Ryan McKenzie - City Wheels Cleveland
Nominated by Doug Paige, Cleveland Institute of Art
Ryan McKenzie has been an advocate for alternative environment friendly transportation for many years. His work with Eco-City Cleveland helped educate others about living car-free in Cleveland, and helped to get Bike Carriers installed on RTA buses. Ryan’s experience with this subject proved invaluable when Cleveland Public Art approached The Cleveland Institute of Art to design bike racks for the Warehouse District to help promote bicycling transportation down town. His work with the students and helped them understand the needs of the bicycle commuter as an integral design element during the concept development of the project.
Ryan’s most recent activity in the arena of alternative transportation in an urban society has taken a little “shift” to include high efficiency automobiles, with a new entrepreneur venture: CityWheels. This has been a point of interest for several years, as he helped bring Dan Sturgis to Cleveland to speak at both E4S and Case regarding small electric cars and a car-sharing program. With CityWheels, Ryan has introduced a true alternative to purchasing and owning your own car for those who don’t have a daily need for their own personal automobile. This is also helpful in reducing crowded on street parking with many urban and university environments.
Ryan’s business leadership to bring this from concept to realization in the Cleveland area is a significant step forward in increased opportunities for many people, while introducing fuel efficient/low emissions vehicles to roads. I applaud Ryan for his energy, hard work and commitment to Sustainability.
Nominated by Miriam Schuman McKenzie, City Wheels
As Ryan`s wife, I can say with experience and observation that Ryan is undoubtedly more committed to sustainable transportation in Cleveland than anyone in this region. After many years of researching car sharing in other cities and trying to coax other companies to Cleveland to give it a shot—and being shot down by large franchises like Flex Car and Zip Car—he decided to go it alone. That`s how confident he was that car sharing belonged in Cleveland; that`s how passionate he was about bringing this environmentally and community oriented project to Cleveland. Nearly a year later, we are approaching our first growth stage of the business. Ryan`s work from the ground up, bootstrapping it every step of the way, has paid off. Weekly, we get calls from organizations and individuals around the city and as far away as Kenyon and Columbus, Ohio to bring car sharing! Ryan is already thinking about franchising CityWheels some years down the road! It`s exciting and fulfilling for both of us. And, it`s so gratifying to see my husband`s dream coming true—to make Cleveland a sustainable place to live that supports and promotes community, public transportation, biking and walking. It is with great honor that I submit this formal nomination for Ryan`s candidacy for the award.
