The City of Troy is making some real headway in making their community a better, safer, and easier place to bike and walk.

It wasn’t always like that, Just a few years back it held a very auto-centric view of transportation and roads — a view that’s unfortunately shared by many Metro Detroit municipalities and road agencies.

What changed in Troy?

They did a number of surveys asking what Troy residents wanted in their community. Biking and walking trails came out on top across the board. That opened some eyes.

In response, the City formed a Troy Trails and Pathways committee of citizens and supporters. The committee has been meeting for more than a year under the guidance of Troy Recreation Director Carol Anderson. Being involved I can say it’s a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable group.

To date our mission has been to help form a vision for Troy’s biking and walking facilities, including trails, bike lanes, sidewalks and more.

The next Troy Trails and Pathways committee will meet at the Troy Community Center on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 7:30pm in room 402.

The League of Michigan Bicyclists (LMB) is hosting a Bicycle Summit in Lansing on March 29th, 2008 from 9AM until 4PM.  There will be “full day of workshops, presentations on LMB’s advocacy and education efforts and discussions about coalitions.”

The workshops include

• Advocacy at the Local Level
• Complete Streets
• On Road Facilities
• Regional Coalitions

The cost is $25 and includes lunch.

Additional information and registration

On Wednesday, Oakland County hosted an Urban Trails Meeting for the communities within the four geographic township boundaries of Royal Oak, Southfield, Troy, and Bloomfield. The meeting’s purpose was “to discuss the possibilities and opportunities for enhancing and promoting non-motorized connectivity in an urban environment.”

The southeast quadrant of Oakland County is arguably the most developed area within the county. However, it is heavily used by bikers and pedestrians for travel and recreation, demonstrating the desire for non-motorized facilities that are safe and connected. The infrastructure is already in place for a multi- use, interconnected urban trail system in your community – lets build on what exists and help market this area as a great place to walk and bike!

The turnout was very good. Most of the invited communities were in attendance and gave brief summaries of where they are at this their biking facilities.

Next, Oakland County described their potential services, including GIS and planning. They also mentioned possibilie of service grants so communities could apply for this help from the County. With Michigan’s strong home-rule design, the County really can’t force bike networks and municipal cooperation. At best they can encourage and show the way. But at the end of the day, it’s local government’s job to get this done.

And as most area cyclists will tell you, they are not getting the job done with a few exceptions (namely Ferndale, Madison Heights, and Troy.) This is despite the fact that there is very strong support for biking facilities among the public. And, in some cases, these bike networks are even specified in community master plans.

Money is often a given excuse, yet 1% of the state road funding these communities receive must be spent on non-motorized transportation. In addition, M-DOT awards transportation enhancement and CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality) grants for non-motorized facilities. This is not an excuse.

What appears to be true is there is internal opposition within local governments, primarily from older, auto-centric, stuck in the mud individuals.

Some have suggested we wait until these roadblocks retire. I disagree. Cyclists shouldn’t be expected to forgo safe facilities until then. We’ve been patient so far while the rest of the country (and world) move forward.

The Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance (MTGA) has launched their Trails Finder for Michigan. It’s a new mashup combining Google Maps with Michigan trail information. The trails include everything from singletrack to paved off-road trails to bike lanes.

There are some caveats to this project, as they are with anything this new and cutting edge:

The database reflected in this website marks is a work in progress. Not all trailways have been mapped, nor have we received all the data for existing GIS Trails data. There may also be updates needed for new trails or extensions to trails for which we have not received information.

More details on the Trails Finder

One of the biggest problems facing bike advocacy in Metro Detroit is the lack of organization. There are many groups and clubs, but not a single voice that can inform and mobilize grassroots cycling advocacy.

We’ve met and discussed this dilemma with the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance, League of Michigan Bicyclists, Michigan Fitness Foundation, and American Cycle and Fitness. We looked at one example of a successful regional advocacy group in Flint.

Of course, one big issue is funding.

Since the National Safe Routes to School Conference was in Dearborn at the end of 2007, we set up a meeting with Tim Blumenthal of BikesBelong. As he mentioned ahead of time, he didn’t bring his checkbook, but he still gave us ideas of where else this situation has been resolved throughout the U.S. Unfortunately there aren’t many examples.

Still, this idea is moving forward though with a more limited regional perspective. We’ll should be posting more updates in the near future.