Laura Buhl from the Detroit City Planning Commission staff gave an introductory presentation to the Commission on January 20th, 2011.

You can watch that presentation on-line. It begins roughly 1 minute into the video and is approximately 18 minutes long with questions afterwards.

One big takeaway?

Commissioner Dr. Darryl Totty stressed the importance of involving members of the existing community.

“I know when I talk to some people they’ll see new development, sometimes they don’t believe that it will benefit their community.  I often hear the  ‘well they’re building it for those who are coming to the city’ versus ‘this is our city’ and so there’s a level of pride in a development like this — I would think — and if we could find a way to articulate that to people, that this is for us as a region.”

This echoes a comment we noted from last year’s Pro Walk/Pro Bike conference.

Romona Williams from the Metro St. Louis Coalition for Inclusion and Equity mentioned that bike lanes aren’t always welcomed in predominantly black St. Louis neighborhoods. Bicycling is too often seen as an early step towards white gentrification.

Yes, there is a growing, young white population in Detroit — and they love their bikes. Complete Streets will benefit them.

So, as Dr. Totty suggests, we need to make sure our Complete Streets message is inclusive and clearly tells longer term Detroiters how this will help their community as well.

One way? Detroit has one of the highest pedestrian fatality rates among major U.S. cities — a community concern that’s here today. This high rate is not due to pedestrians wearing iPods. It’s due in large part to our overly wide roads and lack of adequate crosswalks. Complete Streets addresses those issues and can save the lives of Detroiters.

Traffic calming to address aggressive driving (e.g. the notorious parking lane/drive lane which encourages passing on the right) can be rolled into Complete Streets designs and help the existing community.

Another way to get Detroiters’ support? Mention that Complete Streets have public lighting that works.

More questions

The Planning Commissioners seemed generally supportive of Complete Streets after asking additional questions.

• Could the Complete Streets ordinance include language on sustainability, including pervious pavement? Buhl suggested that expansion of the ordinance might be better down through a separate effort.
• Who would enforce this ordinance? Buhl suggested Detroit’s non-motorized external task force could provide oversight.
• Besides costs, what other negative impacts could a Complete Streets ordinance create? Buhl noted that designing streets to be complete from the beginning may not incur many costs and she provided the example of adding bikes lanes. And while some projects will be more expensive, but the overall road budget remains the same. “The pie remains the same,” said Buhl. “We’re just rearranging the pieces.”
• Is this going to be  a city wide effort or just in areas being redeveloped? It will be city wide after streets are repaved or reconstructed.
• How do you prioritize Complete Streets projects and will it collaborate with other non-motorized developments in the city? Buhl noted that this Complete Streets would be done through the city’s non-motorized master plan And of course, the implementation would be driven by DPW’s road repaving schedule. One commissioner made the excellent comment that we should look at crash data to determine the prioritization.
• How will citizen become involved in Complete Street designs? That is still an issue to be discussed, but as mentioned, it’s critical.

On Facebook

And don’t forget to join our Complete Streets in Detroit page on Facebook!

There is a new Facebook page called Complete Streets in Detroit.

We are asking that you support a Detroit Complete Streets ordinance which will make the city a safer place to walk, bike, and more.

Please consider giving this page a “Like”.

And on a related note, there is the relatively new Detroit Food and Fitness Collaborative (DFFC) web site.

In working for the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance, I serve as co-chair of the DFFC Built Environment committee. One of our major Built Environment goals is to pass a Complete Streets ordinance in Detroit. There is more information about that effort on the DFFC site.

The DFFC is funded through the Kellogg Foundation, and as we mentioned before on m-bike, William K. Kellogg was an active cyclist and lifetime member of the League of American Wheelmen.

Complete Streets in Hamtramck

Last week Model D published a story on Hamtramck’s Complete Streets resolution. Jason Friedmann, Director of Community and Economic Development noted that Complete Streets are extra important in Hamtramck given its large immigrant population and low car ownership.

He says every type of user of the streets should benefit. “People on bikes, pedestrians who are walking, people who are disabled, and not just cars,” are targeted in the resolution.

That’s important in a city like Hamtramck, a hub for new immigrants, a place where more than 30 languages are spoken in school.

