The number of bike racks continues to grow in Detroit, though mostly in the Corktown and Downtown areas.

Here are our four favorite new racks and rack designs for 2012 in no specific order.

• The bike-shaped silver racks are being installed by DDOT across the city at various bus stops and DDOT facilities.
• The Green Dot Stables, located along the Lafayette bike lanes has a very cool custom horse-shaped rack to fit with their equestrian-themed restaurant.
• We’re guessing the “Live, Work, Play” racks are from the Downtown Detroit Partnership?(DDP).
• These custom inverted-U racks have been installed all around Corktown by the Resident’s Council. There are in addition to the ones installed by the Southwest Detroit Business Association.

Did you know Detroit recently added six new bike lockers?

What are they? They are storage units for parking you bicycle. They offer a very secure, comprehensive means of securing your bike, but especially those fancy bikes with expensive, easy-to-remove parts.

Detroit’s lockers are located at the corner of Farnsworth and John R, in the northwest corner of the Science Center parking lot. They’re conveniently in between the Science Center, Detroit Institute of Arts, Scarab Club, and CCS.

Yes, you can now safely park your fancy Amsterdam bike to go admire the DIA’s Dutch Masters and not have to worry that someone might mess with your basket.

These lockers were installed by Midtown Detroit/UCCA as part of the Midtown Loop, Phase I.

While the usage policy has not been posted, but they are open to the public. You will need to provide your own lock and you can’t use the lockers overnight.

You may have noticed a new menu item on the web site for Bike Map+Parking. This is a new Detroit bicycle map showing where many bike racks are within the city.

The map itself is the Google Maps bicycle layer, which is looking fairly accurate now. You can zoom in, scroll around, use Streetview, etc.

The bike parking information comes from Wayne State University, the Southwest Detroit Business Association, and a whole bunch of riding around and taking photos. There are one or more bike racks at each of the 201 documented locations, shown as a red dot.

Clicking on a red dot opens a window with more information and in most cases a photo.

If you have bike parking information, please forward it to the email, todd@michigantrails.org. Only Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park information is being collected.

The Detroit data will be used in a Bicycle Friendly Community application, which is really was spurred this project.

There are plenty of bike infrastructure investments in Corktown these days. Here’s one more.

MDOT is doing streetscaping along Michigan Avenue between 14th and Rosa Parks (12th). Streetscaping is a big word for enhancing the sidewalks. Included in that streetscaping is much needed bike parking — a nice complement to the bike lanes installed last fall.

M-Live has more coverage:

MDOT is fully funding the project, which will benefit the up-and-coming retail strip that includes Slows Bar B Q and the newly-opened Astro Coffee.

“There’s a lot of activity going on there,” MDOT’s Vince Ranger told MLive.com. “It doesn’t look good to have these businesses renovating fronts with bad sidewalks. So we’re just trying to clean that up for them.”

To learn more about this project, MDOT is hosting an open house at the Gaelic League on September 7th from 4pm until 6pm.

The Ferndale DDA is hosting a survey to collect your thoughts on the downtown area.

There are bike-related survey questions regarding bike lanes, bike parking as well as the call for traffic calming.

It’s just a one-page survey and it doesn’t take too long to complete.

A recent Daily Tribune article gives more details:

[DDA Executive Director Cristina] Sheppard-Decius said downtown officials hope to find a way to narrow West Nine Mile Road from five to three lanes, similar to what has been done in the main business district.

Reconfiguring the roadway would allow for wider sidewalks and landscaping and open the way to add public benches, decorative street lighting, bike racks, and on-street parking. Other possible improvements are bicycle lanes and a roundabout at Livernois.

We’d love to see that Livernois intersection improved. It seems to create endless waits especially when heading south. Livernois is a key Eight Mile Road crossing for area cyclists.