Tag: e-bikes

Categories
Complete Streets Safety & Education

Green Task Force Report

The Detroit Green Task Force gave its annual report to City Council on October 27, 2026. We presented the following as co-chair of the Transportation and Mobility committee:

Our committee covers a wide range of transportation topics, including the Gordie Howe International Bridge and the Joe Louis Greenway.

Road safety remains a major focus. Detroit continues to see over a hundred traffic fatalities annually. Last year, more than a third of those were pedestrians.

We’re still recovering from a spike in fatalities during COVID which is largely due to increased speeding. 

Getting motorists to travel at safe speeds would significantly reduce these numbers by giving motorists more time to safely react to and avoid conflicts. And if a crash does occur,  slower speeds reduce injury severity, especially for pedestrians and bicyclists. 

One of the most effective ways to reduce speeding is through good infrastructure design, such as Complete Streets. These are streets designed for the safety of all users of all abilities. 

The city of Detroit is doing great work in Complete Streets and we want this to continue. Administrations change and priorities can change with them. For that reason, we are asking for a Complete Streets ordinance that codifies the city’s existing work and gives council a role in making streets safer within their district. 

Complete Street designs don’t always require major investment like the new Greektown Streetscape. Sometimes they can be as simple as building a midblock crossing between a church and its parking lot. [next slide]

Another hot safety topic is e-bikes. They’ve become very popular in Detroit. On some group rides, up to half of the bikes are now e-bikes, which allows more people to join in and keep up. It also helps Detroiters to travel longer distances and they don’t require expensive car insurance or gasoline.

However, retailers are selling devices that do not qualify as e-bikes. They have more power and more speed than what is legal under Michigan law, yet they are being marketed as e-bikes. Even Amazon is doing this.

California’s Attorney General successfully petitioned Amazon to stop these sales. New York is doing this for all retailers.  We should do the same.  If it’s not legal to use in Michigan, it shouldn’t be sold in Michigan.

The full Green Task Force presentation and Council discussion is available on our YouTube channel.

Categories
Climate Action Policy

Windsor e-bike Restrictions

Thanks to Share the Road Essex County, we recently learned that e-bikes are not allowed on pathways in Windsor, Ontario. While they are allowed on the road and in bike lanes (as in Michigan), city bylaws prohibit them from paved paths and park trails.

This could affect e-bike use on the Gordie Howe International Bridge’s multi-use pathway — or at least on the pathways connecting to the bridge plaza.

Interestingly enough, e-scooters are not restricted from paths, whereas e-cargo bikes are not allowed on any road, bike lane, or path.

We reached out to City of Windsor officials and shared our concerns about how this differs from the rules on our side of the border. We passed along resources on our regulations, recommendations (e.g. MTGA e-bike Toolkit) and experiences with these devices on our trails.

They have been having some discussions about potential changes at both the municipal and provincial levels.

The City may take the following short-term actions…

Traffic By-law Updates: To address emerging safety and regulatory challenges posed by micromobility devices, the City could consider targeted by-law updates to ensure it accurately reflects which micromobility devices are permitted and prohibited, including specific provisions for regulating e-bikes on multi-use paths, where they are currently prohibited.

It’s good to see Windsor considering the positive impacts of these powered devices.

Increasing the safe and lawful use of micromobility modes of transportation, such as ebikes and e-scooters can help the city reduce its community greenhouse gas emissions by replacing short car trips with low carbon alternatives.

We will track this and report back on their updates. There are undoubtably a good number of Detroit e-bike users wanting to explore the pathways in Windsor, including the one on the bridge.

Categories
Greenways Newsletter Policy Safety & Education

News from the Trail – July 2023

Available online

Categories
Complete Streets Greenways Newsletter Policy

News from the Trail – February 2023

Closed Spruce Street pedestrian bridge over the Lodge

Read all the latest updates in our online newsletter.

Categories
Friends of the Joe Louis Greenway Greenways Newsletter Policy

News from the Trail – May 2022

Link to our May 2022 newsletter

Categories
Greenways

A Detroit Bicycle Superhighway Network?

Perhaps you read recently that the Mayor of London’s bicycle infrastructure plan was recently approved. This plan includes 12 Cycle Superhighways, which are described in this video from Transport for London.

Detroit could certainly benefit from Cycle Superhighways. The most obvious routes would be on the major spoke roads: E. Jefferson, Gratiot, Woodward, Grand River, Michigan, and W. Fort. The Inner Circle Greenway could serve as a good spoke road connector as well. Although shorter in length, the Dequindre Cut as well as the planned rail-trail from the Michigan Central Station to the RiverWalk could also have a role as connectors.

It seems the key Superhighway design features include:

  • Having good length and connectivity. They have to get you places in a direct manner.
  • Being built so that a wide range of people feel safe bicycling on them. These may require segregated bike lanes.
  • Offering fewer required stops for stop signs and traffic lights. They might even incorporate Green Waves.

Also, new e-bike technology makes longer distance bicycle trips more realistic for more people. There’s more speed and less sweat. During rush hour, e-bike trips between Downtown Detroit and the first-ring suburbs might be the fastest option.

Detroit’s non-motorized master plan is a bit outdated and does not include Cycle Superhighways. Until it does get updated, we’re trying to interject this Superhighway concept into the more immediate plans for E. Jefferson, the Woodward corridor, and the Inner Circle Greenway.

Of course it’s good to plan ahead, and with Detroit’s rapidly progressing bicycle culture, these Superhighways seem not only attainable, but necessary.

[Thanks to Tim Springer for being an early promoter of this concept during visits to Detroit.]