Public Open House – Non-Motorized Planning Session

Saturday, March 10th, 2012 from noon to 2pm

Milford Senior Center, 1050 Atlantic Street

Milford Township would like your input! The Township adopted a resolution supporting Complete Streets in February 2011. A “complete street” is safe, accessible and convenient for all users regardless of transportation mode, age, or physical ability. The Planning Commission is looking to document where you think improvements are needed to provide safe facilities for non-motorized users. Maps of the community will be available and staff will be on hand to talk about non-motorized issues and mark up maps with your ideas to pass along to the Planning Commission.

• Where should sidewalks or paves shoulders be provided?
• Should additional trails be built?
• Are there areas that are unsafe for pedestrians or cyclists?
• What non-motorized improvements should be a priority?

The session will be set up as an Open House, so no need to commit to the whole 2 hour time slot – just stay to give your input and mark up the maps. If you have ideas and suggestions, but can’t make it to the Open House, please email your comments to Don Green, Township Supervisor at supervisor@milfordtownship.com or call 248.685.8731.

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From the Royal Oak Planning Department:

The Planning Commission will be conducting a formal public hearing on the revised Non-Motorized Transportation Plan as an amendment to the city’s Master Plan on Tuesday, February 14, 2012. The public hearing will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the City Commission Chambers on the 3^rd floor of City Hall, 211 Williams Street, Royal Oak, Michigan 48068.

Any individual or group interested in the Non-Motorized Transportation Plan is invited to present their view at the public hearing. For those unable to attend, written comments regarding the plan can be mailed to the City of Royal Oak Planning Department, P.O. Box 64, Royal Oak, MI 48068-0064. Comments may also be faxed to (248) 246-3005 or e-mailed to dough@ci.royal-oak.mi.us.

Link: Royal Oak Non-motorized Transportation Plan

We think this is a very good plan and cyclists should support it.

We do plan on making some suggestions on Tuesday.

• Adding bike lanes on Main Street from Catalpa south to I-696, including a road diet through the central business district.
• Reducing the number of signed bike routes, especially those that are short, disconnected, and redundant.

If you cannot attend on Tuesday, please consider sending a email expressing your support to Doug Hedges in the Planning Department.

There has been some concerns about road diets on some of the busier roads. Keep in mind that this plan doesn’t give Engineering carte blanche to make those changes without further study. Traffic studies and perhaps even traffic modeling may be used prior to making changes in order to avoid creating problems.

The Daily Tribune has an article on this planning effort.

If you would love to see friendlier roads for motor-less modes of transportation, you best make your way to City Hall on Tuesday.

Don’t worry. Your Valentine will understand.

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Confused yet?

The city staff did send a letter to the Commission which provides an overview and these concerns expressed by the Engineering department.

The Non-Motorized Transportation Plan includes recommendations for both road diets with bike lanes and shared-lane markings on various streets throughout the city. Questions arose after we received the plan regarding proposed road diets for Twelve Mile Road, Thirteen Mile Road, Fourteen Mile Road, Crooks Road, and Main Street. The Engineering Department indicated that road diets would not be suitable on these roads due to their traffic volumes and would therefore not support them. The Active Transportation Alliance disagrees and feels road diets would be suitable for these streets. As a compromise, the plan states that if traffic volumes preclude a full road diet on any of these streets, then shared-lane markings could be installed as an alternative.

The traffic volumes do support some of engineering’s concerns. However, Crooks Road and Main Street look very different throughout their length. Crooks Road north of 13 Mile might not be suitable for a road diet, whereas it might south of 13 Mile. Main Street through the central business district is ripe for a road diet, as are the portions north of 12 Mile into Clawson — where it has already been road dieted successfully.

During the past couple weeks, there have been at least a few news stories about the plan, the latter of which made the front page.

• Royal Oak mulls non-motorized plan (Observer & Eccentric)
• Planning Panel OKs Building Requests, Hears Non-Motorized Plan (Royal Oak Patch)
• Draft of Royal Oak non-motorized plan ready (C and G News)

Royal Oak City Commission Candidates

League of Women Voters recently held a forum for Royal Oak Commission candidates. One question for the candidates was, “What is your opinion of the non-motorized plan?”

The Royal Oak Patch covered the event and has their responses to this question. All of the candidates voiced their support for the non-motorized plan, though some were quick to offer caveats as well.

