This weekend a pump track is being built in the North Corktown neighborhood near MLK and Trumbull.

What is a pump track? From the Corktown Pump Track page on Facebook:

A pump track is a continuous dirt loop, similar to a BMX track but smaller, which can be ridden by cyclists of all ages and skill levels safely. They require little maintenance, promote healthy living & exercise and can beautify & transform a small space. This particular pump track was inspired by the wonderful kids that live in the direct vicinity of this location.

But to really get an understanding of it, you may want to a watch a video of someone riding a pump track.

The construction begins tomorrow, November 14th at 10am. They hoping to have it completed and rideable by Sunday.

This is a great location for a bike-related attraction. It’ll be on the Corktown/Mexicantown Greenlink, which includes bike lanes on MLK and Trumbull.

This is also on the same block as the Spirit of Hope which had a blessing of the bikes earlier this year.

So, how many major cities have a pump track located just a few blocks away from their central business district, a major casino, and a number of urban farms with chickens, goats, and hogs?

Riding in Detroit is not always pretty, but it’s always pretty interesting.

Detroit City Council has been quite supportive of biking, walking, and greenway efforts within the city. And we’ve been quite fortunate to have a cycling advocate in Ken Cockrel Jr. as Council President to lead the way.

With the recent Detroit elections, the nine-person council will welcome five new members. Will there be the same support for our issues, especially with Cockrel no longer serving as president?

Prior to Tuesday’s election, Model D interviewed the candidates. One question in particular provided a gauge for where the candidates stood on biking and walking.

Many thriving cities in the U.S. have a reputation for sustainability via recycling, green building incentives, complete streets that promote biking and walking, and robust mass transit. Discuss your thoughts and priorities on these matters.

Here are excerpts from responses given by some candidates who won a seat on the council.

Charles Pugh

“We should look at re-zoning certain sparsely used parts of the city for bike trails and park use. The Dequindre Cut is very encouraging and should be used as a model for how we transform future plots of land.”

Gary Brown

“Public-private partnerships have been instrumental in building greenways in Detroit, such as the RiverWalk, Dequindre Cut and Conner Creek.”

Saunteel Jenkins

“The Dequindre Cut is a great example of one of the things we’ve done right here in Detroit to promote walking and biking. Now we need to amend that concept to create the same kind of walking and biking trails in city parks like River Rouge and Palmer Park. I would like to see a project like this funded and implemented through partnerships with businesses and non-profits.”

Ken Cockrel Jr.

“This has been a major focus of mine. As Council President, I sponsored and passed a resolution urging the city to implement a ‘non-motorized plan’ for the development more bike and walking paths. “

Kwame Kenyatta

“The young, talented, best and brightest usually leave Detroit for major cities that boast a commitment to biking, walking, robust mass transit and green building initiatives… Biking and walking paths must be developed in concert with this.”

Jo Ann Watson

“Detroit must become one of those cities.”

Mayor Dave Bing also responded to the survey by adding, “Detroit certainly needs to become more of a ‘green’ city.”

Throughout the entire Metro Detroit Tri-County area, there probably isn’t another elected body that better recognizes the importance of biking, walking, and greenways. That’s exciting.

One poster on a popular Detroit forum was concerned that the city saw biking as just a white urban hipster activity. These responses should allay those fears.

The recent reduction in posts to m-bike is largely due to the past eight days being absolutely packed with bicycle advocacy work in Detroit, Royal Oak, and across Michigan. Below is brief chronology for two of those days.

October 22nd: Royal Oak, Governor Milliken, the DNR and Detroit

The Active Transportation Alliance (ATA) was in town. The city of Royal Oak is contracting with them to develop a non-motorized master plan. I joined them in a morning meeting for a very early discussion on this future planning process. The city is expecting their grant money, which is funding this effort, will be available very early next year. When that occurs, the planning will begin.

After lunch, I dragged our ATA consultants down to the Detroit RiverWalk. As mentioned earlier, Tri-Centennial State Park has been renamed to honor former Governor William G. Milliken. I took advantage of many opportunities to share our Detroit Greenways Network brochure with those attending the renaming ceremony.

Among those attending was Senator Patty Birkholz. The Senator is leading efforts to create a sustainable funding source for our state parks. She gave me a quick update on the Recreation Passport legislation she’d introduced earlier this year. Among other things, this legislation would add an optional $10 fee when registering vehicles. In return, there would be no fees to enter state parks. Senator Birkholz says she doesn’t expect any progress until A.B. (“after budget”.)

