Steve Roach, the League of Michigan Bicyclists (LMB) Director for Detroit and the Pointes, was recently profiled in Grosse Pointe Today.

Roach, 48, is a lawyer at Miller Canfield in downtown Detroit. Several times a week, weather permitting, he leaves his car at home and commutes from his Grosse Pointe Park house to his office by bicycle. The 8.5-mile route carries him into decaying neighborhoods, over rutted pavement and sometimes through sweltering heat, but all of this doesn’t stop him, or even slow him down, and it certainly doesn’t bum him out. Exercise is its own reward.

“It occurred to me that it takes me at least 20 minutes to drive (to my office), and I started thinking I bet I could ride (there) in 20. I’m able to clear my head and enjoy it. For an extra 20 minutes of commuting a day, I get an hour’s worth of exercise.”

Through my job as Detroit Greenway Coordinator for MTGA, I get to work with Steve quite often. He’s definitely one of the shining stars within the LMB.

And on our most recent Detroit rides we even rescued a baby goat. Serious.

While he’s been very supportive of the Detroit biking and trail efforts, he and others are also working to make the Pointes more bike friendly. One suggestion is having bike lanes on Jefferson, or at least some Share the Road signage.

Here’s a video from the Grosse Pointe Today article as well.

How does your community compare with others with respect to pedestrian and bicycle crashes in 2008?

Here are the Oakland County communities with the most crashes according to the Office of Highway Safety and Planning, Michigan State Police:

Vehicle-Pedestrian Crashes

1. Pontiac 24, 2 fatal
2. Southfield 28, 2 fatal
3. Royal Oak 17, 1 fatal
4. Waterford 11, 1 fatal
5. Oak Park 10

Others: Ferndale had 7 with 1 fatal and Birmingham had 6.

Vehicle-Bicycle Crashes

1. Royal Oak 27, 1 fatal
2. Farmington Hills 17
3. Pontiac 16
4. Southfield 16
5. Troy 16
6. Madison Heights 15
7. Waterford 15
8. Ferndale 12
9. Hazel Park 12
10. Rochester Hills 12

Others: Birmingham had 5, Oxford had 1 fatal

Royal Oak is tops for combined crashes just as they were in 2007. It’s expected that their upcoming non-motorized planning can address this dubious distinction.

Shelby Township Trail

The Detroit News is reporting on a 1.2 mile extension of Shelby Township’s trail which would eventually connect with the Metro Parkway trail via Utica. This extension is part of the 70-mile Macomb Country Trail Loop.

What this trail really needs is a safe crossing of Avon Road near the Yates Cider Mill and a bridge over the Clinton River. This would create a great connection to the Clinton River and Macomb Orchard Trails.

Clinton River Trail in Pontiac

The Oakland Press provided an updated on two Clinton River Trail projects on the west side of downtown Pontiac.

• A connection from downtown to the rail-trail segment of the Clinton River Trail near Bagley
• A bridge over Telegraph near Orchard Lake Road

The latter will be especially appreciated and is a critical connection along the Clinton River Trail. It should be under-construction sometime next year.

LiveScience has an interesting article, Kids Today on Tighter Leash, But Wild at Home. It suggests that today’s kids have less independent mobility, perhaps due in part to the bike unfriendly designs of newer communities.

Parents today give their children more freedom at home but keep them on a tighter leash in public, a new study finds. This is the reverse of what was considered good parenting in the early half of the last century, the researcher showed.

The loss of public freedom could reflect social changes, including the current design of towns and suburbs, which focus mostly on the convenience of auto traffic, not kids.

In the early 20th century, advice columns tended to promote obedience, with children listening to parents regarding diet, appearance and other personal matters.

While tightening the leashes at home, parents often gave their kids free rein outside, allowing them to play sports, ride bikes and toddler scooters, buses and subways all over town, and even hitch rides.

The Free Press recently published a similar article, Fear and technology are keeping kids indoors.

U.S. children spend 50% less time outdoors than they did 20 years ago, says the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.

The lack of running or biking or splashing around in the sprinkler is one likely factor in rising childhood obesity rates, said education professor Rhonda Clements, who conducted a 2004 study, “An Investigation on the Status of Outdoor Play,” for Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y. In it, 85% of mothers reported their children spend less time playing outside than they did growing up.

This reduction in child mobility is also reflected in the number of kids walking or biking to school.

From a 2004 CDC study,

• In 1969, 42 percent of children 5 to 18 years of age walked or bicycled to school. In 2001, only 16 percent did.
• In 1969, 87 percent of children 5 to 18 years of age who lived within one mile of school walked or bicycled to school. In 2001, only 63 percent did.

The distances to schools and the traffic-related dangers were most often cited as barriers.

While the Safe Routes to School initiatives are addressing these barriers, it’s really something all of us need to keep pushing.

We need Complete Streets and well-designed communities that accomodate safe accessibility and mobility for future generations of kids — and that don’t require parent chauffeurs.

Mark your calendars. MDOT is holding an I-275 bike path construction open house from 6 PM until 8 PM on Thursday, August 13th. The open house will be held at Fellows Creek Golf Club (2936 South Lotz Road) in Canton.

This meeting is “to discuss upcoming construction work on the I-275 bike path in Wayne County. The project includes reconstruction of the path between US-12 (Michigan Avenue) and Edward Hines Drive. Interested stakeholders will have the opportunity to learn details regarding the project.”

Also, “Scheduled to begin in fall 2009, MDOT will reconstruct the bike path, rehabilitate pedestrian bridges, install signals at certain intersections and upgrade signs.”