Little Stimulus Money for Michigan State Parks

Despite the huge backlog in much-needed capital improvements, the Lansing State Journal is reporting that our state parks will not be receiving much economic stimulus funding.

Before all the details of the federal stimulus plan were known, the department put together a wish list of projects it could have ready to go in 90 days. The list included 586 proposals totaling $356.6 million, including more than $200 million and more than 300 projects involving park improvements. So far, only three DNR requests have got to the final round for consideration by federal officials.

Of course the stimulus money is going towards road projects. Our state parks have hundreds of miles of roads, many of which require repairs. However, the state considers these parks roads as “private” and not eligible for funding. These roads don’t even receive funding from the state fuel tax. This is just another fundamental reason why our state park operations are not sustainable.

Best Cars in a Crash (but not the safest)

Auto-centric viewpoints are common. Here’s one that’s often blindy repeated.

Forbes Magazine is reporting on the best cars in a crash and only considers safety from the viewpoint of those inside the car. A quarter of all road fatalities in Metro Detroit are pedestrians and cyclists. Which cars are safer for them? Large SUVs that take more lane width, have larger blind spots, have longer stopping distances, and are less manueverable?

Another problem with this type of article is it assumes a crash is inevitable. In a one-on-one situation, more manueverable, lighter vehicles are more likely to avoid a crash than their heavier counterparts.

This topic was well covered in an older New Yorker article. They review a study of fatalities per million cars which includes drivers, passengers, and the other crash victims. Mid-size cars were in found to cause the least number of fatalities.

Conservative Voice against Sprawl

We’ve spoken up against sprawl largely because it results in auto-centric communities that are often unsafe or impractical to bike or walk in.

Christopher Caldwell has this excellent op-ed in the Financial Times that points out the costly and inefficient economics behind sprawl:

In 1958, the great journalist William Whyte coined the term “sprawl”, in an article for Fortune. He noted with horror that, a mere two years after the Highway Act, already huge patches of once green countryside have been turned into vast, smog-filled deserts that are neither city, suburb, nor country. Developments were concentrated in random political no-man’s-lands near interchanges and exits. Road lobbyists and real estate developers colluded against meaningful regulation and planning, with the result, Whyte wrote, that “development is being left almost entirely in the hands of the speculative builder”.

Whyte warned that sprawl was not just bad aesthetics but bad economics. A subtler and more serious problem than blight was that, for local authorities, the cost of providing utilities and other services was exorbitant. “There is not only the cost of running sewers and water mains and storm drains out to Happy Acres,” Whyte wrote, “but much more road, per family served, has to be paved and maintained.” The infrastructure network that came out of the Highway Act had higher overheads than the one it replaced. It became a bottomless pit of spending.

Of course the Road Commission for Oakland County is paying the price for building a sprawled road network that it can no longer afford to maintain. They did no land use planning. And the Oakland County Commission has regularly selected road commissioners from the county’s sprawling communities, so this outcome is no surprise.

And the article even includes a nod to Detroit: “The encirclement of Detroit’s neighbourhoods by highways is often cited as a primary cause of its decline.”

Yesterday the Detroit News reported on a new store in Plymouth Michigan that’s selling electric bicycles and electric motor kits. The shop is called eCo Wheelz and they have a pretty thorough web site for a startup.

While some bicycle purists may scoff at those getting an electrical assist, these bikes could increase our numbers and increase demand for safe bicycling facilities such as bike lanes.

Many lack the physical condition to jump right into bicycle commuting. This might ease those folks into a healthier lifestyle.

Are electric bicycles considered bicycles? They are according to federal law so long as they can be pedaled and don’t have too much power.

That means they are allowed in bike lanes and on trails.

On Monday, Kimberly Dancy pleaded no contest to the Woodward hit-and-run crash in Royal Oak that killed a cyclist.

The Detroit News is reporting that the plea involves two felony counts and 18 months in prison. It’s not clear there is any restitution for the victim’s two children.

We’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating. The Royal Oak Police are to be commended for staying on this investigation and (apparently) solving this crime story.

The Detroit News mentions how it was done.

Royal Oak Detective Frank Bonnette began his search for the driver with two clues from the accident: a piece from the car’s grille and a section of the right rear wheel well.

He narrowed the list of possible vehicles to a 2008 Jeep Liberty Sport and called Chrysler officials asking where replacement parts for a grille and rear wheel well had been shipped.

He went to a bumper shop in Clinton Township and hit pay dirt: Both such parts had been requested for repair on the same car, owned by Dancy.

Now as you recall, Dancy faked a traffic accident in hopes of covering up the damage to her car. However, the police impounded her car and saw that it had indeed hit a bicycle.

With one more trick, this case was made solid:

Police also pulled records from Dancy’s cell phone, which placed her on Woodward Avenue heading north in the minutes leading up to the accident about 1:30 a.m.

That doesn’t mean she was on a call, but her cell phone was on and in contact with the local cell towers along Woodward at the time of the accident.

I gave the following public comment at a recent Troy City Council meeting.  I was speaking in favor of their Troy Trails initiative.  Given the city’s past success in attracting business, I thought the following insight might spur further support for making Troy more bikeable and walkable:

Yesterday I got back from a Smart Growth conference in Albuquerque

There I learned that progressive entrepreneurs and businesses – companies like Google – are starting to ask the question:

If we locate our operations in your city, what will be our carbon footprint?

Can our employees bike, walk or take transit to work?

Or do they need to drive?

Can they bike or walk to the grocery store, the parks, cafes or the local micro brew?

Can their kids walk or bike safely to school?

Or do they need to be driven?

Today, honestly,having a low carbon footprint in Troy is challenging. Troy is not yet competitive with the Ann Arbors, the Portlands, or the Chicagos of the world.

And while making Troy more bikeable and walkable is not a single solution, it is a major first step towards becoming more competitive in bringing future progressive employers to Troy.

House Bill 4109 was recently introduced that makes some exercise equipment and memberships tax deductible in Michigan.

One could assume Tonya Schuitmaker, the bill’s sponsor is intent on encouraging greater fitness among Michigan taxpayers.

The problem is the legislative language is very limiting.  A cyclist could deduct their bicycle purchase if it were used “for the sole purpose of engaging in vigorous exercise.”  If you ride that bike to work or to the local coffee shop, you can kiss that deduction goodbye.  If you decide to enter a bike race then you lose your deduction.

The language makes me wonder if my cycling food and clothing would be deductible.

Our synopsis: Good intentions.  Bad bill. (more…)