The indicators are grouped into five main categories: infrastructure, Michigan, education, health and wellness, and talent.

There aren’t any indicators showing how we’re doing with respect to walking or biking, so we suggested two additions to the Mobility section of the Infrastructure dashboard.

For walking, we suggested a count of the number of Michigan cities given a “Very Walkable” rating or better from walkscore. com. Currently no Michigan cities have that rating but Hamtramck is very, very close. Given that no Michigan city is considered very walkable, it doesn’t seem likely they’ll appreciate this suggestion. We wouldn’t be overly disappointed if they lowered the bar so that some cities are counted. That would be better than nothing.

For biking, we suggesteded a count of the number of Bicycle Friendly Communities within the state. Currently that’s 7.

Why not use the number of Complete Street policies? While the Michigan Complete Streets Coalition lists a map with “Complete Street policies”, it really isn’t. It lists communities that have passed ordinances and resolutions, some of which we know have little to no intention of having a Complete Streets policy. And some are co-opting the Complete Streets definition.

Similarly, some communities have “non-motorized plans” which are merely sidewalk or trails plans. What is and what is not a proper non-motorized plan is subjective. And just having a plan doesn’t mean it’s being implemented any time soon.

For these reasons, we think using the third-party evaluations for walking and biking make much more sense.

One more benefit? These evaluations are consistent nationally. If Michigan is to compete with the rest of America, we need to measure ourselves accurately against the other 49.

We’ll let you know if we get any response from the state.

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The League of American Bicyclists recently recognized the Wheelhouse Detroit and OminCorpDetroit for being Bicycle Friendly Businesses. Both were given Bronze awards and join the Hub of Detroit, who received a Gold award last year.

Detroit now has three recognized Bicycle Friendly Businesses of the seven in Michigan. Nationally, Detroit is now tied with cities like Austin and Boulder, but notably behind the leading cities like Portland and Minneapolis.

Businesses in the cities of Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park that are interested in knowing more about this program can contact the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance (MTGA). MTGA can provide training and assist with the application.

Having recognized Bicycle Friendly Businesses also helps cities earn Bicycle Friendly Communities awards. Applying for such as award was discussed at the last Detroit Non-motorized External Task Force meeting. The city is interested in applying once some additional bicycle infrastructure projects are completed.

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Mike Reuter from American Cycle & Fitness and myself (Todd Scott) met with their planning department earlier this year. Our discussion was about making West Bloomfield bike friendly and how we might reflect that in the master plan.

We were successful in getting Complete Streets language added.

One challenge with townships is they do not own any roads. The Road Commission for Oakland County does and they are this area’s biggest impediment to safe cycling.

Despite referencing Complete Streets, the master plan still ignores national design guidelines (AASHTO) by promoting side paths (called safety paths in Oakland County) as bicycle facilities.  (Note that the latest draft of the forthcoming  AASHTO bicycle design guidelines devotes a couple pages to explaining why side paths are not safe for bicyclists.)

Given the political and operation momentum with side paths, one cannot expect West Bloomfield — or any similar Oakland County townships — to be a bicycle friendly community any time soon. Right now, with few exceptions, if you really want to live in a bicycle friendly community, you’re easiest, most reliable option is to move.

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“There’s a growing respect and enthusiasm for cycling in cities, it’s the wave of the future,” said Coun. Alan Halberstadt, a member of the city’s bicycling committee.

Cycling tourism, already big in Europe, represents “a huge opportunity” for Windsor, said [Eleanor] McMahon, who grew up cycling in Windsor and was once press secretary to Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

While it will still be “a big leap from the motor city to the bike city,” Halberstadt said council’s unanimous vote shows Windsor is keen on going further in that direction.

Yep, Windsor is Canada’s Motor City.

Go Windsor!

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The League of Michigan Bicyclists and the Michigan Fitness Foundation announced today that they will host a statewide conference call to assist businesses and communities to learn about the League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Communities and Bicycle Friendly Business Program. The call is free to any interested individual or organization and will be held on Tuesday, June 29th from 12:30PM to 1:30PM. To RSVP and receive call-in information, please email jlindenmayer@lmb.org

The Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) program recognizes employers’ efforts to encourage a more bicycle-friendly atmosphere for employees and customers. The program honors innovative bike-friendly efforts and provides technical assistance and information to help companies and organizations become even better for bicyclists. This new initiative complements the League’s Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) program, which has been recognizing cities and towns for their bicycle friendliness since 2003.

The conference call will feature a presentation from Alison Dewey, a Washington, DC-based Program Specialist with the League of American Bicyclists’ Bicycle Friendly America program. Alison will outline the programs and offer guidance on completing the application process. Joining Alison will be three Michigan-based advocates with previous experience working on BFB and BFC applications: John Lindenmayer, Associate Director of the League of Michigan Bicyclists; Rory Neuner, LMB Board Member; and Sarah Panken, the Active Communities Coordinator at the Michigan Fitness Foundation.

As of Spring 2010, six Michigan communities have received designation as a Bicycle Friendly Community at the Silver or Bronze level, and three Michigan communities have received an Honorable Mention. Three Michigan businesses, including the League of Michigan Bicyclists, have been designated as Bicycle Friendly Businesses.

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• Lansing
• Marquette
• Portage

All three earned the entry-level Bronze status for Engineering, while Lansing also got a Bronze in Education.

There are now six recognized Bicycle Friendly Communities in Michigan. Sadly enough, none are in Macomb, Oakland, or Wayne Counties.

However, it’s expected the city of Detroit will apply within the year given the recent Bikes Belong/REI Bicycle Friendly Community grant. The city of Ferndale had applied years ago but did not receive an award or honorable mention.

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MTGA was one of only five groups to receive this award, which was announced at the National Bike Summit yesterday in Washington DC.

As we’ve noted earlier, the Bicycle Friendly Community evaluation isn’t well suited for shrinking cities like Detroit, which also rely heavily on public-private partnerships. This should be an excellent opportunity to work with the League on making the application better fit Detroit.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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