Tom Page from Detroit Synergy passed long this interesting news item:

The Detroit Institute of Arts/Detroit Film Theatre has implemented free valet parking for bicycles on Fridays. The bike racks, with a museum staffer present, are located in front of the courtyard on the John R. side.

[And that explains why we saw a tandem ride up to the DFT last night!]

Center for Creative Studies' uncreative bike rack at the Taubman Center. Nudge, nudge.

The Wheelhouse Detroit blog has an excellent discussion of bicycle parking and racks.

As Detroit becomes more bike friendly, more and more businesses and institutions are installing bike racks — which is great, no doubt about it. What is frustrating, though, is to see funds and good intent wasted when, simply put, the bike rack is not functional. This occurs when the rack is poorly designed or poorly placed.

This is perfect timing as the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals released a second edition of their Bicycle Parking Guidelines. Their first edition is available on-line, but this second edition adds:

• Guidance long-term bicycle parking
• Elements of a good bike locker, including specific performance criteria
• Maintenance best practices
• Sample site plans and diagrams to help avoid blunders in rack and locker placement
• Sample quantity requirements for bicycle parking to meet need by land use
• A worksheet for programming bicycle parking for a building or cluster of buildings
• Abundant images and charts to illustrate concepts and conditions

One issue is funding. Cities like Chicago rely on Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funding for much of their bike parking. SEMCOG‘s CMAQ funding formula does not give the same priority to our non-motorized projects — something groups like MTGA want to change.

It also seems that once we find a funding mechanism, we can spur green job creation by having local steel workers creating bicycle racks. Why would a underemployed manufacturing city import these simple metal structures? We should be exporting bicycle racks.

Green Leaders

The Free Press recently honored green leaders throughout Michigan. Many of them have a connection to biking and trails:

• Among other green things, Orin Gelderloos rides his bike to work everyday. He’s quoted as saying, “The idea was to always be close enough to ride to work.”
• The Reverend Faith Fowler created the Cass Green Gym for her shelter residents which includes 10 stationary bikes (that happen to generate electricity for the shelter.)
• The Greening of Detroit is more than just urban forestry and urban agriculture. This year they received grant funding to hire a crew of local young adults who are charged with maintaining three of Detroit’s greenways. They’ll not only provide the maintenance, but will lead community events along the greenways that will build neighborhood stewardship. This outstanding program is very unique in the U.S. — and it’s creating green jobs.
• Yes, the Green Garage is all about sustainability, but Tom and Peggy also plan to make their building very bike friendly. And their nearby green alley will provide a funky back door bike route to Motor City Brewing.
• Last but not least, the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan is one of the primary forces behind greenways in Southeast Michigan. They built excitement for greenways among private foundations which really gave the movement its forward momentum. There are very few greenways in Southeast Michigan that haven’t benefited from their efforts. Trail design and construction isn’t free, and given the tight resources within this area — especially Detroit — the help from the Community Foundation was invaluable. The Free Press has posted a Dequindre Cut photo gallery as well.

Dequindre Cut Closure

And speaking of the Cut, our friends at the Wheelhouse Detroit just posted this information on their Facebook page: “Yes, the rumors are true. The Dequindre Cut will be closed between Lafayette and Woodbridge on weekdays for 4 months while the Larned and Lafayette bridges are rebuilt.” We knew this was coming, but… ugh.

Also, the Wheelhouse got a great (and well-deserved) plug in the Living in the D blog for their Detroit architecture tours.

Bike Tunnels

Filmed by Bike was held last weekend in Portland. There was an entry from Detroit that made a tongue-in-cheek (or serious) call for underground bike tunnels. You can watch the Bike Tunnel video on-line.

Complete Streets

We’ve noted that Detroit’s Health and Wellness Promotion Department recently applied for and received a grant to pass a Complete Streets ordinance. The city of Ferndale is also looking to pass a Complete Streets proposal. We don’t have a timeline for when this might happen, but it’s in the works. There’s also some interest or discussion among other neighboring communities. If you haven’t already signed the Michigan Complete Streets petition, please do so.

Royal Oak Non-Motorized Planning

Planning has not yet begun. The city of Royal Oak is just waiting for the Department of Energy (DOE) to sign off on their much larger energy efficiency plan — and release the funding. The planner is ready to go.

Bike Parking

The city of Berkley and their DDA are still mulling over bike parking policy. The city of Ferndale is also dealing with parking both for motor vehicles and bicycles.

Woodward Avenue Non-Motorized Planning

There’s been further discussion among the Southeast Oakland County communities that border Woodward Avenue from Eight Mile to Maple. There appears to be consensus that Woodward needs a better balance of transportation options for those traveling along or crossing the corridor. How that is implemented is yet to be determined. One factor that greatly affects what’s done: future mass transit plans. Stay tuned.

We recently visited the St. Clair County offices in Port Huron, Michigan. We couldn’t help but notice the less-than-useful position of their bike rack.

We spoke with County Parks and they said it was likely moved in order to accommodate snow removal.

Moving it out of the way may make sense, but it makes more sense to locate where it can used year round. Normal people do ride bikes in the winter. Canada’s Yukon Territory has a higher bike to work rate than California and Florida.

The Yukon Territory’s winter weather surely isn’t any better than ours.

Nine bike racks were installed around Royal Oak during the past year thanks to the DDA and SMART, but that’s not enough for a city of this size.

One solution is to require new developments and streetscaping projects to include bicycle racks from the beginning. It’s often cheaper and certainly easier to install them during construction than to add them later.

That said, it’s frustrating to see this not happening, especially since the Master Plan calls for making Royal Oak more bicycle friendly.

Two recent examples are on tonight’s city commission agenda: the massive EMagine Theater project and two streetscaping projects.

We’ve sent the following public comment to the Commission:

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