Ferndale’s bike network was largely initiated with strong support from former City Manager Tom Barwin. The network’s bike lanes were some of the first properly designed lanes in the motor city.

That given, it should be of little surprise that he’s receiving kudos on a Chicago bike blog. Tom is now the Village Manager for Oak Park, Illinois:

The Village of Oak Park, which has already earned recognition for such environmental accomplishments as building the state’s first green public works facility, has added bicycles to its fleet of more than100 vehicles powered by alternative fuels. Two bikes have been refurbished, equipped with panniers and locks, and have been made available for use by employees in the Department of Public Works. Owen Read, the Oak Park Pedestrian and Bicycle Ambassador, yesterday visited the Oak Park DPW for an hour-long information session touching on reasons to ride, bicycle safety, and rules of the road. A number of Public Works employees, from experienced cycle commuters to eager novices, showed up to ask questions and share their own experiences.

They’re new and still experimental, but are expected to become formalized signage method by next year.

They’re called “sharrows” and they are pavement markings that help mark bike routes on roads. These are a complement to bike lane pavement markings. The difference is bike lanes are separated facilities (from motor vehicles) where shared lanes have both cars and bikes.

According to draft MUTCD language, the benefit of sharrow pavement markings are they:

• Assist bicyclists with lateral positioning in a shared lane with on-street parallel parking in order to reduce the chance of a bicyclist’s impacting the open door of a parked vehicle,
• Assist bicyclists with lateral positioning in lanes that are too narrow for a motor vehicle and a bicycle to travel side by side within the same traffic lane,
• Alert road users of the lateral location bicyclists are likely to occupy within the traveled way,
• Encourage safe passing of bicyclists by motorists, and
• Reduce the incidence of wrong-way bicycling.

There are limits to their use.

• They should not be on roads where the speed limits above 35 MPH.
• They should not be on shoulders or in bike lanes

Sharrows may also produce cost and time savings.

Sometimes roadways are simply not wide enough for a bike lane.   Sometimes road diets (converting an exising lane of travel into bike lanes) are not practical or possible.  And even when a road diet might be the solution, some cities require traffic studies in advance.  These studies can cost $10K to $30K.  The value of a separated bike lane facility may not justify these costs when a shared lane would work equally well.  And sharrows provide a new and improved means for marking them.

Last Friday was Detroit Synergy’s organized bike to work day from Downtown Dearborn to Campus Martius in Detroit.  It was a light turnout, which was surprising giving the great weather and high gas prices.  Perhaps many were getting an early start on their Memorial Day Weekend plans.

Nonetheless, we had a great ride straight down Michigan Avenue.  Channel 7 came out and covered the ride. Thanks to Alex, Detroit Synergy, Michael Boettcher (East Dearborn Downtown Development Authority), the Dearborn Police, and the Mercury Coffee Shop.

In February Congressman Earl Blumenauer introduced a House Resolution that “recognizes that increased and safe bicycle use for transportation and recreation is in the national interest” and outlines general federal policy changes to support increased biking.

The outlined policies really tie together all of bicycling advocacy causes from Complete Streets to Safe Route to Schools to mountain biking access to bike commuting and much more.

You can view the complete House Resolution 305 on-line. Last week the Resolution was passed by the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. It was on the House floor this week but no vote was taken due to a lack of quorum. Its current status is also on-line.

Help get this passed

One easy option for cyclists to help get this passed is to simply call their representative. Here’s the list of phone numbers for the Detroit-area congressional delegation.  You can also find your representative on-line::

• Representative Joe Knollenberg, 202-225-5802
• Representative Thaddeus McCotter, 202-225-8171 ** BILL CO-SPONSOR **
• Representative Sander Levin, 202-225-4961
• Representative Carolyn Kilpatrick, 202-225-2261
• Representative John Conyers, 202-225-5126
• Representative John Dingell, 202-225-4071

You can ask them to support House Resolution 305 from Representative Blumenauer. It’s simple and takes less than a minute. Just let them know that you’re a cyclist from the Representative’s district and you want them to support this bill.

And, if Represenative McCotter is your congressman, make sure you thank them for co-sponsoring the resolution.

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.