m-bike.org

Author: Todd Scott

  • Transportation key to young staying in Michigan

    The Detroit News ran a commentary last month written by members of the Millennial Mayors Congress, which is “a partnership of city officials and rising leaders working together to address regional issues.”

    Michigan’s transportation system is not getting young people where they need to go.

    As citizens under 35, we know that not all of our peers can afford the $8,500 a year it takes, on average, to own a car. Some of us are looking to reduce our carbon footprints. Whatever the reasons, young people want to see a transportation system that gives everyone the freedom to get around, with or without a car. Unfortunately, failed transportation policies have been holding Michigan back.

    Every year thousands of us leave for places that have functioning transit, safe biking and walking conditions, and convenient transportation between cities.

    They also give support to Complete Streets.

    We need to adopt a truly comprehensive “complete streets” policy, so Michiganians do not have to risk their lives to walk or bike.

    It’s worth the time to read the entire opinion piece. It focuses mostly on public transit, which is expected since it was released during the recent Detroit light rail/bus rapid transit news.

    Still widening highways

    One minor correction? It speaks about MDOT widening highways in the past tense. MDOT is still widening highways.

    Where did a majority of the transportation stimulus money go in Michigan? Widening an expressway. MDOT plans to spend well over a billion transportation dollars in Detroit over the next 20 years… to widen an expressway. Widening roads are still a funding priority for MDOT and many Metro Detroit municipalities.

    Want to lose faith in Metro Detroit’s transportation decision makers? Take some time to review the road projects in SEMCOG’s transportation improvement plan (TIP).

    Let’s look at the Road Commission for Oakland County’s 2012 TIP projects. They have $30.7 million in projects of which $21.8 million involves road widening.

    Road agencies, SEMCOG, and others don’t like to publicize road widening projects because at the same time, they’re asking for more transportation funding.

    They need the funding to continue building sprawl, but that’s not a good sales pitch — especially to millennials.

    The Millennial Mayors Congress is also on Facebook.

  • Active Living Detroit Mini-grants now available

    This funding opportunity from the Healthy Environments Partnership is an excellent option for Detroit-based greenway programming!

    The Active Living Detroit Mini-Grant Program awards mini-grants of up to $1000 to Detroiters developing sustainable projects and activities that 1) engage community residents, 2) build local ownership of Detroit neighborhoods and 3) create social and physical environments that promote active living and physical health.

    Any neighborhood groups or organization located in the city of Detroit can apply. This includes, but is not limited to, block clubs, art groups, service organizations, parks and recreational organizations, churches, professional associations, public and non-public school-based groups, and individuals.

    The Active Living Detroit Mini-Grants Program is a joint project of HEP and of the Detroit Food & Fitness Collaborative.

    Mini-grant Application

    Application deadline: February 1, 2012.

    Resource: For project ideas and information about promoting active living in communities visit:

    For more information contact

    Julia Weinert
    (734) 763-0741
    weinertj@umich.edu

  • New Detroit bike map and parking

    You may have noticed a new menu item on the web site for Bike Map+Parking. This is a new Detroit bicycle map showing where many bike racks are within the city.

    The map itself is the Google Maps bicycle layer, which is looking fairly accurate now. You can zoom in, scroll around, use Streetview, etc.

    The bike parking information comes from Wayne State University, the Southwest Detroit Business Association, and a whole bunch of riding around and taking photos. There are one or more bike racks at each of the 201 documented locations, shown as a red dot.

    Clicking on a red dot opens a window with more information and in most cases a photo.

    If you have bike parking information, please forward it to the email, todd@michigantrails.org. Only Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park information is being collected.

    The Detroit data will be used in a Bicycle Friendly Community application, which is really was spurred this project.

     

  • Detroit Biking and Complete Streets in the news

    10 bicycling myths debunked

    Grist created this list and put a reference to the Detroit Bike City video at the top.

    1. Biking is for elistists

    Yeah, tell that to the good people of Detroit.

    Metro Detroit has elitists. They’re just not in that video.

    Detroit Complete Streets Coalition Makes City Streets Safer For Bikers, Pedestrians

    The Huffington Post Detroit edition had this coverage of Detroit’s Complete Streets efforts.

    It seems like a simple idea: Roadways should be safe for all users, whether they drive, ride public transit, bike or walk. But?Detroit is the 12th-most dangerous metro area for pedestrians in the country, and the region has a long way to go.

    As the article mentions, the Complete Streets ordinance is in the Detroit law department prior to being introduced to City Council. Unlike many of the other communities making a buzz with Complete Street resolutions, Detroit’s should produce results.

