Our August newsletter email just went out. You can view it online.
It mostly contains updates on the new Gordie Howe International Bridge pathway.
Author: Todd Scott, Executive Director
We gave the following testimony before the People’s Hearing held on June 27th at the Durfee Innovation Society in Detroit:
In the past 10 years, there have been over a quarter million reported traffic crashes on Detroit streets.
1,265 people have died in these crashes. 74 fatalities were under 18 years old. 383 were vulnerable road users – pedestrians and bicyclists. African-Americans were roughly 76% of all fatalities.
Why are there so many deaths on Detroit streets?
It’s mostly due to the speed of vehicles. Higher speeds result in more crashes and higher injury severity. This is especially true for vulnerable road users, most notably youth and seniors.
One problem is newer vehicles have more horsepower and are getting larger, higher, and heavier. This is a federal issue that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been unwilling to address.
But the local issue is our street designs. Detroit’s road network was built for 2 million people. Then it built a freeway network and the population fell by 1.3 million. We now have an abundance of unnecessarily wide roads. They not only encourage speeding – and even drag racing – they are difficult to cross. They are Dangerous by Design.
The most dangerous roads in Detroit are owned by the state and MDOT has been reluctant to fix them. Even when these roads are made safer, the state refuses to maintain the portions used by pedestrians and bicyclists.
In fact, MDOT’s ADA Transition Plan falsely claims that the state somehow does not even own the sidewalks they’ve installed on their roads.
So what are the solutions?
First, we need MDOT to be accountable for their streets. They don’t get to only maintain the portions for vehicles. These are state assets and MDOT needs to acknowledge this. They should not require local communities to maintain parts of state roads as a prerequisite for getting safer roads – and, yes, this is actually their policy.
Second, safer road designs must be the standard, not an option. The state needs to budget safety features into road projects from the beginning and not struggle to find additional funding later.
Third, the state needs to set safety targets and prioritize their road funding to meet them. Today they simply have researches estimate how many people will die on Michigan roads and that’s their target. Some years these targets have been raised despite MDOT’s declared commitment to the Towards Zero Deaths.
Fourth, the state needs to make public transit, walking, and biking a safe choice for everyone. This is the real solution to reducing transportation carbon emissions, but also for making our roads safer. Being on the bus with 20 others and a professional driver is a lot safer than 20 people in their own cars. People walking and biking rarely cause harm to others.
Finally, I must acknowledge that changes at the US DOT are handcuffing some of these safety efforts. The Transportation Secretary is restricting Detroit and other cities’ ability to remove unnecessary vehicle lanes, reduce speeding, and make our roads safer. It’s part of his Freedom to Drive Initiative.
The best solution for that is to vote in the November 2028 presidential elections.
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Windsor e-bike Restrictions
Thanks to Share the Road Essex County, we recently learned that e-bikes are not allowed on pathways in Windsor, Ontario. While they are allowed on the road and in bike lanes (as in Michigan), city bylaws prohibit them from paved paths and park trails.
This could affect e-bike use on the Gordie Howe International Bridge’s multi-use pathway — or at least on the pathways connecting to the bridge plaza.
Interestingly enough, e-scooters are not restricted from paths, whereas e-cargo bikes are not allowed on any road, bike lane, or path.
We reached out to City of Windsor officials and shared our concerns about how this differs from the rules on our side of the border. We passed along resources on our regulations, recommendations (e.g. MTGA e-bike Toolkit) and experiences with these devices on our trails.
They have been having some discussions about potential changes at both the municipal and provincial levels.
The City may take the following short-term actions…
Traffic By-law Updates: To address emerging safety and regulatory challenges posed by micromobility devices, the City could consider targeted by-law updates to ensure it accurately reflects which micromobility devices are permitted and prohibited, including specific provisions for regulating e-bikes on multi-use paths, where they are currently prohibited.
It’s good to see Windsor considering the positive impacts of these powered devices.
Increasing the safe and lawful use of micromobility modes of transportation, such as ebikes and e-scooters can help the city reduce its community greenhouse gas emissions by replacing short car trips with low carbon alternatives.
We will track this and report back on their updates. There are undoubtably a good number of Detroit e-bike users wanting to explore the pathways in Windsor, including the one on the bridge.
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Our Map Goes International
- We’re working to make it easier riding in Ontario.
- The updated online map shows bike and trail infrastructure in Windsor and Essex County.
- Some Metro Detroit trails have been added with more to come pending SEMCOG open data updates.
The multi-use pathway on the Gordie Howe International Bridge changes everything. This new border crossing means bike rides are no longer constrained to one side of the river.
In partnership with Bike Windsor Essex, we’re working to make this easier thanks to Gordie Howe International Bridge’s Community Benefits Plan funding. One of the deliverables is making our existing online bike and trail map international. That work is largely complete.
We didn’t want to manually add Southwest Ontario bike and trail infrastructure like we had in Detroit. Fortunately both the city of Windsor and Essex County have this information available through open data portals. We now pull that information each night to ensure our map is up to date.
We’ve also added some Metro Detroit trails outside of the city, e.g. Hines Drive and Downriver Linked Greenways. While SEMCOG has this data in their open data portal, it’s not designed for this use. The good news is SEMCOG is working to improve this, which should allow us to add more Metro Detroit trails in the future.
Another new feature? We now show ferry routes.
While the map only shows existing infrastructure, we had people ask about major projects that are under construction. So, the current routes for the Joe Louis Greenway, Iron Belle Trail, Windsor Loop, and Waterfront Trail can now be highlighted using their respective menu options.
More to come
There is one more item to add: Bird Canada’s bike and scooter rentals in Windsor. They don’t use docks like MoGo, so we do need to update our software. We are looking to make updates that would allow us to show Detroit’s dockless scooter, too.
Lastely, we are creating bike frame stickers with a QR code to the map. We envision bicyclists sticking this on their bike frame to make bringing the map up on their phone a little easier. We hope to have those stickers soon.
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Active People, Healthy Nation
The government of Detroit, Michigan recognizes the importance of providing access to safe and convenient places to be physically active for people regardless of age, race, income, socio-economic status, disability status, and geographic location
At the urging of the American Heart Association, we wrote a proclamation expressing Detroit’s support of the Centers for Disease Control’s Active People, Healthy Nation initiative. We submitted the proclamation to the Mayor’s Office, which was officially adopted.
While approved in a modified form without the resolutions, those resolutions were previously adopted in city plans.
Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design: The City’s Streets for People Plan will help to make it safe and easy to walk, bicycle, or wheelchair roll for people of all ages and abilities by improving the design of Detroit with Complete Streets that connect destinations such as public transit, grocery stores, schools, worksites, libraries, parks, and health care facilities.
Access to Places for Physical Activity: The City’s Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan will create or enhance access to places for physical activity, including parks, greenways, recreation centers, and programs
According to the CDC website, Kent County is the only other Michigan community to have passed a similar proclamation. However, it’s unclear if the CDC is actively maintaining the list of communities that have
When we started this work over 18 years ago, the pace of improvements for biking, walking and rolling was no where near as impressive as it is today. Where we used to have to scrape for news to share, we now have too much to report — and this is a good thing. So, if we were to put together a 2025 double-record greatest hits album, below are the tracks!