MTGA’s Nancy Krupiarz and I are in New Orleans for the Urban Pathways to Livable Communities conference. With the ever growing expansion of Detroit’s greenways, this should be an excellent opportunity to understand more best practices from communities similar to Detroit.

The Urban Pathways to Livable Communities conference begins tomorrow in New Orleans. Hosted in part by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, the conference aims to create connections between the fields of transportation, public health and planning on the local, state and national levels. The first day of the conference is hosted by RTC’s Urban Pathways Initiative. It will bring together trail advocates and professionals from across the nation to discuss best practices for building and encouraging use of trails in low-income urban neighborhoods.

There is additional information and a podcast on the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy web site.

— Todd Scott, Detroit Greenways Coordinator, MTGA

Forbes loves publishing lists of dubious quality that are often based on census data. However, they recently named Metro Detroit as having the second worst commute in the U.S., which might be justifiable.

There are a few elements that easy-commuting cities have in common. In those places, more workers take advantage of public transportation, walk or bike; sprawl is minimal so workers tend to live closer to their offices; and the incidence of travel delays is low. To find the best and worst cities for commuters, we took the 60 largest metro areas and ranked each on three measures: The length of traffic delays at rush hour, the percentage of commuters who get to work by carpooling, biking, walking or taking public transportation (the “Green Commuter” rank); and the percentage of commuters that spend an hour or more getting to work. Click here for more details on the methodology.

Where Detroit scored most poorly was in the Green Commuting rank — we were last.

Then there’s Detroit. The city that comes in next to last was once at the forefront of transportation planning–the first urban freeways were built there. But its well-documented urban blight and population drain have wreaked havoc on the city’s infrastructure, and the once ubiquitous presence of the auto industry decimated what was a thriving public transportation system. Now, what would normally be a 45-minute drive takes an hour at peak times, and only 12% of commuters carpool, walk, bike or use public transportation–the lowest percentage of all the cities we tracked.

Detroit New’s columnist Tom Greenwood takes exception and makes the same mistake that transportation planners have made in Detroit for the past 50 years. They assume the word “commuting” means “driving.”

He adds, “I’ve driven in all those other cities, and I would rather have a tooth pulled than commute in any other big city compared to Detroit.”

It’s time to try that commute on a bike or by bus, Tom.?Detroit commuting looks a little different outside of the car.

What do the numbers 34, 39, and 339 represent?

Thirty-four is the number of fatalities being attributed to “sticky” Toyota gas pedals nationwide since 2000. It’s causes a media uproar, NTSA reviews, and public outcry over safety.

Thirty-nine is the number of cycling fatalities between 2000 and 2008 within Oakland, Wayne, Macomb, and St. Clair counties.

Three hundred, thirty-nine is the number of pedestrian fatalities during this time and within these same counties.

The difference with the local fatalities? There’s no uproar and very little media coverage. Agencies like the Road Commission for Oakland County continue to ignore best practices and AASHTO design guidelines for bicycle facilities.

Imagine if Toyota was caught ignoring best safety practices? This that would get some media coverage?

[This post was inspired by articles on Los Alamos Bikes and How We Drive.]

First Lady Michelle Obama has kicked off a national campaign to fight childhood obesity which helps tie sprawl to unhealthy living.

In my home, we weren’t rich. The foods we ate weren’t fancy. But there was always a vegetable on the plate. And we managed to lead a pretty healthy life.

Many kids today aren’t so fortunate. Urban sprawl and fears about safety often mean the only walking they do is out their front door to a bus or a car. Cuts in recess and gym mean a lot less running around during the school day, and lunchtime may mean a school lunch heavy on calories and fat. For many kids, those afternoons spent riding bikes and playing ball until dusk have been replaced by afternoons inside with TV, the Internet, and video games.

Similarly, the U.S. Surgeon General released a report stating:

The car-dependent design of our communities has made it much harder for our children to walk to school and much harder for us to shop and do other errands entirely on foot or by bicycle.

Recommendations include:

• Build or enhance infrastructures to support more walking and bicycling.
• Support locating schools within easy walking distance of residential areas.

Now contrast that with Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson’s archaic position on sprawl:

Well, let me state it unequivocally: I love sprawl. I need it. I promote it. Oakland County can’t get enough of it. Are you getting the picture?

Then in his 2010 state of the county address, Patterson said he’d allocate $50K per year from the Brooksie Way run to healthy living mini-grants:

I want Oakland County to be the healthiest county in the United States and I want my residents to enjoy a healthy quality of life.

So, mayors, supervisors, community leaders, there is $50,000 available to you for programs which have as their sole purpose the improvement of the health of your residents.

Patterson clearly doesn’t understand the connection between sprawl, obesity and unhealthy living.

In the first such national study, health researchers found that people who live in counties marked by sprawl-style development tend to weigh more, are more likely to be obese and are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure

As for his $50,000 program, keep in mind that Oakland County gives $1 million a year to the Road Commission for Oakland County to build and expand roads.

Improving Oakland County’s quality of life is clearly in the backseat, if not the trunk.

And we are getting the picture.

The Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grants millions of dollars each year for park land acquisition and trail development. One requirement is the grant recipients must have a recreation plan on file with the DNRE.

Until last week, the city of Detroit did meet that requirement.

They had a recreation plan that calls for adjusting the city’s parks, repositioning some, and investing in others to best serve the needs of the current population. Developed in 2006, the plan had been held up in city council committee.

Right-sizing the park system was called “controversial” by the Detroit News and others. More recently a Detroit News editorial said “it is essential to begin rallying the public to the benefits of right-sizing.” Clearly the wall between the news and editorial staff works.

With a new council came new committee chairs. Council member Kwame Kenyatta now chairs the Neighboorhood and Community Services committee. After a presentation on the rec plan and some positive public comment from MTGA, this committee voted out the proposal. Two weeks later it was approved by the city council.

The Recreation Department expects to submit Trust Fund grant requests due this April.

But some Detroit greenways may be seeking grants as well. The Trust Fund has specifically prioritized funding for greenways and trails that connect urban centers. Projects like the Conner Creek Greenway and Dequindre Cut could make excellent requests for development funding.