When it comes to understanding the needs of bicyclists, there are certain organizations and professionals that we don’t expect much from because they embrace the status quo even when it doesn’t work.

But planners should get bicycling. To be good, they must be looking forward and embracing the future.

That’s why it’s so very frustrating to review the work of planners that apparently don’t get it.

Examples include:

• A sustainability study for Farmington Hills that all but ignores increasing bicycle use (Hooker | De Jong)
• A county parks and recreation plan that assumes parks users won’t ride their bikes to the parks (Carlise Wortman)
• A trails and pathways plan for Oakland Township that ignores the basic AASHTO guidelines for good bicycle facilities (Carlise Wortman)

And perhaps we can add another plan, the Birmingham and Troy Transit Center.

The most obvious failing is the tunnel design which runs beneath the railroad.

According to a recent Metromode article, Carrie Zarotney, president of the Birmingham-Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce, noted the public interest in the center’s bikeabilty.

Last June, at the transit-oriented development charrette held to raise awareness of the project, the public made it “…very loud and clear that there was a need for pedestrian-friendly access and bicycle paths, so not only could you walk through the tunnel but you could bike through the tunnel.”

Then why does the August 2009 plan route cyclists onto a convoluted sidewalk route against AASHTO design guidelines?

The tunnel has very poor sight lines at the entrance and exit that are unsuitable for mixing cyclists and pedestrians. With this design, it may not take many?collisions?before bike riding in the tunnel is prohibited.

It appears there was little to no thought given to making a simple and clear bicycle pathway connection between the roads on either side of the railroad tracks. Did the planners not realize that a major residential area and downtown on one side of the tracks would generate bicycle traffic to the residential and shopping areas on the other side (and vise versa)? Why didn’t they accomodate it using the AASHTO bicycle design guidelines?

Right now there is no direct and safe way between these two areas for bicyclists. This plan does little to help that.

Another big issue is bike parking. It appears there are approximately 200 car parking spaces, yet there is one bike rack that should hold about four bikes.?The bike rack is also poorly located according to the Bicycle Parking Guidelines set forth by the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. This bike parking does not appear to be covered.

There doesn’t seem to be a bike rack on the Birmingham side.

There are no bike racks near the bus stops (even though they are shown in the sample photos.)

Adding a bike rack is an easy point for buildings looking to gain LEED status, which this one apparently is.

We will be sure to submit these comments to Birmingham and Troy.

With Troy’s recent non-motorized planning efforts, this important tunnel connection must be properly designed to accomodate bicycles, whether they are using the transit center or not.

And if they are using it, they need adequate bike parking.

Dan Burden in Southwest Detroit

In July, MDOT brought Dan Burden to a number of Michigan cities for walkability audits. Burden is from Glatting Jackson and is acknowledged as among the leading authorities on improving streets for walking and biking.

One visit was in Southwest Detroit. The audit was on Vernor Avenue from Clark to Livernois. We were joined by a couple city of Detroit traffic engineers who are looking to improve pedestrian safety along this specific stretch of road.

Some of Burden’s ideas included painted bike lanes (painted as in the entire lane, e.g. blue or green), a couple minor roundabouts (to slow traffic), and improved pedestrian crossings. And he also emphasized the need to change the facades. Too many of the buildings have covered or blocked their front windows. It would be best if these were unblocked so that there are more “eyes on the street” and adding to the pedestrian comfort levels.

Burden also visited Hamtramck. Model D Media has a coverage of his Detroit visits.

Dan Burden on Woodward

Next, Burden headed over the Woodward Avenue and stopped in communties between Birmingham and Ferndale. Some of his suggestions were noted in a Free Press article (no longer on-line):

City planners could revive Woodward Avenue with bike lanes, slower traffic, 100,000 new trees and big improvements at pedestrian crossings.

And that’s just the start of a vision that consultant Dan Burden shared last week with local officials, road engineers and residents, as he led what he calls walkability audits in Pontiac, Birmingham, Royal Oak and Pleasant Ridge.

To attract “the creative class” that can jump-start a region’s growth: “You start with paint. You put in bike lanes and get trees planted, and that brings the speeds of motorists down, and then the buildings start to come back, and with that, the tax base. That lets you redesign the streets,” he said.

