Unless you live in Detroit’s Lafayette or Elmwood neighborhoods, you may not be aware of the huge trail network that runs throughout the area. The trails are rarely straight and it’s easy to get turned around.

They may not provide shortcuts for cyclists but they can make your ride more interesting.

But be forewarned that there are some issues with the trails. Some sections require maintenance. It’s not uncommon to encounter cracked pavement drainage issues, or little sinkholes.

Also, these trails typically do not have well-designed road crossings. You shouldn’t come to the road and have to search for a crossing (with curb cuts.) If these trails would be much more popular and well-used if they had easy to use road crossings, improved maintenance, and some directional signs.

One of the more unique trails runs along the west side of the Elmwood Cemetery. It’s paved with brick and makes for a bumpy ride for those on skinnier tires.

With encouragement from Kelli at Wheelhouse Detroit, most of these trails have been added to Google Maps bicycling layer. More of the smaller connections need to be added, but it’s usable now – so start exploring!

DLECTRICITY in Midtown Detroit on October 5th and 6th will feature a number of bicycle-related exhibits. What is this event?

DLECTRICITY is a new contemporary light art festival in the City of Detroit. For two nights, the historic architecture of Midtown will become the canvas for local, national, and international artists to display their cutting edge works of art. Over 35 projects will be shown including video projection, 3D video mapping, lasers, light sculpture, interactive design, performance, and more. The event is FREE to the public and open to all ages.

Here are a few bike-related events and projects from the DLECTRICITY web site:

Light Bike Saturday Oct. 6th

Workshop 5:00 – 7:00 PM – Wayne State parking lot 54, Southeast corner of 2nd St. and Warren Ave. DLECTRICITY is proud to host a workshop geared towards Detroit’s growing bike community. Sponsored by Shinola, the light bike workshop will show cyclists of all ages how they can add light and creativity to their rides. Free and open to the public.

Parade 7:00 PM – Starts: Wayne State parking lot 54, Southeast corner of 2nd St. and Warren Ave. Immediately after the Light Bike Workshop, DLECTRICITY will hold a 3.75 mile Light Bike Parade, encouraging workshop and festival attendees to show off their uniquely lit-up cycles as they ride through Midtown. Also sponsored by Shinola, this event is free and open to the public, please visit www.dlectricity.com for more information.

10. Velociplosion (A Muybridge Influenced Spatial Event)

The iconic photographic explorations of Eadweard Muybridge depict and distill continuous movements, from the mundane to the exceptional , into isolated frames of regard. These exercises, intentionally or otherwise, allow the idiosyncrasies of an object in time to be represented out of context, within a two dimensional medium (the genesis of cinema). This transformation is inherently one of reduction, contraction, minimization “Velociplosion”, an event of matter and light for Dlectricity, proposes to inverse these operations and re-contextualize these frame into space.

This exercise intends to reverse engineer a mechanical phenomenon into a set of sculptural “frames” across 100 feet of installation space. By constructing a series of identical objects in linear space, modifying each successive object slightly, and successively illuminating each object with a brief but powerful strobe, we may intimate Muybridge cell-motion with tangible, three dimensional objects. As subject matter a form has been selected that is both easily manipulated and commonplace to the urban vernacular- a street bicycle. (Emphasis added)

34. Share Detroit (Rheostat Ride)

Winding through the streets of midtown at night is a jumble of luminous letters floating seven feet above the pavement, each casting a halo of red light beneath it. As the letters draw near, you see the bicycle under each one, and the riders propelling them, each letter flying flag-like from a mast. More riders arrive from other directions, and each one stops in a predetermined spot. They form a line, spelling a phrase, and stand there for a few moments. They ride away one by one, and the letters peel off into side streets, only to reassemble somewhere else as a different phrase.

