[Disclaimer: I provided assistance to the city of Detroit on this TIGER grant application.]

It wasn’t a good week in Detroit for transportation news.

First came the light rail decision, and now this. The U.S. DOT did not select Detroit’s TIGER III grant.

There were 828 application and only 46 were selected. The odds weren’t good but Detroit’s $20 million grant request was first-class.

It was called Link Detroit, a Multi-model enhancement plan and a copy of it is available on the city’s web site.

The listed project benefits were:

• Implements a $25 million infrastructure project that includes bridge replacements, streetscapes, on and off road non-motorized greenways ($20 million DOT grant, $5.8 million local match)
• Links Detroit’s core investments such as the Riverfront Conservancy and adjacent downtown central businesses through the Dequindre Cut and Midtown Loop greenways to the Eastern Market, Midtown and Hamtramck
• Intersects major transportation routes including auto, bus, and the planned Woodward Light Rail, enabling multi modal options from anywhere in the region
• Enhances non-motorized and multi-modal connections to:

• Jobs (downtown and midtown anchors, locally owned commercial/professional services, start up establishments, hotels and restaurants, eastern market district)
• Educational institutions (Wayne State)
• Cultural institutions (DIA, MOCAD, DSO, theatres)
• Recreational opportunities (Milliken State Park, numerous city parks, marinas)
• Famers market (Eastern Market)
• Neighborhoods (Midtown, Hamtramck, East Villages)
• Leverages significant investments already made in the transportation infrastructure (Campus Martius, Detroit RiverWalk, Woodward Light Rail, Dequindre Cut Greenway, Midtown Loop Greenway, Hamtramck Greenway) and real estate development (Downtown, Midtown, Eastern Market)
• Provides 289 direct near term jobs, and up to 16,000 long term jobs, assuming the residential and commercial fill in development typically stimulated by this kind of investment

Can Detroit just reapply for TIGER IV? That’s uncertain.

Congress has asked that TIGER “focus on road, transit, rail and port projects.” One source says it’s not a ban on bike-ped oriented projects, but that future focus doesn’t help Link Detroit.

In addition, some of the matching funds will likely be spent before the next TIGER round, and therefore will become ineligible.

Detroit had received $25 million in the first round of TIGER grants. That money was to be spent on the Woodward light rail and will now be applied towards planning bus rapid transit. We don’t know what role this previous award and the city’s current financial situation had in this grant request cycle.

No Dequindre Cut Extension?

This does not stop the planned Dequindre Cut extension. The city has a purchase agreement for the private property from Gratiot to Mack and is now doing due diligence. The funding is there to keep moving this project forward.

Eventually the Midtown and Hamtramck connections will be built once the needed funding is found. TIGER III would have put these critical projects on the front burner.

Other Michigan TIGER grants

The only successful TIGER III grant was for $3.6 million to rebuild 2.6 miles of road in St. Clair County which “provides essential access to the County’s only landfill facility.” Yeah, that stinks.

That said, we’re not surprised the MDOT/Canton TIGER request was rejected. This was a $22 million project to improve the IKEA exit on I-275.

The required grant section on Livability appears to have been written in the 1980s or earlier. One claimed project benefit is it will improve the quality of life by having “a safer operational and connected network to and from the surrounding community and the freeway network.” That and they won’t remove the existing bike path.

The grant’s section on Alternative Transportation and Sustainable Development says, Canton is “committed to promoting sustainable development opportunities and alternative transportation options for residents.” Canton opted out of SMART. You cannot take the SMART bus to the IKEA store.

If anything, this is an example of why transportation in Michigan is not a sustainable model. We let a major traffic generator locate in an area which lacks the existing transportation infrastructure to handle it. And now Canton (and MDOT) want taxpayers to fix their $22 million mistake.

IKEA even mentioned in their support letter for this grant that “when IKEA was considering potential locations for our Michigan store, we had strong concerns about the interchange.”

But to be fair, there are other costly expressway exit examples, from the Chrysler headquarters to the Great Lakes Crossing at Baldwin. We have a history of funding mistakes.

The bottom line is Michigan can’t afford to keep ignoring the obvious relationship between land use and transportation.

