We recently visited the St. Clair County offices in Port Huron, Michigan. We couldn’t help but notice the less-than-useful position of their bike rack.

We spoke with County Parks and they said it was likely moved in order to accommodate snow removal.

Moving it out of the way may make sense, but it makes more sense to locate where it can used year round. Normal people do ride bikes in the winter. Canada’s Yukon Territory has a higher bike to work rate than California and Florida.

The Yukon Territory’s winter weather surely isn’t any better than ours.

MDOT is hosting four meetings to discuss their plans to rehabilitate widen I-94 through the heart of Detroit.

Yes, they basically ignored non-motorized transportation when initially designing the project.

Yes, they are permanently removing bridges (e.g. John R) that are critical to Detroit’s non-motorized transportation plan.

No, they are not willing to remedy this issue in the Midtown area.

The project’s price tag? $1.7 billion. That’s billion with a “b”.

We will post more on this projects’ deficits soon, but here is MDOT’s meeting schedule:

Eastside meetings

(Co-sponsored by Wayne County Commissioner Bernard Parker and the Detroit Eastside Community Collaborative)

Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010
2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.
Wayne County Community College District ? Cooper Conference Room
5901 Conner Road, Detroit

Midtown meetings

Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010
9-11 a.m. and 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Cathedral Church of St. Paul ? Barth Hall (parking in back)
4800 Woodward Ave., Detroit

Special accommodations: 313-922-3311

Photo: Detroit News

The North American International Auto Show is in Detroit right now.

And just as many things in Detroit’s transportation history have an early connection to bicycling, so too does the auto show.

According to the Detroit News, the “credit for the beginning of the Detroit auto shows belongs to the energy and enthusiasm of one man — William E. Metzger, who dealt in bicycles before becoming an important figure in the development of the auto industry.”

Metzger had been interested in cycling since the late 1880s. He raced and completed a number of centuries, which was quite challenging given that era’s roads and equipment.

His favorite bike was a star highwheeler. He was the first president of the Detroit Wheelmen cycling club.

After a stint working at Hudson’s, he opened the Huber & Metzger bike shop in 1891. It was located at 13 Grand River between Woodward and Griswold. It eventually became one of the largest bike shops in the U.S..

That bike shop is now on display on the lower level of the Detroit Historical Museum.

He sold his share of this bike shop in 1895 and opened America’s first automobile retail showroom a couple years later. This former bike shop owner (CORRECTED 12/11/2010) He became Detroit’s first auto dealer, and perhaps the first independent auto dealer in the U.S.. He sold electric cars and as well as the first Oldsmobile. He still sold bicycles as late as the 1920s.

But it was in 1899 when he started the first auto show in Detroit (only the second of its kind.) The next year he helped stage the first New York Auto Show.

Metzger was also very active in the Good Roads Movement. And when Horatio “Good Roads” Earle called the first International Good Roads Congress in 1900, he asked his friend William Metzger if he could get a car there for a demo. (The car died halfway around the race track.)

In 1901 he renewed his membership in the League of American Wheelmen and became a lifetime member. Apparently he didn’t completely trade his bicycles for cars.

He went on to greater success helping found the Cadillac Motor Car Company, the Everitt-Metzger-Flanders (E-M-F) Company (which produced 26,000 cars in 1911 — second only to Ford), and the Metzger Motor Company.

Much later his interest switched to airplanes and he started the first airplane show in Detroit. He was friends with some other former bike shops owners: the Wright Brothers.

The Wright Brothers bike shop was preserved by Henry Ford and can be viewed at Greenfield Village.

We recently purchased a Detroit Police Department booklet on traffic regulations from 1929.

What’s interesting is that we have many of the same regulations today. However, there are some differences.

• Under these city ordinances, bicycles were considered vehicles. Under current state law, bicycles are devices.
• The vehicle speeds are lower: 20 MPH in the neighborhoods and 15 MPH in the business districts — rates that are much safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Those today have been raised to a minimum of 25 MPH.
• Reckless driving appears to be a lower standard, perhaps because it includes today’s careless driving standard. Back then, if you were “to endanger or likely to endanger,” you could be found reckless and possibly lose your license.

It was illegal to drive drunk in 1929, which is interesting since America still had Prohibition. Perhaps that’s not surprising with 75% of America’s booze being smuggled through Metro Detroit at the time — the city’s second largest business after automobiles.

The booklet does include a map. While much of the street grid remains intact, we have lost some roads to superblocks, including the Renaissance Center, Cobo Hall, Comerica Park, and Ford Field.

The Lodge expressway has also done serious damage to the business district street grid. It was named after Mayor John C. Lodge who was in office at the time this booklet was printed.

Link: Detroit Police 1929 Traffic Regulations booklet (9.6 megabytes)

The Adventure Cycling blog talks about a recent visit to Detroit to discuss a new Underground Railroad bicycle route. This route will be a spur off their existing Underground Railroad route. The Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance is assisting in this effort.

Now, at the urging of the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program (and with support from Adventure Cycling members), we’re pleased to say we’ll be expanding the Underground Railroad Route once more — to south eastern Michigan (including Detroit) and south western Ontario (including the Buxton Historic Site).

There is an intense amount of passion in Detroit for this history. I witnessed a small sampling during my visit. The Michigan Freedom Trails Commission and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History will play an important role in helping us incorporate the best sites and history into this route, and cycling advocates will help us ensure the route stays true to the Adventure Cycling standards of scenic and safe roads and trails.

Though there’s a lot of work to be done to get this route from concept to map, I am honored, once again, to be working with dedicated people on something that will bring economic and active transportation opportunities to a city once known as the Paris of the Midwest.

Read the entire Adventure Cycling article