When considering the best places in that nation for bicycling, the Metro Detroit area doesn't exactly spring to mind for most bike advocates. But that, it turns out, might be one of biggest point in our favor for becoming one.
"There are communities like Ann Arbor and Boulder that have a pretty good network in place already. But there is not a city in the U.S. that is better than pretty good for biking," says Boulder, CO-based advocacy group
People for Bikes's Vice President of Local Innovation Martha Roskowski. "Sometimes it's communities that don't already have that base of a good network in place who are doing the most innovative and creative work."
In the cycling world today, innovative and creative means protected bike lanes, that is, any cycling track separated from vehicle traffic by a physical barrier, which can take the form of lightweight plastic bollards, cement planters, heavy duty highway barriers or even parked cars. While routes through quiet streets and trails are certainly part of a healthy biking network in a community, Roskowski says for busy streets, there's no better alternative to protected bike lanes.
"For the last 50 years, our one size fits all tool for busy streets has been a bike lane - put down a bike stencil and a painted line and call it good," she says. "Then we sit back and say, it looks like nobody wants to ride bikes because nobody is using those."
Roskowski deems that experiment over. She and People for Bikes have been working with communities to get protected bike lanes installed locally through the
Green Lanes Project. Today, these lanes can be found on Linden Ave. in Seattle, Dearborn St. in Chicago, Guadalupe St. in Austin, among other cities. And according to a recent Portland University study, this experiment is going much better than the last: Ridership increased by bike traffic by an average of 72% among women in the first six cities to participate in the
Green Lanes Project.
"Every single community needs protected bike lanes if they're serious about creating a bike network where people from eight years old to 80 years old can ride confidently," says Roskowski.
The benefits of barriers in metro Detroit
While protected bike lanes have been common in Europe for decades, the concept is still unfamiliar in most American cities. Would they make sense here in metro Detroit? According to Bike Detroit founder Jim Meyers, they most certainly would.
"It's not only smart, but imperative," says Meyers. "My wife and I have ridden all over the world on bikes. What stuck with us most were [the protected bike lanes] in and around Amsterdam. It's wonderful because you don't have to worry about what you have to worry about in Detroit."
The numbers agree. Not only did the Portland University study find that protected bike lanes increased ridership, it also found that 96% of bikers felt safer on the lanes - and they were. In 168 hours of video containing more than 16,000 bikers and nearly 20,000 turning and merging vehicles, no collisions or near collisions were observed.
"If you're looking for the bedroom community model, it would definitely appeal to their sensibilities," Meyers says. "Families love to ride their bikes together. It's fun."
It's just not always safe. While biking may not be solution for commuters in and out of the suburbs, putting protected bike lanes between points of interest within each city could make each community more bike friendly for trips to the library, out for ice cream or to visit friends.
"This mess of suburban sprawl we have across the country is the next frontier. Biking is a really viable transportation option for short trips," says Roskowski. "Getting people to their neighborhood centers safety, comfortably on bikes probably includes both protected bike lanes on busy streets and routes through quiet, neighborhood streets."
And it's not just the bikers who benefit. Seventy-six percent of those living near protected bike lanes supported them, whether they used them or not, and with decreased riding on sidewalks, pedestrians are happier. Motorists said they made traffic more predictable.
"Most of what motorists don't like about bikers is based on fear," Roskowski says. "They don't know where they're going, they don't know if they're going to stop or not, and they're afraid they're going to hit them."
What protected lanes could look like here
Where would protected bike lanes work best in the Metro Detroit area? Roskowski suggests looking toward city centers, and Meyers says many of the multi-lane arteries that bisect those downtowns would be ideal.
"In many places along the spokes, Michigan Ave, Grand River, Gratiot and even Telegraph, you don't need four lanes," he says. "In Ferndale, I would ditch a lane completely."
How the protective barriers could take shape in those locations could vary greatly. People for Bikes has assembled an
infographic of 14 ways to implement protected bike lanes which range in scope from $10,000 to $8,000,000 per mile. While many cities begin with the lower cost options, says Roskowski, as they experience the success of the lanes - and the maintenance required for easy-to-destroy plastic bollards, for example - they're moving toward more permanent solutions such as concrete curbs, planters or rigid bollards.
"Our advice is for cities to find that sweet spot for a solution that is really going to make a difference, but won't be political suicide," she says. "But if a project is important enough, there is going to be pushback."
That's something Meyers predicts could be a big challenge in an area so in love with its cars.
"We're kind of mesmerized here in Detroit by a few things: the automobile agenda and the civil defense agenda," he says. "It's the bike-versus-car mentality. How do you get people out of their addiction to cars
That's where leadership becomes among the most important facets of making protected bike lanes possible. Vocal support from both elected officials and community leaders have been key assets in the Green Lane Project cities.
"The difference between a community who moves on it and those who don't is leadership," Roskowski says. "It takes someone on high having the courage to say, 'Yes, we need this for our community."
Meyers is optimistic that we're moving in the right direction. With cycling gaining popularity among young adults, and the forward movement of M1-Rail, perhaps multi-modal transportation does have a future in the Metro Detroit area. The more convenient and safer those modes become, the more appeal they'll have to people of all ages - and protected bike lanes are one way to move in that direction.
Here's a list of the top ten U.S. cities for protected bike lanes.
Natalie Burg is a freelance writer, development news editor for Concentrate and IMG project editor.
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