A draft of the Royal Oak Non-Motorized Transportation Plan is now on-line and available for review according to city planner Doug Hedges.

The plan is being presented to Royal Oak’s Planning Commission on Tuesday, September 13th, at 7:30 p.m. That meeting is open to the public and anyone interested is welcome to attend and offer their comments or viewpoints regarding the plan.

Here’s a link to download copies of the plan

Let us know if you have any questions, otherwise we look forward to seeing most of you on the 13th.

Planning Commission meetings are held in the council chambers on the third floor of the Royal Oak City Hall at 211 Williams Street.

Royal Oak’s non-motorized plan is nearing completion and will be presented to the City Planning Commission at their September 13th meeting at City Hall (211 S. Williams Street, third floor). The meeting begins at 7:30pm and it would be a great to see cyclists in the audience showing (if not speaking) their support.

The Planning Department expects to have the draft plan on the city web site early next month. This will give the public the opportunity to review it prior to the meeting.

You will be able to submit comments via email as well.

Market Street's green bike lane (Photo by SFGate)

While at the National Bike Summit, Leah Shahum the Executive Director for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition shared an interesting story. After showing a photo of bicycle lanes on Market Street, she mentioned that Twitter was relocating their offices to this street and requested more of these bike lanes. They wanted to make it easier for their employees to bike to work.

In another session, it was noted that employee health insurance is lower in states with healthier employees. Getting more employees to walk and bike can reduce the cost of doing business.

And with that, the Observer and Eccentric published an article on Novi’s new non-motorized transportation plan.

It seemed fitting that as gas prices in metro Detroit approach $4 per gallon, the city of Novi moved forward with approval of its first non-motorized master plan.

Norm Cox, president of The Greenway Collaborative, which was the lead designer on the plan, said it is going to be years before the system is complete, but when done will change how people travel in the city.

“We think you will have a multi-faceted non-motorized system, one that works for the whole range of citizens and their preferences as to how they want to bike and walk around,” he said. “It will make a noticeable change in the quality of life for residents.”

And while Twitter might not relocate to Novi, some other tech firms just might — and having a more walkable and bikeable city is definitely a selling point.

Yesterday I was on the Craig Fahle Show on WDET. The discussion focused on the last night’s Beaufait Greenway meeting and tomorrow’s Greater Riverfront East community meeting.

If you missed the program, the podcast is on line. The discussion on greenways begins at 1:04.

That 9-mile abandoned rail property that I mentioned is part of the planned Inner Circle Greenway.

For those who don’ t know, Fahle is a cyclist and a former bike mechanic at Alfred E. Bikes in Kalamazoo.

– Todd Scott

Novi passes non-motorized plan

Congratulations to the city of Novi!

On a 7-0 vote, the Novi City Council adopted the proposed non-motorized master plan which we’d mentioned earlier. This is the first non-motorized plan passed in Oakland County. While Troy developed one earlier, the plan was never adopted by their city council. Royal Oak’s plan is still under development.

Novi  city counilmember Andrew Mutch adds, “The plan provides the framework to guide the continued development of the city’s non-motorized transportation system and includes detailed recommendations for changes to our design and construction standards and ordinances for implementing the recommendations. It also includes concepts plans and cost estimates to implement various aspects of the plan.

The master plan is available on-line along with the presentation made by the consultant before city council.

This plan was developed by the Greenway Collaborative, Wade-Trim and the Active Transportation Alliance.

Berkley adding bike racks

The city of Berkley is installing six new bike racks as part of a SMART grant.

“It’s something we’re seeing more of, and we want to see even more of,” says Tom Colwell, facility manager and parks and recreation director for the city of Berkley.

“Ultimately we’re going to put some of the racks closer to bus shelters and around town,” Colwell says. “What we want to promote is people not driving their own cars everywhere, but getting around by biking. We want to promote a healthier lifestyle.”

The city is also looking at how it could make its roads safer for bicyclists. They also passed a Complete Streets resolution recently.

West Bloomfield extending trail

The Spinal Column has an update on plans to extend the West Bloomfield trail westward to the township border near Haggerty Road.

“We will hire a design coordinator that will work with the commission on developing a design plan and preparing construction drawings,” said Parks and Recreation Commission Director Dan Navarre. “The coordinator will then monitor the construction process so it’s done according to plan.”

When it is completed, the West Bloomfield Trail will stretch out to 6.5 miles.

“We should have the design and the bids done in the fall and we may begin building in the spring of 2012 and hopefully have it finished in June 2012,” Navarre said.

Clawson examines ordinances

In 2009 we noted some of the more ridiculous rules of the road that some local municipalities have. One was Clawson’s ordinance which made it illegal to take your hands off the handlebars while riding.

This article in the Royal Oak Review talks about Clawson’s recent efforts to remove these types of ordinances.

“We are looking into all of our outdated ordinances,” Pollock said. “These are laws that are not going to be enforced.”

The city, like many others in the area, has many old and odd ordinances on the books. They range from the funny — for example, it’s unlawful to ride a bicycle without both hands on the handlebars — to the possibly illegal — it’s against the law in Clawson for a liquor license owner to allow his business to be frequented or become a gathering place for homosexuals.