m-bike.org » Safety

Courts reduce road agency liability

Todd Scott — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:13:43 +0000

It’s already difficult to sue road agencies under state law for the quality of the road beneath your tires.

MCL 691.1402 GOVERNMENTAL LIABILITY FOR NEGLIGENCE

Each governmental agency having jurisdiction over a highway shall maintain the highway in reasonable repair so that it is reasonably safe and convenient for public travel. A person who sustains bodily injury or damage to his or her property by reason of failure of a governmental agency to keep a highway under its jurisdiction in reasonable repair and in a condition reasonably safe and fit for travel may recover the damages suffered by him or her from the governmental agency. The liability, procedure, and remedy as to county roads under the jurisdiction of a county road commission shall be as provided in section 21 of chapter IV of 1909 PA 283, MCL 224.21. Except as provided in section 2a, the duty of a governmental agency to repair and maintain highways, and the liability for that duty, extends only to the improved portion of the highway designed for vehicular travel and does not include sidewalks, trailways, crosswalks, or any other installation outside of the improved portion of the highway designed for vehicular travel. A judgment against the state based on a claim arising under this section from acts or omissions of the state transportation department is payable only from restricted funds appropriated to the state transportation department or funds provided by its insurer.

Remember that in Michigan bicycles are not vehicles, therefore road agencies can’t be sued for defects in bike lanes or on paved shoulders.

That’s both good and bad. It’s good for countering road agencies arguments that bike lanes raise their liability. They don’t. In fact, they can reduce it. That’s not our opinion. That’s the opinion of the Michigan State Attorney General’s office.

The bad part is this lack of liability removes a motivating factor for keeping them well maintained. Then again, the roads aren’t in all that great a shape either.

Gravel doesn’t count

Last week the Michigan Supreme Court clarified the road liability a little more. They said the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) could not be sued for gravel that accumulated on a road. That gravel allegedly caused a motorcycle crash.

From the Spinal Column:

“Basically the law states that a defect must be in the traveled portion of the road and the higher courts interpretation is that it must be in the road bed itself and the gravel was simply a dusting on the surface of the road that you would see anywhere on a daily basis,” [RCOC attorney Paula] Reeves explained.

Michigan law established that if snow and ice are on a roadway, the RCOC is not liable for any damages. Subsequently the Supreme Court last week issued an opinion stating under Michigan Law the agency is not culpable in this incident since RCOC is responsible for keeping the roadway in “reasonable repair,” and loose gravel on a roadway does not fall under this definition.

“The courts took this logic and extended the law to apply to gravel,” Reeves noted.

This ruling could likely be applied to a bicyclist crashing on gravel in a vehicle travel lane.

Again, this is good and bad for the same reasons mentioned earlier.

However, if reducing the liability means more bike lanes, we’ll take it.

We’ll deal with the occasional gravel.

Bike lane education in Detroit

Todd Scott — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:21:41 +0000

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeDDYfUP4BU

They also have an educational video on shared road designs.

What’s preventing more people from biking?

Todd Scott — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 05:30:55 +0000

CBS Detroit recently reported on entrepreneurs developing a bike that automatically shifts.

The company’s idea and business plans won first-place honors on Friday, Feb. 10, in the Intercollegiate Business Plan Competition hosted by Eastern Michigan University’s Center for Entrepreneurship, and representatives were to present to the OU INC Investment Review Board at OU INC on Tuesday, Feb. 14, to win additional funding opportunities. Company co-founder Sean Simpson said the Ann Arbor Spark loan represents a key step forward in AutoBike’s efforts to provide casual bicyclists with a means to ride a bike at a steady cadence without having to push levers or turn knobs.

“Our technology allows even the most novice bicyclists to always be in the right gear, because instead of teaching the rider how to shift, we taught the bike how to,” the company’s Web site explains. “The AutoBike bicycle riding experience can best be described as a stress-free ride in the park.”

While the intention of this article is not to critique this technology but to critique the idea that some new bike technology is the answer to stress-free riding.

It isn’t.

Having an optimal cadence isn’t going to make riding in the product’s hometown of Troy “stress-free.” Implementing the non-motorized master plan the city of Troy paid for and put on the shelf would be a step in the right direction. Or building Complete Streets.