This work, created for DLECTRICITY, is a dance on bicycles that will extend over the entire footprint of the event. Our goal is to be visible both as disparate neon letters moving through the event, and as a poem that progressively unfolds over the course of the two nights. Each line of the poem is an anagram of “SHARE DETROIT.” By riffing on the well- known bicycling slogan “Share the road,” we hope to start a conversation about midtown, transportation, the people attending the show, and the city in general. (Emphasis added)

Google released a video on their Map Maker software a little over a week ago. The video focuses on how we’ve used their program to update Google Maps with the latest bicycling and trail information.

Hailed as the birthplace of the automotive revolution, the city of Detroit, Mich. is taking its transportation legacy down new paths. As Detroit embraces a greener, non-motorized outlook, cycling is steadily increasing in popularity. The Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance is facilitating this transition by creating an interconnected statewide system of trails and greenways, including the development of bike paths throughout the Detroit area.

How did this come about?

First it began when I became heavily involved in updating the bicycling and trail information in Map Maker. I began in the city of Detroit but slowly progressed across all of Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne Counties. Google tracks how many edits contributors make and this work put me near the top of those in this region. They were having a North American Google Map Maker conference in Montreal and they invited me.

At the conference I had the opportunity to share stories of our work in Detroit, which left a positive impression. Google contacted me afterwards about making Detroit part of their upcoming promotional video.

As one can tell by the quality of the video, this was not some small project. At one point their were nine other people in my home office for a video shoot. They shot video for three days at locations across Detroit, including the Heidelberg Project, Belle Isle, Dequindre Cut, RiverWalk, Spirit of Hope urban garden, and even the Ambassador Bridge for the Bike the Bridge event. Some of the most dramatic shots were taken from a helicopter.

Of course the East Side Riders looked great in the video as well.

Though Detroit’s bicycle and trail info is quite up to date, there’s other mapping work that can be done – and it’s something everyone can do using Map Maker.

Others are also working on printed Detroit bike maps as well as Open Street Maps. We’re not done!

The Detroit News, MLive, and the Huffington Post also covered this story.

The eleven annual Tour de Troit is scheduled for September 15th this year. If you haven’t registered — unlike the thousand that already have — you’ll want to do so today. The price goes up $10 after today.

And you can only register for the shorter ride. The Metric Century filled up weeks ago.

Congratulations to the Tour de Troit team for bringing in such a great field of sponsors. This sponsorship means more entry fee can go towards building greenways in Detroit.

We’re also appreciative seeing the WM graphic on the list. That’s a memorial to Woody Miller, a Detroit cyclist and coach that helped lead the Metric and left a positive imprint on many youth cyclists. He passed away a couple years ago and certainly would be excited and proud to see where this event and the entire Detroit cycling scene is today.

This is the fourth week for a youth earn-a-bike program in the Osborn community, more specifically at E. Outer Drive and Van Dyke Avenue. Once again, Mode Shift has covered this program quite comprehensively in this article.

Basically, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy directed a $12,500 grant to the Detroit Eastside Community Collaborative (DECC) to run a youth earn-a-bike program that also did community service. This DECC program was 2 two-week sessions for kids 10-14. Thirty used bikes, parts, and tools were purchased through The Hub of Detroit. The youth learned how to repair a bike – which they kept – and did work in the community along with group rides. They also got helmets, bike locks, and bike lights.

Why Osborn? There have been earn-a-bikes in various parts of Detroit, but not in Osborn despite it having a high concentration of youth. And, the Milbank Greenway is located here along with a new segment of the Conner Creek Greenway, which is being constructed this year.

Also, this area was the focus of a series of Free Press articles on Safe Routes to School. For some, being able to bike to school might be a safer, quicker alternative to walking and the DDOT buses. A related note, The Hub of Detroit did a survey of students at the School of Performing Arts in Detroit. Not having a bike was the second most common reason for not riding to school. (Number one was the fear of bike theft and bullying.)

Part of the community service involves a pop-up bike shop where the youth and instructors will do free minor repairs on bikes. The shop be on the Milbank Greenway at Van Dyke (just north of E. Outer Drive) this Thursday, August 16th from 10am until noon.

What happens next? DECC has tools and workstands to keep this program running on Detroit’s east side. More funding would be needed for the bikes, parts, and instructors. Stay tuned.