An article ran in this week’s Free Press, “Engineer pushes for biking, walking paths”

[Scott] Clein, an associate with Giffels-Webster Engineers in Detroit, helped chart out nearly 400 miles of potential routes ideal for walking and biking — with a few changes implemented by city officials.

Though his recommendations were adopted in the city’s Master Plan in 2007, Detroit’s movers and shakers have been sluggish in making the necessary changes to encourage more foot and pedal traffic, he said.

With few government officials willing to take the plunge, community groups and individuals will have to take charge if they want to see more bike and walking lanes, he said.

Clein also was a Metromode guest blogger last fall where he’s covered more details on road diets, zoning, planning, and more.  Scott’s entry below clearly represents the struggle cycle advocates face in Royal Oak and other nearby communities:

Many traffic engineers are stuck in old-school thinking. The old-school way of thought, for those of you not tuned in to the inner workings of transportation planning, can be summed up as follows:   more is better. The more vehicles we can get through a road segment, the better off we are. And a larger number of travel lanes mean more vehicles per hour.

We tip our collective m-bike helmet to Scott and look forward to working with him down the reduced-width road.

From MDOT’s press release:

Milford Trail

The village of Milford, in partnership with the Charter Township of Milford, the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority, and the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, will construct 2.9 miles of non-motorized trail. The trail will go from north of General Motors Road at the Milford Dam, then south across General Motors Road into Kensington Metropark, and continue south toward the intersection of Milford Road and Huron River Parkway. It will be an integral part of a much larger planned system within the county and region. A portion of the non-motorized network has been constructed, including the Kensington Metropark loop, a connection under I-96 and into Island Lake State Recreation Area, and the Huron Valley Trail that leads southwest into South Lyon and east toward Wixom.
Read the rest of this entry »

Michigan’s laws for hand signaling were based on people sitting in Model-Ts. They assume no one can see your right hand. They assume it’s important to signal all braking. They assume you don’t need your left hand for braking.

These are bad assumptions for cyclists. Many states have updated their laws, but Michigan has not. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Sean_of_Detroit for creating this on-line petition. It’s a simple and quick way to get your support heard.

For more information, visit this earlier m-bike entry regarding DDOT bus bike racks.