The Spinal Column has more exciting details:

“We’re going to put a new limestone surface on top of the ballast similar to the existing trail, and have a safe road crossing at Arrowhead, Halsted and Walnut Lake,” said West Bloomfield Parks and Recreation Director Dan Navarre. “There will be 400 feet of boardwalk north of Walnut Lake over a wetland area and a pergola area with benches.”

There will be benches installed every quarter-mile and two overlooks with benches – one at Woodpecker Lake between Arrowhead and Halsted Road, and another over a large wetland area west of Halsted.

A small parking lot will be constructed at the terminus of the trail at Haggerty Road.

This will add 2.5 miles of pathway and extend the West Bloomfield Trail all the way to Haggerty Road. Here it will eventually connect with the Walled Lake, Commerce, and Wixom rail-trail also under development. MDOT has also suggested building a trail bridge across M-5 to connect the trails.

The Road Commission is even considering a speed table where the trail crosses Arrowhead — an innovative traffic calming design that we’d like to see more of. Not only does it act as a stretched speed bump for cars, it tells drivers that they’re crossing the trail. It visually says that the trail has a right-of-way. This is a design we would have preferred seeing where the Dequindre Cut crosses streets south of Jefferson.

As mentioned in the Spinal Column, the West Bloomfield trail extension should be under construction by May and completed by the end of summer.

Support Transportation Enhancements

Federal Transportation Enhancement funding really makes projects like this possible, but that funding source may get eliminated in Congress. A vote on this is coming up this week in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Local congresswoman Candice Miller serves on this committee.

Please take a minute and call her office before Thursday’s vote and ask her to not eliminate this funding. Her Washington DC phone number is (202) 225-2106.

Let’s keep this funding in the next transportation bill!

Related Posts

• House transportation bill: a disaster for biking and walking
• MDOT grants announced for trails and streetscaping
• Detroit bike shorts: MDOT, Trails, and Windsor

Here are the grantees from the three Metro Detroit counties.

Macomb County

The city of New Baltimore will make streetscape improvements to its historic downtown on Washington Street from Green Street to Front Street. The project will include streetlights, trees, planters, bike racks, street furniture, and staining the existing sidewalk. The project budget is $486,110, including $340,277 in federal TE funds and $145,833 from the city.

Oakland County

The Road Commission for Oakland County, in partnership with West Bloomfield Township, will construct a multi-use trail along an abandoned rail line from Arrowhead Road to Haggerty Road. The trail will be an extension of the West Bloomfield Trail, which connects to the Clinton River Trail. The project includes trail surfacing, roadway crossings, benches, trash receptacles, and trail shoulder restoration with native plant materials. The project budget is $1,111,692, including $611,431 in federal TE funds and $500,261 from West Bloomfield Township Parks and Recreation.

Wayne County

MDOT, in partnership with the city of Detroit and the Greening of Detroit, will install streetscape amenities along US-12 (Michigan Avenue) between 14th Street and Rosa Parks Boulevard. The work includes replacing the concrete sidewalks and adding brick pavers, tree planters, bike loops and trash receptacles. When the project is complete, the Greening of Detroit will place trees in the planters. The project budget is $407,351, including $325,881 in federal TE funds, $71,286 from MDOT and $10,184 from the city.

Both streetscape projects include bike racks.

What’s not on the list is the grant request for Trumbull in Detroit. As we’d last heard, this was a request to reconstruct Trumbull from Warren to W. Grand Boulevard, including adding bike lanes.

Another project that is expected to get funded soon is the next portion of the Conner Creek Greenway from the Mt. Olivet Cemetery to Eight Mile. It includes a combination of bikes lanes on E. Outer Drive/Conner, sidewalks, and bike routes.

As you may recall, Transportation Enhancements has been threatened to be cut in Washington DC. Now is as good a time as ever to contract your Congress member and remind them of the value in these transportation dollars.

Related Posts

• Major Detroit trail and park grants get the nod
• MDOT Transportation Enhancements
• More on the West Bloomfield Trail extension

This funding opportunity from the Healthy Environments Partnership is an excellent option for Detroit-based greenway programming!

The Active Living Detroit Mini-Grant Program awards mini-grants of up to $1000 to Detroiters developing sustainable projects and activities that 1) engage community residents, 2) build local ownership of Detroit neighborhoods and 3) create social and physical environments that promote active living and physical health.

Any neighborhood groups or organization located in the city of Detroit can apply. This includes, but is not limited to, block clubs, art groups, service organizations, parks and recreational organizations, churches, professional associations, public and non-public school-based groups, and individuals.

The Active Living Detroit Mini-Grants Program is a joint project of HEP and of the Detroit Food & Fitness Collaborative.

Mini-grant Application

Application deadline: February 1, 2012.

Resource: For project ideas and information about promoting active living in communities visit:

For more information contact

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• Detroit population loss means less road funds
• HEP Detroit greenway mini-grants announced
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As of this today, the city of Detroit has been updated.

