The U.S. DOT announced the 75 winning transportation projects for the $600 million in TIGER II funding.

There were 1,000 applications asking for a total of $19 billion, so this was very competitive.

The good news is the city of Pontiac received a planning grant.

U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Carl Levin (D-MI) today announced that the City of Flint will receive $1,570,233, Grand Traverse County will receive $395,000, and the City of Pontiac will receive $300,000 to promote economic development. The grants were announced as part of a joint funding collaboration between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The funding will boost local economic development by increasing access to affordable housing, redeveloping land, and investing in transportation infrastructure.

“This funding is critical to helping Flint, Grand Traverse County, and Pontiac create new jobs,” said Stabenow. “These grants will help our local communities increase access to affordable housing, redevelop land, and make important transportation improvements which will foster greater economic development.”

The City of Pontiac will use the TIGER II Planning Grant to help connect downtown, the Pontiac Transportation Center, regional trail system, and surrounding neighborhoods.

It’s important that bicycling advocates get involved in this planning process. Previous work with MDOT and Pontiac to extend the Clinton River Trail into downtown was poorly conceived. It signed a bicycle route on sidewalks in clear disregard of best practices and the AASHTO design guidelines.

Instead, they should be planning for Complete Streets, bike parking, and much more. We need to make sure they get that message.

The bad news is Detroit’s TIGER II grant application for the Inner Circle Greenway did not get funded. The request was on the high-side of $30 million and would have basically extended the Dequindre Cut around the city of Detroit. It included connections with Hamtramck and Highland Park. While portions would have used bike lanes, much of the route would be on an abandoned Conrail corridor.

But all hope for this project is not lost. MTGA is continuing discussions with the Conrail about converting this approximately 12-mile corridor into a trail. There are other funding sources that could pay for portions of this project, albeit in a more incremental fashion.

And there may be a TIGER III.

But it’s also a positive sign that in a city with so many infrastructure needs, they to chose to seek funding for this greenway project.

With the ongoing Complete Streets project, many miles of new greenways and bike lanes, the city has never been more in lockstep with the efforts of area non-profits to make Detroit more walkable and more bike friendly.

We recently received this press release:

BICYCLISTS, PEDESTRIANS TO ASSEMBLE AT RICK SNYDER CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS, SEEKING CLARIFICATION ON BIKE/PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE

This Friday, Oct. 15, at 1 pm, bicyclists and pedestrians are gathering at Republican governor candidate Rick Snyder’s downtown Ann Arbor campaign office to ask for clarification regarding his criticism of a local bicycle and pedestrian bridge project in last Sunday’s debate.

Asked whether he supported an increase in the Michigan gas tax, Snyder cited a new bicycle and pedestrian bridge over US-23 at Geddes, near his Ann Arbor home, as an example of inefficient state transportation spending.

“They just built a bike and pedestrian bridge across US-23 at the cost of millions of dollars,” Snyder said. “What they didn’t bother to tell us is a quarter mile south that there’s a bridge over the Huron River and there’s a bike and pedestrian path there. So let’s get efficient about where we’re deploying these dollars.”

Bicycling and walking advocates found Snyder’s comments perplexing, given the candidate’s previously stated support for “walkable cities” and “green infrastructure.” Led by the Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition, University of Michigan Bicycle Coalition, League of Michigan Bicyclists, and Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance, they are assembling to seek answers to the apparent discrepancy.

“The statement was surprising more than anything else,” said the U-M Bicycle Coalition’s Joel Batterman, a first-year urban planning student from Ann Arbor. “Snyder’s platform makes it clear that he favors improving the quality of life in Michigan cities, and he specifically mentions walkability in his policy statement on retaining young people. We’re confused on how the statement in the debate relates to that position. We hope it’s just a misunderstanding about the bridge’s location and funding.” While an existing bicycle and pedestrian path passes under US-23 on the south side of the Huron River, no crossing exists to the north between the river and Earhart Road, isolating Concordia College and northeast Ann Arbor from that path system.

In an attempt to clarify Snyder’s position, area pedestrians and bicyclists will gather on the U-M Diag this Friday, October 15, starting at 12:30 pm. At 12:45, they will depart for Snyder’s downtown office, arriving at 1 pm to present a letter inviting Snyder to tour the new bridge by bike and attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony next week. As a matter of fairness, or “bike-partisanship,” the groups will also extend an invitation to Democratic candidate Virg Bernero.

“No matter who’s elected,” Batterman said, “a safe bicycle and pedestrian network will set us on the path towards a more sustainable, prosperous future, one that’s healthy for all Michiganders.”

The Michigan gubernatorial debate may not have helped too many with their voting decision this November, but it did bring out one surprise. That surprise was brought to our attention by fellow transportation nerd Transport Michigan.

Near the end of the debate, candidate Rick Snyder ripped MDOT for adding a pedestrian bridge while reconstructing the freeway interchange — arguably making this part of Geddes Road a Complete Street.

FINLEY: We all know Michigan has the worst roads in the nation. Mr. Snyder, would you support an increase in the gasoline tax to fix them?

