B cycle is one of the emerging players in public bike rental market. Cities like Denver and Minneapolis are looking to roll out these B cycles.

If you can get past the anti-car vibe, there’s a video describing how B cycles work on their web site.

Imagine how cool this would be in places like downtown Royal Oak, Ferndale, or Detroit? It seems we would integrate rental stations with the proposed streetcar line on Woodward to really increase transportation options for those wanting to get to Eastern Market, Corktown, or Belle Isle.

This may not be so far fetched either as we’ve been discussing rental options with Detroit officials.

What can you do to help us move this forward? Please take a minute to vote for Detroit (ZIP code 48226 works) on the B cycle web site.

Of course Wheelhouse Detroit already rents bikes. Wouldn’t a B cycle overlap with what they’re already providing? Perhaps a little, but I think the Wheelhouse rentals are aimed more at recreational use, touring, and exploring. A B cycle system is aimed more at short term transportation, running errands, and going between rental stations.

Traffic engineer Ian Lockwood from Glatting Jackson has been to Detroit a few times now for planning efforts to spur redevelopment and revitalization.

He’s highlighted a key concept for bicycle, pedestrian, and transit advocates. Current U.S. traffic engineering culture pursues greater mobility, i.e. how fast someone can get between places. That’s often why they are stuck thinking primarily about cars, wider roads, higher speeds, and interstate expressways.

Lockwood says we should all focus on accessibility instead. In doing so, we’d try to rein in sprawl, increase density, and improve transportation options.

Perhaps given our automotive heritage, Detroit seems particulary focused on mobility. A recent Brookings Institute report found Metro Detroit led the nation in job sprawl. Seventy-seven percent of our jobs are more than 10 miles from the city center.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

“From transportation to workforce development to regional innovation and the provision of social services, the spatial distribution of a metro area’s jobs can ultimately influence its economic productivity, environmental sustainability, and social inclusion and equity,” wrote Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior research analyst at Brookings and author of the 23-page report.

Is there any wonder why we can’t find enough money to repair our roads?

At a recent traffic engineering meeting, Jonathon Levine, a researcher from the University of Michigan gave a presentation about accessibility versus mobility. Fortunately it’s on-line but be forewarned: it’s a little traffic geeky. Even so, the first couple minutes really nail the point about accessibility versus mobility.

And for those that can’t make it through the entire video, this slide really captures the main thrust that accessibility should be the ends. The means includes mobility, proximity (how close things are together) and connectivity (can you access them remotely, e.g. through the Internet).

This needs to be the transportation paradigm for Metro Detroit, and if it were, it’d make bicycling a viable transportation option for more people more often.

Model D Media recently overviewed the status and progress of trail development across the city of Detroit.

The article mentions a relatively new trails brochure which goes into greater detail and includes a large fold-out map. If you are interest in receiving this brochure, make sure you visit the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance booth at the Detroit RiverDays from June 19th through the 21st. Or, stop by the MTGA booth at the Green Art Fair in Palmer Park on June 28th.

Crain’s also had a recent article, Conservancy makes great strides on RiverWalk, more. In it they look back on the history of the RiverWalk and provide some recent updates. The Dequindre Cut is noted as well.

And finally, Jeff Gerritt wrote a very positive opinion piece for the Free Press called, Cut shows Detroit’s promise.

The cut is one more reason to feel good about Detroit’s future, if we can start looking at things differently. The city’s population is less than half of its 1950s peak, and it continues to lose more than 10,000 people a year. But its land mass, streets, sewers, lighting and the like are still spread over the same 140 square miles geared to accommodate a city of nearly 2 million. Roughly a third of the city is now vacant. To survive and thrive, Detroit must creatively downsize. The Dequindre Cut Greenway shows us how.

Last month while biking, I stopped at a red light on Catalpa at Woodward. I was not in the right lane since I was not turning. I was continuing westbound on Catalpa.

This is legal under state law 257.660a (d):

A person operating a bicycle upon a highway or street at less than the existing speed of traffic shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except as follows:

(d) When operating a bicycle in a lane in which the traffic is turning right but the individual intends to go straight through the intersection.

This apparently upset the solitary driver behind me. After the light turned green and I proceeded across Woodward, he rode up next to me, rolled down his window, and yelled profanities and threatened to “have me arrested.”

I just dropped back a little, got his license plate number, and followed him in case he was going to the police station. (He didn’t.) Had he threatened to hit me, I would have reported him for aggressive driving.

It’s situations like this that make me keep a cell phone handy on all my rides.

Still, the problem is unless a police officer witnesses it, it’s often a case of he said, she said.

So,?I wish I had a video camera always running to capture this unacceptable social behavior. Not only could it help with potential police enforcement, but publically posted such videos might bring public shame to those who deserve it.

One bicyclists is video recording such incidents. Jeff’s Bike Blog documents bad drivers and is apparently active in reporting them to the police. He even shows how he configures the cameras on his bike.

Have you shot video of aggressive drivers on your bike rides? What has been your experience reporting aggressive drivers to the police? Have they taken any actions?

There is some great news in the Spinal Column about Wixom officially joining Commere Township and Walled Lake to purchase a portion of the Coe railroad.

As we’ve reported prior, this would connect the Huron Valley Trail with the West Bloomfield Trail (and their planned extension), while creating 8 miles new miles rail-trail.

The communities have formally created a trailways alliance called the Commerce, Walled Lake and Wixom Trailway Management Council. Each municipality appointed one voting member to act in its best interests. Wixom City Manager Mike Dornan will represent Wixom, with Assistant City Manager Tony Nowicki serving as an alternate.

According to Nowicki, the formation of the trailway council is the first step toward acquiring railroad corridor property that spans from Haggerty Road to the western city limits of Wixom. That stretch is considered part of a missing link in a cross-county trail traversing the county limits and connecting into a cross-state corridor connecting one side of the state to the other.

“The council’s powers are limited to the acquisition and maintenance (of the rail corridor land), and for the purchase of railway right of way,” Nowicki said. “It doesn’t have the authority to levy any type of taxes.

Nowicki is currently preparing grant applications to seek funding to acquire the rail corridor.

Read the entire article