Put it in Gear

Portland puts a bird on it. Detroit puts a fist. PassingLeft has an neat Detroit bike T shirt for sale on Etsy.

Green Garage Update

Final construction is underway with the Green Garage in Midtown. The Garage will make it easy for tenants to bike to work.

The Green Garage added an indoor bike rack and a shower to their building plans as well. “If we are encouraging employees to bike into work here, it only makes sense that we give them everything they need to truly be green” Mrs. [Peggy] Brennan told me.

Could they become another Bicycle Friendly Business in Detroit?

Hostel Detroit Bike Pavilion

We saw this interesting slideshow about a Detroit Bike Pavilion and we had to learn more. They were good enough to write a summary of the project:

The Detroit Bike Pavilion is a Design/Build project run as a summer graduate studio as part of the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. The project team consists of two professors and 9 graduate students, including myself. Our mission is to design, fabricate and install a (roughly) 300 sq/ft pavilion in Detroit which will act as a place to store bikes, hold concerts and other various community events.

Our client is Hostel Detroit, which is a non-profit organization recently established in the corktown region of Detroit. In addition to serving as a youth hostel, they routinely rent out bikes and thus are in need of a place to store them.

Detroit Bike City

Jason Hall from Bikes and Murder posted this article entitled Detroit Bike City. It highlights some of the Detroit bicycle scene.

We sometimes forget what the world is really like outside of our little bubbles. What I mean by that is when you’re in a car driving with your music up, it’s easy to forget to look around you and see what’s really going on. I had become a victim of that very thing. I would drive my car three blocks for a soda, a mile to see a friend. When I got on a bike I had to face realities and fears that keep us grounded. I saw neighborhoods I hadn’t EVER seen. Went places I had never even gone in a car. I soon became a converted bike rider.

Suburban Critical Mass

Yes, the Detroit Critical Mass is a great time. This Friday’s event already has 401 attending and 227 maybe attending on their Facebook page. It’ll be huge, but it’s not making much of a statement. It’s a city that’s already super bicycle friendly with city staff are becoming quite supportive of biking as transportation.

It’s quite the opposite story in most of the Detroit suburbs. That’s where a Critical Mass ride could serve its original intent.

So on July 22nd there will be the first Suburban Mass Ride starting at Royal Oak Farmers Market parking lot. It meets at 6:30pm and rolls out at 7pm. There is additional information on Facebook.

New Pistons owner

At a recent press conference, Piston’s owner Tom Gores noted the difficulty (Okay, near impossibility) of inner city families getting to the Palace of Auburn Hills without a car. He said he couldn’t see Piston games as a kid because he only had a bike to ride. Though Gores didn’t mention it, if the stadium was in Foxtown, those transportation hurdles go away.

Chicago’s mayor wants more bike lanes

Chicago’s new mayor, Rahm Emanuel is also a “bike enthusiast” and wants to add 100 miles of protected bike lanes in Chicago — the first of which just opened. He also wants Chicago to be the “bike friendliest city in the U.S.”. He cited bike facilities as an essential tool for quality of life and economic development.

Mopeds are the “ultimate gas savers?”

According to Tom Greenwood’s column in the Detroit News, mopeds are the ultimate gas savers. Really? More than bicycles, walking, electric vehicles, and public transit?

Over 300 riders from the U.S. and Canada rode in the 2011 Bike the Bridge event.

Those starting in Detroit checked in at the Milliken State Park on the RiverWalk. The group rode to the Ambassador Bridge and over to Windsor. It was here that 90 Windsor bicyclists joined the group and rode back over the bridge to Detroit.

Cyclists were reminded to keep moving and not stop. It’s not everyday that traffic across one of the world’s busiest international crossings is stopped for bicyclists.

Once back at Milliken State Park, riders ate breakfast before heading out on either a 24-mile or 45-mile guided tours. The shorter tour included the Dequindre Cut, Eastern Market, Belle Isle and Indian Village.

Perhaps one of the best comments on the event came from Tristan via Facebook.

Wow! Yesterday’s tour was an amazing experience. I have a very different perspective on the City of Detroit. Thank you to the organizers and volunteers who put so much work into this. I can’t imagine how much time it must have taken. Looking forward to seeing everybody next year.

More photos on Flickr: Ravenswift and OurWindsor

The number of group bike rides in the city of Detroit is rapidly increasing. Here are six interesting rides on tap for this month.

Bike the Bridge on June 13th

Registration is already closed for this event due to the customs requirements. That’s to be expected on an international bike ride. With nearly 300 registrants, this should be a huge success!

Claytown Neighborhood Tour on June 16th

Bridging Communities and the Detroit Collaborative Design Center are having an open house from 4pm until 7pm at their offices at 6900 McGraw. The open house is to review the recently developed Green Links for the Claytown Neighborhood non-motorized plan. Yes, more bike lanes and routes, but this time in the neighborhoods west of North Corktown and Woodbridge. They will provide light refreshments and a bicycle tour starting at 7pm.

Collin Hubbell Ride on June 18th

This ride is a fundraiser for the Hubbell Fund which provides grants in Midtown.

Many of you knew Colin Hubbell, a dedicated Detroiter, midtown developer and community advocate! Colin passed away in 2008 after a long, hard-fought battle with cancer. We created the Hubbell Fund to carry on his passion for Detroit.

