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Greenways Newsletter

News from the Trail – April 2019

Fundraiser at the Velodrome this Saturday

This Saturday, April 20th will be more than just another exciting evening of bicycle track racing at the Lexus Velodrome. It’s also a fundraiser for the Detroit Greenways Coalition. If you not yet seen high-speed track bike racing at Detroit’s newest sports venue, this is a great opportunity to do so. It’s the Spring Track Classic and will attract top racers from across the region. Doors open at 6:30pm and the racing begins at 7:30pm. Tickets are available in advance and start at just $10.

Of course Saturday is also Earth Day and the Detroit City Council Green Task Force is hosting its Awards Breakfast. The event runs from 10am until noon, is free and open to the public. It’s being held at JBEW Local 58 (1358 Abbott). RVSP if you plan on attending.

One more event to put on your calendar is Bike to Work Day on Friday, May 17th. Make you pledge to ride that day to receive an event shirt and commemorative patch. More details are on our website.

FCA Expansion to impact greenways & trails

You may have read the news of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) planning to expand their Jefferson North manufacturing in the city of Detroit. They need more land for this and the city has offered to give them St. Jean Street which currently has bike lanes for the Conner Creek Greenway and the Iron Belle Trail. We’ve discussed options with our partners and developed ideas for alternative routings. We’ve also asked that we not lose the existing protected bike lanes on Conner and East Jefferson, which both border the FCA footprint. We’ve shared our proposals with elected officials, city staff, FCA officials, and our partners. Our entire proposal with maps is on our website.

Ultimately, we’d love to see the local community, city of Detroit, and FCA all arrive at a mutually beneficial solution that also improves green transportation options throughout the lower eastside. This project is moving quickly so we’ll be sure to stay on top.

Joe Louis Greenway Updates

Last month, the City of Detroit announced that the SmithGroup and its team had been selected to complete the Joe Louis Greenway Framework Plan. The SmithGroup has extensive greenway experience which includes designing the Dequindre Cut and Detroit Riverwalk. The City also announced that “an advisory council has been created, comprised of community members from each Detroit City Council District impacted by the route.”

We have three Joe Louis Greenway bike tours in the works. The first is our 24-mile fundraiser ride scheduled for June 23rd. We’re also working with the Wheelhouse Detroit on two shorter 16-mile tours on August 24th and September 28th.

Visit Detroit celebrates bicycling

You may already know how fun and cool bicycling in Detroit is. Others don’t, but that will be changing a bit with the Spring-Summer 2019 Visit Detroit magazine published by the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The cover photo itself really shows how Detroiters are redefining American bicycling with customized, stylish bikes, matching attire, lights, and tunes. We couldn’t be happier seeing our friend Tracy (on the left) with her one-of-a-kind ride (BAM!). On her right are riders visiting from Ohio, not unlike the many other riders coming here from across the region to be a part of this movement.

And that’s not all. They also made this exciting video about Slow Roll that will get you ready for the summer of riding ahead of us.

Additional Reading

For the most recent news, follow us on Twitter and Facebook

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Complete Streets Greenways Newsletter Policy

News from the Trail – March 2019

Streetscape Projects

Many streetscape improvement projects will be under construction this year as part of Detroit’s $80 million Commercial Corridor Program. Per the City, “These streetscape improvements support the City’s neighborhood planning efforts to improve safety and quality of life for Detroit residents. Streetscape improvements might include a variety of amenities including expanded sidewalks, bicycle lanes, improved lighting, plantings, neighborhood branding, and more.” (More on Crain’s Detroit)

Prior emails have encouraged everyone to attend community meetings for Grand River. Those are ongoing with additional information on the city website. As a result of previous meetings and feedback, the preferred design is for a vastly improved pedestrian, bike, and transit experience along this state trunkline while retaining onstreet parking (see below). The city recognizes the need for motorist and bicyclist education with a 2-way cycletrack. Construction is scheduled to begin this year.

There is a community meeting on Tuesday, March 19th from 6-8pm for the Kercheval Avenue Street Design between E. Grand Boulevard and Parker Street. The meeting is at the Solanus Casey Center, 1780 Mt. Elliott Street. (flyer)

Also this month is the East Jefferson Corridor Improvements Community Meeting. It will be held Thursday, March 21st from 6-7:30pm at the Hope Community Church, 14456 E. Jefferson. (flyer)

This Crain’s Detroit Business article covers many of the other exciting projects.

