This posting is just a quick shout out to Rising Pheasant Farms which uses big bicycle trailers to transport their produce to Eastern Market. This isn’t too surprising given the Jack Van Dyke from the Hub is involved.
Here’s an excerpt from the Makezine blog with our emphasis added.
Leadley and Van Dyke live a few doors down the block from Weertz. Standing in front of their rows of lush tomato plants, the couple present a quirky version of American Gothic: Leadley has a pierced nose and Van Dyke wears a cycling cap and has their 10-month old son Finn in a back carrier. The cherubic toddler keeps whacking his mom as I ask the family to pose for a photo. While Van Dyke is at work fixing bicycles at Detroit’s non-profit bike repair shop The Hub, Leadley farms three city lots — about a sixth of an acre. In addition to cherry tomatoes, she grows ornamental flowers, which are a good cash crop. Leadley calls her business Rising Pheasant Farms because, apparently, pheasants are thriving in Detroit’s growing greenery. Rising Pheasant also has an indoor division: sunflower shoots are grown under lights in the attic of the house they’re renting. Their produce is sold at Detroit’s huge farmers’ market and to local restaurants. The couple doesn’t own a motor vehicle and is proud that they do deliveries by bikes that pull six-foot long trailers. As Leadley put it, “Human-powered transportation is part of our business plan.” Van Dyke is in the process of making a suspension system for the trailers using discarded bike inner tubes so tomatoes are cushioned on their way to market. Leadley marvels at the plight of some at the farmers’ market, who get in their trucks at 1:00 a.m. to drive across the state to Eastern Market, one of the largest farmers’ market in the country. Rising Pheasant has a mile and a half bike ride.
Not only is the market close to the farm, the route is pretty darn flat — another benefit to biking in Detroit, especially while pulling six-foot trailers with produce.
On September 2nd, Sean Harrington biked to the Detroit RiverWalk with his twin sons in a bike trailer. On the way home, he took the sidewalk north on Park Avenue, which is a one way side street heading south.
When pedestrians and construction scaffolding blocked the sidewalk, he rode on the road for about four car lengths.
That was apparently too much for Detroit Police who issued Harrington a $110 ticket and now may face charges of child endangerment.
What’s even more ridiculous is Park Avenue is a very low volume road. A 2005 study found an average of 280 cars per day on this section of road, which is lower than most residential neighborhood streets. North bound Clifford just west of Park carries ten times more traffic, and Woodward even more still.
Impeding vehicle traffic? Seriously?
This story has gotten a great deal of press locally (Free Press, Crains, mLive, ClickOnDetroit) and is starting to get some national attention as well.
MyFoxDetroit’s coverage includes this video which helps highlight the ridiculousness of this story.
This bike polo mallet workshop is tomorrow, October 6th starting at 8pm at Omnicorp Detroit in Eastern Market. The cost, which includes materials, is $22.09 and you can register on-line.
Bike Polo, you ask? It’s the hottest craze, Polo on bikes. To play, all you need is a bike and a mallet. Our guess is you already have a bike now all you need is a mallet. Come build one with us!
The Draft Royal Oak Non-motorized Plan was forwarded by the Planning Commission to the City Commission on September 13th. On Monday the City Commission will decide whether to approve the plan for distribution to adjacent communities, MDOT, SEMCOG, and others. After a 63-day comment period, the Planning Commission can hold a formal public hearing and decide whether to adopt the plan. The City Commission may assert their right to approve or reject the plan.
The Non-Motorized Transportation Plan includes recommendations for both road diets with bike lanes and shared-lane markings on various streets throughout the city. Questions arose after we received the plan regarding proposed road diets for Twelve Mile Road, Thirteen Mile Road, Fourteen Mile Road, Crooks Road, and Main Street. The Engineering Department indicated that road diets would not be suitable on these roads due to their traffic volumes and would therefore not support them. The Active Transportation Alliance disagrees and feels road diets would be suitable for these streets. As a compromise, the plan states that if traffic volumes preclude a full road diet on any of these streets, then shared-lane markings could be installed as an alternative.
The traffic volumes do support some of engineering’s concerns. However, Crooks Road and Main Street look very different throughout their length. Crooks Road north of 13 Mile might not be suitable for a road diet, whereas it might south of 13 Mile. Main Street through the central business district is ripe for a road diet, as are the portions north of 12 Mile into Clawson — where it has already been road dieted successfully.
During the past couple weeks, there have been at least a few news stories about the plan, the latter of which made the front page.
League of Women Voters recently held a forum for Royal Oak Commission candidates. One question for the candidates was, “What is your opinion of the non-motorized plan?”
The Royal Oak Patch covered the event and has their responses to this question. All of the candidates voiced their support for the non-motorized plan, though some were quick to offer caveats as well.
Here’s what we think of the responses:
Kyle DuBuc: We think this was among the best responses, and as mentioned before, he supports Complete Streets.
Mike Fournier: We’re not clear what he means by doing it “the right way” and “benchmark, benchmark, benchmark.” Who’s made their community more bike friendly and walkable the wrong way?
George Gomez: Another good response, and he’s right. Bike friendliness and walkability are already in the master plan.
Peggy Godwin: She’s a “huge proponent” but with an eye toward being fiscally realistic. That makes sense.
Rick Karlowski: This seems to be the least supportive answer of the group. Road diets are not “extremely expensive” nor do they “shut down major thouroughfares.”
Bill Shaw: Somewhere among the nostalgia is a brief note of support.
Scott Warheit: We agree. This plan is merely a great start and we need to continue community engagement.
Come on out for an evening of bike talk, including a showing of another locally made bike film. Rubber Side Down documents the 8000km journey of Greg Mailloux and Vin Heney as they cycled across Canada in support of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada. Greg, Vin and the film crew are all natives of Amherstburg, and have raised over $84,000 for the CCFC to date.?Bike Friendly Windsor is honoured to present this film to its members and the public as part of their first AGM.
This posting is just a quick shout out to Rising Pheasant Farms which uses big bicycle trailers to transport their produce to Eastern Market. This isn’t too surprising given the Jack Van Dyke from the Hub is involved.
