Google Bike Directions

If you use Google Maps to get a bike route between Detroit and Windsor, it will give you directions to use the Tunnel. Of course the Tunnel is not open to cyclists so we alerted Google and they are in the process of correcting that.

Southwest Detroit

We recently heard from the Southwest Detroit Business Association (SDBA) that construction on the Corktown/Mexicantown/West Vernor Greenlinks are on schedule and are close to moving to bid. “Construction is still scheduled for this spring/summer.”

Also on the Southwest side of Detroit, Model D is reporting on a planned Beard Park expansion led by the Urban Neighborhood Initiative (UNI). The plans call for a pump track. We helped connect Miss Cory Coffey — a BMX World Champion now living in Detroit — with this project. Beard Park is located north of W. Fort Street and a couple blocks east of Woodmere.

Detroit to Muskegon bike route

The League of Michigan Bicyclists has compiled input from cyclists to create a bicycle route from Detroit to Musekgon. The PDF route is on-line and it is very large at 27 megabytes.

RiverWalk’s Faye Nelson

Detroit Riverfront Conservancy President Faye Nelson received the 24th Soul and Spirit Humanitarian Award from Judge Damon Keith. Nelson also recently recognized by Grio as a History Maker in the Making for her RiverWalk efforts. “Nelson’s work has brought over $100 million to the area and renewed interest in the once-struggling neighborhood, becoming not just a beautification project, but a rallying point for the community.”

Reimagining Livernois

A Free Press editorial discusses the planning efforts to revitalize Livernois Avenue in Northwest Detroit.

Urban Land Institute’s Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use gathered in northwest Detroit. The urban planners, developers, city managers and architects spent four days generating ideas to turn the Livernois corridor — from 6 Mile to St. Martins, north of 7 Mile — into a thriving urban main street that could meet the retail and entertainment needs of one of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods. Similar Urban Land Institute efforts will take place this year in Charlotte, Sacramento and Houston.

One of the group’s conclusions is to make the street more bike friendly with traffic calming and bike paths. The relatively new boulevard, while improving pedestrian and vehicle safety, does limit the options for on-road bike facilities. There may not be enough room for bike lanes. Sharrows would be an alternative. And while sharrows may not make the road comfortable for less experienced cyclists, it should be possible to make the parallel residential streets more bike friendly.

Ordonez bikes

As many Red Wings have done, Detroit Tiger Magglio Ordonez now includes biking, including mountain biking in his training regimen.

[Alex] Avila noted how Ordonez would occasionally be a few minutes late for the workouts, only to have a pretty good excuse.

“We’d say, ‘Where have you been,'” Avila said. “‘Oh, I was riding my bike 15 miles.'”

Ordonez’s workout regimen drew attention last year, when his program was compared to that of a football player. But he also got into bicycle riding, especially mountain bikes.

It looks like the Tigers are at home for the 2011 Tour de Troit weekend… You in, Maggio?

We recently wrote about the Road Commission for Oakland County and their unwillingness to follow the national design guidelines for safe bicycling facilities.

That unwillingness is going to make  Complete Streets a bitter pill.

One doesn’t have to look too far to confirm that. Here’s the text they’ve had in the Oakland County’s Oak Routes Map.

The Road Commission for Oakland County is a member of the Oakland County Trails Advisory Council in order to accomplish two goals. First, our goal is to encourage and facilitate the movement of people throughout the county by non-motorized means as a way to promote healthier living and reducing the number of trips required on the road system. Secondly, the Road Commission wants to create the best possible nonmotorized network by contributing technical expertise to the location and design of the pathway system. This will create fewer conflicts with the motorized network and result in the safest possible trails for all users. Accomplishing both goals is in the best interest of our residents’ health, safety, and quality of life.

Yes, they refer to roads as the “motorized network.”

Yes, they are trying to gets bikes off the road.

Some of their best work is in Oakland County townships such as West Bloomfield. West Bloomfield has partnered with the Road Commission to get bikes of the roads and onto side paths, which they call safety paths.

Township officials have acknowledged to us that these paths are not safe for many bicyclists. That said, they’re still committed to building them.

One of their engineers admitted that these paths do not follow AASHTO bicycle design guidelines, but insisted it’s okay because the township only labels them as pedestrian facilities. That doesn’t explain the path’s bike routes signs or much of their safety path documentation.

