Troy, the “City of Tomorrow… Today” has been in the news lately with their recent rejection of federal funding for a transit station.

Now Brian Dickerson’s Free Press column, “In Troy, an all-too-familiar fear of the other” drops an H-bomb by calling them “hicks.”

To be a hick in 2011, then, is to be in a state of denial — which is why “hicks” is precisely the right word to describe Troy Mayor Janice Daniels and the like-minded elected city leaders who’ve sent Troy reeling backward in time, grasping for a past that is not so much racist or unsophisticated as it is, well, past.

But their real motive was transparent: the fear that outsiders currently disinclined to visit Troy may do so if enticed by a modern train station and convenient parking, at an incalculable cost to Troy taxpayers and their way of life.

This reminds us of a speech given by Horatio Earle in the late 1890s. Earle led the Good Roads committee for the League of Michigan Wheelmen — the state’s cycling body. He was in Troy to promote government investments in building good roads.

From his autobiography:

One night in Troy Township Hall, in Oakland County, where I was holding a meeting, it almost became a riot. I told them that they showed lack of intelligence, and gave me less consideration than would be shown a man in the center of Ethiopia; that some time they would be ashamed of themselves. And they have been; since then, they have made profuse apology.

The farmers said the muddy roads were good enough for them. They felt they were taxed enough already and they didn’t want city folks, especially bicyclists riding through their community.

Sound similar?

Now to be fair to Troy, Earle garnered the same negative reaction in nearby Royal Oak.

Then again, it’s likely that federal funding to improve the Royal Oak transit station would be greeted with celebration rather than controversy.

We should also mention again that Troy also created a citywide plan for non-motorized paths and Good Roads, now called Complete Streets. That plan also appears to be going nowhere.

Google Maps has a bicycle layer which shows three main types of bicycle facilities: off-road pathways (dark green), roads with bike lanes (lighter green), and roads that are preferred bicycle routes (dotted green).

As of this today, the city of Detroit has been updated.

• Milbank Greenway added
• Conner Creek Greenway added (including St. Jean and Clairpointe bike lanes)
• Southwest Detroit Greenlink added (bike lanes only)
• Atwater bike lanes added
• “bike lanes” on Joy Road removed
• “bike lanes” on Fort Street removed
• RiverWalk sections added

There are still more corrections to make.

• W. Outer Drive and W. Chicago are shown with bike lanes when they only have shoulders.
• There are still some sections of sidewalk shown as “preferred” bicycle routes.
• The Southwest Detroit Greenlink bike routes should be labelled as “preferred.”

We’ll get to these changes unless someone beats us to it.

We also removed the sidewalk along Lakeshore through the Pointes as a preferred bicycle path/trail.

What are the benefits?

For one, the map can help cyclists map their route. It’s interactive and up to date, though some may still prefer a printed bike map, especially since not everyone has a smart phone or direct access to the Internet.

Having an accurate bicycle layer also affects how Google generates bike route directions. Google will try to route cyclists on to bike lanes and preferred routes when it makes sense.

On the other hand, having an inaccurate bicycle layer can make bike directions less valuable. Google has directed us out of our way to use a sidewalk in Troy that has been labelled as a preferred bicycle route.

How to update the bicycle layer

The bicycle layer can be updated using the Google Mapmaker utility. There is a review and approval process for changes so it’s not as instant as Wikipedia.

Mapmaker gives you the ability to change roads attributes, sidewalks, places, and more. It appears bike racks are not being added to this map.

Guide to Mapmaker bicycle facilities

The Google guidelines on how to appropriately label bicycle facilities aren’t always that clear, but here are some key points.

• Paved shoulders are not bike lanes. Google’s best practices says, “Roads without explicit paint markings or signage indicating a bicycle lane should not be given the ‘On-street bicycle lane attribute'”. Since paved shoulders of adequate width can improve bicycling, they can be labeled as “preferred.”
• Sidewalks and sidepaths are not trails/paths. Sidewalks and sidepaths should be documented as part of the road attributes. Google’s best practices says they should only be mapped as separate trails/paths when they’re “separated by a river, railway, or other impassable physical barrier.” Yes, many parts of Oakland County has improperly labelled bicycle features.
• Sidewalks are rarely preferred bicycle routes. If the above guideline is followed, sidewalks along roads can’t be. It’s less clear for sidewalks that are not along a road. In some cities like Royal Oak, bicycling on a sidewalk is prohibited. Sidewalks aren’t usually not cleared of snow by cities unlike streets, so their value in the winter can be variable. We’ve removed a preferred sidewalk segment in Royal Oak that had stairs.

Michigan has a performance dashboard that gives some very high level indicators which try to convey a sense of whether we’re improving or not.

The indicators are grouped into five main categories: infrastructure, Michigan, education, health and wellness, and talent.

There aren’t any indicators showing how we’re doing with respect to walking or biking, so we suggested two additions to the Mobility section of the Infrastructure dashboard.

For walking, we suggested a count of the number of Michigan cities given a “Very Walkable” rating or better from walkscore. com. Currently no Michigan cities have that rating but Hamtramck is very, very close. Given that no Michigan city is considered very walkable, it doesn’t seem likely they’ll appreciate this suggestion. We wouldn’t be overly disappointed if they lowered the bar so that some cities are counted. That would be better than nothing.

For biking, we suggesteded a count of the number of Bicycle Friendly Communities within the state. Currently that’s 7.

