Woody Miller volunteering at the 2008 Tour-de-Troit

We recently received some terribly sad news. Detroit cyclist Woody Miller passed away on Saturday.

Here’s more information from fellow cyclist Reg Modlin:

I discovered yesterday evening by accident, that Woody Miller passed away in Seattle on Saturday [July 17, 2010]. From what I can piece together, Woody had cancer. He apparently had it for a while and fought it. I saw and spoke with Woody in early June and he did not mention it.

However, by mid to late June it had spread, putting Woody in hospital for surgery. Following that he went to Seattle to continue chemo treatment and to be with his son, David, his daughter in law and grandson. Apparently, the cancer spread to his liver and Woody passed last Saturday.

According to his family, his remains will be cremated in Seattle and a memorial service will be held in Detroit at a later date.

Woody will be remembered by a great many people in the Detroit area. Many cyclists rode with Woody over the past twenty years or so, on rides all over the metro area and Canada. We trained for racing and high speed riding on Belle Isle, and made many, memorable Sunday rides from Dearborn to Ann Arbor, and from Windsor to Colchester (Canada).

Woody mentored many young riders even up through this year, and I recall him riding through the winter this past year to his workplace at the downtown Bolle YMCA. Woody also coordinated the rider support for a number of years in the annual Tour de Troit.

Another great Detroit cyclist will be missed, but will never be forgotten in the peleton.

Woody was an active and dedicated bicycle advocate both on and off the road.?He was at city council to help repeal Detroit’s onerous bicycle registration ordinance and pass the non-motorized transportation plan.

And we never saw him not wearing cycling clothes. In fact we teased him for addressing city council in Lycra once. He made no apologies and said, “Hey, I’m a cyclist and this is what I wear.”

As of now, the memorial to Woody will be occurring at Belle Isle on August 14th. As more details become available, we’ll post them.

And in spirit, he will certainly be on the Tour de Troit again this September.

From Lansing

We’ve just learned that the Senate Transportation Committee has unanimously passed House Bill 6151 for Complete Streets.

They did not vote on its companion, House Bill 6152. According to the League of Michigan Bicyclists, “It sounds like they simply forgot that there were dealing with a package of bills vs. just one. Charmian Gilbert said they will simply discharge the second bill to the Senate floor vs. having another hearing.”

This is great news. 6151 is headed to the Senator Floor and 6152 shouldn’t be too far behind.

Now is the time to contact your Michigan Senator and ask that they support Complete Streets and these two bills.

From Detroit

The city of Detroit Complete Streets workgroup continues to make progress towards a Complete Streets ordinance. There is now a Complete Streets page on the city’s web site where anyone can voice their support for this effort.

From Ferndale

Work is underway in Ferndale on a Complete Streets effort. We’ll share more information as it becomes available.

The Road Commission for Oakland County and the city of Rochester Hills are hosting a public meeting tomorrow night to discuss their Tienken Road improvement plans. It would be great to see some cyclists attend and provide comments.

As m-bike readers know, the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) has a long history of ignoring the safety of bicyclists. They’ve continued that streak by failing to provide bike lanes in their Tienken Road plans.

We submitted comments to the RCOC a year ago regarding bike lanes on Tienken and provided justification. Those comments were never responded to and altogether ignored based on the latest Tienken Road Environmental Assessment which recommends three vehicular travel lanes and sidewalks.

No bikes lanes. No wide curb lanes. Not a Complete Street.

Our preferred option should be three 11-foot lanes with two five-foot bike lanes (or wider, buffered bike lanes.) That would be a Complete Street and support Safe routes to School.

Why 11-foot lanes? Studies show there is no safety advantage for having 12-foot lanes and they induce speeding.

Former Rochester Hills City Councilman Scot Beaton has gone even further with his suggestions and developed an alternative cross section that includes bike lanes. He’s left his comments at the end of this Oakland Press article.

We must also mention that the RCOC plans failed to include any discussion of bicycling safety despite the nearby parks, trails, and schools. Three has been three bicycling-vehicle crashes in this road corridor since 2006 — all three occurred on safety paths. RCOC’s response? Build more safety paths.

City of Rochester Hills guilty too

Just as the RCOC ignores AASHTO guidelines for bicycle facilities and best design practices, so too does the city of Rochester Hills — which helps explain why it is one of the least safe places to ride a bike in Oakland County based on crash data. Their “safety path” network does not meet AASHTO guidelines. In fact, John LaPlante, a primary author of the guidelines called the term “safety path” an oxymoron. LaPlante said the guidelines were clear that “safety paths” (or the correct term, sidepaths) are rarely an appropriate bicycle facility.

According to the Oakland Press, “Mayor Bryan Barnett said he’s happy with the outcome.”

It’s frustrating that cities like Rochester Hills and others (e.g. Oakland Township, Orion Township, West Bloomfield Township) refuse to follow the national design guidelines. It’s really up to cyclists to turn this around. Taxpayer dollars are being wasted on off-road bicycle facilities that would be much less expensive and safer on the road.

Friends of Tienken Road

And finally, it seems the Friends of Tienken Road are no fans of safe cycling or Complete Streets either. This is the group that fought against widening Tienken to five lanes.

We sent them emails with the regards to bike lane proposal, but they never responded. This is despite that fact that we helped them with their community outreach, paid for their web domain name, developed their web site, and provided free web hosting.

It seems their priority is in limiting the RCOC’s plan to three lanes of motor vehicle travel, rather than bicyclist safety (or responding to emails.)

Unable to attend?

According to the Free Press, “Those unable to attend the meeting may send concerns about the proposal in writing to the Road Commission for Oakland County, Permits and Environmental Concerns Department, 2420 Pontiac Lake Road, Waterford 48328.”

As reported earlier, the two Complete Streets bills had passed the Michigan House. They are now before the Senate Transportation Committee who is taking testimony on them this Wednesday.

The Michigan Complete Streets Coalition has issued an Action Alert. They are asking everyone to contact the members of the Senate Transportation Committee — but especially if they are your Senator. There is a sample letter on their web site as well.

Senate Transportation Committee Members

Jud Gilbert (Chair):
senjgilbert@senate.michigan.gov
(517) 373-7708

Roger Kahn (Vice Chair):
senrkahn@senate.michigan.gov
(517) 373-1760

Gerald Van Woerkom:
sengvanwoerkom@senate.michigan.gov
(517) 373-1635

Raymond Basham (Minority ? Vice Chair):
senrbasham@senate.michigan.gov
(517) 373-7800

John Gleason:
senjgleason@senate.michigan.gov
(517) 373-0142

Shorpy has a great photo of Detroit’s Campus Martius and old City Hall from 1900. We have just a small portion of it showing a couple cyclists chatting in the street.

Of course there are no cars. The auto industry hasn’t created the term “jaywalking” yet.

These were Complete Streets before the introduction of cars made them incomplete.