Tom Greenwood of the Detroit News writes a decent column about commuting, but he’s kicking off 2009 on a sour note.

It’s the first day of 2009, so let’s start the year with some fun famous first facts concerning cars, roads and traffic.

Greenwood’s first “fun” fact is the first car crash occurred in 1896 when a motorist hit a bicyclist.

His second “fun” fact was in 1899 when a motorist killed a pedestrian — the first fatality caused by a car.

Injury crashes and fatalities are not fun and should not be trivialized.

We reminded him that in Michigan last year, motorists struck 2,160 bicyclists (18 fatalities) and killed 133 pedestrians.

Tom Greenwood can be contacted at commuter@detnews.com, (313) 222-2023 or by writing to The Detroit News, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226.

Bikes are not allowed on the Ambassador Bridge or in the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.  They certainly aren’t allowed on the railroad tunnel beneath the Detroit River.

If you’re lucky, you might be able to talk the Truck Ferry operator into a ride.

Or you can take the Windsor Transit Tunnel Bus.  But, unlike all the other buses in the Windsor fleet, you aren’t allowed to use the bus bike rack.  You must disassemble your bike, put it in a bag, and carry it on the bus — not a practical solution.

Groups like Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision (SDEV) and MTGA are working to add a better option with the proposed new bridge over the Detroit River.  (The bridge is more properly called the Detroit River International Crossing or DRIC.)

The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) says:

The new bridge over the Detroit River and the plaza will be engineered to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians. U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its Canadian counterpart (Customs and Border Services Agency) will determine whether this traffic is allowed.

That’s a great start.  MTGA and others have submitted comments in support of making the new bridge a practical non-motorized connection between Windsor and Detroit.

Imagine the boost to cycling tourism.  Imagine how valuable an international connection would be between two cities both developing bike and greenway networks.  Imagine the Tour d’Troit heading over to Windsor on a new bridge.

The FEIS also includes more good news:

Bike lanes will be added to both sides of Jefferson Avenue and Clark Street, linking the Rouge River Gateway Master Plan Trail and potentially the proposed West Riverfront Greenway. Non-motorized paths will be included in the buffer zone surrounding the plaza.

Some of our friends in Windsor are also pushing for this crossing as well.

In the meantime, efforts are underway to determine if and how the Transit Windsor Tunnel Bus could better accomodate bikes.

EDIT: There is a Yahoo! discussion group dedicated to this topic.

by Austrian artist Erwin Wurm

A recent study by the University of Tennessee’s Obesity Research Center documents the relationship between obesity rates and active transportation (i.e. biking, walking, and public transit.)

The study’s lead author, David Bassett, co-director of the Obesity Research Center and professor in the Department of Exercise, Sport and Leisure Studies, said more people are thinking about transportation issues to save gas and money. On top of that, Americans are obsessed with losing weight, and the latest statistics show about one in three U.S. adults are obese.

“Many people blame this on things like technology, TV, Internet and sedentary jobs, but what we found was that there are other industrialized nations who have similar, high standards of living, who do not suffer from obesity to nearly the same extent that the U.S. does,” he said. “I truly believe that the transportation modes in various countries are important in explaining international differences in obesity rates.”

This study’s results are just another justification for building more biking and walking infrastructure in Metro Detroit.

And it also supports the Safe Routes to School concept, especially given the amount of childhood obesity in Michigan.  In 2007, 12% of children in Michigan were obese (>20% overweight.)

Unfortunately many of those responsible for transportation decisions have little experience or background in health.  Improving community health is not on their radar.  But one thing road engineers are good are is understanding numbers — and this study provides them.

• In 2000, Europeans walked an average of 239 miles per person per year.  Americans walked 88 miles. And while Europeans biked 118 miles per year on average, Americans rode only 25 miles.
• In Atlanta, every hour per day spent driving was associated with a 6 percent increase in the likelihood of being obese.

One caveat is the results do not prove causality.  However, the authors note the results “suggest that active transportation could be one of the factors that explain international differences in obesity rates.”

From the DNR:

The Department of Natural Resources Parks and Recreation Division cordially invites you to participate in a Public Workshop on Wednesday, January 14, 2009.

We Need Your Help Planning the Recreation Design and Programming for Tri-Centennial State Park and Harbor.

Tri-Centennial State Park and Harbor, located on the Detroit River between Rivard and St. Aubin Streets, is a work in progress. We need your help to complete this park’s recreation plan! Please join the community for a two hour workshop to help decide the future recreation development of Michigan’s only urban state park. Come to share your ideas for this state park.

Where?

Christ Church of Detroit, Ledyard Hall
960 E. Jefferson (Use the Woodbridge St. entrance)
Detroit, MI 48207

When?

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 (Alternate date in case of severe weather is January 21). Choose the time option that works best for you!

• Option 1: 3– 5 p.m.
• Option 2: 7– 9 p.m.

Please R.S.V.P. by January 6, 2009, either by email at SenkoL1@michigan.gov, or phone at 517-373-9900. Seating is limited, so be sure to R.S.V.P. and reserve your opportunity to participate!

Group organizations/clubs are requested to limit their member participation to two (2) representatives, to allow as many organizations and individuals to participate as possible. If you cannot attend, you can still share your comments by sending them to: DNR-Tri-Centennial@michigan.gov.

Light refreshments will be provided.

There’s been a big push by many groups to get Green projects in the Obama economic stimulus package.  We’ve already mentioned the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s push.  The DNR Parks division has submitted about a quarter-million in infrastructure projects.  The Detroit Greenways Coalition has their trails submitted as well.

That’s all the good news.

The fear however is this stimulus package will also fund a significant amount of road expansion.

From Bloomberg.com:

While many states are keeping their project lists secret, plans that have surfaced show why environmentalists and some development experts say much of the stimulus spending may promote urban sprawl while scrimping on more green-friendly rail and mass transit.

“It’s a lot of more of the same,” said Robert Puentes, a metropolitan growth and development expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington who is tracking the legislation. “You build a lot of new highways, continue to decentralize” urban and suburban communities and “pull resources away from transit.”

And decentralizing/sprawl also hurts bikability and walkability.

Some local concerns involve planned expressway expansion, notably I-75 in Oakland County and I-94 in Detroit.  Neither project made financial sense long before the recent declines in vehicle miles traveled.  Now they make less sense.

And they’re certainly not green, but they might get in the stimulus package.

The I-94 project is especially bad in that it would remove nine bridges over the expressways — permanently blocking bicycle routes within Detroit’s non-motorized transportation master plan.

And because the highway expansion was planned before the non-motorized plan, MDOT is ignoring the latter.  However, reading their Final Environmental Impact Statement only shows that MDOT wasn’t going to let non-motorized priorities get in the way of an expressway expansion.

That said, there’s not too much we can do until MDOT’s economic stimulus list becomes public and we see what’s on the list.