There are no excuses to not ride your bike to a Detroit festival this weekend.

Detroit International Jazz Festival

From the Wheelhouse Detroit web site:

This weekend, we will happily park your bike for no charge at the Detroit International Jazz Festival. Bike parking is at the intersection of Woodward & Larned, smack dab in the middle of the festivities, which stretch from Hart Plaza to Campus Martius.

Festival hours are 4 to 11 p.m. on Friday; noon to 11:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday; and noon to 7:30 P.M. on Monday. See you there!

Arts, Beats, and Eats

KLM Bikes is providing free bike at two locations for the Art, Beats, and Eats event in Royal Oak. This is the easiest and cheapest way to get to the festival. The spots are available on a first-come, first-served basis. It looked like many people were taking advantage of this service.

The locations are:

• South side: Washington St. Just south of Lincoln, 800 parking slots
• North side: Washington Near Second Avenue, 1,000 parking slots

The Hamtramck Festival is this weekend as well. Though it doesn’t seem to have valet bike parking, it does have urban camping. How cool is that?

The Henry Ford blog has a new post which gives a basic but brief early history of bicycles.

“Hurry out to Greenfield Village — the summer season with all its old-fashioned games on the green, period-clothed strollers and ordinary bicyclists ends this Sunday, August 22!”

It’s too late to see the bikes firsthand, but you can see them in this video.

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

If you do get a chance to visit Greenfield Village, don’t forget to see the Wilbur and Orville’s Wright Cycle Company building, which Henry Ford bought and moved to Dearborn in 1937.

Did you catch today’s discussion on Detroit’s Complete Street effort? It was on WDET’s Craig Fahle Show.

If you missed it, you can still listen to the podcast. The segment on Complete Streets begins about 54 minutes into the program.

Earlier today, Governor Jennifer Granholm had a ceremonial signing of Michigan’s Complete Streets legislation at the Capitol. We had a roomful of supporters from the Michigan Complete Streets coalition as well as State Representatives (and bill sponsors) Pam Byrnes and Jon Switalski.

The Governor is an active cyclist and pedestrian — and noted how blessed Michigan is for trails.

This is just a reminder that the city of Detroit wants to know if you support Complete Streets in the Motor City.

If so, it’s easy to register your support and you don’ t need to be a city resident. It only takes a minute.

For more information on Detroit’s Complete Streets effort, visit the Detroit Health and Wellness Promotion (DHWP) web site.

One of DHWP’s main objectives is to support and promote healthy and safe lifestyles; that includes physical activity such as walking and biking. Safe, community-centered roads and streets help encourage these healthy lifestyle choices. Thankfully, Detroit has established a Complete Streets project to build better routes for all Detroit residents.

DHWP is anticipating having a Complete Streets ordinance before the city council before next Spring.

The Free Press is reporting about a non-motorized planning proposal before the Livonia City Council this evening.

Tonight, a Livonia City Council committee will consider a proposal from [Frank] Kalinski, a city resident since 1993, to create a non-motorized transportation plan for the city.

Kalinski’s proposal includes designated biking and walking paths that would not only cross the city, but also would connect Livonia with surrounding communities such as downtown Farmington. Because it would connect the two communities and presumably add economic benefits, the plan would be in better position to help the city secure federal transportation funds, he said.

Livonia Councilwoman Maureen Miller Brosnan sees merit in the effort, and wants her city of almost 99,000 to become one of 10 communities in the state with a non-motorized transportation plan. She cited the timing of Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s signing on Aug. 1 of Complete Streets legislation. Although it lacks a funding component, the legislation is designed to make future transportation projects in the state consider all transportation users, not just motorized vehicles.

It’s unexpected but much welcomed to hear Livonia discussing a non-motorized transportation plan. This is the best first step for communities to become more bike friendly and more walkable. As noted in the article, Detroit has done this, as had Troy. Novi and Royal Oak are currently developing their plans.

It’s unclear from the article whether Livonia would hire an outside planner with experience in non-motorized plans. The “plan” shown in the Free Press diagram is not a non-motorized plan.

Hiring experienced planners would clearly be preferred. Expecting a workable plan from city staff not familiar with non-motorized planning (beyond sidewalks) is prone to fail.

And, a good non-motorized plan is more than just engineering. It should include action plans for education, encouragement, and enforcement.

Afterall, the goal is not to build a bunch of cycling facilities. It’s to get a city to bike more.