Given all this, it is a major disappointment that the League of Michigan Bicyclists is giving its 2010 Community Award to the West Bloomfield Parks and Recreation Commission, for among other things, “activities that support making Michigan a better place to bicycle.”  The Commission has been a supporter of this safety path program and calls for more of them in their master plan.

Safety paths are not making Michigan a better place to bicycle.

And safety paths in nearly all cases do not make a Complete Street.

Cars and pedestrians in the Belle Isle bike lanes

Belle Isle Survey

This is a short survey about Belle Isle that seemingly overlooks the value of its bike lanes. If you ride on Belle Isle, you may want to let them know. We noted that the lack of walking paths means many pedestrians are using the bike lanes. This is not a safe solution for either group.

The Detroit Recreation Department and several private groups that support Belle Isle – the Friends of Belle Isle, the Belle Isle Botanical Society, the Belle Isle Women’s Committee and the Friends of Belle Isle Aquarium – are conducting a survey about Belle Isle. Your participation in this survey will help the City and its supporters to set priorities for Belle Isle management and capital improvements. To take the survey go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BelleIsle

League of Michigan Bicyclists Survey

From John Lindenmayer of the LMB:

The Board of Directors and staff of League of Michigan Bicyclists (LMB) are currently in the process of developing a five-year plan for the organization. The process will look at the internal and external environment we exist in today. We will identify key issues facing the organization in the following areas: Advocacy, Education, Promotion, Financial Resources and Human Resources. Once these issues are determined we will develop goals and action steps over the next five years to address these issues.

We need your input in helping us with a SWOT Analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths/Weaknesses and Opportunity/Threats. Please take a couple of minutes to fill out our online survey form. We have posted a slightly different survey for LMB members and a separate one for nonmembers. Please use the appropriate link below:

From the League of Michigan Bicyclists:

The League of Michigan Bicyclists and the Michigan Fitness Foundation announced today that they will host a statewide conference call to assist businesses and communities to learn about the League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Communities and Bicycle Friendly Business Program. The call is free to any interested individual or organization and will be held on Tuesday, June 29th from 12:30PM to 1:30PM. To RSVP and receive call-in information, please email jlindenmayer@lmb.org

The Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) program recognizes employers’ efforts to encourage a more bicycle-friendly atmosphere for employees and customers. The program honors innovative bike-friendly efforts and provides technical assistance and information to help companies and organizations become even better for bicyclists. This new initiative complements the League’s Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) program, which has been recognizing cities and towns for their bicycle friendliness since 2003.

The conference call will feature a presentation from Alison Dewey, a Washington, DC-based Program Specialist with the League of American Bicyclists’ Bicycle Friendly America program. Alison will outline the programs and offer guidance on completing the application process. Joining Alison will be three Michigan-based advocates with previous experience working on BFB and BFC applications: John Lindenmayer, Associate Director of the League of Michigan Bicyclists; Rory Neuner, LMB Board Member; and Sarah Panken, the Active Communities Coordinator at the Michigan Fitness Foundation.

As of Spring 2010, six Michigan communities have received designation as a Bicycle Friendly Community at the Silver or Bronze level, and three Michigan communities have received an Honorable Mention. Three Michigan businesses, including the League of Michigan Bicyclists, have been designated as Bicycle Friendly Businesses.

Congratulations to The Hub of Detroit. The League of American Bicyclists has named them as the first gold-level Bicycle Friendly Business in Michigan.

Businesses that apply for the award are contributing to a more bicycle-friendly lifestyle for their employees. The Hub of Detroit serves as an example for best practices and innovations in bicycle friendliness at the workplace. The Hub of Detroit makes bicycling an easy option for transportation and provides amenities such as mechanical assistance and education, ample bicycle parking and incentives such as an ally program where ongoing time commitments to the organization yield expanded access to tool space and time.

“This Bicycle Friendly Business is making a difference for employees, customers, and communities,” said Bill Nesper, Director of the Bicycle Friendly America Program. “The Hub of Detroit promotes bicycling as a viable form of transportation and gives their employees choices and options that make biking to work easy and fun.”

The other Michigan-based Bicycle Friendly Businesses are the League of Michigan Bicyclists in Lansing (silver) and Mel Trotter Ministries in Grand Rapids (bronze).