FCA Community Benefits Agreement

The City of Detroit is moving quickly to try landing a new Fiat Chrysler plant near the the existing E. Jefferson plant. There are already bike lanes on all four sides of that facility, including the Conner Creek Greenway and Iron Belle Trail along the St. Jean. Mayor Mike Duggan has proposed vacating St. Jean to gain the needed acreage for the plant. An initial community benefits meeting is this Wednesday, March 13th from 6:30-8pm at the UAW, 2600 Conner Avenue. We’ll be there to ensure the bike lanes and trails remain and propose that they get improved.

Bike Lane Ordinance

Council President Brenda Jones has asked the Law Department to draft an ordinance that requires all new bike lanes to be approved by City Council. We strongly oppose this. As we said recently in public comment before Council, bike lanes are a safety design that improves mobility for bicyclists, pedestrians, scooter users, and those in motorized mobility devices. Current city ordinance gives the Department of Public Works the ability to design safe roads based on national standards. City Council has approved the non-motorized plan that calls for these bike lanes. As one might imagine, there is a wide variety of opinions among city council members as this video from a recent Public Health & Safety Committee meeting shows.

We will keep everyone updated on this proposal and how you can share your thoughts with City Council.

Upcoming Events

Additional Reading & Listening

Ambassador Opportunities

  • MoGo Neighborhood Ambassador applications are due this Friday, March 15th
  • The Detroit Health Department is hiring temporary Safe Routes Ambassadors “to work on safety education with school children and community groups with an emphasis on the recent and upcoming Complete Streets work and Safe Routes to School efforts.”

For the most recent news, follow us on Twitter and Facebook

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Greenways Newsletter

News from the Trail – January 2019

Joe Louis Greenway meetings this Saturday

First, we want to thank all those that contributed to our successful Fall Fundraising campaign. This funding is critical to our organization’s effort to help create greenways like the Joe Louis. (Can we start calling it “The Joe” yet?)

Exciting News! Two community insight meetings are planned for this Saturday, January 19th from 11am to 1pm and again from 2pm to 4pm. This is an great opportunity for residents to get more involved in the greenway planning process for this 31.5 mile biking and walking trail that touches Detroit, Ferndale, Dearborn, Hamtramck, and Highland Park.

According to the City of Detroit web site:

At the meeting, residents will also have a chance to meet the two finalists on the short list of consultants that will be chosen to complete the planning, view the Greenway’s total footprint, discuss phases of construction, and share insights and opinions. The finalists, Spackman Mossop and Michaels, LLC and SmithGroup, Inc., will be in attendance to present their plans for the Greenway and answer questions from residents.”

We’ve also updated our Joe Louis Greenway page with up to date information.

Milliken State Park meeting this Wednesday

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is holding a second public meeting about the Milliken State Park & Harbor Master Plan Update. That meeting is January 16, 2019 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm at Orleans Landing (1568 Franklin Street).

Saving Athens Avenue at Conner Playfield

We regularly scan the Detroit City Council agendas. Now and then this tedious work pays off — and it just did. An eastside company had asked the City of Detroit to close Athens Avenue, the street that runs along the west side of the Conner Playfield, north of Harper Avenue. The onstreet parking on Athens is the only vehicle parking for the Playfield, which is home to the Titan football teams as well as a portion of the Conner Creek Greenway and Iron Belle Trail. We alerted Council member Scott Benson, who quickly contacted all parties and brokered an agreement to not close Athens. This is great news for those who use the park.

Survey says…

As part of the Gordie Howe International Bridge project’s Community Benefit Plan, $10 million will be invested on each side of the border. Before they finalize the Community Benefits Plan, they are seeking community feedback on the final selection of initiatives through this survey.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) also has a survey for their State Long Range Transportation Plan. PLEASE TAKE THIS WHEN YOU CAN. We need to continue pushing MDOT to a more realistic, human-focused transportation system.

