American’s and especially Michiganders are driving their cars and trucks less.

This trend isn’t all that recent. As the most recent Federal Highway Administration graph shows, the mileage has flattened during the past couple years and is now on the decline.

Comparing January 2008 to January 2007, the nation drove 1.7% less. Michiganders drove 4% less, a reduction of 350 million miles for one month. Comparing December 2006 to December 2007, Michigan drove 6.2% less or 525 million miles.

Given the recent gas price increases, this downward trend should only grow.

This is good news for bike shops and bike advocates. Why should we spend more money on expanding roads while the vehicle use is declining? Now is the time to invest in alternatives such as on-road bike facilities.

These trends are also good for SMART. Their April ridership numbers continued to climb and are now setting records.

The Suburban Mobility for Regional Transportation (SMART) is posting the highest ridership since its formation in 1967. SMART carried more than 44,000 passengers daily for the month of April. Weekend service on SMART is also at its peak. Overall, ridership on the Fixed Route system has increased more than 6.5% from this time last year.

Unfortunately there is a significant drawback to Americans driving less. Transportation funding relies heavily on fuel taxes. The less people drive (or the higher MPGs their cars get) the less money flows into the system to fund transit, roads, and trails. The funding mechanism is clearly broken.

The Governor created a Transportation Funding Task Force which is looking at alternatives. MTGA, TRU, and other groups are working with this group to ensure biking and transit funding is adequately funded, especially as more Michiganders switch to these modes.

While we’re not endorsing any presidential candidate at this time, it was great to hear Senator Obama recently highlight bike lanes during his recent visit to Portland, Oregon:

If we are going to solve our energy problems we’ve got to think long term. It’s time for us to be serious about investing in alternative energy. It’s time for us to get serious about raising fuel efficiency standards on cars. It’s time that the entire country learn from what’s happening right here in Portland with mass transit and bicycle lanes and funding alternative means of transportation.

Promoting bike lanes in Portland was a smart move since a large percentage of those listening to the senator were cyclists. From the Bike Portland blog:

In Portland, when 75,000 people show up on the Waterfront for any event on a gorgeous spring day, you’d naturally expect many of them get their on two wheels

One estimate puts the number of bikes at 8,000 on the railing above the river alone (that does not include the likely thousands of bikes locked to every pole, rack and tree in a one-mile radius!). After the event, bikes were reportedly bumper-to-bumper over the Hawthorne Bridge…

American Cycle and Fitness is expanding on their 2007 Ride to Work Day this May 14th. Rather than just one ride, they’ll have three. You can register for free and one rider will win a Trek 7100 commuter bike.

The ride from Walled Lake will include LIla Lazarus from Fox 2.

From their web site, the three rides on May 14th are::

• Walled Lake American Cycle & Fitness to Fox 2 News. The route will takes us past Southfield Town Center for those who work there or nearby and end at Fox 2 News on 9 Mile in Southfield . Leave at 6:30am.
• Royal Oak American Cycle & Fitness to Campus Martius. The route will take us straight down Woodward. Leave at 6:30am.
• Grosse Pointe American Cycle & Fitness to Campus Martius. The route will take us down Mack Avenue in. Leave at 6:30am.

Note that these rides are weather permitting, so keep watching the American Cycle and Fitness web site for updates. There will be rides back to the stores at the end of the day.

There is no better time to start riding your bike to work and elsewhere with today’s high gas prices and great weather.

To help answer any questions you might have, consider attending REI’s free upcoming Bike Commuting workshop on May 14th at 7pm at their Troy Store. Here’s their plug:

Save thousands of dollars per year, improve your physical and mental well-being, and never get stuck in traffic.

These are all benefits we have realized by commuting to work by bike. Would you like to ride your bike to work? Do you think there are too many impediments to make this a reality? Join our year-round bike commuters at this free clinic designed to help you eliminate the reasons for driving a car to work. Richard Knakal and James Kimball have been navigating the suburban jungle of roadways to commute by bike to work for over 40 years combined. With experiences derived from commuting in Metro Detroit, Minnesota, Colorado, Arizona, and Washington they have the expertise to provide you with information you need to make your bike commute both successful and enjoyable.

Don’t forget that Detroit Synergy’s Bike to Work days are coming up at the end of May.

• May 16th – Royal Oak – via Woodward
• May 23rd – Dearborn – via Michigan
• May 30th – Grosse Pointe – via Kercheval/E. Jefferson

Unlike car dealerships, most bike shops don’t take in used bikes towards a new one.

Those with nice bikes in good working condition often sell them at swap meets, in on-line classified ads, or on eBay. For older, used bikes, you’re usually better off donating it to a friend or a group.

Back Alley Bikes

There are at least a couple good groups looking for bikes in the Metro Detroit area. The first is Back Alley Bikes. They offer programs where kids can refurbish a used bike by themselves then get to keep it. They also offer bicycle repair training for adults.

If you have a kids bike or anything with fat tires, this is a great place to donate it. They are also looking for bicycle parts, too.

Back Alley Bikes is located on Cass at Martin Luther King. The entrance is from the alley behind the building. Just look for the painted sign.

Re-CYCLE for Kids

The Oakland County Sheriff’s office has developed a program as noted in this Detroit Free Press article, Bike recycling gets a push in Wixom:

[Lighting Supply Co.’s Wixom store] is a drop-off location for the Oakland County Sheriff Office’s bike rehabilitation program, Sheriff’s Re-CYCLE for Kids. The program takes in bikes from donors and then has low-level offenders at Trusty Camp, a correctional facility, fix them up. The bikes then go to needy children.

Lighting Supply is the only private business in all of Oakland County that has volunteered to be a drop-off site for the 2-year-old program, according to the sheriff’s office. For volunteering to be a drop-off site, the company received a community award from the City of Wixom in late February.

The Lighting Supply Company has stores in Ferndale and Wixom.