SNYDER: I don’t support an increase in the gas tax, because we need to get efficient first. I mean, we need to look at value for money budgeting. Because if you go around our state our roads are terrible, but let’s tighten our belts, let’s be efficient and see where we can deploy these dollars to fix the roads that really need to be fixed. A classic illustration I used from the Ann Arbor area, if you went to the Michigan/Michigan State game you had to suffer over the Stadium Street bridge potentially. Two lanes are permanently closed on that bridge. I think it’s got a rating of like 2 out of 10. At the same, I live near Geddes Road and US 23. They just built a bike and pedestrian bridge across US 23 at the cost of millions of dollars. What they didn’t bother to tell us is a quarter mile south that there’s a bridge over the Huron River and there’s a bike and pedestrian path there. So let’s get efficient about where we’re deploying these dollars. There’s a much better way to do things. And that’s what we should focus on first.

Transport Michigan offers a great rebuttal.

Snyder is surely correct that inefficiencies exist in state transportation policy. But why target a much-needed bike/pedestrian bridge, when the state is spending far more colossal sums to widen roads across the state? We know from experience that expanding road capacity will only bring more congestion. Highway widening isn’t just wasteful: it ultimately worsens the problem it’s intended to fix. You’d think a candidate who favors walkable cities, and opposes the crippling spread of urban sprawl, would see the need to link Washtenaw County’s two biggest towns with bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and see the foolishness of so many other more expensive roadway projects.

We agree. If Synder has  provided a classic example of anything, it’s of someone giving an easy but impossible solution.

As Transportation Michigan aptly pointed out, the federal funding for this project could not be spent on the Stadium Boulevard bridge.

And according to Synder’s debate comments, if there’s another crossing within a quarter-mile, it’s a waste of transportation money. Is that correct?

If so, he didn’t bother to tell us there are two alternative routes for the Stadium Boulevard bridge within a quarter mile.

By his own logic, why is the Stadium bridge required at all?

What about Bernero?

We should add that candidate Virg Bernero’s response to the same question hinted that he’s done more of his homework and has a little better grip on Michigan’s transportation funding situation. He references MDOT’s inability to fully match federal funding and he understands at least some of the issues surrounding falling fuel tax revenues.

He is also the mayor of Lansing, a Bicycle Friendly Community, and his web site actually includes the word “bike” albeit once.

Virg will continue to support green transportation in our communities by making cities walkable and bikeable and increasing public transportation options.

While there was a reference to “walkable” and an undefined “green infrastructure”, we couldn’t find “bike” or it’s common permutations on the Synder web site.

A couple recent items popped up on the July 27th Detroit City Council agenda that area cyclists might be interested in. Though we’re not certain that they passed, it’s likely they did since they were successfully reported out of committee.

First, a contact to purchase bus bike racks was before council.

Brown, reso. autho. Contract No. 2824443 – 20% State Funding; 80% Federal Funding – To Provide Bus Bicycle Racks, Spare Parts and Associated Hardware – RFQ #33730 Sportworks Northwest, Inc., 15540 Wood-Red Road N.E., Bldg #A-200, Woodinville, WA 98072 – Contract Period: August 1, 2010 through July 31, 2013, with Two (2), One (1) Year Renewal Options – Items (2) Unit Price: $38.00/each to $546.00/each. Lowest Total Bid – Estimated Cost: $353,999.36/Three Years – TRANSPORTATION

DDOT has said they would get bus bike racks on their existing fleet. They’re new buses already have them.

Second, and we’ve mentioned this already, but a grant application for extending the Dequindre Cut was approved by council committee.

Brown, reso. autho. Endorsing the Application to MDNRE Right of Way Acquisition. (DPW intends to submit an application to MDNRE for an amount of $500,000.00 to acquire the Right-of-Way (ROW) needed for the construction of Dequindre Cut, Phase II Project.) (REPORTED OUT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY STANDING COMMITTEE 07-26-10) WAIVER OF RECONSIDERATION

This grant request would be for the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, which this year is flush with money. That means it’s very likely the Dequindre Cut grant will be approved. This grant is only to acquire the right-of-way. Additional funds will be required to improve existing bridges over the Cut and to build the trail itself.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting record sales for gas drilling rights on state-owned property.

Michigan oil and gas speculators bet the farm today on a newly developed natural gas field in the northern Lower Peninsula, paying well over $140 million for mineral rights at the halfway point of a record-breaking state auction.

The eye-popping auction results are a windfall for the state’s Natural Resources Trust Fund, which gets about 90% of the proceeds to buy recreational and environmentally sensitive property.

The oil and gas rush was apparently touched off by a single, deep well that went into Missaukee County over the winter. The well, owned by a Colorado-based company, has generated intense speculation on a possible boom in the Utica shale formation that underlies much of the northern Lower Peninsula. Utica shale and other deep shale formations have been productive in other states, but never before developed in Michigan.

Whether this is windfall is a long term or a bust remains to be determined.

Nonetheless, this is great news for the Trust Fund which should be able to provide more grant funding for items such as land acquisition and trail development. For example, the Trust Fund has paid for much of Milliken State Park, the RiverWalk, and Dequindre Cut — often through the DNR.

And, there may be a Trust Fund request in the near future for the Inner Circle Greenway — a trail that would combine with others and wrap around the city.

Until recently, the city of Detroit was not eligible for these funds since City Council had not endorsed a new recreation plan. As we reported earlier, Council endorsed the recreation plan which opens the door to more grant funding in Detroit.