What’s primarily holding Metro Detroiters back from riding more is the condition of the riding environment and the perception that it’s not safe. We hear that all the time and it’s a common problem in many other cities across the U.S.

Detroit’s Golden Era of Bicycling

And consider the technology when bicycling was at its peak in Metro Detroit – the 1890s.

There were no gears to shift. Everyone rode fixed gears, and in most cases, the bikes didn’t even have brakes.

Why was bicycling so popular then? Detroit’s streets were quite welcoming to cyclists of all abilities and there were more dense land uses, which meant shorter distances between destinations.

If you want to see the Autobike, here’s a video they produced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwo-Vr5DKK8

Looks like it’ll work in London, too.

Detroit’s new bike lockers

Todd Scott — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:29:11 +0000

View Larger Map

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.

Birmingham says “no” to Maple Road diet

Todd Scott — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:19:47 +0000

We mentioned earlier about the city of Birmingham’s consideration of converting Maple Road from 4 lanes to 3 between Adams and Eton.

Prior to the meeting, the Observer and Eccentric newspaper stirred the mob mentality with the headline “Birmingham’s nightmare on Maple Street.” No, it wasn’t an op-ed.

Mostly negative comments were given during the public hearing.

From the Observer:

The commission came to the same conclusion, voting 6-1 to keep Maple a four-lane road. They did, however, show their support for the concept of trying to narrow major roads to make them more pedestrian friendly, directing staff to begin a Complete Streets study that encompasses the entire city rather than just one particular street.

“Somehow, some way, we’re going to make Maple a better road,” Mayor Mark Nickita said before the vote.

Tom McDaniel was the lone member of the commission to vote against keeping East Maple four lanes, saying the only way to do a valid study of whether the road would work as three lanes would be to re-stripe it for a set period of time and evaluate the results.

City Manager Bob Bruner is a staunch advocate of the Complete Streets initiative, and he thought the timing was right to see if some of the ideas would work on East Maple. Starting in the spring, the stretch of Maple between Eton and Adams is being reconstructed to the same width of 41 feet, giving the city an opportunity to re-stripe the road to one lane in each direction with a center turn lane.

We’ve never seen a road diet studied more than this. The studies and traffic modeling showed it could work, but that wasn’t enough to change public opinion.

As we mentioned in our comments, if it didn’t work as the modeling predicted, it’s just paint. The old road configuration could be restored.

But unless the City tries it, they’ll never know.

As for the Observer newspaper, they showed their 1950s understanding of traffic solving in a follow up opinion piece.

Maple has been a problem road for years. It’s too narrow as it is to handle the flow of daily traffic. If anything, it needs to be widened, not narrowed.

And they probably think the Internet is a series of tubes…

White Lake: Sign of the times

Todd Scott — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:26:12 +0000

A Bogie Lake Road speed limit sign in White Lake Township with a complex times has caught international media attention. The Oakland Press reports that it “irks drivers.”

Carol Burkard, a White Lake Township Trustee, said she is confined to a wheelchair because of a car accident in 2003.

“I was the clerk of the township and had to have my leg amputated because somebody was not paying attention to the road,” she said.

“When I saw this ridiculous sign, I thought, the sign doesn’t make sense. It’s an endangerment.”

Yes, it’s a silly sign.

But what perhaps is more revealing, if not more disturbing, is the apparent lack of concern for local kids walking and biking safely to school.

According to the most recent Google Map aerials, there are no sidewalks along either side of Bogie Lake Road near the three schools. The north school entrance has a traffic signal with no crosswalks or walk/don’t walk signals. The east entrance has a crosswalk that does not meet ADA requirements and has no sidewalk connection to the schools or neighborhoods.

Sign from Oakland Press; Map from Google Maps

If you look at the aerials, you can see the well-worn walking paths through the grass that students take from their neighborhood to school.

So while the Road Commission for Oakland County has replaced the speed limit sign with something simpler, as far as we can tell, the kids unsafe and inconvenient walking routes remain.

Public meetings for two Detroit safety improvement projects

Todd Scott — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:41:10 +0000

In 2010, the city of Detroit applied for road safety funding and were successful. Building on this success, Detroit applied for seven safety grants last year and received six. The city’s plan is to add Complete Streets features to these roads to improve safety.

