Category: Safety & Education

Categories
Greenways Newsletter Safety & Education

News from the Trail – July 2019

New Detroit Bike and Walk Map

It’s finally here!

After many stops and starts, we finally got the funding we needed to complete the map and print 12,500 copies. Half of those have already been distributed at all the Detroit bike shops, runDetroit, the Lexus Velodrome, and Council member Scott Benson’s office at the Matrix Center. The Detroit Planning Department and Health Department also have copies they’ll be distributing at events across the city as will we.

The map shows all the current trails and bike infrastructure in Detroit as well as the Iron Belle Trail. It also include all the repair stations, bike shops, and kayak launches.

A substantial amount of effort went into including all the relevant laws pertaining to bicycling and pedestrians. Frankly, we’re not fans of the existing materials that fail to highlight laws motorists must follow around bicycles and pedestrians. We focus on those since they are the main determinant for improved safety. We also discuss the history of these laws, which were developed by the auto industry in the 1920s with no input from bicyclists.

The PDF of the map is available but it is a bit unwieldy. We’re going to work to get portions of it online in a more readable format.

Thanks to the DALMAC, the Office of Highway Safety Planning, and Michigan Department of Natural Resources for making this project possible.

Big Changes at the Planning Department

Major changes are coming to the leadership of the Detroit Planning and Development Department (PDD). Planning Director Maurice Cox and Deputy Director Janet Attarian are stepping down. Both have had a tremendous impact on moving Detroit forward, but especially with parks, greenways, and biking infrastructure. We’ve really enjoyed working closely with them and learning from them.

We’ve written more about the both of them and what they’ve accomplished while at the city on our website.

Spirit Plaza becomes permanent

On a close 5-4 vote, Detroit City Council approved making Spirit Plaza permanent by converting the public right-of-way to a public park. This change along with the approval of $800K in planned improvements mean we’ll see a much upgraded public space soon.

The vote reflected the split public sentiment. We supported the Plaza since it’s an opportunity for more park space while greatly improving the walking and biking connections between the RiverWalk, Hart Plaza, Monument to Joe Louis, and the Spirit of Detroit. It’s also where we hold our annual Bike to Work Day event.

The Plaza improvements will include an eating area, stage, children’s playscape, and landscaping.

Other Updates

  • Detroit Sustainability Action Agenda launches — The Agenda is available online and it includes many goals that overlap with our work, but especially “Increase access to healthy food, green spaces, and recreation opportunities” and “Make it easier and safer to get around Detroit without a personal vehicle”. We’re proud to have played a role in helping shape this agenda and will continue working with the city to reach these goals.
  • Joseph Campau Greenway under construction — The connecting trail between Larned and E. Jefferson is currently being built with improvements being made to the existing trail to the north. Jos Campau will also get bike lanes between E. Jefferson and the RiverWalk. It will also help connect everything to Atwater Beach, which should be opening later this year.
  • VooDoo Bike Rides comes to Detroit — This national tour comes to Eastern Market this weekend thanks to the Hotspot Rollers bike club. The itinerary is packed thanks to the many rides and events hosted by our local bike clubs. Bring your cool cruiser bike and maybe we’ll see you there!

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

Categories
Greenways Safety & Education

Hot off the presses: a Detroit Bike & Walk map

Long promised, finally here. Detroit has a bike and trail map again.

After many stops and starts, we finally got the funding we needed to complete the map and print 12,500 copies. Half of those have already been distributed at all the Detroit bike shops, runDetroit, the Lexus Velodrome, and Council member Scott Benson’s office at the Matrix Center. The Detroit Planning Department and Health Department also have copies they’ll be distributing at events across the city as will we.

The map shows all the current trails and bike infrastructure in Detroit as well as the Iron Belle Trail. It also include all the repair stations, bike shops, and kayak launches.

A substantial amount of effort went into including all the relevant laws pertaining to bicycling and pedestrians. Frankly, we’re not fans of the existing materials that fail to highlight laws motorists must follow around bicycles and pedestrians. We focus on those since they are the main determinant for improved safety. We also discuss the history of these laws, which were developed by the auto industry in the 1920s with no input from bicyclists.

