Black Girls Do Bike contacted us about new permitting requirements for any bike group that rides on Belle Isle — even for group rides they didn’t start on the island. We felt these were impractical and burdensome, so we worked with the DNR and Belle Isle Conservancy to arrive at the more reasonable requirements outlined below. Most club rides won’t require a permit.
Belle Isle Permitting Requirements
Q. Does my group run or ride event need a DNR permit to be on Belle Isle?
A. Maybe!
For events starting or ending on Belle Isle, you need a permit when…
People must pay or donate to participate
There are 20 or more people
For all events, even those not starting on the island, you need a permit when…
Natural resources or facilities are impacted beyond normal recreational use
Traffic pattern alteration is required (i.e. closing travel lanes)
Directional signage will be placed for the event
DNR oversight is required
The use of park facilities is not consistent with current rules (i.e. riding in an area not designated for bikes)
In some cases, the park may waive a permit requirement after reviewing your permit application.
Note that these rules aren’t unique to Belle Isle. They’re mostly the same for all state parks, including Milliken State Park.
As a 501c3 non-profit, we cannot endorse candidates for elected office. However, we can share what they’ve said about things that matter to us.
Detroit Environmental Agenda
We’re a founding member of the DEA and this is the group’s third voter’s guide. While the entire guide is worth reading, here are their responses to topics most related to our work.
Environmental Issues
Doubling the DDOT budget
Doubling the budget for the Office of Sustainability
Expanding truck routes ordinance citywide
Continued implementation of the City’s Streets for People Plan
Continued implementation of the City’s Climate Strategy
Mayoral candidates Jonathan Barlow, Fred Durhall III, Saunteel Jenkins and Mary Sheffield answered yes to all of the above. Joel Haashim did not specify.
There were more varied answers among the council candidates
Name
District
1
2
3
4
5
Valerie Parker
At-large
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
Mary Waters
At-large
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Coleman A. Young III
At-large
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Roy McCallister
District 2
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Angela Whitfield Calloway
District 2
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Scott Benson
District 3
NA
NA
Yes
NA
NA
Latisha Johnson
District 4
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Willie Burton
District 5
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Tatjana Jackson
District 5
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Michael Steven Ri’chard
District 5
Yes
NA
Yes
Yes
Yes
Tyrone Carter
District 6
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Gabriella Santiago-Romero
District 6
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Denzel Anton McCampbell
District 7
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Regina Ross
District 7
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
The candidates did provide additional text answers to these five question, which are included in the DEA Vote Guide.
Note that not all of the mayoral and council candidates responded.
Mayoral Candidate Forum
The Detroit Parks Coalition and Bridge Detroit hosted a forum in July. Unfortunately the event ran long and we were unable to ask our question about greenways. Even still, those that participated spoke highly of parks and greenways.
I-375 Questionaire
The ReThink I-375 Community Coalition asked the mayoral candidates questions about the MDOT I-375 project. One question was, “While not all of the new roads developed through this project will be in the City of Detroit’s jurisdiction, what do you think your role as Mayor should be in ensuring safe, vibrant roadways for both motorized and non-motorized use result from this project?”
Candidates Durhall, Jenkins, Perkins, and Sheffield all provided answers, but some added more detail on the non-motorized aspect:
Jenkins: “The non-motorized pavement for walking and biking need to be clearly separated from the heavy traffic of the surface streets. Safety has to be a top priority.”
Perkins: “Ensuring Safety for All Users: Road safety should be a top priority, and I will work to ensure that all new and redesigned roads include features that protect both motorized and non-motorized users. This includes dedicated bike lanes, safe pedestrian crossings, improved signage, and well-lit areas to ensure that everyone can safely navigate the streets, day or night. I will advocate for a “complete streets” approach, ensuring that the infrastructure supports all modes of transportation, whether it’s driving, biking, walking, or using public transit.”
Sheffield: “Designs that prioritize pedestrian and bike safety must also be premiered here, just as we are prioritizing redesigned and safer roadways within our neighborhoods.”
Below are comments we gave before Detroit City Council:
We are continuing to advocate for the city council to adopt a Complete Streets ordinance.
Complete Streets are those that are designed for all users – motorists, transit users, pedestrians, people with disabilities, bicyclists, and more. Complete Streets make it easier for everyone to safely travel along and across the street.
We began our ordinance work 15 years ago and much has changed. Back then, we saw the ordinance as a tool to get the city to build Complete Streets.
While we weren’t successful in passing that initial ordinance, we were successful in pushing for change. Detroit now has a Complete Streets Department and an excellent Streets for People Transportation Plan. It’s built some amazing Complete Street projects including streetscapes. Thousands of speed humps and other traffic calming features have been installed. And, DPW has been very successful tapping into state and federal funding to make this happen.
So why do we need an ordinance today?
We believe a Complete Streets ordinance can codify what the city is doing today, while giving the city more leverage in getting the state and county to do the same.