There are two public information meetings this week to review the newly improved road designs.

We’ve seen the 7 Mile designs and they are mostly improved crosswalks, no bike lanes. Our suggestion will be to stripe the parking lane to make it a de facto bike lane when no parked cars are present.

From Detroit Traffic Engineering:

Monday, February 13, 2012, 6pm to 8pm

The meeting is at LA SED – Green Site, 7150 West Vernor, Detroit.

The Safety Improvement Project are:

Vernor Ave (Lansing to 20th Street) Corridor
Dix Ave (Woodmere to Waterman) Corridor
Central (W Vernor Hwy to McGraw Street)

FREE Raffle for restaurant gift certificates donated by El Nacimiento, courtesy of Rodrigo Padilla, and Nuestra Familia, courtesy of Jorge Canchola.

Come to this open house to learn more about plans for traffic and safety improvements along the three corridors, including new crosswalks, upgraded traffic?signals, and changes to striping and lane use on Vernor, Dix and Central. This project is intended to promote pedestrian and vehicular safety and the vitality of the area.

For more information, contact Ghassan Khalaf at 313-224-1268

Thursday, February 16, 2012, 6pm to 8pm

The meeting is at St. John Conner Creek Village, 4777 E. Outer Drive, Detroit.

The Safety Improvement Project are:

E. Seven Mile (I-75 W. Service Dr to Vandyke) Corridor
E. Seven Mile (Vandyke to Gratiot) Corridor

Come to this open house to learn more about plans for traffic and safety improvements along this corridor, including new crosswalks, upgraded traffic signals, and changes to striping and lane use on E. Seven Mile Corridor. This project is intended to promote pedestrian and vehicular safety and the vitality of the area.

For more information, please contact: Stella Kulangara at 313-224-1733

Bike lanes: Safety and Southwest Detroit

Todd Scott — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:52:03 +0000

Here’s a quick thought for Friday.

It’s not uncommon to hear those who don’t ride bicycles or those who are just starting out say they don’t feel comfortable in bike lanes. One often heard reason? It’s just paint separating you from the cars.

Ask them if they’ve drive on a two-way road? You know those yellow lines in the center? That’s paint. (Thank you, Edward Hines.)

Cars crossing the centerline and hitting others is common crash type, especially with drunk or distracted drivers.

Bicyclists getting hit from behind is not very common. Most car-bike crashes occur at intersections, and usually in crosswalks.

Perceptions create reality

One interesting feature of roads with bike lanes is cyclists perceive them to be safer, so more cyclists ride. When more cyclists ride, everyone is safer due to the safety in numbers hypothesis.

When you have more people on bikes and you have roads with bike markings and signs, drivers’ expectation of seeing cyclists increases — and they adapt their driving habits. Safety increases.

Benefits to others

There is a Detroit resident in Southwest Detroit campaigning against bike lanes there. Her issues have gone so far as City Council where yesterday it was on the agenda for the Neighborhood and Community Services Standing Committee.

In response, the City Planning Commission reviewed the bike lane issues and wrote a report for the committee. The report noted that bike lanes “help develop more travel choices in Detroit, enhance travel safety, and improve the city’s quality of life.”

We agree.

It’s also worth mentioning that there are many benefit to bike lanes and most have nothing to do with bicycling. This paper from the Oregon DOT documents them.

Yes, even motorists benefit — something that’s always worth mentioning when making your bike lane sales pitch in the Motor City.

Besides, it’s just paint.

Metro Detroit biking: City vs. the suburbs

Todd Scott — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 06:56:43 +0000

It’s an easy opinion to find on bike forums: Detroit is bad for cycling. Those opinions are usually based on cyclists who ride in the suburbs or exurbs where poor street planning, cul-de-sacs and sprawl means they’re forced to ride on busy arterial roads which don’t have bike lanes.

But it’s simply not correct to label all Metro Detroit as bad. Our cycling condition is far from homogeneous.

The city of Detroit riding is some of the best cycling in America: mostly complete street grids, low speeds, very light traffic — and now many miles of bike lanes.

