The Let’s Save Michigan web site has a great video of Phil Cooley talking about making Michigan Avenue a Complete Street in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood.

We received this video with an accompanying email, which included the following:

Michigan’s local economies are struggling. Listen to the perspective of one small business owner in Detroit explain the biggest obstacle his business is currently facing — it may surprise you:

The exciting news is that Michigan is poised to overcome these obstacles right now. Creating more livable communities where businesses can thrive does not have to take the money or resources Michigan is lacking — it just takes some smart planning.

When planners and engineers design neighborhood streets with bicyclists, pedestrians, and public transportation in mind, the need for complex intersections is reduced and infrastructure costs can be cut by as much as 35 to 40 percent.

Even property values have been proven to get a boost from Complete Streets. Studies show that the value of homes in walk-able communities is $4,000 to $34,000 more than the same homes in regular neighborhoods.

This section of Michigan Avenue is being repaved with federal stimulus funding. MTGA and other organizations are working with MDOT to get bike lanes added. It seems MDOT would like to add the lanes but may be constrained by Michigan state law regarding trunklines. We’re hoping to have that resolved before the road lines are painted.

Construction season is upon us and there are many trail- or bike-related projects in the works. Here are some brief updates:

• Construction on the Clinton River Trail bridge over Telegraph in Pontiac is expected to begin in a month and be completed this year.
• The bridge construction which is causing weekday closures of the Dequindre Cut is apparently on schedule and should be completed by September.
• Atwater Street is also under construction between Rivard and Orleans in Detroit. When completed, we heard it will have bike lanes from the Ren Cen to Jos Campau.
• The city of Detroit is updating the bike lanes on Belle Isle and adding more on some of the internal roads thanks to some unexpected, but much welcomed grant funding.
• The contract for Wayne State University’s bike lane/streetscape project on Anthony Wayne Drive shows the project being completed by November.
• MTGA and others are still working with MDOT to try and get bike lanes on Michigan Avenue from Livernois to Rosa Parks in Corktown.
• Construction of the new MDOT trail along M-5 between 13 Mile and 14 Mile is underway — and it looks like the trail will be an awesome ride once completed.

And some non-construction updates:

• The city of Royal Oak has received their federal funding for their non-motorized planning efforts. We can expect them to start soon.
• The city of Novi has issued a Request for Proposals to develop a non-motorized plan.
• Wayne County has submitted an MDOT grant application which would extend the Conner Creek Greenway from the Mt. Olivet Cemetery to Eight Mile. This project is a mix of shared-use path and bike lanes.

The city of Detroit has added another couple miles of bike lanes this spring on St. Jean between Jefferson and Mack Avenues. (Two miles? Yes, we count both the northbound and southbound lanes.) The city was repaving St. Jean using federal stimulus funding and suggested adding the bike lanes.

These bike lanes help complete a portion of the Conner Creek Greenway, which will eventually stretch nine miles from the Detroit River to Eight Mile Road (and hopefully beyond!)

Sandi Svoboda sent us this photo of her giving them the thumbs up while riding on St. Jean. Sandi is a staff writer for the Metro Times and authored the recent articles on cycling in Detroit. She’s also a dedicated bike commuter.

She also added a Metro Times news blog entry titled Streets Completing.

Below are some snippets from recent bike-related articles around the Metro area.

Dequindre Cut extension opens Thursday

From Crain’s Detroit Business:

Local and state dignitaries plan to officially open the Dequindre Cut extension Thursday.

The trail connects the first section of the Dequindre Cut Greenway from Woodbridge Street south to Atwater Street near the William G. Milliken State Park and Harbor and the Detroit RiverWalk, creating a continuous pedestrian and bike path from the river for about a mile into the city, nearly all the way to Eastern Market.

Green Alley breaks ground

From The Detroit News:

Detroit is now a few weeks away from having its first “green alley” — an eco-friendly patch of urban infrastructure behind the two Midtown businesses that spearheaded the project.

On Tuesday, a backhoe started tearing up the concrete, which will be recycled. Last week, the city government finished relining the late 19th-century sewer line with fiberglass-reinforced poly resin. Next week begins the preparation for permeable concrete, historic brick pavers and indigenous plants that will create a better-functioning alley with a pedestrian-bicycling pathway.

Bike route to link Marine City with Ludington

From The Times Herald out of Port Huron:

A new attraction is in the works for the Blue Water Area to bring in tourists — bicycle tourists, that is.

U.S. Bike Route 20 is in the development phase, but cyclists someday might be able to use a route from Marine City to Ludington — if all goes well.

On a national scale, the goal for U.S. Bicycle Route 20 is to connect the Bluewater Ferry in Marine City with the Oregon Coast, several cycling Web sites indicate.

It’s very difficult to explain just how bike friendly the city of Detroit is unless you’ve ridden there.

However, this recent photo really shows some of that friendliness. This is Second Avenue looking north from the Cass Corridor, less than a mile north of the central business district. Five lanes, one-way, and a 2,200 cars per day (as of 2003). That’s 1.5 cars per minute spread over five lanes.

Yes, this is one of the best case road scenarios in Detroit, but there are others just like it: Third, John R, Brush, Rosa Parks, etc. With the expressways pulling away the motorized traffic, urban flight, and the removal of the street car tracks, we’ve got plenty of room to ride.

We should also mention that the city of Detroit is planning on making Second Avenue as well as Third back into two-way streets — with bike lanes. It’ll arguably more bike friendly and convenient for those traveling south. As fun as it is to bike the current configuration, it the city’s plan make plenty of sense.