The League of American Bicyclists just announced 16 new Bicycle Friendly Community awards, three of which are in Michigan:

• Lansing
• Marquette
• Portage

All three earned the entry-level Bronze status for Engineering, while Lansing also got a Bronze in Education.

There are now six recognized Bicycle Friendly Communities in Michigan. Sadly enough, none are in Macomb, Oakland, or Wayne Counties.

However, it’s expected the city of Detroit will apply within the year given the recent Bikes Belong/REI Bicycle Friendly Community grant. The city of Ferndale had applied years ago but did not receive an award or honorable mention.

John R with four one-way vehicle lanes and negligible traffic -- an urban cyclist dream street.

We think so.

Apparently former New Yorker Toby Barlow may as well according to this Metromode article:

Toby Barlow finds it ironic that Detroit is known as the “Motor City”, since its flat and relatively calm streets make it the country’s most perfect bicycle city as well.

Yesterday the New York Times ran an opinion piece from Barlow about biking in Detroit:

While bike enthusiasts in most urban areas continue to have to fight for their place on the streets, Detroit has the potential to become a new bicycle utopia. It’s a town just waiting to be taken. With well less than half its peak population, and free of anything resembling a hill, the city and its miles and miles of streets lie open and empty, beckoning. And lately, whether it’s because of the economy or the price of gas or just because it’s a nice thing to do, there are a lot more bikers out riding.

Our abandoned landscape suggests an opportunity that alternative-transportation proponents should consider: instead of raging against their cities’ internal combustion machines, they might consider a tactical retreat to the city that cars have pretty much abandoned.

A Seattle blogger responded with the suggestion of moving to Detroit: “Not now, of course, because it’s warm and sunny in Seattle, and we’re not broke yet.” It’s warm and sunny in Detroit, too.

National Recognition?

Just because Detroit is a bicycle-friendly city, don’t expect to receive a bicycle-friendly designation from the League of American Bicyclists.

The scoring for that award is based on assumptions such as:

• government has the lead role in developing and managing bicycle facilities
• the city does not have significant vacant land
• that urban streets have traffic levels that necessitate bike lanes

None of these assumptions are correct in Detroit and so we do not score well.

Erroneous Benchmarking

And similarly, the Alliance for Biking and Walking is currently benchmarking U.S. cities. Most of the benchmarking questions asked were not relevant to Detroit’s reality, so we can expect to be erroneously scored. (This should not be unexpected as the Alliance’s 2007 benchmarking estimated that the city of Detroit had 34 bike shops and that Detroiter’s spent $92/person annually at these shops!)

In my role as MTGA’s Detroit Greenways Coordinator, I’ve discussed this with the Alliance, but they don’t seem to grasp that not all cities fit their expected mold for bicycle friendliness.

Of course it doesn’t help that they’ve never biked in Detroit either.

It’s apparent that the surveys and assumptions are made so that the cities they expect to score well do so. In other words, recognition is reserved for cities following in Portland’s footsteps.

Detroit’s not. We’re making our own trail.

We may not get recognized by the big nationwide bicycle advocacy groups, but we’re sure to keep getting recognized from cyclists like Barlow and others.

The League of American Bicyclists (LAB) released their 2009 rankings and Michigan fell 3 spots to 15th.

According to Josh DeBruyn, our MDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, it appears the drop was primarily due to other states improving their scores.

These overall rankings are based on scores in six different areas. Here is how Michigan ranked within those areas:

• Legislative: tie 43rd
• Policies and Programs: tie 7th
• Infrastructure: tie 8th
• Education: tie 9th
• Evaluations: tie 16th
• Enforcement: tie 19th

Obviously Michigan scored most poorly in the legislative area. According to DeBruyn, this is perhaps due to other states having passed Complete Streets Policies; banning cell phones and texting while driving; having 3′ passing laws; and allowing photo enforcement of moving violations.

We did notice the state ranking application asked about mandatory helmet laws. We contacted the LAB and those answers are only for data collection and are not used in the rankings.

Here is the complete state ranking list:

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For the first time, states are now being ranked according to how well they accommodate bicycling:

The League of American Bicyclists has announced our first annual ranking of Bicycle Friendly States, scoring all 50 states on more than 70 factors. The states were scored on responses to a questionnaire evaluating their commitment to bicycling and covering 6 key areas: legislation; policies and programs; infrastructure; education and encouragement; evaluation and planning; and enforcement.

Andy Clarke, president of the League, said, “While every state has room to improve in making bicycling a preferred mode of transportation and accessible form of recreation, Washington is making the greatest strides to make this a reality.” Clarke points to Washington’s model bike laws, signed and mapped statewide bike route network, dedicated funding from the state for bicycle related programs and projects, and an active statewide bicycle advisory committee as a few examples of why Washington ranked the highest.

Michigan is near the top at number 12.  The reasoning cited was:

Michigan has a rumble strip policy with a minimum 4 feet of clearance and dedicated state funding for bicycle projects. However, there is no routine accomodation or complete streets policy.

There is a very cool interactive map on-line they lets you easily compare states by clicking on them.

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Bikes Belong grant awards were recently announced.

Congratulations Flint!

This is a well-deserved nod for the regional bike efforts to make biking easier and safer in Flint. (And we’re jealous of you having sharrows — perhaps a first in Michigan.)

Five designated and aspiring Bicycle Friendly Communities will receive funds to help them make bicycling more safe, convenient and appealing places to ride.

These grants, designed to pinpoint specific needs outlined by each community in their Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) application, help pay for bike plans, technical assistance, pilot projects and innovative cycling initiatives.

Flint, Michigan
The Safe and Active Flint Coalition will receive $5,000 to improve bike safety and awareness through a Sharrow program. Flint received honorable mention in the last BFC round. They identified Sharrows—pavement markings encouraging cars and bicycles to share the road—as key to marking the first designated bike routes in the city.

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