This Sunday, April 22nd is the Detroit Tiger’s Ride your bike to the Ball Park day. Tickets for this event are on sale only until midnight tonight.

The Changing Gears web site posted this article about the event as well as cycling in Detroit.

The team is hosting its first Ride to the Ballpark event, testing its theory that baseball fans and bicyclists are one and the same.

“Detroit has a very cool, strong cyclist culture,” says Eli Bayless, the Tigers’ director of promotions and in-game operations.

The Tigers are offering a $14 package that includes an upper deck ticket to the game, and a ticket for a bicycle valet. Cyclists will pull up to Columbia Plaza in front of Comerica Park’s Gate A entrance, and check their bikes.

Of course you can ride to the ball park any day. On Sunday, you just won’t be able to use the valet parking without this special ticket.

There are bike racks located in the parking lots near the northwest corner of the ball park.

Group rides to the Game

There are three group rides planned to the ballpark.

• American Cycle and Fitness will lead a ride promptly starting at 11am from their Royal Oak store at 29428 Woodward Avenue, just north of 12 Mile.
• The Downtown Ferndale Bike Shop will be leaving the shop at 11:30am. Their located at 163 W. Nine Mile, just west of Woodward.
• And a group is starting at 11am with a breakfast at Louie’s Deli at Mack and Riopelle near Eastern Market. After eating, they’ll take a leisurely ride to the ballpark.

As Bayless told Changing Gears, they’re hoping this will become an annual event and spur the organization to do more to accommodate cyclists.

These updates are from Midtown Detroit:

Midtown Loop – Phase II construction began on April 16th. Construction goes along the north side of Canfield Avenue from Cass to John R. and continues south along the east side of John R. to Mack.

Second Avenue Two-Way Conversion Project – will convert Second Avenue to a two-way street with bike lanes from I-94 to West Grand Blvd. New decorative LED street lighting will also be installed. Construction will begin May 1st.

Third Avenue Two-Way Conversion Project – will begin on May 7th and is planned to end on July 15th. This project will convert Third Avenue between Ledyard and Forest to two-way traffic, add bike lanes in both directions, and maintain parking along both sides of the street.

Anthony Wayne Drive is also getting bike lanes which connects the Second and Third Avenue projects.

Trumbull from Warren to Holden is also getting bike lanes this year, though it’ll likely happen later in the season.

Mt. Elliott Plaza

The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy will begin construction on an new plaza and splash park at Mt. Elliott Park this June. The construction should be completed in a year.

The plaza will be similar in size to the one currently at Gabriel Richard Park at the foot of the bridge to Belle Isle.

The splash park has a schooner theme with masts, waterfalls, a river, and water cannons. It looks very cool! It’s the kind of attraction that will definitely pull kids and families to the park.

The schooner does not have a name, but you can change that by making a serious donation.

 

Every city goes through an initial learning period with new road design elements. Local examples include HAWK signals and roundabouts.

In Detroit, there have been discussions on driver and cyclist education on bike lanes. They’re relatively new to many neighborhoods. Eventually people learn how to behave around and in bike lanes, however, an effective educational campaign can speed up that learning process.

And there are some potential educational options being discussed and even developed.

At the state level, bike lanes are briefly and sporadically mentioned in the Secretary of State’s booklet, What every Driver Must Know.

We really like this video that was produced by the city of Minneapolis.

They also have an educational video on shared road designs.

 

Huffington Post ran this articlelast week that shows the city of Detroit’s commitment to being “very aggressive” in adding bike lanes.

[Department of Public Works Director Ron] Brundidge said Detroit is aggressively building bike lanes to promote a healthy lifestyle and to encourage environmentally conscious behavior. “We just feel it’s our responsibility to do everything we can to have our citizens have the option and ability to get out there and bike,” Brundidge said.

Sounds awesome, doesn’t it?

The If you look at the city map provided by the article, you might ask these questions why the City didn’t add bike lanes…

On East Jefferson? There are already a couple other bike lane and streetscape projects planned for this road through the East Jefferson Corridor Collaborative. Stay tuned.

On any of the other spoke roads? All of the other spoke roads (e.g. Grand River, Gratiot) are state roads. It’s up to MDOT to add bike lanes to them.

On Outer Drive? That’s a Wayne County Road. The City did add State Fair, which is an extension off E. Outer Drive.