• Milbank Greenway added
• Conner Creek Greenway added (including St. Jean and Clairpointe bike lanes)
• Southwest Detroit Greenlink added (bike lanes only)
• Atwater bike lanes added
• “bike lanes” on Joy Road removed
• “bike lanes” on Fort Street removed
• RiverWalk sections added

There are still more corrections to make.

• W. Outer Drive and W. Chicago are shown with bike lanes when they only have shoulders.
• There are still some sections of sidewalk shown as “preferred” bicycle routes.
• The Southwest Detroit Greenlink bike routes should be labelled as “preferred.”

We’ll get to these changes unless someone beats us to it.

We also removed the sidewalk along Lakeshore through the Pointes as a preferred bicycle path/trail.

What are the benefits?

For one, the map can help cyclists map their route. It’s interactive and up to date, though some may still prefer a printed bike map, especially since not everyone has a smart phone or direct access to the Internet.

Having an accurate bicycle layer also affects how Google generates bike route directions. Google will try to route cyclists on to bike lanes and preferred routes when it makes sense.

On the other hand, having an inaccurate bicycle layer can make bike directions less valuable. Google has directed us out of our way to use a sidewalk in Troy that has been labelled as a preferred bicycle route.

How to update the bicycle layer

The bicycle layer can be updated using the Google Mapmaker utility. There is a review and approval process for changes so it’s not as instant as Wikipedia.

Mapmaker gives you the ability to change roads attributes, sidewalks, places, and more. It appears bike racks are not being added to this map.

Guide to Mapmaker bicycle facilities

The Google guidelines on how to appropriately label bicycle facilities aren’t always that clear, but here are some key points.

• Paved shoulders are not bike lanes. Google’s best practices says, “Roads without explicit paint markings or signage indicating a bicycle lane should not be given the ‘On-street bicycle lane attribute’”. Since paved shoulders of adequate width can improve bicycling, they can be labeled as “preferred.”
• Sidewalks and sidepaths are not trails/paths. Sidewalks and sidepaths should be documented as part of the road attributes. Google’s best practices says they should only be mapped as separate trails/paths when they’re “separated by a river, railway, or other impassable physical barrier.” Yes, many parts of Oakland County has improperly labelled bicycle features.
• Sidewalks are rarely preferred bicycle routes. If the above guideline is followed, sidewalks along roads can’t be. It’s less clear for sidewalks that are not along a road. In some cities like Royal Oak, bicycling on a sidewalk is prohibited. Sidewalks aren’t usually not cleared of snow by cities unlike streets, so their value in the winter can be variable. We’ve removed a preferred sidewalk segment in Royal Oak that had stairs.

Related Posts

• Safety Paths: Not Safe for Cycling
• Bike lanes: Safety and Southwest Detroit
• New Detroit bike map and parking

[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

Why? Because of this city ordinance:

Sec. 40-4-7. – Wheeled vehicles prohibited.

No wheelbarrow, handcart, automobile, motorcycle, bicycle, motordriven cycle, go-cart, unicycle, moped, solex cycle or other wheeled vehicles are permitted in Hart Plaza except as approved by the civic center department or recreation department for a scheduled event. This section shall not apply to a handicapped person in a wheelchair nor to emergency or service vehicles.

It’s a little policy issue we shared with our wonky friends, but it wasn’t a big problem on the RiverWalk since it wasn’t enforced.

Apparently it’s more of big deal now because the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy will soon maintain that portion of the RiverWalk. Currently the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) maintains the RiverWalk from the Port Authority to Joe Louis Arena. The Detroit Recreation Department is developing a maintenance agreement for the Conservancy to take the reins.

The Recreation Department is asking City Council to change the ordinance’s definition of Hart Plaza to not include the RiverWalk. They said it would be the “most direct and expedient resolution.”

Doing this solves the bicycling issue and others. For example, it’s also not legal to walk your dog or roller skate on this section of RiverWalk.

We’d rather the ordinance not restrict bicycles (or unicycles!) in all of Hart Plaza except during events, but the above proposal is a step in the right direction.

We do have to wonder why solex cycles were called out in the ordinance.

Related Posts

• Detroit 2020 looks at trails
• Detroit Riverfront Conservancy looks west
• RiverWalk and Macomb Trails in the news

After two previous rejections, the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund recommended they receive a $3,755,400 grant to acquire the now-abandoned rail corridor which runs between the West Bloomfield Trail and the Huron Valley Trail in Wixom.

This near 33 acres provides a critical connection between the two trails mentions, but especially in the context of the Great Lake to Lake Trail which connects St. Clair to Lake Michigan. This new trail would also connect with the planned M-5 Trail which is a northern?extension?to the I-275 Metro Trail.

The funding also includes acquisition of the?Walled Lake Train Depot which would be used as a historic stopping point along the route.

