In an effort to manage carbon emissions, Congress has been working on cap and trade legislation.

Since about a third of U.S. carbon emissions are due to transportation, bike and walk advocates want a portion of carbon credits sales to fund clean transportation. That effort resulted in CLEAN-TEA legislation.

The bill is predicated upon passage of a comprehensive climate change bill, such as the one considered by the Senate earlier this year, which would generate revenue for the Federal government. Under CLEAN TEA, ten percent of the revenue would be used to create a more efficient transportation system and lower greenhouse gas emissions through strategies including funding new or expanded transit or passenger rail; supporting development around transit stops; and making neighborhoods safer for bikes and pedestrians.

Certainly we could use more funding for transit and non-motorized transportation infrastructure. Unfortunately the House is only looking at 1%, while the Senate is looking at 2.4%. Both are less than the 10% called for in CLEAN-TEA.

But there’s another potential funding source for the city of Detroit thanks to legislation introduced by Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow.

According to the Detroit News:

Farmers, landowners and even cities could sell pollution credits to ease the costs of legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under a bill introduced in Congress.

The Clean Energy Partnership Act could be a boon for cities like Detroit, with an estimated 40 square miles of vacant land, or Flint, where a quarter of all the homes are vacant. The cities could reforest lots and sell the credits to business to shore up drained budgets.

And while Detroit’s vacant land issue has not been the highest priority of the Bing administration, that should change next year.

The mayor plans to address the issue of vacant land by the first quarter of next year, said spokesman Edward Cardenas. “We’re looking at a whole array of different options,” he said, adding the city is interested in Stabenow’s proposal.

“Planting trees could be one of those options. We need to look at everything that is out there.”

He said the city is looking at uses of the land for farming, green space and reforestation.

And green space is a great place for greenways. This could be a big win-win for Detroit trails.

In recent years Detroit has sold parkland. Fortunately some, like the Rouge Park sell off, have been stopped. Others potential park sales continue to hang around, especially as the city does not have enough funds to maintain them.

Stabenow’s Clean Energy Partnership Act would help.

Link: Contact Senator Stabenow

The new pump track in Detroit’s Corktown neighboorhood is causing a buzz and rightly so. It’s a great, low cost recreation alternative for a city with plenty of vacant open space.

And open space was a key discussion point at yesterday’s Finding Common Ground for a Sustainable Detroit conference. Dan Pitera, Director of the Detroit Community Design Collaborative noted that there is 1,045 square feet of open space for every Detroit resident. In San Francisco, there is 190 square feet per resident.

Yes, every Detroit resident could have their own pump track.

But at this point Corktown is it. Fortunately, the Corktown Residents’ Council Planning Committee are looking ahead. They are documenting what they’ve done and expect to share the plans and process for other Detroit neighborhoods. They have plans for some landscaping, benches, and more. They’re also looking at how to make sure the kids in the neighborhood have access to bikes.

The Department of Public Health and Wellness has a couple programs aimed at increasing youth activity. They are very interested in the pump track due to its simplicity, low cost, and low susceptibility to vandalism. It’s just dirt.

There are also some similarities between pump tracks and the city’s efforts to foster community gardening. Both are often build on vacant, require water, are community efforts, and build stewardship.

Also, a couple videos have been made of the Corktown project. The first is a cool one from MattMTB which shows the pump track being constructed.

And this one is from the Detroit Free Press.

One of the last major missing pieces of the Detroit RiverWalk along the East Riverfront is the Uniroyal site.

While Senator Carl Levin has secured funding for building this RiverWalk section and MDOT has agreed to manage the project, the site contamination remains a hindrance.

It’s called the Uniroyal site because it was home to tire manufacturing from as early as 1906 through 1980 — hence some of the contamination.

The tire history began when Morgan and Wright, the world’s largest bicycle tire manufacturer relocated from Chicago to Detroit.

According to this Detroit News history article:

Construction on the first buildings in the riverfront complex began in August 1905. Completed in October 1906, the plant housed the Morgan & Wright Bicycle Tire Co., once the world’s largest maker of bicycle tires. Morgan & Wright had migrated from Chicago to link up with Detroit’s developing auto industry. In its early years, the tire plant housed several of the annual Detroit Auto Shows. Initially the 750 people who worked there produced 350 tires daily. In 1906, company President Samuel P. Colt commented on the auto-rubber connection: “Judging from the past, the growth of the automobile tire business will be of momentous importance in the future. Ten years ago, rubber tires were not important. Now they consume one-half of the raw unprocessed rubber product.”