Related Posts

• Detroit TIGER III grant: a multi-modal enhancement plan
• Our Economic Stimulus Bike Projects
• Dequindre Cut Trail Progress

I was attending this wearing a two main MTGA hats: Detroit Greenways Coordinator and Michigan Airline Trail Ambassador.

My highlight was Thursday morning. We had a group breakfast for last minute legislative updates and some cheerleading prior to our Congressional office visits. I was waiting behind this older gentleman for coffee. Being a bit impatient, I asked if I could cut in front. He poured my coffee and I said “Thanks”. It was then that I realized Congressman James Oberstar — one of the key bike supporters in DC and chair of the House Transportation committee — had just poured my coffee.

It was going to be a great day!

Overall I visited nine Congressional offices and met with the lead transportation legislative staffers. We also met with Congressman Gary Peters and Congresswoman Candice Miller. And, we were even invited to ride a century with Senator Carl Levin‘s chief of staff who will be celebrating his recovery from a knee replacement.

The Detroit bicycling message — Complete Streets, Active Transportation grants, Urban Parks funding — was very well received.

We brought Ginny Sullivan from Adventure Cycling to our meeting with Senator Levin’s staff to discuss the U.S. Bicycle Route System and Underground Railroad Bicycle Route. She really drove home the message that we have a major blockage: getting bicyclists across the Detroit River. We noted that it was probably easier for freedom seekers escaping slavery to get across the river than it is for bicyclists today. We brought this issue up with staff from Senator Debbie Stabenow and Congresswoman Kilpatrick too. But perhaps the biggest connection on this issue was with Congressman John Conyers staff given Conyer’s long, storied history in the civil rights movement.

We did discuss the Michigan Airline Trail with the Michigan Senators, as well as Peters and Miller. Congresswoman Miller has played a key role in finding funding for the Macomb Orchard Trail. We are hoping she has equal enthusiasm for continuing that trail east through St. Clair County as part of the Michigan Airline Trail.

I did pull on my volunteer hat to discuss the potential rail with trail project in Royal Oak with Congressman Peter.

The North Country Trail was brought up and it was a shame there was no one from the Michigan Mountain Biking Association to talk about it. I was able to discuss the IMBA talking points I’d written for last year’s Summit with some legislative staffers.

Also, I snuck in a brief conversation with Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon. He never ceases to impress me. I mentioned I was from Detroit and he immediately brings up the recent M1 Rail TIGER grant.

Another very, very impressive bicycle support is the Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. He gave a rousing end-of-summit speech and once again told us we have a partner in him and the U.S. DOT. I did get the chance to thank him directly for the M1 Rail TIGER grant that Detroit recently received and how we will make sure works multi-modally with bicyclists and pedestrians. The Secretary has posted his National Bike Summit perspective as well, including this:

Today, I want to announce a sea change. People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the?end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.

We are integrating the needs of bicyclists in federally-funded road projects. We are discouraging transportation investments that negatively affect cyclists and pedestrians. And we are encouraging investments that go beyond the minimum requirements and provide facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.

To set this approach in motion, we have formulated key recommendations for state DOTs and communities:

• Treat walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes.
• Ensure convenient access for people of all ages and abilities.
• Go beyond minimum design standards.
• Collect data on walking and biking trips.
• Set a mode share target for walking and bicycling.
• Protect sidewalks and shared-use paths the same way roadways are protected (for example, snow removal)
• Improve nonmotorized facilities during maintenance projects.

Now, this is a start, but it’s an important start. These initial steps forward will help us move forward even further.

The networking opportunities here were significant. I spent some time speaking with a software engineer that developed the Google’s bike routing. There are a number of issues that I don’t believe they have considered that I will be following up on. I also said that since the Google Trike is coming to the Detroit Zoo, it might as well create Streetview images for the Dequindre Cut and RiverWalk. That might be possible. We’ll see.

I went to dinner with Kelli Kavanaugh (Wheelhouse Detroit), Karen Kavanaugh (Governor’s office in Washington DC — not related to Kelli), and Ginny Sullivan (Adventure Cycling.) It was a great opportunity for exchanging bicycle advocacy information.

