SCA Detroit's Schcari Wade says making a difference for Detroit is "important because I live here." / Photo: Digging Detroit

The new hiking/biking trails at Rouge Park on Detroit’s west side began in 2004. Michigan Mountain Biking Association (MMBA) members Harvey Santana (who just won the state representative Democratic primary for the 10th district) and Todd Scott (myself) helped kick off the project. REI gave a generous grant to the project and volunteers helped build the trail.

It wasn’t completed, and after a change in project leadership, everything stalled.

Detroiters Chris Frey and Jason Friedmann re-started this project and by partnering with the Student Conservation Association (SCA), have really taken this to the next level.

Digging Detroit posted an excerpt from the SCA’s Conservation Quarterly, The Green Way. It’s called SCA Crews Drive Motor City Makeover and here’s a portion of it.

Many SCA stories are about changing a student’s life.  Others focus on changing the fortunes of a national park.  This one is about changing the mindset of an entire city.

It’s August.  A blazing sun stokes the temperature into the 90s.  The heat index is well into the triple figures.  The mosquitoes are omnipresent and voracious.

Welcome to Detroit, where a crew of local high school students is cutting a new trail through Rouge Park.  The soil is dry and hard as a half dozen teens spread out, Pulaskis in hand, to grade a stretch they cleared the day before.

…

SCA Detroit is part of a nationwide, community-based SCA program that provides outdoor summer jobs to underrepresented youth.  Some 80 students participate in the Motor City alone, and they have much in common.   The majority are in their second or even third summer with SCA.  They constantly refer to the camaraderie spawned by their diligent teamwork.  And a common theme runs through their reasons for being there.

This is a clearly a great story on so many fronts.

It’s more than just building a trail.

The Varsity News is reporting on a transportation symposium held at the University of Detroit-Mercy last week.

The symposium included a discussion on the proposed light rail project currently being planned for Woodward. It is hoped that ground will be broken on the first phase of this project by late next year.

According to the article, one person raised concerns about pedestrian and bicyclist safety.

[Board president of M1 Rail, Matt] Cullen said the system “will be very pedestrian friendly.”

The rail line will have stops at major sites, such as stadiums, colleges and the New Center area. It will create more foot traffic, and there will also be a bike bath.

“It allows you to explore further,” Cullen said.

We wonder if he meant bike lanes on Woodward. Others have asked for them and rumor is they are feasible.

If this is the case, it’s a big improvement over what Cullen told us last winter. He said bikes might be pushed off Woodward.

Light Rail Community Workshops

And speaking on the light rail project, DDOT is hosting community workshops next week.

Here are the details:

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The Metro Times continues to do a tremendous job covering the cycling scene in Detroit. They get it.

This week they added another great article to their resume called Two-wheel revolutions: New options for nomotorized traffic on the way in Detroit.

The articles stitches together stories on the Strategic Framework, Greater Riverfront East project, Tour de Troit, Complete Streets, and this info on MDOT’s new bike lanes.

Along Michigan Avenue west of downtown, bike lanes should be painted by November as a “trial,” says Matt Chynoweth, a development engineer with the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Detroit Transportation Service Center.

“We’re going to evaluate for a year and if we have a spike in pedestrian accidents out there then we may have to evaluate it and take it out,” he says.

Bike lanes are an easy way to increase safety by helping motorists realize cyclists are nearby. And some planners say they could be introduced all over the city for little more than the cost of the paint.

Chynoweth will be at the Corktown Residents’ Council meeting will be Tuesday, October 5 at 6:30pm to discuss these new bike lanes. The meeting is being held at the Most Holy Trinity School at 1229 Labrosse in Detroit.

More on GREEN

Sandi Svoboda also blogged about the Greater Riverfront East Environmental Network (GREEN) last week. This project has the potential to transform Detroit’s lower east from the Dequindre Cut to the Pointes: greenways, road diets, bike lanes, and much more.

One of the big focuses is extended the Detroit RiverWalk east to Detroit’s border. Given the marina district, it could be crazy expensive to develop the route along the river’s edge, so the routing may be creative.

Photo from the Bikes, Books, & a Little Music blog

Additional Tour de Troit ride reports have been posted in some local blogs and web columns.

First is a guest column in the Heritage Newspapers titled, Tour de Troit eye-opening ride. It’s a bit heavy on the outsiders OMG-there’s-blight theme, but it also give a nod to some optimism.