For the most recent news, follow us on Twitter and Facebook

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Complete Streets Greenways Newsletter

News from the Trail – December 2018

East Jefferson Meeting Postponed

The East Jefferson Improvements public meeting intially planned for this Wednesday, December 12th has been postponed.  The City of Detroit is revising their plan and schedule for community outreach. We’ll let you know the new date as soon as it’s announced.

Joe Louis Greenway Senate Resolution

Photo by Pattrick Yockey, Senate Majority PhotographerWe worked with the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance (MTGA) on a Michigan Senate Resolution in support of Joe Louis, the Joe Louis Greenway and Detroit trails in general. Sponsored by Senator David Knezek, Senate Resolution 115 went before the Senate Committee on Outdoor Recreation and Tourism on November 28th. We thought this was a great opportunity to testify before state legislators and share all that is happening with trails and biking in Detroit.

We brought three Detroit bike club officers to testify with us. With their help, it went very well. The resolution passed unanimously. Additionally, it stirred interest in bringing legislators to Detroit next May for a bike event on Detroit’s trails. We’re working on that event now with MTGA.

We’ve written more about our trip to Lansing on our web site.

Grand River Road Diet Meeting

There is a public meeting at the Crowell Community Center (16630 Lahser Road) this Thusday, December 13th from 5:30pm to 7:30pm to discuss redesigning Grand River between the Southfield Freeway and Berg Road (just west of Lahser.) There will be a brief presentation at 6pm.

From the flyer:

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the City of Detroit will host an open house-style public meeting to provide an overview of the M-5 (Grand River Avenue) project that includes a road diet between M-39 (Southfield Freeway) and Berg Road, east of US-24 (Telegraph Road). This project will convert seven lanes to five lanes with defined on-street parking and possible bike lanes. There will be an opportunity for the community and residents to review project details and locations, provide comments and concerns, and ask questions.

We really want bike lanes incorporated. We’ve included Grand River bike lanes as part of our Detroit Greenways Network Vision. They would also fit with our Envision Detroit Project.

Grand River is a great bicycling connection between Northwest Detroit, Downtown, and everything in between. Also, MDOT has said that they are looking for additional funding to extend this road design between the Southfield and I-94. This would then include an intersection with the Joe Louis Greenway and lay the groundwork for a future U.S. Bicycle Route 30.

We hope to see you on Thursday!

Donations

Thanks to everyone who made a donation to help us launch our Friends of the Joe Louis Greenway. There’s still time to donate through our web site or our Facebook fundraiser page. We hope you agree that we’re helping make some significant progress towards Detroit becoming a great place to walk and bike.

Photo by Pattrick Yockey, Senate Majority Photographer

Photos by Pattrick Yockey, Senate Majority Photographer

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Greenways Newsletter

News from the Trail – November 2018

Please Vote

Trails like the Joe Louis Greenway are not on the ballot today, but the politicians making trail funding decisions are. We’re members of the Detroit Environmental Agenda and they have more voting information including Detroit Charter Revision Commissioners.

To make getting to the polls a bit easier, Lime scooters are offering free 30-minute rides today with the promo code LIME2VOTE2018.

Joe Louis Greenway

Framework Planning Proposals are due this week. With this being such a critical greenway planning process, we put together this brief article on what we think a winning proposal should include. First and foremost is community engagement. It’s a long trail and we want to make sure everyone gets the opportunity to participate in the design process. This is much more than just a trail project.

The city expects to review the proposals and award a contract by the end of the year.

$100 million for the RiverWalk and other Trails

You likely heard the great news that the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation pledged $100 million towards Detroit trails and the RiverWalk.

$40 million of that goes to the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy’s West Riverfront Park project. As a result, the park was renamed to the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Centennial Park. An additional $10 million goes into an endowment to fund the park’s long-term sustainability.

Another $40 million is for building regional, connecting trails in Southeast Michigan, including the Iron Belle Trail. We imagine the Joe Louis Greenway could potentially receive some of this funding. The last $10 million is also an endowment to help operate and maintain the these trails.

At the announcement ceremony, we had the opportunity to personally thank Mary Wilson and share some stories on how trails and bicycling are benefitting Detroiters in the neighborhoods. It’s more profound than most realize and it’s our role to share these stories.