We don’t expect the ordinance to change course or have any major effect on the DPW budget. Those changes have already occurred.
Still, we believe this ordinance is as important as ever.
As we’re seeing right now in Washington DC, a new administration can abruptly shift a transportation department’s direction away from best practices. An ordinance could dissuade this from happening in Detroit.
Detroit had 130 traffic fatalities in 2023 with 28% being pedestrians, so clearly there is a continued need to emphasize safer street designs.
We believe an ordinance would help keep us on that path.
Update: Shortly after this post was published, the Governor signed HB 4012.
We’re involved in many different challenges at the city, state, and federal levels. We’ve been on a hot streak since late last year and we wanted to share the highlights of what we helped accomplish.
Restoring Bike Lanes ✅
We had heard that General Motors wanted the bike lanes removed on East Grand Boulevard primarily between their Factory Zero plant and I-75. There were concerns about truck traffic around bicyclists, though if that was correct, we would prefer seeing them advocate for separated infrastructure. People are going to bike on East Grand regardless and bike lanes are a proven safety countermeasure.
The City was planning a public meeting to discuss options before anything happened. However, we got an email from a bicyclist in January that the bike lanes had been removed early.
We brought this issue up with Council member Scott Benson. When former Council President Brenda Jones had introduced an ordinance to require communtiy engagement before bike lanes went in, Benson got wording included so that engagement would be also required when they were removed. This was largely driven by the bike lanes inexplictably being removed from East Grand between I-75 and Woodward.
This is a safety win for everyone, including the truck drivers. Long term, we’re advocating for the city to create safe bike infrastructure along all of East and West Grand Boulevard, connecting both ends of the RiverWalk, and creating a loop within the Joe Louis Greenway.
Keeping Downtown Sidewalks ✅
It’s not uncommon for residents and corporations to request that city vacate part of the public right-of-way. Engineering analyzes the impact on utilities and sends the petition to city council.
In late Novemeber we reviewed a request from the Detroit Athletic Club to vacate 60 feet of John R between Adams and Madison. Our concern was this included losing the sidewalk – a bad precedent, but especially in Downtown. We contacted Council member Gabriela Santiago-Romero’s office since she chairs the Public Health and Safety Committee where this request flowed through. We stated our opposition to the city “giving sidewalks to a private landowner and reducing walkability, especially within the Downtown.” We reached out to our disability advocates who shared our concern.
We met with the DAC and the Council member Santiago-Romero about the vacation, and to their credit, the DAC came up with an alternative that keeps the sidewalks on both sides of John R. The road itself will go from three lanes to two. We support this.
The biggest issue remains: Council received this vacation request without any information regarding the sidewalk removal, only the impacts on utilities within the right-of-way. We are looking at changing the city ordinance to require Engineering to analyze the impacts these requests have on non-motorized transportation.
Maintaining Residential Speed Limits ✅
Michigan law allows cities to use default speed limits in specific situations. They don’t require speed limit signs since motorists should know the defaults. For most residential streets in Detroit, the default is 25 MPH.
That default was set to expire on January 1, 2024. Why? The expiration had been added to gain the support of the Michigan State Police for some other legislation. MSP wanted to study whether they could raise this default. Apparently the effects of this on Detroit neighborhoods and many older suburbs wasn’t considered. We alerted the Michigan Municipal League of this issue.
Last year, House Bill 4126 was introduced to keep the 25 MPH default. Unfortunately it got “stuck” in the House throughout the summer. We reached out to House Speaker Joe Tate to help get the bill moving — and it did. From the House to the Senate, we worked with committee leaders to keep this bill progressing along. It was signed by the Governor Gretchen Whitmer in late November.
Setting Lower Speed Limits ✅
We’ve worked with State Representative Bradley Slagh for three sessions, but it seems we’ve finally helped push his speed limit bill onto the Governor’s desk.
Speed limits are commonly set based on the 85th fastest motorist when they aren’t using the default speed limits mentioned above. However, if the 85th fastest motorist was at 43 MPH, current law requires the limit to be rounded up to 45 MPH. Rep. Slaugh first introduced a bill to give road agencies the ability to round down to 40 MPH. However, it also unintentionally removed the ability of counties to set speed limits based on an engineering study, so we got involved.
We helped improved the text to clarify that all speed limits can be set based on engineering studies. We also got a resolution of support from city council thanks to Council member Benson.
The bill, House Bill 4012, also got slowed up and Speaker Tate got it moving to the Senate. We gave testimony in Lansing at the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The example we shared was of MDOT/MSP raising the speed limit by 10 MPH on Fort Street in Detroit despite it being between a neighborhood and Kemeny Rec Center/Park. After the change, a young boy was killed walking to the park. That was in Senator Stephanie Chang’s district, but after redistricting, was now in Senator Erika Geiss’, both of whom were on the committee with Geiss as chair.
The bill was unanimously moved to the Senate floor with a recommendation for approval. It’s now on the Governor’s desk.