That evening we pulled together a small group for dinner for a discussion on bicycling in Detroit and how we can vastly improve it. The meeting was graciously hosted by John and Vivian Stroh. Vivian’s two younger brothers started a little cycling company called SRAM. The meeting was filled with great information and energy. It was a big help have both Carolyn Helmke, the ATA’s senior planner, and Randy Neufeld, the former ATA executive director and now manager of the SRAM Cycling Fund and president of America Bikes. They brought both a Chicago and a national perspective to the meeting.

But for me, one local perspective was my biggest takeaway. Tawanna Simpson from Detroit Bike Riders United told the story of her running for the Detroit School Board. She rode her bike to a nearby forum. Some voters said they wouldn’t vote for her because she rode her bike to the event and that wasn’t normal. This really highlighted the community outreach we need to do in Detroit and beyond. Biking shouldn’t be viewed as a last choice for transportation. It should be better than normal. The fact that Tawanna is a positive role model for kids riding their bikes to school should gain her votes, not lose them.

October 23rd: The Chicago experience and WDET

The morning was filled with a monthly meeting of the Detroit Greenways Coalition. Carolyn and Randy were able to join us and give a brief overview of their Chicago bicycling efforts with an emphasis on programming. It seems we have a good understanding of how to build proper and safe bicycling and walking facilities in Detroit, but we come up short in programming. How do we overcome the barriers to people bicycling more in the city? Chicago has a long track record of success, some of which we may try duplicating in Motown.

Another key takeaway? Chicago relies heavily on Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) federal funding. Much of the Metro Detroit CMAQ funding is allocated by SEMCOG and their prioritization formula makes bicycle projects not competitive. Nationwide, 13% of CMAQ projects are biking and walking related, while 0% are in Metro Detroit. We need to change that.

Later that afternoon, Randy and I were guests near the tail end of the Detroit Today program on WDET. A podcast of that radio interview is on their web site. Detroit Today’s host, Craig Fahle is a former bike mechanic from Alfred E. Bikes in Kalamazoo.

The day’s heavy downpour led us to cancel plans for a Detroit bicycle tour. Still, I managed to drive our Chicago guests around Detroit, Highland Park, and Hamtramck to give them a quick overview of our cycling landscape. They gave some great cycling facility ideas along the way and were simply overwhelmed with the excessively wide and overbuilt roads.

Detroit is fortunate having another Midwestern city nearby that has invested so heavily in bicycling and walking. And while Randy mentioned how our situation is special and unique, there is still much opportunity to learn and apply what Chicago has done.

There really is no need to rebuild the bike wheel.

For those unfamiliar with Google Maps, they have a Street View option which lets users explore a city at street level. Not all roads have Street View, but much of the city of Detroit does.

Now they are adding non-roads to Street View using a pedal-powered trike with the Google imaging system.

They’re also taking suggestions on where they should take the trike. We hope you consider voting for Detroit Greenways. Voting is simple and painless.

Imagine Street View for the Dequindre Cut.

Also, the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance is looking into submitting Detroit greenway GPS coordinates to Google. This means the greenways would be shown on Google Maps just as it shows roads.

I recently purchased a Souvenir of Detroit booklet which contains “a sketch of Detroit’s History, Resources and Points of Interest to Visitors.”

It was written in 1891 during the golden age of bicycling. Sure enough, the booklet contained this text on the city’s cycling scene:

The Detroit Wheelmen are the outgrowth of the two Bicycle Clubs, the Detroit and the Star. These, after several meetings, united in the spring of 1890, everything seeming favorable for re-organization. Wheeling up to this time, owning to many reasons, had been indulged in by but the few, and was looked upon as a pastime. Since that time the club has grown in membership, and among its members may be found many of the brightest and most energetic young men in the city.

The Club House, 64 Washington Ave., is cosy and comfortable, where any visiting wheelman finds a welcome. The twelfth annual meet of the League of American Wheelmen fell in good hands, and was the largest and most successful in the League’s history, and stamps Detroit as an important cycling center, around which the rider will find many delightful tours.

The booklet also highlighted Detroit’s early parks, including Belle Isle and Clark, and concludes that “the city is wonderously well provided with lungs.”

And while describing Belle Isle, it notes its “perfect roadbeds furnish facilities for wheelsmen and their ‘bikes’ not excelled anywhere.” It’s not clear why “bikes” is in quotes unless that was a newer term in 1891.