Congratulations to Robert Burns Elementary in Detroit for its recent Safe Routes to School grant.

Here’s the official announcement from MDOT:

The Free Press recently ran a article on the proposed 70-mile Macomb County Loop.

Joggers, bikers and walkers in Macomb County can anticipate a light at the end of the bike path, as nearly two-thirds of the Macomb Orchard Trail is completed this summer.

And no one’s looking more forward to progress on the 70-mile loop through Macomb County than business owners and officials in downtown Utica, anticipating a healthy bump in business from a soon-to-be-completed path that leads to their doorsteps.

“It’s exciting,” Carla Grider, manager of Muldoon’s restaurant in downtown. The restaurant already does a healthy business from April to October, when patrons can eat outside on the patio. And Grider expects traffic from the trail to build on that.

It’s a pretty aggressive construction schedule. It’ll be interesting to see how realistic is truly is.

We do have concerns with some of this loop. From what we’ve been told, parts of it are on sidepaths — notably the portion along County Line Road. Wide shoulders and/or bike lanes would be the safer (and perhaps less expensive) design choice.

The sidepath along the Metropolitan Parkway actually works since the access across the path is tightly controlled. There are very limited intersections, which makes this design work. Unfortunately many other communities believe they can replicate that design without concern for the number of intersections, their sight-lines, etc.

MDOT is soliciting comments on the State Rail Plan.

Here’s a comment made by MTGA:

We would like to see roll-on bicycle service for all Michigan passenger rail lines. We need to make it much more convenient for rail passengers to bring their bicycles on the train without having to disassemble and box them. Roll-on service would complement the non-motorized transportation efforts underway in the city of Detroit. It would also complement Detroit’s light rail plans, as those trains are expected to have roll-on bicycle service from the start.

Currently, in order to bring your bike on a Michigan AMTRAK train, you must disassemble it and put it in a box. This is obviously not convenient.

Imagine catching a train in the New Center Area and heading to cycling cities like Chicago!

We’ve been told the reason the Michigan trains don’t have roll-on service is because the trains don’t have baggage cars. Apparently there are some baggage cars available but they would require some refurbishment before they could be used.

That said, it seems that other rail lines have installed bike racks in their coaches. That may require removing some seating, which certainly would generate some push back.

Either way, we encourage all cyclists to submit comments to MDOT about making our state train service more bike friendly.

The Heritage Newspaper’s Press and Guide had a recent article on greenways in Metro Detroit.

It’s a good article with a focus more on the Dearborn, Detroit, and Downriver areas.

Still, we’re a little unclear about some statements.

Detroit is leading the way in the endeavor, and currently has more greenways than any other city in the country, quite a change for a city that built its reputation on the automobile. In Detroit’s favor, it is a city with many, many miles of unused railways, which advocates hope will eventually be converted totally to greenways.

We’re not sure the city of Detroit has more greenways than any other city, but it could very well be among the leaders from an investment perspective.

And this is a great quote from Tom Woiwode of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

“Ultimately, the goal of the GreenWays Initiative is to connect all the communities in southeast Michigan and to link the system with projects outside the region,” said Woiwode. “In the meantime, watching as greenways are embraced by a region known for the automobile continues to be a pleasure.”

The article does end on a flat note.

“Every day, we are a little closer to being able to travel the whole tri-county area without ever setting foot on a road.”

That’s neither true nor realistic — and not even desirable. Many of the planned greenways in Detroit are partially, if not 100% on the road.

Riding on roads is not a bad thing to be avoided. What we need to avoid is building roads that don’t safely accommodate bicyclists. We need Complete Streets.

Chances are we’re not building a greenway to your front door. Or your school. Or your work. We just need to fix the roads between your starting and ending points.

Please take 10 minutes to complete this survey on greenways, bike lanes, and more in Detroit. The survey only runs through Wednesday! For more information on this project, visit the Villages CDC web site.

Dear Friends,

Your participation in a survey is requested to assist in the planning of a network of greenways in the Greater Riverfront East District of Detroit. This area is also known as the Lower Eastside. Its boundaries are the Detroit River to the south, Mack Avenue to the north, the Dequindre Cut to the west, and Alter Road to the east.

The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete. The survey will run until September 1, 2010. Please feel free to share this survey with others whom you think would be interested.

Please click on following link to complete the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/765DW9R

Thank you for your time and participation.

The Greater Riverfront East Environmental Network (GREEN) Task Force

P.S. If you would like to receive paper copies of this survey, or if you have a question, please contact:

Sheu-Jane Gallagher
The Villages CDC
theVillagesofDetroit@gmail.com