Tag: bike parking

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The Need for Bike Parking

Bike parking in Greektown

Below is the expert testimony we gave before Detroit City Council’s Budget, Finance and Audit committee on September 23rd, 2026:

There is a need for more bike parking in Detroit. Unfortunately we don’t have quantifiable numbers, but I hear about it often from bicyclists. It’s also common to see bikes locked to trees or signs. 

Some of the biggest need is in our downtown area where local businesses don’t have options for installing bike racks on their property. However, it’s very challenging for them to install racks in the public right-of-way. So why is that? 

Detroit has a one size fits all approach to permitting public right-of-way encroachments. The permit requirements for a pedestrian bridge over a road aren’t much different than for a $200 bike rack on the sidewalk. The combined permit labor and fees for a bike rack is around $2,000.

We have been working with DPW to explore how other cities handle this permitting and how we can make it more affordable for local businesses. We expect to bring to Council a solution to this issue in the near future.

That said, the city doesn’t require those permits and can install bike racks just as they install anything else in the public right-of-way. 

That’s why we’re supportive of this bike parking budget item. It can help pilot a bike rack installation program, something many other cities have successfully operated for years.

We also helped the city get an additional $5,000 worth of bike racks donated from a local manufacturer. That will help as well.

The timing for this is critical given the recent opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge’s multiuse pathway. Local businesses are seeing a big influx of cycling tourism which is creating even more demand for bike parking. 

It’s not just Canadian bicyclists, but from the bicyclists across the region, the state, and the country that are traveling here to ride the bridge and visit Detroit. 

CBC Canada published a recent article about this tourism. One business in Windsor’s Sandwich neighborhood said they “can hardly keep up” because of the increased foot traffic in the community. American bike groups coming over are a huge part of their clientele. 

Another business said sales have gone up dramatically and that this is the beginning of economic revitalization for Sandwich.

We need to make sure Detroit’s local businesses feel this revitalization as well, and having more bike parking is a very good next step.

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Friends of the Joe Louis Greenway Greenways Newsletter Policy

News from the Trail – May 2022

Link to our May 2022 newsletter

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Greenways

New Detroit Hockey Arena Development

Bike improvement opportunities around Detroit hockey arena district
The blue lines represent potential bike route improvements

Detroit City Council will vote on a couple critical rezoning requests this morning for the newly planned hockey arena district (aka Catalyst Development.) One concern raised by Council as well as the Detroit Greenways Coalition is how this development will affect the new bike lanes being built on Cass Avenue this year.

Olympia Development, the organization planning the new arena, was asked by Council member (and Coalition board member) Scott Benson to meet with us to coordinate efforts. We did that.

One shared goal is connectivity. For the Coalition, that’s from a walking and biking perspective. The district area is not very walkable today, not due to the sidewalk conditions so much as the land use. Vacant fields don’t make for good walkability and the new district development will undoubtedly change that. It was great that they were already familiar with Complete Streets.

For biking, our first concern is preserving the Cass Avenue bike lanes being constructed this summer from the RiverWalk to W. Grand Boulevard. Here are our official comments from a letter we wrote to Olympia Development and shared with City Council and others:

A major bicycling connector is Cass Avenue. The bike lanes to be installed this year are a critical north-south route from the Detroit River to New Center. MDOT and the FTA have identified and invested in this route as an alternative to bicycling on Woodward due to the safety issues related to M1 Rail. . We are also actively working to extend them to the Detroit Zoo.

Closing or taking vehicle travel lanes on Cass during events has little affect on bicyclists so long as the bike lanes remain open and safe. We believe the ingress/egress concerns at the parking garages can be addressed through good design and traffic control personnel. Colored pavement can highlight any potential vehicle/bike conflict areas. Designs should make the motorist feel they are crossing a bike lane rather than make a bicyclist feel they are crossing a driveway. This can encourage proper right-of-way yielding.

When Cass Avenue is redesigned, we propose changing the buffered bike lanes to protected bike lanes. This is a low-cost upgrade that studies show increase bicycle ridership.

We also discussed adding protected bike lanes on Grand River Avenue from Downtown to W. Grand Boulevard. This would also involve improving the unsafe and inadequate intersections at Trumbull/MLK and at Temple.

With regards to the arena itself, we did note our appreciation for their planned bike parking at each of the main entrances. The location and number of racks looks great.

It’s still early to say what the final outcome will be, but Olympia Development wants to maintain a regular dialog with us. We’re looking forward to that and ensuring that Detroit is a better place for walking, biking — and playing hockey.

Historic note: James Norris had been a member of the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association whose logo was a winged bicycle wheel owing to its cycling heritage. (They also played hockey and won the first ever Stanley Cup.) When Norris established the Detroit Red Wings, he borrowed the logo design and changed the bike wheel to a car wheel.