Yesterday was the public announcement regarding DTOGS, the Detroit Transit Options for Growth Study.

We had concerns about the study’s proposed Woodward renderings. They appeared to remove the wide curb lane that makes Woodward more bike friendly. On other streets they removed the traffic lanes altogether.

On a positive note, they did have bike racks at the light rail stations.

During Monday’s announcement we learned that the light rail trains would allow bike roll-ons. This is a major benefit. It means cyclists could bring their bikes right on the train without the hassle of external racks like those currently on SMART buses. It also eliminates the two-bike limit those SMART racks currently face.

We also spoke with the planners afterwards to discuss wide curb lanes and in some cases bike lanes depending on the available road right-of-way constraints. Fortunately the planners are from Minneapolis and are familiar with light rail/cycling issues.

For further reading, the DTOGS announcement was covered by the Detroit News and Free Press.

Tags: DDOT, Detroit, DTOGS, light rail, SMART, Woodward

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 2:03 pm and is filed under On-road bicycling, Planning, Public transit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.