Having recently returned from Washington DC, I can’t help but draw comparisons between the two cities in terms of bike friendliness.

What did I see? Detroit has far more bike friendly streets owing largely to the lower vehicular volumes. Washington DC has far more cyclists, bike lanes, and a bike rental system.

I’m not sure how valuable the rental system was as I walked a dozen miles around town and only saw one station. I saw far more Metro stations.

And speaking of their subway system, it does allow bikes outside of rush hour. DC’s buses also have bus bike racks though I didn’t see any in use. It seems more common to see SMART buses carrying bikes in Detroit.

That said, my unscientific survey did find one commonality between the two cities: most cyclists in both cities are white.

Washington DC has been recognized as a bronze Bike Friendly Community in the League of American Bicyclists program.

While in DC, I did speak with the League staff about recognizing Detroit’s bike friendliness. Their latest application doesn’t reward Detroit’s often excellent bicycle level of service achieved through mininal traffic volumes. Their paradigm is bicycle level of service is a reflection of bicycle infrastructure investments. We did talk about bringing some of their staff to Detroit next summer to gain a first-hand perspective on what we have.

But back to the comparison, DC clearly leads in urban livability, bicycle commuting levels, bicycle infrastructure investment, and more. Even still, I’d rather bike in Detroit.

John R with four one-way vehicle lanes and negligible traffic -- an urban cyclist dream street.

We think so.

Apparently former New Yorker Toby Barlow may as well according to this Metromode article:

Toby Barlow finds it ironic that Detroit is known as the “Motor City”, since its flat and relatively calm streets make it the country’s most perfect bicycle city as well.

Yesterday the New York Times ran an opinion piece from Barlow about biking in Detroit:

While bike enthusiasts in most urban areas continue to have to fight for their place on the streets, Detroit has the potential to become a new bicycle utopia. It’s a town just waiting to be taken. With well less than half its peak population, and free of anything resembling a hill, the city and its miles and miles of streets lie open and empty, beckoning. And lately, whether it’s because of the economy or the price of gas or just because it’s a nice thing to do, there are a lot more bikers out riding.

Our abandoned landscape suggests an opportunity that alternative-transportation proponents should consider: instead of raging against their cities’ internal combustion machines, they might consider a tactical retreat to the city that cars have pretty much abandoned.

A Seattle blogger responded with the suggestion of moving to Detroit: “Not now, of course, because it’s warm and sunny in Seattle, and we’re not broke yet.” It’s warm and sunny in Detroit, too.

National Recognition?

Just because Detroit is a bicycle-friendly city, don’t expect to receive a bicycle-friendly designation from the League of American Bicyclists.

The scoring for that award is based on assumptions such as:

• government has the lead role in developing and managing bicycle facilities
• the city does not have significant vacant land
• that urban streets have traffic levels that necessitate bike lanes

None of these assumptions are correct in Detroit and so we do not score well.

Erroneous Benchmarking

And similarly, the Alliance for Biking and Walking is currently benchmarking U.S. cities. Most of the benchmarking questions asked were not relevant to Detroit’s reality, so we can expect to be erroneously scored. (This should not be unexpected as the Alliance’s 2007 benchmarking estimated that the city of Detroit had 34 bike shops and that Detroiter’s spent $92/person annually at these shops!)

In my role as MTGA’s Detroit Greenways Coordinator, I’ve discussed this with the Alliance, but they don’t seem to grasp that not all cities fit their expected mold for bicycle friendliness.

Of course it doesn’t help that they’ve never biked in Detroit either.

It’s apparent that the surveys and assumptions are made so that the cities they expect to score well do so. In other words, recognition is reserved for cities following in Portland’s footsteps.

Detroit’s not. We’re making our own trail.

We may not get recognized by the big nationwide bicycle advocacy groups, but we’re sure to keep getting recognized from cyclists like Barlow and others.

Near the end of last month, Grand Rapids hosted a successful bike summit according to Pedal GR.

With 60 bicycles crowding the Bike Valet Parking area and around 200 attendees inside to learn how to make Grand Rapids into a Bicycle Friendly Community, I would call the first ever Grand Rapids Bike Summit a big success! In the crowd there were young people, old people, roadies, mountain bikers, casual bicycle riders, hardcore cyclists, fixed gear riders, government officials, politicians, and many others.

Their main keynote speaker was Bill Nesper from the League of American Bicyclists. Nesper leads their Bicycle Friendly America program and spoke about how Grand Rapids can achieve Bike Friendly Community status.

For more details on this summit, visit the Pedal GR web site.

Last year Kathyrn Underwood of the Detroit Planning Commission suggested Detroit host a bike summit. That is certainly an idea worth considering. Grand Rapids has given us a model to follow.

Bike lanes, bicycle boulevards, bike commuting, and more are highlighted in this NBC Nightly News video about Portland, Oregon and other progressive cities in the U.S.:

So much of life these days comes back to the price of gas, the high cost of simply getting around, which is why, any number of American cities and towns… are following the example of Portland, Oregon.

They don’t disappoint. The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) puts on an incredibly valuable and inspiring world summit every couple years. This year’s in Park City, Utah continued that winning streak.

Of course, how can you go wrong when you combine perfect weather, cold beers, the world’s foremost mountain bike advocates and Park City’s 300 miles of singletrack?

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