Here’s what we think of the responses:

• Kyle DuBuc: We think this was among the best responses, and as mentioned before, he supports Complete Streets.
• Mike Fournier: We’re not clear what he means by doing it “the right way” and “benchmark, benchmark, benchmark.” Who’s made their community more bike friendly and walkable the wrong way?
• George Gomez: Another good response, and he’s right. Bike friendliness and walkability are already in the master plan.
• Peggy Godwin: She’s a “huge proponent” but with an eye toward being fiscally realistic. That makes sense.
• Rick Karlowski: This seems to be the least supportive answer of the group. Road diets are not “extremely expensive” nor do they “shut down major thouroughfares.”
• Bill Shaw: Somewhere among the nostalgia is a brief note of support.
• Scott Warheit: We agree. This plan is merely a great start and we need to continue community engagement.

Have you read the plan? What are your thoughts?

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The plan is being presented to Royal Oak’s Planning Commission on Tuesday, September 13th, at 7:30 p.m. That meeting is open to the public and anyone interested is welcome to attend and offer their comments or viewpoints regarding the plan.

Here’s a link to download copies of the plan

Let us know if you have any questions, otherwise we look forward to seeing most of you on the 13th.

Planning Commission meetings are held in the council chambers on the third floor of the Royal Oak City Hall at 211 Williams Street.

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The Planning Department expects to have the draft plan on the city web site early next month. This will give the public the opportunity to review it prior to the meeting.

You will be able to submit comments via email as well.

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Market Street's green bike lane (Photo by SFGate)

While at the National Bike Summit, Leah Shahum the Executive Director for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition shared an interesting story. After showing a photo of bicycle lanes on Market Street, she mentioned that Twitter was relocating their offices to this street and requested more of these bike lanes. They wanted to make it easier for their employees to bike to work.

In another session, it was noted that employee health insurance is lower in states with healthier employees. Getting more employees to walk and bike can reduce the cost of doing business.

And with that, the Observer and Eccentric published an article on Novi’s new non-motorized transportation plan.

It seemed fitting that as gas prices in metro Detroit approach $4 per gallon, the city of Novi moved forward with approval of its first non-motorized master plan.

Norm Cox, president of The Greenway Collaborative, which was the lead designer on the plan, said it is going to be years before the system is complete, but when done will change how people travel in the city.

“We think you will have a multi-faceted non-motorized system, one that works for the whole range of citizens and their preferences as to how they want to bike and walk around,” he said. “It will make a noticeable change in the quality of life for residents.”

And while Twitter might not relocate to Novi, some other tech firms just might — and having a more walkable and bikeable city is definitely a selling point.

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If you missed the program, the podcast is on line. The discussion on greenways begins at 1:04.

That 9-mile abandoned rail property that I mentioned is part of the planned Inner Circle Greenway.

For those who don’ t know, Fahle is a cyclist and a former bike mechanic at Alfred E. Bikes in Kalamazoo.

- Todd Scott

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Congratulations to the city of Novi!

On a 7-0 vote, the Novi City Council adopted the proposed non-motorized master plan which we’d mentioned earlier. This is the first non-motorized plan passed in Oakland County. While Troy developed one earlier, the plan was never adopted by their city council. Royal Oak’s plan is still under development.

Novi  city counilmember Andrew Mutch adds, “The plan provides the framework to guide the continued development of the city’s non-motorized transportation system and includes detailed recommendations for changes to our design and construction standards and ordinances for implementing the recommendations. It also includes concepts plans and cost estimates to implement various aspects of the plan.

The master plan is available on-line along with the presentation made by the consultant before city council.

This plan was developed by the Greenway Collaborative, Wade-Trim and the Active Transportation Alliance.

Berkley adding bike racks

The city of Berkley is installing six new bike racks as part of a SMART grant.

“It’s something we’re seeing more of, and we want to see even more of,” says Tom Colwell, facility manager and parks and recreation director for the city of Berkley.

“Ultimately we’re going to put some of the racks closer to bus shelters and around town,” Colwell says. “What we want to promote is people not driving their own cars everywhere, but getting around by biking. We want to promote a healthier lifestyle.”

The city is also looking at how it could make its roads safer for bicyclists. They also passed a Complete Streets resolution recently.

West Bloomfield extending trail

The Spinal Column has an update on plans to extend the West Bloomfield trail westward to the township border near Haggerty Road.

