This is a really interesting article from Wayne State University’s The South End.

While the article is primarily about the haunted bike tours offered through Wheelhouse Detroit, there is also a commentary on how bike tours can dispel Detroit stereotypes.

Scott Galbraith and Cathy Kester, who participated in the Haunted Detroit tour, come from the Lansing area to visit Detroit about once a week.

“We had been to a number of those places (on the tour) or driven by them and just seeing them at a different perspective outside on your bike and what not — they were all fun,” Kester said. “I think it’s good for the city, absolutely. It gives something else for people to do besides the sporting events and bars and restaurants, or casinos.”

Biking through the city on a tour also helps to defeat Detroit’s stereotype as being unsafe or completely rundown, Galbraith said.

“Detroit has a reputation,” he said. “The Cass Corridor is not the safest area, but to go through and feel safe and feel at ease and go through the park there, things like that, I guess it just gives you a new perspective that not everything you hear is always true and give it a chance.”

This Friday, October 28th is the next Detroit Critical Mass ride at 6:30pm from the corner Trumbull and Warren. Costumes are recommended.

Many of the bike lanes installed or currently being installed in the city of Detroit are the result of local community development organizations (CDO). These CDOs have found private funding to match MDOT transportation enhancement grants.

More recently, the city of Detroit has been championing bike lane projects funded through MDOT safety grants. These grants are available for roads having high levels of crashes, something Detroit has plenty of.

For 2011, the city received funding for a mile of West Vernor (Lansing Road to Waterman) in Southwest Detroit. That project will be completed this year and it includes a couple miles of bike lanes.

Detroit has gotten more ambitious for 2012. The city received six MDOT safety grants for these four road corridors:

• Central Ave. from West Vernor to McGraw
• East 7 Mile from the I-75 Service Drive to Gratiot
• West Chicago from Spinozza to just west Monica
• Dix from Waterman to Woodmere

The city has said they will put bike lanes on these road corridors wherever it is possible. For example, parts of Central are too narrow for bike lanes, so other options will be considered.

Overall, the city engineers recognize that adding bike lanes as well as other Complete Street designs improve overall safety for all road users.

The U.S. DOT’s BIKESAFE web site agrees:

Bike lanes have been found to provide more consistent separation between bicyclists and passing motorists than shared travel lanes. The presence of the bike lane stripe has also been shown from research to result in fewer erratic motor vehicle driver maneuvers, more predictable bicyclist riding behavior, and enhanced comfort levels for both motorists and bicyclists. The extra space created for bicyclists is also a benefit on congested roadways where bicyclists may be able to pass motor vehicles on the right.

Safety in Numbers

In addition, studies show bike lanes encourage more people to ride. One survey of Detroit residents found that:

• Majority of respondents felt uncomfortable riding a bike on a major road without bike lanes and through areas with numerous vacant buildings.
• 37% of respondents would be comfortable bicycling on a major roadway if a bike lane was present.

And, the more bicyclists on the road, the safer it is for everyone.

“It’s a positive effect but some people are surprised that injury rates don’t go up at the same rate of increases in cycling,” says Sydney University’s Dr Chris Rissel, co-author of a 2008 research report on cycling.

“It appears that motorists adjust their behaviour in the presence of increasing numbers of people bicycling because they expect or experience more people cycling. Also, rising cycling rates mean motorists are more likely to be cyclists, and therefore be more conscious of, and sympathetic towards, cyclists.”

Leading the region

So while some road agencies in Metro Detroit are just starting to discuss bike lanes, the city is pursing safety funding and putting paint on the road. Though the City may not have a Complete Streets ordinance or resolution (yet!), it is beginning to implement Complete Street designs.

We just sent the following letter to Congressman Gary Peters asking his support for continued bike and pedestrian funding and HR 1780 — the federal Complete Streets bill.

The fatality numbers for Oakland County, which Peters represents a portion of, are quite compelling. There have been reductions in road fatalities among motor vehicle operators, but far less so for pedestrians and bicyclists.

For that reason, 29% of all road fatalities in Oakland County in 2010 are now pedestrians and bicyclists. This is an increase from 25% in 2009. The national average? Only 14% in 2009.

And for 2010 Oakland County’s bike and pedestrian fatality percentage is higher than Wayne and Macomb County’s.

Clearly something needs to be done to reduce bicycle and pedestrian deaths in Oakland County. Building Complete Streets needs to be a priority.

[Data sources: Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration]

Here is our letter to Congressman Peters:

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Michigan’s Office of Highway Safety Planning issued a press release today regarding reported road crashes.

The news isn’t good, but especially for pedestrians and bicyclists.

For the first time in seven years, Michigan experienced an up tick in traffic deaths in 2010. During the same time the number of traffic crashes, serious injury crashes and alcohol-involved crashes all declined. While traffic deaths were up, the overall trend continues to be one of decline.

And while the detailed data hasn’t been released yet, they did provide these summaries:

• Pedestrian involved fatalities increased 6 percent, up from 125 in 2009 to 133 in 2010.
• Bicycle involved fatalities were up 55 percent, from 20 in 2009 to 31 in 2010.

What are “bicycle involved fatalities?” It means there was a reported crash that involved a bicyclists which resulted in a death. Since bicyclists typically don’t crash and kill other people (even pedestrians), these fatalities are most likely all bicyclists.

Curb running trains and tracks aren't safe for bicyclists on Woodward

The city of Detroit is collecting comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the proposed light rail project on Woodward. Those comments are due today, March 14th.

The DEIS is large, technical, and not always fun to read. It does provide three alternatives. One difference between the three is where the tracks would be located on Woodward south of Grand Boulevard: in the center or at the curbs.

We agree with the DEIS assessment that the curb-running alignment would have a negative impact on bicycling. For that and other reasons, we support Alternative A1 with median running light rail for the entire route.

This amazing video from Transport Michigan also supports median running. This video has gone viral as we’ve received it from a number of different sources.

Some other thoughts we had:

• Adding a two-way cycle track on the east side of Woodward that connected Ferndale’s existing Hilton bike lanes to the proposed park and ride just north of the State Fairgrounds.
• Adding bike lanes or cycle tracks on Woodward from McNichols to Eight Mile. Woodward is unnecessarily wide and could be road dieted.
• Adding sharrows where bike lanes cannot be added.
• Improve the parallel streets for bicycling (Second, Third, Brush, John R) by adding bike lanes/sharrows and by making them two-way for their entire length.
• Allowing bikes to roll on to the trains.
• Having bike parking (preferably covered) at the transit stations.
• Consider future implementation of a public bike sharing system located at the transit stops.