Organized bike rides in Detroit continue to grow
Participation in bike rides within the city of Detroit continues to skyrocket.
Bike the Bridge had 180 riders last year and over 300 riders this year.
Colin Hubbell ride more than doubled last year’s numbers with over 200 cyclists.
The Tour de Troit started with a few dozen riders is now having to close registration with over 3,200 riders last year.
And if the weather holds out, this Friday’s Critical Mass ride could be the largest yet with nearly 700 people attending or maybe attending on the Facebook page.
Like most U.S. cities, there is no reliable data on how much people are bicycling, but these rapidly climbing participation rates show Detroit’s heading in the right direction.
Cycle-friendly City
A Christopher Tremblay of Canton, Michigan recently wrote in to the Detroit News with his recent experience.
When I just returned from a 33-mile bike ride throughout downtown Detroit — it was the Bike the Bridge event that linked us to our Canadian neighbors, I was reminded how great Detroit is. We saw some incredible sites of the city and learned about some historical locations, which made me an even prouder native Detroiter. Events like Bike the Bridge and the fall Tour de Troit remind us of how bike-friendly Detroit is and how it is becoming even more receptive to cyclists. To everyone who is advancing the bike trails and mission, thank you!
Colin Hubbell Ride
And speaking of last Saturday’s ride, the South End has written a real good article about it.
“This event had two purposes,” [Trish] Hubbell said. “First, to give the riders a glimpse of Detroit — because being on a bike is a much different experience than being in a car — and second, to promote Midtown and support small businesses and entrepreneurship. In Midtown, everybody comes together to help one another and we want to keep that spirit going.”
“These routes give people a flavor of the good, the bad and the ugly of Detroit,” Trish Hubbell said, “but mostly the good, aiming to take the scaryness out of the city and change how people view it.”
Fortunately I had the opportunity to ride with Trish she shared a great number of stories about Colin and his love for bicycling as transportation.
One has to imagine that he’d be quite thrilled to see more and more people on a bike in Detroit.
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Tags: Bike the Bridge, Colin Hubbell, critical mass, Detroit, Tour de Troit
June 23rd, 2011 at 9:48 am
[…] Toronto cyclists are rallying to save two bike lanes proposed for removal by Mayor Rob Ford. And M-Bike.org remarks that organized cycling rides are seeing explosive growth in Detroit, attracting as many as […]
June 23rd, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Regarding “bike-friendliness” of Detroit: What’s not to like? I’ve never been to Motown (except in music), but I understand the topography resembles that of a billiard table. No need for hill-climbing gears; there aren’t any hills. Rather like the #1 bike town in California, Davis (which I do visit). For years one of the complaints about American automobiles was mediocre brakes and poor handling on curves, and the blame was placed on the location of industry headquarters in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Auto executives knew “intellectually” that there were hills and mountains in other parts of the country, but challenging terrain was not part of their everyday lives.
July 7th, 2011 at 9:56 am
[…] indications are that the bike scene in Detroit is really taking off. Group rides are teeming (3,200 people are registered for this year’s Tour De Troit). New bike shops are springing up in some of the city’s […]