride and Health Fair on Sunday. The 10-mile ride began and ended at the Youngstown Playhouse on Glenwood Avenue.

YOUNGSTOWN — 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.

For her part, Lyon conducted a presentation of Pemberton Park, which was the main site from the 1950s to the 1990s for Class B League baseball.

Besides opening a door for riders to learn part of the history of some of the city’s most iconic places, Sunday’s ride gave Lyon another means to expand her social opportunities.

“I just enjoy riding with a group of friends, making new friends and being active in our community,” she said.

Ronnell Elkins, an event organizer who also owns YoGo Bikeshare, said Sunday’s event was largely the result of extensive collaboration with numerous city entities. The key ingredients for the ride were cycling, community engagement and biking infrastructure, he noted.

Also vitally important was the gathering’s ability to unite a large cross section of people from all parts of the city and with all biking levels, Elkins and others have said.

“This is what community looks like, right here,” he said while pointing to the parking lot where many of the ebike riders assembled.

Elkins also predicted more Youngstown residents will become accustomed and adjust to seeing bike riders.

Before everyone set off, Kelan Bilal, who founded the CycWard Bike Club, spoke about certain safety tips. They included riding the eBikes no faster than 9 mph, allowing ample space between riders, watching for certain hand signals that denote stops and direction changes, being wary of potholes and feeling free to stop to rest as needed.

Also provided were free health screenings. Among the vendors in the parking lot Sunday were Sight for All United, JCC of Youngstown, Thrive Mahoning Valley, Akron Children’s Hospital, Park Vista of Youngstown, United Healthcare, Cornerstone Caregiving, Aventura Health Group and Home Instead of Austintown. In addition, the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County had a pop-up library.

Elkins also said he plans to have additional annual community bike rides that highlight different parts of the city.