The PDF of the map is available but it is a bit unwieldy. We’re going to work to get portions of it online in a more readable format.

Thanks to the DALMAC, the Office of Highway Safety Planning, and Michigan Department of Natural Resources for making this project possible.

Categories
Greenways Newsletter Safety & Education

News from the Trail – July 2018

Joe Louis Greenway Fundraiser Ride

Photo by Daniel Mears, The Detroit NewsThanks to everyone who participated and supported our very successful inaugural fundraiser bike ride for the Joe Louis Greenway. We had a great turnout to match the perfect weather. Media coverage before the ride, including this fun Fox 2 Detroit video, helped raise awareness of the future greenway.

Extra thanks to the Oloman Cafe, Wheelhouse Detroit, the Bikes & Murd3r club, and other volunteers — but especially Paul Vial.

Prior to the event, the city of Hamtramck received a $410K SEMCOG grant to construct bike lanes along Joseph Campau — a key part of the Joe Louis Greenway. We also partnered with the city of Highland Park on their $336K grant to build bike lanes on Hamilton Avenue which will help connect with the greenway.

Detroit Public Lighting Improvements Reducing Pedestrian Fatalities

In 2015, Detroit had the highest pedestrian fatality rate among major US cities. While still much too high, the fatality rate has decreased during the past couple years while the rest of Michigan has increased. There were 19 fewer pedestrian fatalities in 2017 compared with 2015. Based on our analysis, this is due to the major improvements in Detroit’s public street lighting.

This shows how investments in infrastructure can have dramatic affects on the health and safety of Detroiters. We expect this trend to continue as additional Complete Streets treatments, such as road diets, bike lanes and other pedestrian infrastructure improvements reduce motor vehicle speeding and pedestrian exposure. Read more at DetroitGreenways.org

Open Streets at Rouge Park

Rouge Park will host its first Open Streets event this Saturday from 1pm to 5pm. This event wills turn three miles of road in Detroit’s Rouge Park into a safe, open and car-free zone for local families and community members to run, bike, skate, shop and play together along Spinoza, Outer, and Rouge Park Drives. We’ll be there along with the University of Detroit Mercy Capstone project team focusing on the planned Rouge River Greenway. More information is available in this Event Flyer and Event Map.

Amazon Smile donates to Detroit Greenways Coalition

When shopping through Amazon Smile program, a percentage of your purchase goes towards the Coalition. It’s an easy way to give and it doesn’t cost you anything extra.

Categories
Complete Streets Safety & Education

Detroit Public Lighting Improvements Reducing Pedestrian Fatalities

  • 48 fatalities in dark, unlighted conditions from 2013-2014; only 2 from 2016-2017

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Traffic Safety Facts report shows Detroit’s 2015 pedestrian fatality rate of 6.79 deaths per 100,000 residents was the highest among U.S. cities with populations over a half million.  This far outpaced the other cities and was quadruple Chicago’s rate.

Nationally, pedestrian fatality rates have “skyrocketed” according to a recent Detroit Free Press article. While they’ve increased 46% since 2009, Detroit’s pedestrian fatality rate has been in decline since 2016. By 2017, the city’s pedestrian fatality rate had dropped nearly 40% to 4.16 deaths per 100,000. We examined the police report data to determine why.

From 2008 to 2010, there were 4.5 fatalities annually in dark, unlighted conditions. By 2013 and 2014, that annual average had jumped to 24.

According to the Detroit Public Lighting Authority’s 2014 report, “Detroit’s street lighting system was broken. Street lights haven’t been maintained for decades and roughly 40% of the existing street lights were not working.” The Authority began rebuilding the system in February 2014, and by December of 2016, had completed the installation of 65,000 new LED lights.

