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  • Green jobs: American Cycle & Fitness and the Detroit RiverWalk

    If you’re interested in working at a bike shop, American Cycle and Fitness is looking to hire.

    Their job application is on their web site.

    The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy also has a few jobs posted.

  • MDOT grants announced for trails and streetscaping

    MDOT has announced the latest round of Transportation Enhancement funding.

    Here are the grantees from the three Metro Detroit counties.

    Macomb County

    The city of New Baltimore will make streetscape improvements to its historic downtown on Washington Street from Green Street to Front Street. The project will include streetlights, trees, planters, bike racks, street furniture, and staining the existing sidewalk. The project budget is $486,110, including $340,277 in federal TE funds and $145,833 from the city.

    Oakland County

    The Road Commission for Oakland County, in partnership with West Bloomfield Township, will construct a multi-use trail along an abandoned rail line from Arrowhead Road to Haggerty Road. The trail will be an extension of the West Bloomfield Trail, which connects to the Clinton River Trail. The project includes trail surfacing, roadway crossings, benches, trash receptacles, and trail shoulder restoration with native plant materials. The project budget is $1,111,692, including $611,431 in federal TE funds and $500,261 from West Bloomfield Township Parks and Recreation.

    Wayne County

    MDOT, in partnership with the city of Detroit and the Greening of Detroit, will install streetscape amenities along US-12 (Michigan Avenue) between 14th Street and Rosa Parks Boulevard. The work includes replacing the concrete sidewalks and adding brick pavers, tree planters, bike loops and trash receptacles. When the project is complete, the Greening of Detroit will place trees in the planters. The project budget is $407,351, including $325,881 in federal TE funds, $71,286 from MDOT and $10,184 from the city.

    Both streetscape projects include bike racks.

    What’s not on the list is the grant request for Trumbull in Detroit. As we’d last heard, this was a request to reconstruct Trumbull from Warren to W. Grand Boulevard, including adding bike lanes.

    Another project that is expected to get funded soon is the next portion of the Conner Creek Greenway from the Mt. Olivet Cemetery to Eight Mile. It includes a combination of bikes lanes on E. Outer Drive/Conner, sidewalks, and bike routes.

    As you may recall, Transportation Enhancements has been threatened to be cut in Washington DC. Now is as good a time as ever to contract your Congress member and remind them of the value in these transportation dollars.

  • Bike lanes: Safety and Southwest Detroit

    Here’s a quick thought for Friday.

    It’s not uncommon to hear those who don’t ride bicycles or those who are just starting out say they don’t feel comfortable in bike lanes. One often heard reason? It’s just paint separating you from the cars.

    Ask them if they’ve drive on a two-way road? You know those yellow lines in the center? That’s paint. (Thank you, Edward Hines.)

    Cars crossing the centerline and hitting others is common crash type, especially with drunk or distracted drivers.

    Bicyclists getting hit from behind is not very common. Most car-bike crashes occur at intersections, and usually in crosswalks.

    Perceptions create reality

    One interesting feature of roads with bike lanes is cyclists perceive them to be safer, so more cyclists ride. When more cyclists ride, everyone is safer due to the safety in numbers hypothesis.

    When you have more people on bikes and you have roads with bike markings and signs, drivers’ expectation of seeing cyclists increases — and they adapt their driving habits. Safety increases.

    Benefits to others

    There is a Detroit resident in Southwest Detroit campaigning against bike lanes there. Her issues have gone so far as City Council where yesterday it was on the agenda for the Neighborhood and Community Services Standing Committee.

    In response, the City Planning Commission reviewed the bike lane issues and wrote a report for the committee. The report noted that bike lanes “help develop more travel choices in Detroit, enhance travel safety, and improve the city’s quality of life.”

    We agree.

    It’s also worth mentioning that there are many benefit to bike lanes and most have nothing to do with bicycling. This paper from the Oregon DOT documents them.

    Yes, even motorists benefit — something that’s always worth mentioning when making your bike lane sales pitch in the Motor City.

    Besides, it’s just paint.

     

  • Made in Detroit: Lumpkin Cycle Works panniers

    The Detroit Bicycle Company has been getting lots of love in Twitterland for their sweet, custom classic bicycles, but they’re not the only ones with made in Detroit, cycle chic bicycle wares.

    Lumpkin Cycle Works makes some pretty fancy panniers. They’re waterproof, leather and can “carry a couple gallon jugs on each side.” The read light mount is a nice touch.

    As you might imagine, they aren’t inexpensive. Continental Bike Shop is currently selling these panniers on ebay for $300. Hand-made chic doesn’t come cheap.

    Still not that convinced you need these? Here’s the video.

    Gray Lumpkin Vintage-Inspired Rear Bike Panniers from carlossee’ Santiago L. on Vimeo.

  • Light rail, BRT and bicycles in Detroit

    It’s challenging keeping abreast of the recent announcements for the off-again, on-again light rail and now bus rapid transit (BRT) projects in Detroit.

    The latest proposal is to build the M1-Rail’s 3-mile light rail on Woodward with BRT on Michigan, Woodward, and Gratiot.

    Woodward Avenue

    According M-Live, the M1-Rail group has “90 days to develop a plan to incorporate their 3.4 mile light rail line into the BRT system. Just how that will work on a practical level is something to be decided in the planning process, according to Bing spokesman Stephen Serkaian.”

    Are we back to the curb-side versus center-running debate? Not sure.

    Both the light rail and BRTs will all but certainly share a dedicated right-of-way and some stations. As wide as Woodward is, MDOT’s not going to dedicate four lanes to transit.

    And in order for both projects to move most quickly while using federal dollars, they’ll likely use the DDOT light rail study which favored center running for most of the route. That coincides with a statement from the Mayor’s office that “Any light-rail studies to date can be applied to advance the approval and construction of rapid bus.”

    Following the DDOT study would be fairly ideal for cyclists who want to continue riding safely on Woodward.

    However, M-Live adds, “experts say the possibility of BRT ending in New Center is a real one.” That would make it easier to put light rail on the curbs, which would be?a terrible scenario for cyclists.

    Michigan and Gration Avenues

    For these roads, there are definitely more questions than answers at this point.

    How will the BRT affect:

    • the new Corktown bike lanes?
    • the planned sharrows on Gratiot in Detroit?
    • the Woodward Avenue non-motorized planning north of Eight Mile?

    We may not have answers to these for some time, especially since Woodward will likely be the first dip in the BRT waters.

    We do know that BRT will be on state trunk lines and MDOT is committed to building Complete Streets.