It’s apparent in the 1911 Morgan and Wright advertisement that early car tires owed much of their design to bicycle tires. Detroiter Horatio “Good Roads” Earle asked in this autobiography, “Whoever heard of ball bearings and pneumatic tires until they were used in bicycles?”

In addition, this web site has an interesting collection of Morgan and Wright history and photos.

Morgan & Wright was founded in 1891 by Fred Morgan and Rufus Wright, while the pneumatic safety bicycle was still fairly young, and the bicycle boom was just coming into flower. besides tires, they also produced other tire-related items (pumps, patch kits, tire repair accessories…) and other bicycle products (pedal rubbers, rubber toe clips, chain lubricant), and distributed a variety of other bicycle-related sundries through their catalogue. With the advent of the 20th century, the company gradually turned to the early automobile rubber market, moved to Detroit around 1906, and was bought by the U.S. Rubber Company around 1911 (a 1912 supply catalog I have refers to M & W tires now being marked as U.S. tire), and later became Uniroyal.

The Uniroyal site was also the site for stove and auto manufacturers. This industry was served by the Michigan Terminal, a now abandoned rail line that roughly parallels Beaufait. It’s the reason for the slight hump in Jefferson just west of the Lofts at Rivertown.

The Gleaners Food Bank is also located along this abandoned rail line. There is very preliminary talk of developing a rail-to-trail greenway from the food bank to the RiverWalk.

It’s interesting that after more than 100 years, this area will once again be a benefit to bicyclists.

This weekend a pump track is being built in the North Corktown neighborhood near MLK and Trumbull.

What is a pump track? From the Corktown Pump Track page on Facebook:

A pump track is a continuous dirt loop, similar to a BMX track but smaller, which can be ridden by cyclists of all ages and skill levels safely. They require little maintenance, promote healthy living & exercise and can beautify & transform a small space. This particular pump track was inspired by the wonderful kids that live in the direct vicinity of this location.

But to really get an understanding of it, you may want to a watch a video of someone riding a pump track.

The construction begins tomorrow, November 14th at 10am. They hoping to have it completed and rideable by Sunday.

This is a great location for a bike-related attraction. It’ll be on the Corktown/Mexicantown Greenlink, which includes bike lanes on MLK and Trumbull.

This is also on the same block as the Spirit of Hope which had a blessing of the bikes earlier this year.

So, how many major cities have a pump track located just a few blocks away from their central business district, a major casino, and a number of urban farms with chickens, goats, and hogs?

Riding in Detroit is not always pretty, but it’s always pretty interesting.

Detroit City Council has been quite supportive of biking, walking, and greenway efforts within the city. And we’ve been quite fortunate to have a cycling advocate in Ken Cockrel Jr. as Council President to lead the way.

With the recent Detroit elections, the nine-person council will welcome five new members. Will there be the same support for our issues, especially with Cockrel no longer serving as president?

Prior to Tuesday’s election, Model D interviewed the candidates. One question in particular provided a gauge for where the candidates stood on biking and walking.

Many thriving cities in the U.S. have a reputation for sustainability via recycling, green building incentives, complete streets that promote biking and walking, and robust mass transit. Discuss your thoughts and priorities on these matters.

Here are excerpts from responses given by some candidates who won a seat on the council.

Charles Pugh

“We should look at re-zoning certain sparsely used parts of the city for bike trails and park use. The Dequindre Cut is very encouraging and should be used as a model for how we transform future plots of land.”

Gary Brown

“Public-private partnerships have been instrumental in building greenways in Detroit, such as the RiverWalk, Dequindre Cut and Conner Creek.”

Saunteel Jenkins

“The Dequindre Cut is a great example of one of the things we’ve done right here in Detroit to promote walking and biking. Now we need to amend that concept to create the same kind of walking and biking trails in city parks like River Rouge and Palmer Park. I would like to see a project like this funded and implemented through partnerships with businesses and non-profits.”

Ken Cockrel Jr.

“This has been a major focus of mine. As Council President, I sponsored and passed a resolution urging the city to implement a ‘non-motorized plan’ for the development more bike and walking paths. “

Kwame Kenyatta

“The young, talented, best and brightest usually leave Detroit for major cities that boast a commitment to biking, walking, robust mass transit and green building initiatives… Biking and walking paths must be developed in concert with this.”

Jo Ann Watson

“Detroit must become one of those cities.”

Mayor Dave Bing also responded to the survey by adding, “Detroit certainly needs to become more of a ‘green’ city.”

Throughout the entire Metro Detroit Tri-County area, there probably isn’t another elected body that better recognizes the importance of biking, walking, and greenways. That’s exciting.

One poster on a popular Detroit forum was concerned that the city saw biking as just a white urban hipster activity. These responses should allay those fears.