“We have a lot of people coming here from different parts of the world, who don’t have cars or can’t afford cars when they first come here,” Friedmann says. “And then a lot of them end up staying here because they like not having cars, being able to get around on a bike or DDOT transportation. Half of our residents, 50 percent of our residents do not have cars.”

The article also briefly discusses the city’s plans for more bike lanes — a project that just needs some grant matching funds in order to move forward.

The Oakland Press is reporting that the Village of Oxford Council has passed a Complete Streets resolution.

“In the past year or so, [Complete Streets] has really caught fire with the legislation. We want more traffic signals, more bike lanes and landscaping to slow down the traffic into town so people feel safer crossing the street,” said Village Manager Joe Young.

This is great to hear, especially in northern Oakland County, which isn’t known for embracing bikes on the roads.

One of the key points made in the article is the economic prosperity of a downtown is tied to the quality of traffic, not the quantity. Road agencies often focus on the latter. Complete Streets can help increase the quality of traffic.

Anna Taylor, Downtown Development Authority member and owner of boutique Pink and Charlie, said: “We’ve blocked out our pedestrian communities in our small towns, and granted, we’ve gotten a tremendous boom because we have traffic. However, I will say, that not one time since I’ve been a business owner have I had a gravel hauler pull up to the back of my shop, come in and tell me that he’d like to buy something.

“We’re glad we have traffic. We don’t want the traffic to go away. But we have to do something because a healthy, vibrant pedestrian community is our future. It means the difference between surviving and prospering.”

With a little luck, this Complete Streets resolution will catch fire in some of the surrounding communities.

Clawson's Main Street design with bike lanes

Back in early December, Clawson’s city council passed a resolution supporting a Complete Streets policy.

According to the minutes, City Manager Mark Pollock provided this background prior to the vote.

Complete Streets is a design or planning principle to enable safe access for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities. ?The City of Clawson already incorporates many of the goals of the Complete Streets philosophy into the projects it undertakes. This is evidenced by the recent renovations of the downtown main intersection and streetscape projects. ?The resolution supporting a Complete Streets Policy pledges the City’s continued commitment to the complete streets philosophy and may assist the City in applications for funding available under the revised statutes. My recommendation is the resolution supporting a Complete Streets? Policy for the City of Clawson be approved and forwarded to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and State Transportation Commission (STC).

City council passed the Complete Streets resolution unanimously. That resolution is below the fold.

Clawson now joins Berkley, Ferndale and Novi as Oakland County municipalities that have adopted Complete Streets ordinances or policies — or have good intentions.

Now perhaps it’s time to revisit those bike lanes planned for Main Street that never got constructed.

(more…)

John Gallagher has a fine article in today’s Detroit Free Press which discusses the Complete Streets legislation that was passed earlier this summer — but especially from a Detroit perspective.

This whole topic of complete streets has informed much of the discussion lately about how to reinvent Detroit. Many Detroiters now acknowledge that we have too much road capacity in the city for the amount of traffic. That’s an opportunity to repurpose at least some of our streets for more environmentally-friendly uses.

New uses might include running a light-rail line up some streets (as is now planned for Woodward Avenue). And it can mean we’ll see a lot more of those bicycle lanes that are starting to turn up here and there around the city.

Complete streets also can mean bus-only lanes, or wider sidewalks created as part of the network of greenways — nonmotorized transportation venues — that Detroit is slowly creating.

Gallagher also wrote the excellent book, Reimagining Detroit, which made the Huffington Posts’s Best Books 2010: 18 On Social and Political Awareness and the 2011 Michigan Notable Books list.

Chapter 4 of the book is “Road Diets and Roundabouts.”

And, Gallagher also wrote about the city officials recent trip to recovering cities in Germany and England .

In recent weeks, leaders from Detroit, Flint, Cleveland and other Midwest cities have traveled to Europe as part of a “Cities in Transition” exchange sponsored by the German Marshall Fund and the Kresge Foundation.

A trip this month took leaders to Leipzig, Germany, and Manchester, England, following an earlier visit to Turin, Italy. All three cities are reversing decades of job losses and population decline.

…the trips have injected a note of excitement into Detroit’s effort to reinvent itself through Mayor Dave Bing’s Detroit Works program.

It seems both Leipzig and Manchester have made significant investments in bicycling infrastructure.  We asked if those investments made any impression upon the Detroit officials, to which Gallagher replied, “We did see some of that, yet the weather wasn’t very helpful in that regard when we were there….”