Expanding on the Michigan Avenue Bike Path

"The City of Detroit, in partnership with the Southwest Detroit Business Association, will construct approximately 16.2 miles of bicycle path connecting the Corktown and Mexicantown neighborhoods to and along the West Vernor business district in the southwest area of Detroit. The route consists of a combination of signed route and on-road bicycle lanes. The project budget is $671,240, with $536,992 in federal TE funds and $134,248 in match from the Southwest Detroit Business Association through a grant from the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan Greenways Initiative. "

http://smcg.informz.net/admin31/cont...25552&ptid=880

I love the idea, but that's some awful expensive bike lanes...I wonder if there is some actual repaving or other streetscaping work in there too? Would love to see W. Vernor have streetlights that arent rusted through and/or falling down.

16.2 Miles will require quite a bit of signage and pavement markings. Think of it more like $41,000 a mile and it does not sound as steep. I am not sure what the whole project will entail unfortunately. Paving costs a lot more than $41k a mile.

I found a map: http://www.southwestdetroit.com/reso...1025150020.pdf

Thanks for the map! That gives me a much better idea of what's going on.

As far as cost goes, there is nothing in the world of transportation that is much cheaper than "moving paint", and signs are also fairly low-cost. It can make a big difference in the karma of a community, as we'll all see. Excellent project!

Somebody who works for the City should get in touch with me about how this fits into the US Bike Route system, which I think it does.

The US Bike Route 36 corridor runs along the path of US 12.

http://www.adventurecycling.org/rout...orridorMap.pdf

One thing that needs to be resolved is how to connect the route to Windsor.

http://www.adventurecycling.org/rout...ewaysystem.cfm

Lets have an international bakesale to buy bike racks for TW busses!

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Originally Posted by skyl4rk

The US Bike Route 36 corridor runs along the path of US 12.

http://www.adventurecycling.org/rout...orridorMap.pdf

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The US Bike Route corridors are not specific to any route, but rather are just defined as 50 mile wide bands connecting destinations. It is up to each state to implement the routes along the various corridors.

In Michigan, there is a specific route proposed for US Bike Route 20 which runs east-west across the middle of the LP, and there is a specific route being drafted for US Bike Route 35 which runs north-south along the [[roughly) Lake Michigan shoreline. Nobody has yet started route development on any of the other four US Bike Route corridors in Michigan, although there have been some discussions.

If anyone has a specific route in mind for USBR 36, 30 or 25, which are the three which by design could be in or near Detroit, let me know. I'm happy to collect input and I am deeply involved in this project.

Your Professor

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Originally Posted by Funaho

I love the idea, but that's some awful expensive bike lanes...I wonder if there is some actual repaving or other streetscaping work in there too? Would love to see W. Vernor have streetlights that arent rusted through and/or falling down.

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Actually it's pretty low. It will probably be very baseline installments such as signage, paint, and pothole repair. But bonus points if they provide raised or green pavement at intersections. Though I can't think of anywhere in Michigan where these standards have yet been applied.

San Antonio Department of Public Works has a cost estimator on their web site. They estimate that the cost of a bike lane is $43,750 per mile. That's in the same ballpark as the Michigan Ave project.

http://www.sanantonio.gov/publicwork...alculator2.asp