Assignment Detroit

Time Magazine recently bought a house in Motown as part of their Assignment Detroit project. Why? In their words, “As a story, Detroit has been misunderstood, underreported, stereotyped, avoided and exploited for decades. To get it right, we decided to become stakeholders.”

Their project includes a blog and one of it’s early entries was about biking in Detroit.

In Detroit, there are cars. And then there is something known as non-motorized transportation.

That means bicycles, y’all.

Believe it or not, people in the Car Capital of the World love their bikes. And there is a huge movement to create a culture here that is friendlier to two wheels than four.

Yep. Believe it.

Alleycats in Detroit

Model D once again has some great coverage of Detroit’s biking scene, include this article on Alley Cats (which also drifts into the Tour de Troit and greenways…)

Since 2006, [Ron] Shelton has organized Alleycats in Detroit. These unsanctioned cycling races draw riders from throughout the metro area to compete in a crisscrossing sprint down streets and through intersections. Participants fly from checkpoint to checkpoint, collecting clues and directions to their next destination while dodging cars and other riders. The course tests both the riders’ knowledge of the city and their guts as they navigate a virtual collision course that backtracks and veers over 35 miles.

“People don’t realize it, but in Detroit, we have ridiculously wide roads that are ready to be converted to include bike lanes,” [Shelton] says. “Michigan has a lot of potential for cycling and has many fantastic trails already.”

Aaron Wagner, an organizer for the annual Tour De Troit agrees. “Definitely there’s been an upswing in biking in Detroit,” he said. “With the opening of the Detroit RiverWalk and bike shops like the Wheelhouse and the Hub, it’s gotten a lot more people into it. We’re seeing more people leaving their cars at home and riding their bikes to work.”

Don’t forget that the next Alleycat is in Hart Plaza on October 30th. The time has not been posted yet but we’re guessing it’ll be after the critical mass ride.

Tour de Troit

And finally Model D and Tom Hendrickson have made a great video on this year’s Tour de Troit bike ride. Tour Director Bil Lusa provides some commentary on the ride.

The Shorpy.com web site publishes some amazing photos.

One recent addition is of Fort Street in Detroit. It’s looking west from Woodward Avenue back in 1890.

Notice what’s missing in the photo besides cars and trucks? There are no signs or traffic lights or crosswalks.

At this time, there really were no rules of the road because they weren’t necessary. Road users operated at similar, slower, and safer speeds. Everyone was responsible for not crashing into others.

This type of road design is becoming more popular in Europe. It’s called shared space.

After a recent MDOT training with John LaPlante, I asked him about implementing shared space. He said it can work in America in some residential areas or downtowns. He brought up the excellent point that European drivers have a culture of sharing the road with other users like pedestrians and bicyclists. That makes it much easier for them to successfully implement shared spaces. Too often American drivers suffer from a sense of road entitlement.

Did you notice all the bikes parked in front of the now-demolished Hammond Building? This was the “Golden Age” of bicycling in Detroit.

Since yesterday I’ve been guest blogging Metromode. The topics are non-motorized transportation in Metro Detroit.

The first two posts are now live and there are three more to go.

That bio photo is from a little-known Detroit trail called the Milbank. It connects Conner to Van Dyke between Eight Mile and E. Outer Drive. This trail is included in the October 3rd Conner Creek bike tour by Wheelhouse Detroit. The tour also includes a lunch stop at the nearby Two-Way Inn in the old village of Norris/Nortown.

Yes, the Inn is haunted.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has a training program for traffic engineers and planners that centers around designing roads for cycling. This year that program came to downtown Detroit.

What makes this program so effective is it’s led by John LaPlante, inarguably America’s leading expert in bicycle facility design. LaPlante is the primary author of the AASHTO guidelines for the development of bicycle facilities. He’s also a key figure in bicycle signage standards (via the MUTCD from the FHWA) and AASHTO’s pedestrian facilities design guidelines.

Laplante worked for the city of Chicago for 30 years include a stint as the Acting Commissioner of Transportation. In this role he was responsible for the planning, design and construction of all roads, bridges and mass transit facilities in the city of Chicago including their bicycle network.

Also leading the training class was Michael Amsden, the Bikeways Planner for the city of Chicago. Mike led us on a six-mile bike tour that made planned stops where he discussed options for improving the bike-friendliness of streets and intersections. Those stops included the mysteriously appearing and disappearing bike lane along Atwater and the super scary Broadway/Gratiot/Randolph intersection.

Representatives from the city of Detroit (5!), Wayne County, SEMCOG, Royal Oak, Corktown, MDOT and others were in attendance. Extra kudos go to the city of Detroit staff since the class coincided with the city’s first unpaid furlough.

Nearly all of the training was from the MUTCD and soon-to-be-release updated AASHTO bicycle guidelines.

One common theme was it’s best to implement bicycle facilities without removing much on-street parking. Removing parking only makes enemies and there usually are alternatives.

For example, some low-volume roads with on-street parking cannot accomodate bike lanes because they are not wide enough. If the parking is sporadic, one could simply stripe 7 foot parking lanes and add bike route signage. Most of the time, bikes would have access to an entire 7 foot lane, and with limited traffic, could easily skirt around parked cars. This is similar to Lincoln in Birmingham, except there should not be bollards (i.e. posts) in the road.

LaPlante also reinforced the message that in most cases sidepaths should not be built and designated for bicyclists. I noted that many Oakland County communities, including Oakland County itself, called sidepaths “safety paths.” LaPlante response was, “Safety paths? That’s an oxymoron.”

A big thanks goes to John Stroh III and his staff for providing an excellent meeting location at the Stroh River Place along the Detroit RiverWalk.

Here is our Detroit bike route (which we mostly followed) along with photos. You’ll likely want to view the map in a larger window in order to see the photos.

De light? Okay, bad pun, but it certainly seemed that most of the 2,000 cyclists who rode in yesterday’s Tour de Troit were enjoying themselves.

And for many, it shined a light on bicycling in Detroit and the city itself — the good stuff along with the blemishes.

For one reason or another, this event has not received a great deal of media coverage. That seemed to change this year as WXYZ had live TV coverage during the morning of the event, some of which is on their web site.

The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press also published post event summaries with photos.

State Representative Rashida Tlaib was also at the start and seemed very pleased to have so many cyclists in her Southwest Detroit district.

One very memorable (albeit unplanned) event during the ride was when the 100+ metric century cyclists passed the 30-mile riders heading the opposite direction on E. Grand Boulevard. Video of the larger group is on YouTube and it gives some idea of how large this event has become.

Compared with last year, this event grew by a whopping 80%. What’s going to happen next year? Will there be 3,000 cyclists?

It’s a great question and one that the Tour de Troit leaders are already discussing.