m-bike.org

Author: Todd Scott

  • Where are the bike lanes on Anthony Wayne Drive?

    Anthony Wayne Drive on Wayne State’s campus was recently rebuilt. It was supposed to get bike lanes added, but where are they?

    The answer is the weather has become too cold to apply the thermoplastic tape used to mark the lanes.  It will get completed once the weather warms in the spring.

    Why mark use tape rather than paint. Tape costs more but lasts longer. However, the tape can get pulled up by snowplow blades. You may have noticed some of that occurred on the Dequindre Cut last winter.

    One solution is to grind down the pavement just a little wherever you apply the tape. Having the tape just a little bit below the road surface keeps it from getting scraped by snowplows. We’ve been told that doing this means the tape can last up to ten years, while a painted line may need to be re striped every year.

    Why did MDOT use paint then on Michigan Avenue? Our guess is this reflects their uncertainty about the future of these bike lanes. They have mentioned that the lanes would be removed if it became a major safety issue. It wouldn’t make sense investing in tape if you thought you might be pulling it up in a year or two.

    New Atwater Bike Lanes

    Also, what about the new bike lanes on Atwater near the Wheelhouse Detroit.  They’re not in yet the last we checked and we suspect it’s due to the cold weather as well.

    It just means our new bike lanes mileage for 2011 will be that much higher with these projects as well as the Conner Creek Greenway additions, the Corktown/Mexicantown Greenlink, West Vernor, Second and Third Avenue. Detroit will likely be one of America’s top cities for newly constructed bike lane miles.

  • What are the bike lane laws?

    With new bike lanes being added in the city of Detroit this year (and many more planned for next year), the question has come up: What are the state laws and local ordinances pertaining to them?

    The answer in Detroit is there are none. It’s an issue that needs to be addressed.

    Unfortunately that’s probably true in many cities, villages, and townships (CVTs) across Michigan that are “maintaining” their own traffic law language. We quoted “maintaining” because most CVTs aren’t. While state laws and national model traffic laws for bicycles have been updated, in many, if not most cases local ordinances have not.

    Ideally, all CVTs, including Detroit would eliminate their local traffic laws and simply reference the Motor Vehicle Code (state law) and the Uniform Traffic Code (which is a maintained by the Michigan State Police.) By doing this, everyone would be working off the same set of traffic laws and it would be easier this one copy up to date.

    But getting back to bike lanes, what does the Uniform Traffic Code say about them?

    PART 1. WORDS AND PHRASES DEFINED
    R 28.1001 Rule 1. Words and phrases.
    (1) As used in this code:
    …
    (c) “Bicycle lane” means a portion of a street or highway that is adjacent to the roadway and that is
    established for the use of persons riding bicycles

    PART 4. TRAFFIC-CONTROL DEVICES

    R 28.1320 Rule 320. Bicycle paths or bicycle lanes; establishment; traffic-control devices.

    (1) When the traffic engineer, after a traffic survey and engineering study, determines there is a need, he or she may establish a part of a street or highway under his or her jurisdiction as a bicycle path or lane.

    (2) The bicycle path or lane shall be identified by official traffic-control devices that conform to the Michigan manual of uniform traffic-control devices.

    R 28.1322 Rule 322. Bicycle lanes; vehicles prohibited; parking permitted under certain conditions; violation as misdemeanor.

    (1) A person shall not operate a vehicle on or across a bicycle lane, except to enter or leave adjacent property.

    (2) A person shall not park a vehicle on a bicycle lane, except where parking is permitted by official signs.

    (3) A person who violates this rule is guilty of a misdemeanor.

    One item we don’t like in the above language is the requirement that a traffic engineer determine “a need” for bicycle lane. We would like to see the survey, study and need requirement stricken. It’s an unnecessary cost burden and “need” can be quite vague.

    It’s one thing to do a traffic study and determine the need for vehicle travel lanes in order to accommodate traffic flow. One can measure traffic and plug those numbers into a computer model.

    It’s quite another to do a traffic study which  determines how unsafe a road is for bicyclists — both perceived and real — without a dedicated bike lane.

  • Bike Lane-gate apparently closed

    Call is a conspiracy or just a basic  contractor mistake, the wrong way bike lane pavement marking in Corktown appears to be remedied.

    We went past the errant arrow yesterday and between the slush we saw that the paint had been grinded off.

    This MDOT project added nearly 2.5 miles of bike lanes on both sides of Michigan Avenue from Rosa Parks to Livernois. It’s a hugely valuable addition to a super wide road that will really complement the Corktown/Mexicantown Greenlink project which should begin construction in the spring. This  backwards biker was the only one we were aware of over the 5 miles.

    And thanks to MDOT for getting it fixed in a timely manner.

  • Metro Region bike-vehicle crashes, 2005-2009

    While doing some preliminary work with Google Fusion Tables, we created this very basic heat map showing the locations of bicycle-motor vehicle crashes throughout the Metro Detroit region (Oakland, Wayne, Macomb, and St. Clair counties.)

    The map does not weight the crashes based on the severity of the injury. Green dots indicate one crash, while orange and red indicate multiple crashes in the same vicinity.

    What’s interesting is the distribution. Detroit has noticeably fewer hot spots compared with the surrounding communities.

    And some roads have enough crashes that they pop out on the map. That’s true of Gratiot through Macomb County, and to a lessor extent, Woodward through Oakland County.

  • Metzger Bicycle Shop in 1912

    Thanks to The Night Train, we saw an excellent photo on Shorpy of the Metzger Bicycle Shop in 1912.

    Lot’s of fixies and phonographs — and sundries!

    We’d written about Metzger before and how he began selling and manufacturing automobiles as well as  creating auto shows, including Detroit’s.

    We thought when he’d sold his interest in the Huber and Metzger Bicycle Shop in 1895 that he got out of the two-wheeled world. That was not the case.

    Metzger opened his own bicycle shop which remained in operation, albeit in different locations, at least through the early 1920s. That shop also sold more than just bicycles this 1912 advertisement shows.

    Where is 351 Woodward at the corner of  High Street?

    High Street was replaced with I-75. 351 Woodward (now 2337 Woodward) is roughly the parking lot just north of Hockeytown.

    By 1920, the bicycle shop had moved further north to 2947 Woodward near Charlotte — where the U.S. Social Forum cyclists camped this year.