I spoke with Gary Fisher about coming to Detroit for an urban ride. He’s never ridden in the city and I think I had him convinced he needs to. I believe he was wearing tweed throughout the entire Summit — totally dapper.

The biggest disappointment? The National Bike Summit remains an event mainly attended by white adults. This lack of diversity perpetuates the stereotype that bicycles are white cultural phenomenon. There was a moderately interesting session on promoting diversity that relied largely on the efforts of the presentation by the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. Perhaps the best recommendation came from Keith Holt (Active Transportation Alliance.) He suggested groups start by diversifying their boards — a great suggestion for the League of American Bicyclists who organized the summit.

The biggest positive? MTGA getting a $15,000 grant to help Detroit become a Bicycle Friendly Community.

Related Posts

• New Underground Railroad Bicycle Route map released
• Woodward Corridor lands huge Complete Streets grant
• Adventure Cycling director to speak in Midtown

Ahh, the myth that the metro area is all Detroit. I live in a very nice suburb that is quiet and safe. The only reason I feel the need to leave here is just so I can depend less upon a motorized vehicle and more upon my own power. The car culture here is strong and the roads are just not safe for riding everywhere I would like to be able to go.

So which is it? The suburb is safe but the roads are not safe?

From a cyclist perspective, if the roads aren’t safe, your community isn’t safe. Cycling advocates shouldn’t let local governments view safety only from behind a windshield.

But surely suburbs do have lower reported crime rates compared with Detroit. Then again, having a motor vehicle on their horn and passing unsafely is?assault with a deadly weapon, though it’s rarely reported.

It does seem Detroit’s streets are safer for cycling — a conclusion supported by the average yearly bicycle crashes per 100K residents from 2004 through 2009.

Also, Detroit has the lowest bicycle crash rate despite having a highest bike to work rate.

And as for living car-free, it would be tough to beat Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood.

Related Posts

• Bicycle crashes increase for 2007
• Oakland County Roads are Not the Safest
• Complete Streets in Oakland County

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.

Related Posts

• New Detroit bike map and parking
• Feds fail to fund Detroit’s inspired TIGER project
• More bike parking along Corktown’s Michigan Avenue

They’re wrong.

To jump to this conclusion, they divided the number of fatalities by 100 million vehicle miles traveled. The more miles driven on the expressways, the safer the rest of the roads look.

And in 2008, 27% of all Oakland County road fatalities were pedestrians and cyclists. To divide those fatalities by the number of vehicle miles traveled is clearly invalid — and it reflects the low priority the Road Commission places on road users who are not inside a motor vehicle.

What the Road Commission should be reporting is the fatality rate based on the population size.

Here are the 2008 fatality rates per 100,000 people (based on 2008 SEMCOG population estimates):

• Oakland County 13
• Macomb County 13
• St. Clair County 18
• Wayne County 20

These are not world class when compared with other countries.

The U.K.’s Department for Transport’s recent report “A Safer Way: Consultation on Making Britain’s Roads the Safest in the World.” (via How We Drive) compiles road fatality rates for many countries (See the above chart).

Our county rates show we are among the least safe. Oakland and Macomb counties are only marginally better than the U.S. average, yet double the Canadian average.

We’re apparently neck and neck with Bulgaria.

Oakland County clearly does not have the safest roads.

Related Posts

• Bicycle crashes increase for 2007
• How do you define “safe”?
• Complete Streets in Oakland County

According to the Times Herald:

St. Clair County Sheriff Tim Donnellon said the woman was arrested about 1:15 p.m. Wednesday after a car believed to be involved in the hit-and-run accident was spotted parked outside a residence. The woman was taken into custody after police went to the home and found her inside.

St. Clair County Sheriff Tim Donnellon said the woman was arrested about 1:15 p.m. Wednesday after a car believed to be involved in the hit-and-run accident was spotted parked outside a residence. The woman was taken into custody after police went to the home and found her inside.

This same article has a horrific picture of the damaged bike.

The Times Herald reported earlier that the cyclist, Michael Eckert was now in good condition at the St. John Hospital.

Related Posts

• Another Cyclist Hit-and-Run in Fort Gratiot
• Cyclist killed in Farmington Hills hit-and-run
• Young cyclist victim says “Put him in jail”

Michael Eckert, a 50-year old cyclist and assistant managing editor of the Times Herald was struck in a hit-and-run in St. Clair County.

