By our reckoning, the last national bicycle conference in Detroit was in 1891 with the League of American Wheelmen. We weren’t overlooked; we just never applied for these conferences.
So, last year we submitted an application to bring the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals conference to Motown. There’s obviously a lot happening here with greenways, Complete Streets and Bike Life — and APBP agreed.
We co-chaired an impressive planning committee along with the City of Detroit and SEMCOG. This committee put together the opening panel, chose the keynote speaker, selected the program, and developed numerous walking and biking tours.
Highlights included:
- An opening “Welcome to Detroit” panel moderated by Council member Scott Benson with Karen Slaugher-DuPerry from the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, Leona Medley from the Joe Louis Greenway Partnership, District 2 manager Kim Tandy, and Bo Wilson from Grown Men on Bikes.
- Detroit-raised Nina Idemudia from the Center for Neighborhood Technology of Chicago giving a keynote speech, including her DDOT bus experiences of trying to get to school.
- The City of Windsor providing bus transportation, bikes, and lunches for a tour south of the border.
While APBP set a goal of 300 attendees from across North America, we were able to attract 350. This included designers, engineers, advocates and officials from various cities and states, as well as the Federal Highway Administration. There was notable participation from the City of Detroit and MDOT, too.
By all measures, this conference was a major success and we look forward to bringing more to Detroit.
This time we won’t wait 133 years.