There’s a youthful, arty and optimistic vibe among the ride’s organizers. In pockets along the route, one encounters that same vibe in the neighborhoods. Sometimes it comes from just three or four homes or stores with vitality, a grouping surrounded by scary wasteland.

Next is from the very intriguing blog, Bike, Books & a Little Music. The author Charlie has a nice summary of both the Critical Mass ride and the Tour de Troit. Woven into the story are some great photos, including the one shown here.

The Transport Michigan web site offers a very comprehensive look at the Tour de Troit.

The Tour’s dedicated organizers deserve credit for their success. But they’ve also got larger trends blowing at their back: a resurgent interest in rebuilding the American city (and Detroit especially) as a sustainable, just, and prosperous metropolis, and an emerging global movement advancing bicycling as a healthy means of transportation in these times of sedentary lifestyles, economic dislocation, and mounting climate change. Given the symbolism of bicycling in the world’s automobile capital, the Tour’s ascent is a bellwether of truly national significance.

“It’s just like Amsterdam, with helmets,” one rider exclaimed as the Tour prepared to depart.

Is the Tour’s success reflect this renewed interest in urban environments?

Longtime cyclist Karen De Coster wrote a fine article that covered much more than just the Tour. Its title asks the question, Is Detroit a Bicyclist’s Paradise?

As we ride, people pop out of everywhere to watch. Businesses and shops empty out. Who can resist watching a line of 3,000 cyclists passing by? People hang out of apartment and residential home windows – waving, cheering, watching, and smiling. My friend’s 18-year-old daughter said she was quite taken by that whole experience. She had only seen and known about the warts of Detroit, with its all-too-obvious ramshackle topography. Yet there is another and more extraordinary side to the city, one that most people never experience because they only zing through Detroit on freeways or crawl along the surface streets behind glass.

Unfortunately, perceptions are often built on hearsay rather than concrete experience. It’s easy to sit around all day watching anemic television programming and news bites, yet pretend to know what’s going on outside of the uninspiring shelter so many people create for themselves. Criticism is an important outcome of critical thinking, but it should be the culmination of one’s own experience and taste, not the result of impetuous me-tooism. Accordingly, getting out and seizing the adventure firsthand is the only valid way to form judgments and gain knowledge of the orbit around you. So, even if Detroit is not exactly the traditional bicyclist’s paradise, spontaneously exploring the city and its history on two, non-motorized wheels is undeniably a memorable experience.

We agree. Bicycling is a great way for people to see and experience the real city of Detroit.

When Detroit gets back on its feet, will we credit the Tour de Troit for helping thousands of Metro Detroiters gain a more accurate view of the city, its people, and its opportunities?

We discussed this last year. Could a new ferry service across the river be the solution for Detroit and Windsor bicyclists wanting to cross the border?

It seems the answer is closer to “yes” these days.

Model D reported on this possibility at the end of last month in a conversation about the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority’s riverfront dock and terminal building construction. They spoke with the Port Authority’s John Kerr who “envisions… a commuter ferry service between Detroit and Windsor.”

Kerr was also on WDETs Craig Fahle Show last week. A podcast of that episode is on-line with the discussion beginning at 0:43.

We are also looking at commuter ferry service. We’ve had some discussions with the Windsor Port Authority and feel like there’s a market for potential ferry service. So, how cool would it be on the RiverWalk between the Ren Cen or maybe you’re at Cobo for a show and you come in and cross the border and to go to Windsor for lunch and bring people from Windsor to come over here for lunch?

That would be cool, especially if you could bring your bike.

But beyond just being able to get your bike across the river without a car, there are three specific projects that could greatly benefit from ferry service.

1. The Underground Railroad Bicycle Route: The Adventure Cycling Association is working with others to develop a new bicycle route that would connect with their existing route. This new route would come to Detroit and preferably cross the river to Canada, just as thousands of freedom-seekers did. In fact we note that it was easier for freedom-seekers to cross the Detroit River than it is for bicyclists today.
2. U.S. Bike Route System: Michigan is leading the nation in getting new U.S. Bike Routes closer to reality. Dividing the mitten, USBR 20 is almost ready for final approval. USBR 35 up the west coast is progressing as well. USBR’s 25, 30, and 36 all go through Detroit. It would invaluable if these routes allowed cycling tourists to cross into Canada.
3. Bike the Bridge: This annual event rides across the Ambassador Bridge in the morning, but its return is via buses and with bikes stuffed in rental trucks. This event would be much more appealing if cyclists could return via ferry at their leisure.

We shared these projects with Kerr and look forward to getting more information on this cross-border opportunity in the near future.