Bike lanes: Planning, Building, Maintaining

Detroit has approved $125 million in road bonds to revitalize commerical corridors. About $80 million of that targets major infrastructure improvements on key corridors, which includes Complete Streets and stormwater designs. The following should be under construction next year:

  • Livernois (Puritan to Eight Mile Road). The last we heard the infamous median will be removed, the sidewalks widened, and bike lanes added.
  • W. McNichols (Marygrove College to UDM). This includes both an sidepath trail segment and bike lanes. The Fitzgerald Greenway just south of McNichols will also be under construction next year.

E. Jefferson will also get this road funding. We recently attended the initial stakeholder planning meeting. A public meeting is tentatively planned for December 12th. We’ll share more information as we get it. In the meantime, the city is offering office hours at the Elmwood Park Public Library on Tuesdays from 5 to 7pm on Nov. 20th, Dec. 4th, and December 18th. if you would like to learn more.

Our Hamilton Avenue bike lane project in Highland Park continues to move forward. If all goes as planned, we are expect that project to be constructed next year.

MDOT has also started planning for a major streetscape project on Grand River Avenue from the Southfield freeway to Berg Road. At a recent community meeting, most of the resident and business concerns focused on speeding cars and pedestrian safety. Bike lanes are also being discussed and MDOT is trying to find additional funding to continue this design from the Southfield to I-94.

One would expect news to slow as the weather turns chilly, but that’s certainly not the case.

Donate today to help us continue our work making Detroit a great place for biking, walking, and trails.

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Complete Streets Greenways Newsletter

News from the Trail – October 2018

Joe Louis Greenway Framework Planning

Great news! The Detroit Economic Growth Association has released a Request for Proposals for the Joe Louis Greenway (JLG) Framework Plan. Proposals are due in November with public engagement starting in 2019.

From the RFP: 

“The JLG is a 31.5 mile (estimated) family friendly, multi-use path of interwoven vehicle, transit, pedestrian and bicycle facilities. The Greenway will connect to local and regional transportation systems, and link 186 miles of existing bike lanes and bike routes to complete a total of 243 miles of non-motorized routes across greater Detroit. This project will improve safety, economic competitiveness and quality of life, while leveraging millions of dollars in recent private and municipal investment. The Framework Plan will be comprised of the best pedestrian and bicycle design practices developed from extensive community engagement. Under the guidance of the Planning and Development Department, the chosen firm will review existing conditions, determine connections and access points, incorporate effective storm water management techniques and design a signature greenway connected to local arts culture and history.”

Eastside Bike Network

Separated (AKA protected) bike lanes were recently installed on E. Jefferson, Conner Avenue, and E. Warren. These make up the backbone for what the city is calling the Eastside Bike Network. These projects have made the road more welcoming to bicyclists and scooter users. We installed our mobile bike counters on E. Jefferson and saw daily averages of 152 bicyclists at Algonquin and 373 at Beaufait. The city recently released this brief video that explains the network. The city’s web site also has educational information on how to use them and drive around them safely.

Open Streets This Sunday

Open Streets Detroit returns to Michigan and W. Vernor Avenues this Sunday from 12pm to 5pm. We’ll be there near Roosevelt Park and the old train station. Joining us will be the University of Detroit Mercy Capstone Team whose project focuses on the proposed Rouge River Greenway.

Don’t have a bike? No worries. MoGo bikes are free during the event.

Upcoming Events

  • Free Bikes 4 Kids This new program is looking for kid bike donations as well as volunteers. You can donate your bike(s) at any one of 25 participating Henry Ford Health System/HAP locations from 9am to 2pm on Saturday, October 13th. Volunteers can sign up on their web site. This is a great opportunity to get more Detroit kids on bikes.
  • Slow Roll Mondays The rain has led to a number of cancellations so far this year, but this Monday’s forecast looks good. The ride leaves from Eastern Market at 6:30pm. Also, the city made this video about the Slow Roll that happened earlier this year in Council Member Benson’s District 3.
  • SW Ontario Bike Summit We’re looking forward to being the keynote speaker for the Southwest Ontario Bike Summit on October 28th. We’ve worked closely with the event host and our counterparts across the river, Bike Window Essex. We worked together in helping get bike and pedestrian access on the new Gordie Howe International Bridge, which has officially broken ground and will be open in late 2024 — and will connect with the Joe Louis Greenway.