Some of the inner ring suburbs designed during the streetcar era aren’t too bad or at least have good potential. That includes the suburban cities like Dearborn, Royal Oak, Birmingham, Berkley and the Pointes.

Beyond that, yeah, the cycling can get pretty rough. Cities like Novi and Ferndale have shown leadership on improving cycling opportunities. Royal Oak, Berkley, and Birmingham are coming along, but we don’t see many others following them – at least not yet.

Worse still, some communities have talked the talk on Complete Streets but are not committed to building them. They just don’t see bicycles as transportation and they’re willing to redefine Complete Streets as the status quo with improved crosswalks.

Still, it’s not just about building Complete Streets. A much bigger issue is land use. Sprawl hurts cycling and kills walking as transportation modes. There’s a real vacuum of regional leadership on that issue.

Suburban sense of entitlement

One other difference we’ve seen is the suburban sense of entitlement. Entitlement to the entire road, that is. Getting brushed by motorists and yelled at is a common story shared by many suburban cyclists.

And one of our favorite blogs, Bikes, Books, and a Little Music seems to share this viewpoint after their first ride in the suburbs.

In Detroit, drivers gave me lots of room when passing by and never yelled at me. In the suburbs, the drivers were much more aggressive, many times forcing me to the curb. During my first week of riding, two suburban drivers yelled at me to get out of the street and get on the sidewalk where I belong!

As I soon found out, there is a difference between city and suburban riding. For me, Detroit is a much more interesting place to ride.

Moving from Madison Heights

Here’s another related story of a former Madison Heights city councilman moving to the city of Detroit. This is less about the infrastructure than the culture.

Another roommate worked at the Hub of Detroit, so getting a bicycle was a first priority upon moving in. The bicycle culture here in the city is larger than I had imagined. From Critical Mass to Tour De Troit, to the Bikes and Murder Slow Ride to Slow Jams, to the Full Moon bike ride from Fender Bender, there is not a lack of people who are willing to take a ride on a nice day (or a rainy/snowy one!)

Troy loves sidewalk biking

For some cities, it’s difficult harboring any hope that they’ll ever value safe biking. For us, Troy is one of those cities.

The latest proof? The city of Troy touts their 500 miles of sidewalks… for bicyclists.

A community with sidewalks enables residents to walk and ride bikes. There is a clear correlation between a sedentary lifestyle and poor health. Thus sidewalks make walking & biking a viable option. Bike route signs are placed throughout the City.

Sidewalks are not a viable option for most bicyclists according to the national design guidelines nor their own non-motorized plan, which the Troy City Council paid for but never approved and is not implementing.

Unfortunately we’ve seen many local biking “experts” label this region based on their experience in cities like Troy.

Fortunately, they’re not correct.

Fickle bike thief faces possible prison time

Todd Scott — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:13:31 +0000

Here’s an odd local story.

A 21-year old cyclist was riding through Centerline just after midnight when a teen with a toy gun tried stealing his bike.

According to the Free Press, the thief had second thoughts and said, “I don’t want it.”

Don’t want it? Not your color? The clip-in pedals weren’t compatible with your cycling shoes? You don’t steal department store bikes?

The 19-year old was later arrested by Warren Police for attempted armed robbery — a felony — and could face some serious prison time.

Be careful out there and keep riding ugly bikes.

m-bike.org » Safety

Courts reduce road agency liability

Gravel doesn’t count

Related Posts

Bike lane education in Detroit

Related Posts

What’s preventing more people from biking?

Detroit’s Golden Era of Bicycling

Related Posts

Detroit’s new bike lockers

Related Posts

Birmingham says “no” to Maple Road diet

Related Posts

White Lake: Sign of the times

Related Posts

Public meetings for two Detroit safety improvement projects

Monday, February 13, 2012, 6pm to 8pm

Thursday, February 16, 2012, 6pm to 8pm

Related Posts

Bike lanes: Safety and Southwest Detroit

Perceptions create reality

Benefits to others

Related Posts

Metro Detroit biking: City vs. the suburbs

Suburban sense of entitlement

Moving from Madison Heights

Troy loves sidewalk biking

Related Posts

Fickle bike thief faces possible prison time

Related Posts