In Ferndale

The City is installing at least five new bike racks in Downtown. And according to this, they won’t be your run of the mill, cold gray steel variety. Ferndale is Fashionable even when it comes to bike racks!

Bicycling in Ferndale is about to become a bit easier and more secure this spring. The city plans to install at least five new artistic bike racks in the downtown area as part of its on-going effort to encourage more non-motorized traffic. The city expects to put in the bike racks in March or April. Each rack will be able to hold a handful of bikes and will be decorative and artistically unique. City officials are still determining where to put the new racks and what they will look like. Cost of the project is estimated at a few thousand dollars.

In Detroit

The City of Detroit is making some streetscape improvements downtown which are mostly covered by a Transportation Enhancements grant through MDOT. Some of those improvements include bike racks. The streets to be improved are Park Street, from Woodward to Adams Streets; Witherell, from Woodward to Adams; Adams, from Park to Witherell, Grand River Avenue, from Washington Boulevard to Broadway Avenue; and Clifford/John R., from Washington Boulevard to Broadway Avenue. Read the rest of this entry »

While it still needs final approval from Detroit’s City Council, it appears the biggest missing piece from the East Riverwalk is moving forward. This piece is between Mt. Elliot Park and MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle. It’s on the old Uniroyal site which is undergoing environmental cleanup.

This is a major missing Riverwalk segment because the alternative routes are currently Jefferson Avenue or Lafayette. Both are out of the way and Jefferson is not a welcoming road for many cyclists.

In conjunction with the announcement, Phase II of the Dequindre Cut design is moving forward. Phase II continues the trail north past Eastern Market and up to Mack. At Mack, the abandoned railroad is back at the street level grade.

A third bit of good news is that the Free Press printing press building on the West Riverfront is currently being demolished. That property was purchased by the Riverfront Convervancy and will help jumpstart development on the West Riverwalk. Read the rest of this entry »

I was just discussing this bridge with someone recently and said I didn’t think anything was happening with it due to the current budget crunch in Pontiac. I was wrong. Under Act 51, 1% of the road funding each city, village, and county receives must go towards non-motorized transportation. Perhaps that is the grant match funding source in this case.

There is a public meeting on March 10th to discussed the proposed bridge. Here is the press release from the City of Pontiac: Read the rest of this entry »

Building a bike facilities is a great start, but you also need to devote some resources to getting the word out. We did this in Ferndale by creating videos that described why and how the bike network came about, as well as how to properly use them from a cycling and driving perspective. These videos were run on the local public access channel.

This week I came across a couple excellent public service announcements that also get the word out and get more non-cyclists on a bike.

This first one is from London, England (where they apparently had a decent budget):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK5K6pNBEes

Read the rest of this entry »

Last year, Detroit Public Television aired a half-hour segment on greenways and trails in the Metro-Detroit area called “Pathways for People.” It’s a well put together look at trails and their importance. If you have the time, you can now watch that video on-line. Pathway for People