As these street lights were installed, pedestrian fatalities in dark, unlighted areas dropped drastically from 24 in 2014 to just 1 in 2017.  As expected, the data shows an increase in fatalities in dark, lighted areas during this time, however there was still an overall decrease.

We did not see similar decreases in nearby cities such as Hamtramck or Highland Park.

In fact, Detroit’s significant drop in pedestrian deaths is helping mask a dramatic pedestrian fatality increase occurring statewide. According to the Michigan Traffic Crash Facts web site, since 2009 pedestrian fatalities:

  • Within Detroit have decreased by 16%
  • Outside of Detroit have increased by 47%

Based on our analysis, the public lighting improvements appear to be the primary factor behind Detroit’s dropping fatality rate. Certainly no pedestrian fatalities or serious injury crashes are acceptable, but city’s safety data is improving. We expect this trend to continue as additional Complete Streets treatments, such as road diets, bike lanes and other pedestrian infrastructure improvements reduce motor vehicle speeding and pedestrian exposure leading to a safer, healthier, and more walkable city.

PDF of safety data and chart

Categories
Complete Streets Safety & Education

Whose safety? The race of Detroit bicycle & pedestrian fatalities

Studies show that building Complete Streets designed for safer bicyclist and pedestrian travel saves lives. Complete Streets even reduce crashes for motorists by reducing bad behavior.

Studies show that adding on-road bike lanes can cut bicycle-vehicle collisions in half. Bike lanes, bump outs, and medians also reduce pedestrian collisions by effectively shortening the crosswalks.

Complete Streets are invaluable in Detroit given the large number of people dying on our roads each year.

In 2015, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found Detroit has 6.79 pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 residents — the most of any major U.S. city. That 58% higher than second place Dallas with 4.31. Absolutely unacceptable.

They also reported Detroit’s bicycle fatality rate at 1.48 per 100,000 residents, which is for 26th among the 34 largest U.S. cities. Since bicycle fatalities fluctuate more year to year, we’re not sure how valuable this ranking is.

NHTSA also keeps all road fatalities in their Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) that includes race. We thought it would be interesting to see how bicycle and pedestrian fatalities aligned with Detroit’s overall demographics.

As it turns out, they align very closely.

All Residents (100)Fatalities
Black83%84%
White8%8%
Latino7%5%

Looking at just bicyclists, there were 20 fatalities in Detroit between 2010 and 2016. Among them, 17 were Black (89%), 1 was Mexican, 1 was White/Non-Hispanic, and 1 was unknown.

The average age among these fatalities? 46 years old. 73% are men though that is trending downward.

Some have said we’re building Complete Streets and bike lanes for the new Detroit — a more white, more young. That’s not the case. We’re building them for all, but especially to decrease road fatalities.

The data shows we have a great opportunity to do that.

Categories
Complete Streets In the Media Safety & Education

Why the Cass Avenue bike lanes?

Mini-Festivus poles separate the bike lane

WDET held its annual Festivus Airing of Grievances show and perhaps surprisingly the Cass Avenue bike lanes rose to the top.

Show panelist Candice Fortman said, “The problem is that they put these bike lanes in, so now you’ve got the bike lanes and you’ve got the parking in the middle of the street, and then you’ve got one lane of traffic, and buses and cars and snow, and it’s too much.” Panelist Matt Marsden said he doesn’t see people on it but flashed his behind-the-windshield bias by saying he wasn’t a biker, “I’m a commuter” apparently unaware that bicyclists commute, too.

These grievances are not news to us, but think many are missing the larger picture.

We did appreciate the WDET commenter “Jennifer” who correctly noted that Cass Avenue got bike lanes in exchange for MDOT making Woodward much less safe for biking.

MDOT knowingly made Woodward significantly less safe for bicyclists by allowing the streetcar to operate at the curbs. Since the rails have been installed, we know of bicyclists breaking collar bones, hips, and loosing front teeth due to crashes. Though not a bicyclist, in August 2016 a Detroit senior crashed his moped and later died due to the rails according to the Detroit Police Department report. And because everyone knew these types of events would occur ahead of time, the Federal Transit Authority required an improved parallel route for bicyclists. That’s Cass Avenue.

