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News from the Trail – October 2020

Bike the Vote

Come join us for a group bike ride on Sunday afternoon, October 25th to encourage greater voter participation. We’d love to have a healthy turnout to show that bicyclists are engaged in this year’s election. The weather doesn’t look too bad for late October, either. Masks and social distancing are required!

In addition to supporting this ride, MoGo has a “Roll to the Polls” program that gives riders a free one hour ride to access their polling location or drop off their absentee ballots.  Lisa Nuszkowski, founder and executive director of MoGo says, “Transportation should never be a barrier to voting, and MoGo is proud to join with others in the shared mobility industry to offer free rides on Election Day.”

We continue to endorse Proposal 1 along with more than 30 conservation and environmental groups, including the Michigan Environmental Council, the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance, and the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy. The proposal does not change the Trust Fund’s priorities of acquiring and preserving land, which is one reason it’s supported by twelve of the largest land conservancies in Michigan. It also is supported by all of Michigan’s living governors.


Pedestrian Safety Month

We strongly believe that building Complete Streets is the most effective approach for reducing pedestrian (and bicyclist) fatalities. We’ve seen it first hand with improvements to Detroit’s public lighting. Reducing speeding motorists is also a critical issue that can be addressed through Complete Streets, whether it’s more speed humps, lower speed limits, and even bike lanes. 

While the City of Detroit is making new, major investments in speed humps, the speed limit issue is moving more slowly in the state capitol. We discuss these issues and more in our new article, Every Month is Pedestrian Safety Month.


Streets for People

The City of Detroit just launched their Streets for People planning campaign. From the project web page:

The City of Detroit is developing Streets for People, a transportation plan with a singular focus — to make it easier and safer for all Detroiters to move around the city. The plan seeks to knit together diverse neighborhoods, prioritize safety of the most vulnerable road users, and identify clear implementation and design strategies for roadways improvement. Most importantly, it will be rooted in an inclusive planning process that gives a voice to the City’s residents who are most implicated by the transportation system. The plan will be completed over the next two years by the Department of Public Works in partnership with MDOT, SEMCOG, city departments, and partner agencies.

The web page also let’s you sign up for updates and provide some initial thoughts. The plan will be completed in 12 months according to the city’s press release.

Streets for People also has this great introductory video which really frames the pedestrian and bicyclist safety issue to be solved.


Joe Louis Greenway

A second Joe Louis Greenway Design public meeting will be held on October 29th from 6pm to 8pm via Zoom. There is more information about this meeting and how to join it on the city’s Joe Louis Greenway webpage.

If you missed the first public meeting, the presentation is now online and well worth looking over. 

Phase 1 construction continues moving forward. City Council has been asked to approve an MDOT grant request to build a portion of the greenway near Grand River Avenue and Oakman Boulevard. The city has also sold bonds to help with construction as well. They are “aiming to finish Phase I in Fiscal Year 2022.” 


Other Updates

  • Detroit is also updating its Parks and Recreation Plan. They are collecting some initial public input with this online survey. There’s also this interesting article on how COVID could affect this planning. 
  • We’ve been weighing on a number of developments around the city, including the project at the former state fairgrounds involving Amazon. Currently, biking and walking about this area is far from ideal. We submitted comments on how to improve these connections within the development area and with the surrounding neighborhoods, including Ferndale. We also requested bike parking and, if possible, MoGo stations. Our comments seemed to have been addressed by the city and developer.
  • We’ve also been involved in a new proposed warehouse near Conner and Gratiot at the former Cadillac Stamping Plant. Our primary concern was the project’s plan to allow truck traffic to cross the Conner Creek Greenway/Iron Belle Trail at Conner Playfield. It wouldn’t be safe and we expected the trucks would block the greenway as they waited to turn onto Conner. Council member Scott Benson worked with the city and developer to find an alternative truck route that doesn’t cross the greenway.
  • Last month we raised concerns about the city removing unprotected bike lanes during repaving projects, namely the bike lanes on E. Grand Boulevard. DPW followed up and said this was not a city policy. There are proposed plans for adding protected bike lanes on W. Grand Boulevard from Cass to Rosa Parks. We’ll be encouraging the city to continue this design east to replace what was removed.
  • Council President Brenda Jones’ Community Engagement Ordinance passed. It requires many city projects that impact the neighborhoods to have community outreach.The installation of bike lanes was one type of project named in the ordinance. After the E. Grand bike lanes were removed, we proposed that the installation or removal of bike lanes should require community outreach. Council member Benson motioned to add this language to the ordinance and it passed unanamously.
  • The Michigan State Historic Preservation Office launched an online bike tour of Detroit civil rights sites. We were part of the team that helped determine the 17-mile route between the sites. 
  • Lastly, Free Bikes 4 Kids really needs volunteers to help clean and refurbish used kids bicycles to giveaway this year. Please signup for a shift or two and help them get these bikes ready.

Additional Reading

Categories
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.


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