This week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report called Recommended Community Strategies and Measurements to Prevent Obesity in the United States.

In the report, they recommend the following strategies:

Communities Should Enhance Infrastructure Supporting Bicycling

Enhancing infrastructure supporting bicycling includes creating bike lanes, shared-use paths, and routes on existing and new roads; and providing bike racks in the vicinity of commercial and other public spaces. Improving bicycling infrastructure can be effective in increasing frequency of cycling for utilitarian purposes (e.g., commuting to work and school, bicycling for errands). Research demonstrates a strong association between bicycling infrastructure and frequency of bicycling.

The report also cites evidence that “improving bicycling infrastructure is associated with increased frequency of bicycling.” In other words, if you build it, they will bike it.

Also their suggested means for measuring success is the “total miles of designated shared-use paths and bike lanes relative to the total street miles (excluding limited access highways).”

Note that shared-used paths are trails that are nearly always within their own right-of-way (e.g. rail trails.) They should not be confused with side paths or sidewalks, often called safety paths within Oakland County, which should not be designated bicycle facilities according to national guidelines.

Other related suggested strategies include:

• Enhance infrastructure supporting walking.
• Improve access to public transportation.
• Zone for mixed-use development.
• Support locating schools within easy walking distance of residential areas.

If this sounds like the CDC is promoting Complete Streets then you’re certainly in agreement with Barbara McCann from the National Complete Streets Coalition.

And if you’re interested in staying on top of the Complete Streets movement within Michigan, visit the relatively new Michigan Complete Streets web site.

(via Streetsblog)

Here’s more positive bike news from south of the border.

The Windsor Star is reporting a warm public response to a proposal to add bike lanes to Tecumseh Road in Tecumseh, Ontario, just outside of Windsor.

A $17-million project to eliminate the two-metre deep ditch along the west side of Manning Road and add bike lanes has residents mostly asking one question.

How soon can you do it?

The town sought public comment Monday on the options for reconstructing Manning from St. Gregory Street to Riverside Drive as part of the environmental assessment process.

Read the entire article

(via Bike Windsor)

Last month, New York City released a huge manual on how to design their city streets and sidewalks.

It’s purpose is to “serve as a comprehensive resource for promoting higher quality street designs and more efficient project implementation.”

And by the looks of it, this manual is a great resource for promoting better bicycle facilities and policies.

Street Design Policy

Included in the manual is a street design policy which lists the overall goals. The first four goals include references to bicycling, which is very impressive. New York City is clearly aiming to be much more bicycle-friendly.

“Design for Safety: Prioritize safety for all street users, particularly more vulnerable groups (children, the elderly, those with disabilities) and more vulnerable modes (walking, bicycling).”

“Design for Access and Mobility: Prioritize walking, bicycling, and transit by providing safe, accessible, convenient, and comfortable facilities for these modes, particularly on designated routes and at critical network connections.”

“Design for Context: Design local streets to be green, traffic calmed environments that encourage walking, bicycling, and recreational activities.”

“Design for Livability: Design streets to encourage physical activity for all ages and populations by making walking, bicycling, and transit attractive and convenient.”

Road Geometry

Chapter 2 of the manual covers road geometry and gives many great examples of bike lanes and paths.

One particular bike lane design is shown in the above photo. The design provides additional painted buffering between the vehicular travel lane and the bike lane. Though the buffering wouldn’t stop a car from encroaching in the bike lane, they increase the perceived safety for cyclists.

Buffered bike lanes seem like a great option for city of Detroit roads since they are often overbuilt and have the spare width needed for this implementation.

For more non-motorized transportation advocacy information from New York City, visit Streetsblog.

Link: New York City Street Design Manual

The first round of Metro Detroit’s transportation stimulus checks are in the mail and some are for major bike projects.

This funding is mostly from 3% transportation enhancements sub-allocation, which is $25.4 million for all of Michigan.

I-275 Bike Path (MDOT)

The original $10 million request to recontruct the bike path was reduced to two requests. The first is for $4 million. The second is for $5 million and will only be available if Michigan can recover unused road funds from other states.

Clinton River Trail Bridge (Pontiac)

This bridge at Telegraph and Orchard Lake Road has been long awaited. It will connect the two developed rail-trail segments on both sides of Telegraph. The funding amount is $2.1 million.

Midtown Loop (Detroit)

This $2.3 million in funding is going towards Phase I of the Midtown Loop, a 2-mile walking and (casual) biking loop through Wayne State and cultural center. It’s expected that this stimulus money will push previously secured funding into the second phase and possibly help fund the connector between this project and the Dequindre Cut.

Streetscaping

These projects are aimed at making a road more pedestrian and bicyclist friendly. For example, the Woodward project includes “sidewalks, tree planting, street lights, trash receptacles, bike racks.”

• Woodward in Detroit between I-94 and Euclid (MDOT)
• Monroe and Brush Streets in Greektown, Detroit
• Michigan Avenue in Detroit between Cass and Woodward
• Shelby Street in Detroit between State and Griswold

Transit-Related Projects

Both DDOT and SMART are receiving funds to improve/build bus shelters and related amenities. We’ll contact both to determine whether these projects include bike racks. DDOT has been pursuing bike racks for their bus shelters as well as their buses.

Other Detroit Road Work

We checked and none of MDOT’s Detroit stimulus road work coincides with the city’s non-motorized plan. However MDOT is replacing some bridge decks over I-96 which may coincide with the plan.

Wayne County is receiving funds to reconstruct sections of 7 Mile and Fenkel Roads. Both should have bike lanes. We will contact both Wayne County and the city officials to make sure this is known.

The city of Detroit is receiving over $14.4 million for major street repair. Once we learn which roads those involve we’ll cross check them with the non-motorized plan to see if they are scheduled for bike lanes.

This should clearly show the value of having non-motorized plans in place for cities.

All of MDOT’s Metro Region stimulus projects are available on-line. SEMCOG also has a list of all accepted project requests within their seven-county area.

Coincidenly there were two videos posted yesterday about getting bike lanes in our area.

The first video is from the good folks at Scaledown. As we recently noted there’s a big battle brewing in Windsor over extending bike lanes along Riverside Drive. Their video reveals the likely source of resistance to the bike lanes: the landowners have apparently encroached on the Riverside Drive right-of-way.

This second video is from Mike Wendland whose enjoying the bike lanes while vacationing in Florida. Mike asks why we can’t have these in Michigan?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3b2cTcHGP8&eurl=http://clydesdalefitness.com/2009/02/why-cant-michigan-have-bicycle-lanes/comment-page-1/&feature=player_embedded