Any discussion about the discomfort motorists have with the new Cass should be weighed against the sacrifices bicyclists made (and continue to make) on Woodward. While every road user group has made compromises with the redesign of Cass and Woodward, bicyclists crashes and injuries from the streetcar rails are atop the list.

But let’s also address the other Cass bike lane grievances.

There’s no one using them

Clearly that’s untrue. Back in September 2015 we took bicycle counts on Cass and recorded 300 in 24 hours on a Wednesday. There were probably another 100 we missed that rode on the sidewalk. That’s comparable to the bike counts we see on the Dequindre Cut at Gratiot.

With the new Cass Avenue bike lanes, we expect this counts to be much higher. Automated bike counters are being installed along Cass and we should have real data this summer.

A lane was taken away for motorists

Some segments of Cass south of I-75 did lose a lane but traffic counts showed they were not necessary to handle the traffic volumes. Most of Cass was and still is a two-lane road. The lanes used to be wider and people would drive in the parking lanes. That option has been removed. The expected result is more motorists will drive the speed limit and there will be fewer sideswipes from cars passing other cars on the right. Lower speeds bring a significantly safer environment for all modes, but especially pedestrians and bicyclists. Lower travel speeds have also been shown to improve sales for local businesses along the streets, too.

Pedestrians also benefit from these narrower lanes as there is now a much shorter crossing distance.

Motorists now open their doors into traffic

This is not new. However, before motorists could swing open their doors without looking and not get hit by another car due to the over-sized vehicle lanes. The newer narrower lanes make it more important to look before opening ones door into traffic. Opening a door into oncoming cars and bicyclists is illegal. We recommend learning the Dutch Reach.

Ideally there would have been more room for parking so people would be more comfortable exiting their cars, but there wasn’t enough room. This was one compromise among many.

There’s no education on bike lanes

This is an underlying problem in Michigan. There isn’t a mechanism for informing drivers about new road designs. There’s no longer testing for driver’s license renewals. MDOT has bike lane brochure for motorists, but it’s not been widely printed or distributed. The Detroit Greenways Coalition, City of Detroit, Jefferson East Inc., MoGo Bike Share, SEMCOG and others are working to develop and share information. While there is funding at the state level for education on these laws, we’re finding it very difficult to use effectively.

Change is hard but especially when there is not a good existing process for education. As we often tell people, bike lanes are the new roundabouts. Everyone will eventually figure this out. We’ll all work together to try make that happen sooner than later.

Photo by L. Demchak

Grievances from Bicyclists

We’ve also heard complaints from bicyclists, mostly about the maintenance of the new lanes with respect to debris and snow. The Detroit Department of Public Works is responsible for their maintenance and have told us the recent snow storm has been a major learning lesson for their staff. Certainly there is a learning curve to maintaining this new style of bike lane and Detroit will eventually get past this as other cities have.

Motorists are parking and sometimes driving in bike lanes. From what we’ve seen, there’s not been much enforcement. There has been a grace period to allow time for motorists to learn how to drive and park legally, but that won’t last forever.

Lastly, we’ve heard from fast cyclists saying they don’t feel safe in the protected bike lanes — and that’s totally understandable. The new lanes are designed for slower, less confident bicyclists. MoGo riders, too. Under Michigan law, bicyclists can ride in the vehicle travel lanes and are not required to use the bike lanes. As far as we know there are no plans to change the traditional bike lanes on parallel routes along Second and Third Avenue.

If there are design deficiencies at specific locations along the route (e.g. bad sight lines), the city has shown interest in tweaking the design to make it better.

And it will get better. It’s part of our mission to make certain.

UPDATE: We were reminded by Alice on Twitter that left turns at many intersections are now more challenging for bicyclists using the bike lanes. It’s more difficult to get to the vehicle lane and make the left. This is certainly a trade off of having protected bike lanes. At some intersections, a two-stage turn can help especially those with green bike boxes.