Connecting Corktown to the RiverWalk via the Sixth Street bridge? The south end of that bridge is on private property. It would be a little trickier getting that connection improved for bicycling, though it’s not all that bad today.

On Second Avenue north of Grand Boulevard? The optimal solution would be to convert Second back to two-way just like it is being done this year south of the Boulevard. These conversions are expensive because the traffic signals need to be replaced as they only face in three directions.

How certain is all this? It’s not 100%. Some of these bike lanes require state grant funding that is very likely but not for certain.

Most of the bike lanes are being added through the city’s regular re-striping program. Those white lines don’t last forever and need to get repainted. Next year Detroit’s going to put down the paint a little differently.

With all the budget cuts planned, some might ask why there’s a priority on adding bike lanes in Detroit now. However, the funding for this is for transportation purposes only and it can’t be spent on police or fire. The Michigan Constitution actually prevents road funding from being spent on non-transportation items.

The exciting news is that if this does all get completed as expected, Detroit will have the most extensive bike lane network among all cities in Michigan and among nearly all U.S. cities. If we don’t win a Cup, World Series, or Super Bowl by next year, at least we’ll have that to brag about.

With a 5-4 City Council vote, it appears the City has at least temporarily kept Governor Rick Snyder from appointing an emergency finance manager.

That vote was for a “historic” consent agreement, according to the Detroit Free Press:

In the historic consent agreement between the city and state over the management of Detroit, the city agreed to give up — at least temporarily — a good deal of sovereignty over its financial affairs.

So aside from the hope of future solvency, what does Detroit get in return?

A modest amount of increased state spending — and an array of promises.

The 53-page agreement does keep City Council in charge of policy, which is a positive for our Complete Streets efforts. Detroit’s road money is separate from the general budget. We’ve argued that our Complete Streets ordinance wouldn’t add to the city deficit. It just divides up the road funding pie in a slightly different way.

The agreement also contains some state promises which affect Detroit cyclists to varying degrees.

The Positives

The state vows to:

• “Improve public lighting by working with the city to create a separate authority to manage and finance streetlights.” Working street lights can reduce crashes.
• “Move ahead with the New International Trade Crossing project.” The bridge plans do include a bicycle pathway.
• “Invest in a regional, multi-modal system including BRT, bike paths and walkability.” We’re not sure if this means more state investment or just continued funding.
• “Assist the market in applying for a federal TIGER grant to create a seamless trail system from the Riverfront through the Eastern Market, Brush Park, and Wayne State University areas.” It’s a little late. Detroit already applied.
• “Riverfront – Develop the Globe Building, expand Milliken State Park, dedicate a new launch for citizens near Riverfront Park and assist DEGC with resources and talent to transform Hart Plaza.” The latter likely refers to an expansion of Hart Plaza over land that was previously used for the Ford Auditorium.
• “Belle Isle – Create park funding for Belle Isle while ensuring continued City ownership by designating Belle Isle as a part of a cooperative relationship with Milliken State Park. This would include a long-term lease that would accrue the cost of the park’s maintenance and improvements out of the Park Endowment Fund. We will partner with Belle Isle Conservancy and the City to implement a master plan for the Island.”

The Belle Isle item is among the more interesting. Unfortunately the Free Press already got it wrong with an article titled, “Belle Isle likely won’t be free anymore.”

If the island is managed like other Michigan State Parks, there will only be an annual $10 fee for arriving by motor vehicle. One can walk or bike into state parks for free and the same would likely be true with Belle Isle.

While some cheer that this small fee will keep out the less desirable elements, those elements won’t disappear. They’ll find another location, just like they do now when the island closes at 10pm. A fee is not a total solution.

The Big Negative

It can’t all be positive for Detroit cyclists, right? The state vows to:

• “Accelerate a capacity improvement project for I-94 from I-96 to Conner Avenue, supporting more than 13,000 jobs between 2012 and 2020.”

This outdated, mostly unnecessary MDOT project will wipe out 9 bridges over the expressways, including some pedestrian bridges, Third Street, and John R. It effectively widens the I-94 scar through the community.

The Governor needs to get involved in this project since the cost/benefit numbers just don’t add up. It’s “benefit” is from a 1980′s frame of reference that put a priority on reducing rush hour congestion irregardless of the effects on the local community.

Fortunately some local activists are started to pull together some project opposition.