Some of Burden’s suggestions were simply no-brainers. While auditing the crosswalks at 13 Mile and Woodward, we noted that MDOT had placed a sign that blocked the pedestrian walk signal. Another Don’t Walk signal was barely working.

Near Pasquale’s, there’s a sign telling pedestrians not to cross there. Burden correctly deduced that these signs are put up by cities when pedestrians are killed, rather than fix the problem. In this case, using a signalized crosswalk would require more than a half-mile of walking, which is completely unrealistic.

This isn’t Burden’s first visit to the area. Years ago Burden had advised Ferndale to narrow 9 Mile, which led to a huge turnaround and improvement to the area.

Unfortunately this time around, not all the communities were as receptive.

During a walking audit in Pleasant Ridge, Burden told local officials, “I can’t help you if your community wants to be auto-dependent.” Burden suggested they convert some of their mostly unused (and often inaccessible) green space into high density, mixed-use development. Sure, trees are “green”, but it would be more “green” if their residents could walk or bike rather than drive to nearby coffee shops, an ice cream parlors, or convenience stores.

Woodward: Next Steps

But there’s more momentum to improving Woodward for biking and walking than these audits, as evidenced by this press release:

The Woodward Avenue Action Association is pleased to announce that in partnership with engineering firm Giffels-Webster, we are closer to finding ways to make Woodward more pedestrian & bike friendly. The Woodward Avenue Non-Motorized Plan will focus on Woodward between 8 mile and Maple will identify ways for communities to plan and zone safer routes for non-motorist users of Woodward. Some of the elements being looked at for this plan include reducing speed limits, developing landscaped buffer zones and more countdown times at crosswalks.

This study was prompted by the city of Royal Oak, who is now doing a non-motorized study for the entire city. Other cities who have become examples of getting non-motorized plans right include the city of Ferndale. Since the early 1990’s the city has transformed its downtown which sits squarely along Woodward, from desolate streets into a thriving bustling district. Improvements such as parking lots developed behind stores, reduction in traffic lanes and lowered speed limits have all contributed to the economic boos Ferndale is currently experiencing. For more information on this program please contact, Nicole Klepadlo, WA3 Program Manager.

The Oakland Press recently ran an article that also discussed Woodward Avenue and this planning effort.

Of course beyond the communities that are dug in and ready to defend status quo, there’s MDOT. They’ve been willing to listen to these sorts of efforts but haven’t been overly interested in any plans that they think would reduce Woodward’s level of service.

That’s a level of service for motorists, of course.

However, they have acknowledged that the vehicle counts on Woodward have been declining. They should drop even further once Woodward gets light rail north of Eight Mile.

The differing House and Senate versions of the stimulus bill were resolved yesterday. It’s expected that the new bill will be voted on today and signed by the President on Monday.

This final bill allocates $29 billion in transportation funding. That’s about how much the federal government allocates during a normal year. How much of that goes to Michigan and how much could be spent on non-motorized facilities is apparently unknown as of now.

We do know that the MDOT Metro Region put reconstruction of the entire I-275 bikepath on their stimulus project list. How huge would that be?

The Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance and other advocates have been working with the City of Detroit to get non-motorized projects in the city’s stimulus list. Dan Cherrin, Mayor Cockrel’s spokesman told the the Michigan Messenger that the city wants to see “bike paths” built with stimulus money. Bike paths could include many of Detroit’s greenway projects as well as the non-motorized plan’s 400-mile bike lane network.

There are also other local bike and trail related projects in the stimulus wish list compiled by the Michigan Municipal League:

• Birmingham – Completion of a renovation of partially existing trail network, $2 million
• Canton – Construction of five pedestrian bridges over the Rouge River providing interconnection of community pathway, $700,000
• Madison Heights – Red Oaks Bikepath, $600,000
• Novi – Improvement of I-275 non-motorized pathway from I696 to Wayne Co, $ 467,000
• Novi – New bike path along M-5 from south of 12 Mile Rd to Pontiac Trail, $ 1,250,000
• Rochester – Paint Creek Trail, $ 300,000
• Royal Oak – Non-Motorized Tranportation Plan, $40,000

What’s not clear is how Novi’s two requests fit with MDOT’s for the I-275 bikepath.

We should know more about what gets funded as this process continues to lumber along.