Why not use the number of Complete Street policies? While the Michigan Complete Streets Coalition lists a map with “Complete Street policies”, it really isn’t. It lists communities that have passed ordinances and resolutions, some of which we know have little to no intention of having a Complete Streets policy. And some are co-opting the Complete Streets definition.

Similarly, some communities have “non-motorized plans” which are merely sidewalk or trails plans. What is and what is not a proper non-motorized plan is subjective. And just having a plan doesn’t mean it’s being implemented any time soon.

For these reasons, we think using the third-party evaluations for walking and biking make much more sense.

One more benefit? These evaluations are consistent nationally. If Michigan is to compete with the rest of America, we need to measure ourselves accurately against the other 49.

We’ll let you know if we get any response from the state.

On Friday, December 18th, 1868 – only 143 years ago today – Detroit’s first bicyclist hit the street.

That is according to this colorful Detroit Free Press article, “The First Detroit Velocipedist,” which was published on the 19th:

Yesterday the first Detroit man that had the temerity to bestride the (not foaming, but very restive and treacherous) velocipede and show his skill (?) in the public street, might have been seen moving slowly along Jefferson avenue, followed by a large crowd of men and boys of all ages, classes and conditions. The bold rider was no other that the irrepressible Ben Fletcher, of the Michigan News Company. Sometimes he got along bravely by himself and seemed likely to run away from the crowd, but the next moment it would take a man on each side of him to keep him steady, while a third person behind pushed the machine along. Now the perverse front wheel would turn crosswise, and besides slopping all headway would make it pretty warm for the rider’s shins. In coming back it would usually lurch the other way, not infrequently seating the rider on the damp sidewalk. A horseman present thought he would as soon ride a “quarter horse”^{[Note 1]} while a large portion of the crowd were of the opinion that the velocipede had by some mistake been oiled with a superior brand of unstamped “tangle foot” or “forty rod.”^{[Note 2]} A gentleman in the crowd fancies he has discovered the way of balancing the concern, which he thinks is to turn the great wheel crosswise as soon as there is any danger of an upset. Ben allows him to put his theory to a practical test. He mounts the vehicle and dashes off at a fine rate; at the first waver of his balance he applies his new discovery; but the inturned handle takes him in the place where Jonah was^{[Note 3]}, and presently the velocipede is uppermost. Yesterday the velocipede had to be helped over crosswalks and steadied in rough places; but this state of things will not last a great while, for before long velocipedes will be as plenty as carriages in the streets, and velocipeding will become as popular as driving or skating^{[Note 4]}. The Michigan News Company has the agency for the Hanlons’ Patent Velocipede in this place^{[Note 5]}, and there can be no doubt that they will push their business so that in a short time velocipeding will be all the rage.

Notes

1. Quarter horses excel at short sprints and speedy maneuvers. The breed is often used in rodeos.
2. “Forty rod” is a facetious name for a “cheap and strong” whiskey “so called for its alleged ability to kill at forty rods” or one-eighth mile.
3. The “place where Jonah was” is a Biblical reference to the stomach.
4. In 1868, driving means driving horses, not cars. Skating refers to roller skates, which were around at that time.
5. The Hanlons were an New York acrobatic group that used velocipedes in their show. They modified their bikes and patented the improvements.

More details on the ride

It’s likely that Fletcher’s first ride began outside the offices of the Michigan News Company. They were located on Jefferson, a half-block west of Woodward.

Thirty-three years later, the Detroit Free Press had a follow up interview with Fletcher, who was now a traveling passenger agent for the Grand Trunk railroad.

He said that bike weighed around 100 pounds and was built in France. He eventually sold the bike to Daniel Soper of Newago, before Soper became the secretary of state for Michigan.

Fletcher also recalled the local music publishers selling a composition called the “Velocipede Gallop” and there was a cigar called “The Velocipede.”

This was not the first velocipede in Detroit, according to Fletcher. There was one on display in a specialty exhibit.

In our searches of the Free Press archives, the first velocipedes advertised in Detroit were in December 1851. However, these were for children and likely had three or four wheels.

Velocipede School

A new velocipede school was opened a couple months after Fletcher’s first ride. It was a 12-foot wide track around the outside of an indoors skating rink. Nine laps equaled a mile. The school rented velocipedes by the hour.

We’re not sure how successful this venture was as it did not appear in the 1869 city business directory.

Also, it wasn’t until 1878 that the first velocipedes were manufactured in Detroit. Velocipedes had become quite popular by then and their riders were starting to organize in order to establish their legal rights within Detroit.

As for Ben Fletcher, he died in early 1902 and is buried at the Forest Lawn cemetery.

Detroit News Laura Berman recently wrote about two Metro Detroit women who trying to get around mostly by bike and bus. They’re not car-free but they are committed to that lifestyle.

[Julie] Funke, a certified public accountant who lives in Royal Oak and commutes downtown, and [Melissa] Damaschke, who recently moved from Ferndale to Detroit, are bike-and-busers by choice – a rare but growing population segment, aided by recent regional upgrades, including bike racks on buses and miles of new bike lanes in Detroit.

In 2010, the friends made a pact, agreeing to use pedals and public transportation to get to work and social engagements as frequently as they could.

As the article mentions, they are documenting this commitment on their blog, Two Women, Four Wheels.

Like Funke and Damaschke, “Tig3rzhark” is documenting his bus/bike experience with a blog called, The Trials and Tribulations of a Detroit Bicyclist. He’s been sharing his stories since the summer of 2009.

Of course there are many other Detroiters living car-free and getting around by bus and bike. Given the route cutbacks at SMART and DDOT, those numbers are likely to grow.