    Detroit, Michigan: The Non-Motorized City

    Global Site Plans published this story which provides a very good overview of all that’s going in Detroit.

    Do you ride for recreation, community organizing, or the daily commute? Within the Detroit community, public mobility has developed into two distinct exchanges: the first focused on physical redevelopment and the second, community development. On one hand, urban planners, environmental non-profits, and downtown developers are actively engaged in urban design and adaptive-reuse of existing infrastructure for the use of bicycles. While other Detroiter’s are focused primarily on the bicycle user: from recreation and community health to vocational skills and self-empowerment.

    Compared to other transportation alternatives, bicycles do not require infrastructural changes. Indeed, Detroit has plenty of roads to share. However, road diets and greenway developments certainly make cities more inviting to cyclists.

    The city’s Detroit Works Project reprinted this article as well.

    Complete Streets isn’t anti-car

    The article asks the question, “Will the Motor City ever relinquish its auto-centric ideals for the benefit of pedal power?”

    Is that an accurate question? Perhaps in the suburbs, but not in the city of Detroit.

    To improve biking, does Detroit need to get rid of expressways and convenient parking? It generally doesn’t have congestion. The city was mostly developed during its streetcar heyday and has a decent street grid, which means more intersections and non-expressway speed limits that are rarely above 35 MPH .

    Is the road-dieted Michigan Avenue with bike lanes in Corktown any less ideal for driving? In many ways, adding bike lanes improves safety for everyone, including motorists and pedestrians.

    Complete Streets isn’t anti-car. It’s about balancing needs among all transportation modes while considering how the road design affects the surrounding community.

    Comlete Streets is anti-some-cars, specifically those motorists who ignore traffic laws, speed and imperil others. We’ve seen strong support for Complete Streets helping address that community issue — even in the Motor City.

  • Why m-bike? Post #1,000

    It’s difficult for me to believe that this is post #1,000 on m-bike, but that’s what the software says.

    So, I thought it might be appropriate to provide some background on why this site exists.

    There really were a couple early projects I started that prompted the creation of m-bike.

    Woodward Bike Routes

    Around 1998, I proposed some Woodward bike routes in Oakland County. I developed a mission statement and routes that used the existing side streets paralleling the Woodward.

    The Woodward Avenue Action Association (WA3) was very supportive and hosted meetings with the various municipalities. But, since the routes weren’t directly on Woodward, WA3 couldn’t champion it. It wasn’t within their mission. None of the cities showed much interest and it died.

    However, I’d like to think that this discussion had some influence on future non-motorized planning efforts on the Woodward corridor.

    I-75 Non-motorized Mobility Plan

    This next project started when MDOT was studying the widening of I-75 in South Oakland County. MDOT’s plan ignored how this expansion would affect bicyclists. It also ignored the opportunity to improve bicyclists’ ability to get across I-75, one of the area’s major barriers.

    So, I created a fairly thorough 16 page, full-color plan on how to improve I-75 crossings for cyclists. It proposed some new crossings while improving some existing ones. I had met with MDOT’s project planning consultants ahead of time then submitted the report to them.

    They ignored it.

    When I asked them why this plan resulted in no changes to the project’s final environmental impact statement, the MDOT consultant said it was due to a editing mistake. Seriously.

    The bottom line? It was real easy to ignore the lone wolf bike advocate.

    m-bike begins

    I thought that to be a more success advocate, I should create the appearance of an organization which was larger than one person. At the same time, I needed to spread the bike advocacy gospel to other cyclists and get them involved.

    A web site seemed like the best way of achieving both.

    In June of 2002 I registered m-bike.org, which was a play on M-DOT. The initial web site was up in August.

    You may have noticed that I still write posts as if m-bike is a big advocacy organization, hence the “we” instead of “I”. Is that still necessary or just confusing?

    The reality is its just me writing posts whenever I get a chance.

    The future of m-bike

    The web site design is really tired but any big updates are on hold as the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan develops a web site with overlapping interests. I’ve been working with them on it for a number of years now and it’s on the verge of launching. I am hopeful they can provide much of the functionality that is missing from this site.

    I have had some discussions with others about making m-bike into a full-blown Metro Detroit bike advocacy, membership-based organization. Except for trails and what’s happening in Detroit, there are practically no organizations successfully advocating for better biking.

    That said, I don’t see m-bike filling that void any time soon.

    However, what is happening is the Detroit Greenways Coalition is becoming a non-profit organization, but their scope would limited to the cities of Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park. Perhaps the Coalition’s service area would eventually expand to include other suburbs.

    We’ll likely know more by post #2000.