A Gateway to North Hill is the Future of Akron

Mar 8, 2026

Akron could save lives, improve North Hill, and prep for Bus Rapid Transit all at once.

The Northside Interceptor Tunnel (NSIT) is being built.
The North Howard ramp from North Main has been closed since July 2024.
This ramp should be the gateway to the residential streets of North Hill.

Photo licensed under Creative Commons Attribution by JackFifield (cropped)

We propose closing the ramp from North Main Street onto North Howard Street to car traffic. It should remain open for pedestrians and cyclists, possibly like the above photo.

Why close the Howard ramp and create the North Hill Gateway?

Perfect timing for the city. It’s already closed, lowest impact to traffic patterns, no costly and time-consuming studies to be done.
If you build it, they will come. Providing a modal filter here will encourage cyclists and pedestrians to use Howard away from the car traffic on North Main. Although North Main is undergoing a road diet, if a cyclist or pedestrian simply needs to get to the Falls, they should travel away from cars where possible, for safety of all road users.

3. Its twin ramp on the east side of North Main was closed years ago, and the world didn't end. This video shows almost exactly what that Howard ramp needs. A modal filter that allows people and bikes to pass, but leaves plenty of other roads for cars to use.

There used to be a tunnel under North Main to provide on-ramp access from Howard. This has been removed, and nobody wants it back, regardless of any complaints at the time. The tunnel was removed [sometime after 2010](https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer), possibly after 2019. In 3 years of living in North Hill, the tunnel has not come up in conversation a single time. — There used to be a tunnel under North Main to provide on-ramp access from Howard. This has been removed, and nobody wants it back, regardless of any complaints at the time. The tunnel was removed sometime after 2010, possibly after 2019. In 3 years of living in North Hill, the tunnel has not come up in conversation a single time.

Set the table for future road improvements on Howard. Michelle DiFiore expressed interest in possibly lowering Howard to 25 mph (in my view, encouraging the residential vibe that it is already built to be). In addition, Howard is part of the METRO BRT study’s B-4 suggested route. Howard is already a podium-level Olympic finisher for a BRT street.

In Purple: METRO RTA's B-4 BRT study route. White dots are proposed BRT stops. Source: METRO RTA BRT Feasibility Report – January 2024. *Questions: Nathan Leppo, Director of Planning and Strategic Development* — In Purple: METRO RTA’s B-4 BRT study route. White dots are proposed BRT stops. Source: METRO RTA BRT Feasibility Report – January 2024. *Questions: Nathan Leppo, Director of Planning and Strategic Development*

Howard could become a road predominantly for buses, people, and bikes - with cars taking effectively the same route down the rebuilt N Main. It’s a win-win for all road users. Any modal filter installed at the ramp could be temporary, and removed if and when the BRT is built. (The filter could also be flexi-posts, which a bus could probably go straight through.)

Context: North Main is undergoing a road diet. The Beacon covered an earlier iteration of the final plan. Most if not all of the city officials quoted in the piece still work for the city. All their logic holds up. North Main was overbuilt. It’s being fixed.

“It’s all about safety. It’s all about mobility. We have a lot of people in North Hill that walk and bike”

- Director of Public Service Chris Ludle

A roundabout is not part of the current plans. High Level Bridge may be rebuilt at some point, with the bridge possibly shifting West (towards the Howard ramp). All the more reason to take things slow and leave the ramp as is, leaving our options open.

The BRT route is the main reason a roundabout probably isn’t the best choice here. Re-opening Howard to cars is essentially ceding a future high-capacity bus route to cars and making the system slower for everyone - drivers, pedestrians, bus riders, and cyclists. Opening this route means fighting with a small group of residents all over again when you want to have BRT here. From a systems point of view, I don’t see the need to re-open Howard. But I would love to talk with the relevant parties (Christine Jonke) about their reasoning for a roundabout.

It had no priority.

As I noted in my post-mortem on the Obama-era streetcar phase, the DC Streetcar suffered from the most fundamental design failure in modern transit: operating in mixed traffic.

- The Transit Guy (emphasis added)

Who is harmed by this ramp being open?

When this road was open, it was a high speed ejector off-ramp from the posted 35 mph bridge. It provided a not ideal exit for cars and is just south of State Road which is on the HIN with 3-4 FSI crashes in the 2019-2023 AMATS map.

A high-occupancy 6-floor apartment sits at the bottom of the ramp next to other apartments.

I suspect the highway-like bridge encourages speeding beyond 35 mph, which leads straight into the ejector ramp. It’s really easy to speed above 35 on the bridge and continue speeding down the ramp. Even a crash at 35 is deadly to a person outside of a car.

A silver SUV goes fast as it leaves High Level Bridge passing the North Hill Gateway.

If this ramp is so bad, why isn’t it on the HIN?

I’ll be frank. If this ramp wasn’t already closed, it would not be the #1 priority for Vision Zero Akron. But it is closed, and the clock is ticking.

If you don’t have a car, you take the sidewalk on High Level Bridge to get to C Falls. That means you would either bike up the one-way ramp, or awkwardly get on the sidewalk and cross the ramp.

So cyclists and pedestrians had to keep an eye out for cars. Luckily, nobody has been killed lately.

I think it’s not on the HIN for two reasons - kids know not to play in the street because of all the traffic, and we don’t yet have a critical mass of cyclists on this route. Pedestrians are more able than cyclists to walk up the grassy knoll, safe from cars.

Cyclists' options are more limited. Here we see a cyclist offroading on a gravel bike with wider tires. His maneuver would be infeasible if the ramp was open. Car traffic is unpredictable. An illustrative excercise: why did he go through all the trouble of offroading his bike when he could have stayed on the sidewalks of North Main? That area is uneven, and has some trash, but it might be because he wanted a quiet, peaceful ride on Howard, taking advantage of the lack of car traffic from North Main.

Lack of impact on cars

Nothing bad has happened while it’s closed. I live a mile away and nothing about my life is worse with this ramp being closed. It hasn’t hurt me in my car at all. I drive up to the Falls at least once a week. In my 83 trips there and back, not once have I suffered by taking a route other than the Howard ramp. The only thing this closure has done is make this crosswalk safe for me on my bike.

A Beautiful North Hill Gateway

At this stage, we don’t care what it looks like. We just want to keep it safe. It could be done for nearly 0 dollars with Portable Concrete Barriers.

In fact, there are a trio of Concrete Barriers literally already at the site already blocking this ramp. Don't even bother moving them! — In fact, there are a trio of Concrete Barriers literally already at the site already blocking this ramp. Don’t even bother moving them!

In the world's easiest engineering project, the traffic safety devices are already installed. — In the world’s easiest engineering project, the traffic safety devices are already installed.

If you want to make Akron beautiful, you could install planters on the site. But Concrete does just fine. Photo licensed under Creative Commons Attribution by JackFifield (cropped)

Please make this a reality and join our movement.