The Hubbell Fund provides small businesses, entrepreneurs and community groups with grants in an effort to revitalize Detroit’s Midtown community.

You can register at www.bikedetroit.eventbrite.com. More information is available on the Midtown Detroit web site.

Critical Mass on June 24th

Rainy weather dampened the turnout for May’s ride, which still attracted a few hundred bicyclists. Watch the Facebook page for more details.

Conner Creek/Lakeshore Drive Ride on June 25th

This 36 mile ride begins at 9am and is hosted by the Sierra Club. This may be a nice opportunity to check out the new additions to the Conner Creek Greenway on Detroit’s Eastside.

Slow Ride to Slow James

This ride occurs every Monday at 8pm and leaves from the Woodbridge Pub on Trumbull just west of Wayne State. It’s led by the Bikes and Murder crew, but don’t let that put you off.

From their web site:

No course is set and all skill levels are invited. The ride ends with the smooth sounds of Erno the Inferno and EastSide Jon – plus many special guests. We’ll be doing this every Monday till it gets too cold and maybe after that.

The also host the Bikes and Movie night on June 21st at Peck Park, which is just east of CCS.

Here are various bike-related updates from around the state and Metro Detroit area —

Model D Speaker Series: Urban Mobility

If you missed this event, don’t worry. Jason Rzucidlo has a nice writeup with photos.

Of course, Model D also covered the event.

Marja Winters, deputy director of the city’s Planning and Development department, said non-motorized transit options are an essential component to the mayor’s Detroit Works Project. Credit the growing movement across the country to urban areas, often for the diversity of options a city affords. “The quality of place is becoming the number one determining factor,” she said. “And ranking high in the decision-making process is the notion of alternative forms of transit.”

We probably would not have heard similar quotes from Detroit’s planning department just a few years ago. This really signals the great deal of progress and increased awareness that has happened during that time.

Bicycle Friendly State rankings

Michigan continues to drop in the state rankings developed by the League of American Bicyclists. The Mitten state is now ranked 22nd and was given a “D”.

This 10 spot drop since 2008 is likely attributable to new ranking criteria and the lack of progress in key areas — progress that other states have made. Michigan received an “F” score in the categories of Infrastructure, Evaluation & Planning, and Enforcement.

Ride challenge for MDOT Director

With the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood biking to work yesterday, we suggested MDOT’s Director Kirk Steudle could do the same via Twitter.

MDOT responded with “I forwarded your tweet to Dir. Steudle to let him know. Thanks! ”

GM’s Akerson calls for fuel tax increase

The unwillingness in Washington DC and Lansing to increase fuel taxes has helped led to a transportation funding crisis. (Yeah, sprawl and the lack of regional planning in Metro Detroit are factors as well.)

Bill Ford Jr. has previously advocated for a fuel tax increase. Now, so to has GM’s CEO Dan Akerson according to this Detroit News article.

A government-imposed tax hike, Akerson believes, will prompt more people to buy small cars and do more good for the environment than forcing automakers to comply with higher gas-mileage standards.

“You know what I’d rather have them do — this will make my Republican friends puke — as gas is going to go down here now, we ought to just slap a 50-cent or a dollar tax on a gallon of gas,” Akerson said.

“People will start buying more Cruzes and they will start buying less Suburbans.”

An increased fuel tax can also encourage more people to bike, walk, and use public transit, while providing improved funding.

I-275 Metro Trail

There was a reopening ceremony for a portion of the I-275 bike path on Saturday. We weren’t there, but the Detroit Free Press was. The I-275 path will continue to be expanded northward as the southern portion is rebuilt and reopened. You can stray up to date with the progress by visiting the Friends of the I-275 Pathway on Facebook.

Michigan Airlines Rail-Trail

The Spinal Column is reporting that the Surface Transportation Board has denied a quick abandonment for the rail corridor that many hope will soon become a trail.

STB board members denied Michigan Air-Line Railway’s petition because it didn’t “provide the Board with sufficient evidence regarding the revenues and costs associated with the line, thereby making it impossible to determine what burden, if any, (Michigan Air-Line) Railway incurs in continuing to operate the line.”

Nevertheless, Michigan Air-Line Railway still hopes to get the STB’s approval to abandon the railroad, therefore allowing the trail project to move forward.

“We’re still moving forward with the grant applications,” said Commerce Township Planner Kathleen Jackson. “The NRTF board doesn’t make the grant decision until December, and (Michigan Air-Line Railway) hopes to have an answer by then.”

We do hope this gets resolved prior to the Natural Resource Trust Fund grant decision is made in December. This is the third attempt at getting this grant which will help pay for most of the property.

Last week City Council unanimously passed a resolution endorsing a Detroit Parks and Trail Day.

Detroit Parks and Trails Day will be held in conjunction with National Trails Day on the first Saturday in June (June 4, 2011). This is a perfect day for Detroiters to come out and celebrate Detroit’s vast parks and trails. This can be done in many forms from playing a ball game to cleaning up the park. The key is that the green space is being celebrated and utilized!

On Facebook, Evan Major suggesting visiting some of Detroit’s west side parks and trails.

Be sure and check out the mountain bike trail at Rouge Park and the Nature Trail at Eliza Howell! Friends of the Rouge Friends of Eliza Howell Park Great views of the river from both!

While we don’t have a final copy of the official resolution, we do have any earlier draft on which the official version was based.

(more…)