“We will hire a design coordinator that will work with the commission on developing a design plan and preparing construction drawings,” said Parks and Recreation Commission Director Dan Navarre. “The coordinator will then monitor the construction process so it’s done according to plan.”

When it is completed, the West Bloomfield Trail will stretch out to 6.5 miles.

“We should have the design and the bids done in the fall and we may begin building in the spring of 2012 and hopefully have it finished in June 2012,” Navarre said.

Clawson examines ordinances

In 2009 we noted some of the more ridiculous rules of the road that some local municipalities have. One was Clawson’s ordinance which made it illegal to take your hands off the handlebars while riding.

This article in the Royal Oak Review talks about Clawson’s recent efforts to remove these types of ordinances.

“We are looking into all of our outdated ordinances,” Pollock said. “These are laws that are not going to be enforced.”

The city, like many others in the area, has many old and odd ordinances on the books. They range from the funny — for example, it’s unlawful to ride a bicycle without both hands on the handlebars — to the possibly illegal — it’s against the law in Clawson for a liquor license owner to allow his business to be frequented or become a gathering place for homosexuals.

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Improve? Transform might be a better word.

This plan includes a little of everything from bike lanes to greenways to bicycle boulevards. The highlight might be a plan to extend the Detroit RiverWalk east to the Grosse Pointe Park border.

Want to learn more? On Saturday, March 5th from 10am until noon, everyone has the opportunity to review the current plan at the Northeast Guidance Center (2900 Conner at Charlevoix.) The meeting details are below.

We should also mention that a survey was completed prior to much of this planning.  The results clearly show an “if you build, they will use it” attitude from the area’s residents.:

• 85% of the respondents who do NOT walk regularly said they would be more inclined to do so if they had easy access to a greenway.
• 80% of the respondents who do NOT ride a bicycle regularly said they would be more inclined to do so if they had easy access to a greenway.
• 37% of respondents would be comfortable bicycling on a major roadway if a bike lane was present.

Given these very positive numbers, it seems one could readily justify the investment in building this walking and biking network.

So whether you live in this study area, ride through it, or are just interested, you should attend the meeting on the 5th.

More event details from the event flyer:

You are cordially invited to an open house to learn about the GREEN Task Force plan for a network of greenways throughout our lower eastside district (the Greater Riverfront East).

Greenways are paths (like the Dequindre Cut) designed for walkers, bicyclists, and others who want to get from here to there without using a car. Greenways can offer places for exercise; they can promote retail and other commercial growth along their routes; and they can forge healthy links between people and neighborhoods in different parts of the city.

In the Fall of 2010, many of you participated in surveys and conversations that helped us better understand how greenways could improve our community. Many of you also attended hands-on workshops that helped us map out where greenways could go throughout the lower eastside.

Now the GREEN Task Force is excited to be able to share with you the results of your input. We hope you will join us to view illustrations of the planned greenway routes and tell us which ones are your favorites. There will also be a short presentation that will give you an overview of the entire greenways planning project.

Outline

10:00 AM – 10:30 AM Registration and Mingle
10:30 AM – 10:45 AM Presentation
10:45 AM – 11:45 AM View route illustrations and pick your favorites
11:45 AM – 12:00 Noon Wrap-Up

Refreshments will be served. Please let us know by Thursday, March 3 if you will be attending. Contact us by phone (313 444-0062) or email (thevillagesofdetroit@gmail.com).

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But before talking about those, let’s admire this graphic taken from the front page of the Detroit Works web site. No, we didn’t create that graphic nor did we bribe anyone.

And, the Detroit Works team has summarized the comments given during the first round of public meetings.

If you thought Detroiters were indifferent about their future, you’d be wrong. The first five meetings had 4,500 people and produced 1,916 verbal comments and 1,451 comment cards.

Our favorite statistic?

There were many comments on transportation with 42% of those expressing a desire for light rail and 31% making suggestions around improvements for bicycles.

Apparently Detroiters aren’t indifferent about their bicycling infrastructure either!

The next series of public meetings are listed on the Detroit Works web site. They run from January 27th through February 16th. Unlike the first meetings, these are geographically based. They are asking that you attend the meeting that is closest and most convenient to you. Note that space is limited.

The Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance has written summaries on greenways and Complete Streets for the Works Project. The plan is to distribute these summaries (and others) to those attending these upcoming meetings. Doing that should help help build community awareness.

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