Riders getting their glow sticks on

Last night was the second Motorcity Motorless bike ride out of Royal Oak.  This bi-weekly ride starts at 10 PM on Saturdays in Downtown Royal Oak at Second and Center Streets.

It’s not your typical club ride.

It’s more relaxed. For the most part, riders where normal clothes versus lycra.  Some don’t wear helmets.

But for me, the biggest positive is the ride takes main roads.  Rather than wiggle through neighborhood side streets or take sidewalks, we just take a lane on Main Street, 12 Mile Road, Greenfield, etc. And I’ve talked to many Illinois personal injury lawyers who’ve told me time and again how bad of an idea that is to the bikers.

It was among the safest group rides I’ve ever been on.  We followed the rules of the road better than any group ride I’ve been on.

Why?  Unlike other area rides, we weren’t constantly calling out turns, dealing with parked cars on neighborhood sidestreets, and going through intersections with stop signs.

Were we making a statement about bikes rights to the road?  I don’t know and it really doesn’t matter.

On a related note, this blog entry from Copenhagen talks about some of the signs they have there.

I love this sign. See it all the time. “Cyclists in the driving lane”. It is usually posted when there new segregated bike lanes are being built and the cyclists are redirected into traffic. Don’t worry. It’s not dangerous. We’re used to it, motorists and cyclists alike.

I like the tone. There are cyclists in the driving lane. Period. Adjust accordingly to this fact.

On Monday, September 8th at 11:15 AM, the Detroit City Council’s Public Health and Safety Committee will be discussing the Detroit Non-Motorized Transportation Master Plan.  This plan has never been brought before City Council for their approval — a necessary step before groups like MDOT will recognize and help implement the plan.

When: September 8th at 11:15 AM
Where: City Council, 13th floor of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, Jefferson at Woodward

So what does this plan do? As we noted earlier, this plan takes inventory of the many cycling destinations across Detroit, including parks, schools, cultural centers, recreational centers, etc. It looks at how to best connect them with a network of on- and off-road bike facilities — trails, bike lanes and shared signed routes. The plan calls for nearly 400 miles of bikes lanes across the City of Detroit that could be implemented during normal road maintenance by simply re-striping existing roads.

The authors of the plan, Giffels-Webster will be there to give a presentation on it.  Detroit’s Traffic Engineering Division, the city department that is ultimately responsible for implementing this plan will be at the meeting as well.

We need public comment from cyclists, walkers, and other residents to voice their support for this plan!

Note that current changes in city government may affect this meeting time, causing it to be delayed or changed.  If you want to be certain the meeting is still on as scheduled, call the Office of the City Clerk at 313.224.3266.

We hope to see you there.

Perhaps you read in Model D recently about Terry Paris Jr’s experiment: Detroit, One Man, One Month, No Car.

I spoke with Terry afterward and he really seemed to enjoy biking more.  However, bad luck did strike him at the end.

And, as a nice little topper-off for this whole thing, on the last day of the experiment my bike was stolen in broad daylight outside a bar in Hamtramck – lock and all.

Terry also wrote a companion article listing ways to improve local public transit and biking options.

Bike racks on DDOT buses would also improve DDOT riders, too.

Oh, and bike lanes along major streets.

“A greater number of people would ride their bikes if the city had lanes,” says Todd Scott, Detroit Greenways coordinator. (It’s Detroit Greeways’ goal to get 400 miles of non-motorized lanes in Detroit.) “Bike lanes make the person feel a lot safer and makes the cars more aware. This would be a great city for bike lanes.”

Fortunately for Terry and the rest of us, DDOT bus bike racks and Detroit bike lanes are moving closer to reality.

For the first time, states are now being ranked according to how well they accommodate bicycling:

The League of American Bicyclists has announced our first annual ranking of Bicycle Friendly States, scoring all 50 states on more than 70 factors. The states were scored on responses to a questionnaire evaluating their commitment to bicycling and covering 6 key areas: legislation; policies and programs; infrastructure; education and encouragement; evaluation and planning; and enforcement.

Andy Clarke, president of the League, said, “While every state has room to improve in making bicycling a preferred mode of transportation and accessible form of recreation, Washington is making the greatest strides to make this a reality.” Clarke points to Washington’s model bike laws, signed and mapped statewide bike route network, dedicated funding from the state for bicycle related programs and projects, and an active statewide bicycle advisory committee as a few examples of why Washington ranked the highest.

Michigan is near the top at number 12.  The reasoning cited was:

Michigan has a rumble strip policy with a minimum 4 feet of clearance and dedicated state funding for bicycle projects. However, there is no routine accomodation or complete streets policy.

There is a very cool interactive map on-line they lets you easily compare states by clicking on them.

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