Other projects in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne Counties were recommended:

• City of Dearborn (Wayne County) is recommended to receive $268,900 to develop a new bridge across the Huron River on the Camp Dearborn non-motorized trail with a fishing pier and canoe launch.
• City of Detroit (Wayne County) is recommended to receive $300,000 for improvements to Jayne-Lasky Playfield, including development of walking trails, relocation of a soccer field, renovations to two softball diamonds, landscaping improvements and site amenities.
• City of Detroit (Wayne County) is recommended to receive $300,000 for improvements to Lipke Playfield, including relocation of a football field, conversion of open space, horseshoe courts, renovation of a softball diamond, walking trails, landscaping and site amenities.
• Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority (Oakland County) is recommended to receive $94,000 for improvements to Kensington Metropark to include a pond overlook, replace a seawall, walks and railing, group seating area, interpretive signage, viewing scopes and accessibility to pond dipping programs.
• City of Inkster (Wayne County) is recommended to receive $300,000 to construct a trail within the Lower Rouge Parkway System.
• City of Lathrup Village (Oakland County) is recommended to receive $50,000 to replace playground equipment at Goldengate Park.
• Oakland Township (Oakland County) is recommended to receive $300,000 to develop a paved trail, boardwalks, pedestrian bridges, interpretive/directional signage and fishing access on the Paint Creek Trail/Polly Ann Trail south connector.
• Southeast Michigan Eco-Region Consolidation is recommended to receive $1,475,000 for the acquisition of critical in-holdings within existing boundaries in state parks and recreation areas, state game areas, state harbors and Natural Rivers areas.

Related Posts

• Third time a charm for Wixom-area Rail-Trail?
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This trail is a key portion of the Great Lake to Lake Trail.

This free presentation is being held on Saturday, December 3rd at 11am at Marshbank Park (2805 Hiller Road, north of Commerce.)

The event is hosted by the Friends of West Bloomfield Parks and Recreation. If you want more information, contact Doug McEwen at 248 788-3940.

Related Posts

• More on the West Bloomfield Trail extension
• Commerce rail-trail section gets critical funding
• Third time a charm for Wixom-area Rail-Trail?

The RiverWalk goes through the Milliken State Park, which is Michigan’s only urban state park. Just across the street from the park and right next to the Dequindire Cut is the historic Globe Trading Company Building — where Henry Ford once worked as an apprentice. It will the become the Milliken State Park Adventure and Discovery Center, complete with an archery range, rock climbing, and outdoor activities. “The building is about 100-thousand square feet — we will be taking about 50-thousand square feet turning it into the discovery center — we’re looking for partners to come in and work with us on developing the other side,” said Rodney Stokes, Director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

DNR leader Rodney Stokes is no stranger to Detroit. After he first retired from the state, he served as deputy parks director in Detroit.

As for the other possible occupants of the Globe Trading Building, they might be green — and a wonderful, exciting fit.

Interestingly enough, if it weren’t for the unsuccessful pursuit of putting casinos on the riverfront, we may not have a RiverWalk or a Dequindre Cut. The city purchased the latter property in hopes of creating an access road to the casinos. That said, losing places like the Woodbridge Tavern and Soup Kitchen was a steep price to pay.

Progress is apparently underway on the contaminated Uniroyal site, a project being led by the DEGC. There are a number of workers and construction equipment on site. This is one of the key missing pieces between the existing RiverWalk, Belle Isle, and the Gabriel Richard Park and plaza.

Here’s the Detroit 2020 video:

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

Related Posts

• Update on Milliken State Park and Globe Building
• Detroit 2020 looks at trails
• Milliken State Park is officially open

Submitting reso. autho. to endorse TIGER III Grant Application to USDOT for approximately $25.7 million in funding for the Link Detroit! Multi-Modal Enhancement Plan. (Public Works Department intends to submit an application for funding to construct a series of multi-modal infrastructure improvements to create a fully functional transportation system through the Midtown area to Eastern Market continuing on to the Detroit Riverwalk and into the heart of Downtown, collectively called Link Detroit! Multimodal Enhancement Plan.)

So just what are those multi-modal infrastructure improvements?

There are basically five which all tie together:

• Streetscape improvements in Eastern Market
• Construction of a Dequindre Cut extension from Gratiot to Mack with a formal entrance in to Eastern Market. As mentioned earlier, this will be a rail with trail non-motorized pathway.
• Replacement of bridges over this new section of the Cut
• Bike lane, path, and sidewalk connections from the Dequindre Cut extension to Hamtramck
• A Midtown Loop connector between Eastern Market and Midtown

As you can see, getting funding to complete these projects would provide major walk and bike connections to Eastern Market, the RiverWalk, Midtown, and Hamtramck. It would be absolutely huge.

TIGER III grants are due at the end of this month and it is quite competitive. $547 million will be granted.

Keep your hands up for Detroit — and your fingers crossed.

Related Posts

• Dequindre Cut Trail Progress
• Feds fail to fund Detroit’s inspired TIGER project
• Detroit greenways ready for expansion