Last night, Carol and I attended a focus group hosted by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) about bicycling issues in the five counties of northeast Ohio that they serve (Lorain, Cuyahoga, Medina, Lake, Geauga). NOACA is working to update their 2008 regional bicycle plan.
Topics discussed included bicycle infrastructure (trails, routes, bike lanes), the maintenance of that infrastructure, ways to get more people commuting on bikes and what routes are best for commuting and destination cycling.
 The results of the focus groups will be used to determine what money gets spent where and on which bicycle related projects in northeast Ohio.
Some of the topics brought up that were at the top of peoples agendas included the repaving of several roads used frequently by cyclists, such as sections of Franklin Road, Clifton Road east of W117, Marginal Roads along the lakefront and the cleaning and maintenance of bike lanes. There was also much discussion about the safety and effectiveness of bike lanes, sharrows and other recent additions to the bicycle related infrastructure. There were about a dozen people present, with skill levels ranging from just tooling around the neighborhood side streets, to daily commuters (some doing 50 miles a day!)
Marc Von Allmen, is the multimodal planner at NOACA and is interested in input from local cyclists. He can be reached at mvonallmen@mpo.noaca.org or call him at 216-241-2414, ext. 250. There are six more focus groups sessions scheduled, check the link above to participate.

NOACA has outstanding bicycle maps for each of the five counties which are available in local bike shops or you can download them online.
http://www.noaca.org/bikemaps.html