According to an article in the Times Herald:

Police said the vehicle involved is believed to be a mid-sized, purple Pontiac that may have damage to the passenger side front door. The driver is believed to have fled the scene of the accident north on Pollina Road.

Eckert’s wife, Theresa, said a man found Eckert lying by the side of the road and called 911. She said one of Eckert’s shoes was found 200 feet from his bike.

Eckert sustained multiple broken ribs, a broken clavicle, a collapsed lung and there was a problem with the vertebrae in his neck. Eckert was able to speak, however, Theresa Eckert said.

According to one commenter on the Times Herald web site, Eckert rode with lights on his bike: “He does wear red led flashers and a headlight while riding, See him every night.”

If you have any information, please call the sheriff department at (810) 985-8115

Related Posts

• Hit-and-Run Update
• Cyclist killed in Farmington Hills hit-and-run
• Young cyclist victim says “Put him in jail”

A common culprit is our motor city heritage.

I disagree. I think it’s because we just don’t ask.

In communities where residents have effectively asked for biking options, they got them. Ferndale is a prime example. Troy could be the next one. Both communities surveyed their residents and the number one response was for better biking and walkability.

So how do you ask? Here’s a great option that’s painless and probably somewhat fun.

The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) is hosting meetings where “the public is invited to express their opinions regarding the future of Southeast Michigan’s transportation system.”

The meetings are next week at three different locations:

• Monday, July 21, 2008, SEMCOG offices, 535 Griswold, Suite 300, Detroit; 4-7 p.m. (formal presentations begin at 4:10 p.m. and 5:40 p.m.);
• Tuesday, July 22, 2008, Southfield Public Library, 26300 Evergreen Rd, Southfield; 4-7 p.m. (formal presentations begin at 4:10 p.m. and 5:40 p.m.); and
• Wednesday, July 23, 2008, Washtenaw Community College, Morris Lawrence Building, Ann Arbor; 9 a.m.-12 noon (formal presentations begin at 9:10 a.m. and 10:40 a.m.)

Please attend one of these meeting and make your “ASK” for better bicycling facilities in Southeast Michigan.

If you’re unable to attend, you can email your comments to infocenter@semcog.org. You can also take their on-line survey.

Here are additional details from SEMCOG’s press release:

Public input is an important aspect of SEMCOG’s Direction2035 — a long-range plan serving the needs of the region’s citizens and businesses by promoting a transportation system that is accessible, safe, and reliable.

At these meetings, the public can complete SEMCOG’s public opinion survey, browse information stations to learn how the transportation system works, spend $100 in “SEMbucks” on various transportation improvements, and provide verbal or written comments.

The results will be presented to SEMCOG’s elected officials before they adopt an official investment direction that will guide the submission of projects for funding by state and local road and transit agencies. Direction2035 will be adopted in March 2010.

For more information about Direction2035, visit www.semcog.org/Long-RangeTransportationPlan.aspx.

Related Posts

• Bicycle crashes increase for 2007
• MDOT Transportation Enhancements
• How do you define “safe”?

In summary, while pedestrian crashes have dropped, bicycle crashes increased by over 13%. As noted by SEMCOG, “traffic crashes involving bicycles are more severe than overall crashes.” In other words, they cause a much higher percentage of injuries. Bikes don’t have bumpers, crash cages, and air bags.

The only “good” news is there were 6 bicycle fatalities this year, down from 13 last year. Still, 23% of all traffic related fatalities in the Metro Region were pedestrians or cyclists.

These numbers only provide more justification for road agencies (like Wayne County and the Road Commission of Oakland County) to begin implementing best practices for safe biking. Agencies and municipalities need to create and implement non-motorized plans on how to reduce these crashes.  Road projects that increase bicyclist safety should be rewarded, not penalized as they can be today in Oakland County.

SEMCOG has released their 2007 Traffic Crash Report. The Michigan State Police should be releasing theirs sometime this month.

Related Posts

• How do you define “safe”?
• Oakland County Roads are Not the Safest
• Speaking up for Better Bicycling in Metro Detroit