The Motor-free City?

[lilpup]

Designated motor free streets? How about it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/opinion/05barlow.html

[Gsgeorge]

Glad to see this article in the NYT. The author is correct, but he misses one thing -- forget about Detroit "could be" the next bicycle destination, it already IS. I ride everywhere and so do my friends. We all agree Detroit is the best bicycling city around. The only thing is, if this place becomes as popular as everyone hopes or thinks it will, the streets won't be empty anymore. We'll be fighting for space with other bikers, motorists, and streetcars.... Sounds cool if you ask me. Just wear a helmet!

[Gsgeorge]

PS- here is a great bicycling story that proves not only Detroit's desirability to foreigners and visitors but also how great it is for biking. Back in February, an urban planner/architect from Rotterdam e-mailed me about wanting to visit the CoD with some of her colleagues. She found me through my photography of Detroit. They were already coming to Chicago and some other Midwestern towns to study the "post-industrial city" and our American architecture. I offered to give them a little tour of the city, and since they were from Rotterdam it seemed only appropriate to do it all on bicycles! We rented about 20 bikes from the Wheelhouse and I took them all around the city. Needless to say they were absolutely blown away. We started on the Riverwalk, cut through Hart Plaza, stopped in front of the Guardian Building where the doorman unexpectedly gave us a private tour [[saw the bank vaults & the 44th floor!), pointed out the Deco architecture downtown, saw the Michigan Theater garage, visited an urban farm in the Corridor where the owner gave us some eggs & onions, historic Canfield, New Center, Milwaukee Junction, Woodbridge, Corkwtown, Eastern Mkt, Lafayette Park [[where the community's 'official historian' happened to be walking by, and showed us his apartment, still with the original Mies furniture and formerly owned by Dr. Charles Wright), Heidelberg Project, Farnsworth St., Packard Plant, and finally capped it off with a little semi-risky tour of the interior of Michigan Central Station. We stopped to eat at Motor City Brewing and Slow's. When one of the bike seats broke, we just happened to be around the corner from the Hub and got it fixed right away. Well, their jaws were on the floor the whole time. One person told me he found Detroit more exciting and interesting than India! And many of them said it was the best stop on the trip -- this is after seeing Chicago, Milwaukee, and other big Midwestern cities! If you don't believe me, check out Yana's own words about the tour on her Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lentexx/3528515673/

Just proves that people love visiting here if they know what to do and what to see, and will have an even better time if they are on bikes where they can interact and see things 'up close'.

[cycledetroit]

Yesterday we had a group of 21 cyclists who are riding from NY to LA stop in Detroit for the night. They had a great time, and told me that Detroit was so far the best stop on the tour. We went to Cityfest, convinced Larry to open Dmongos just for us, and stayed at the Greektown Hotel. It was such a great time. Everyone of them that I talked to said they were "nervous" about riding into Detroit, but after seeing the City they all had great things to say about Detroit! We had cyclists in the group from Tokyo, Paris, all all over the US. I am so happy today knowing they left this morning with a positive experience of our city.

[Tig3rzhark]

Last week, I rode my bike to and from work.

In order to make it there on time I would have to leave at least 2 hours early before I'm suppose to be there.

Getting there has never been a problem. I make sure to ride on the right side of the street when I do get my share of high traffic in the area.

Getting home sometimes is a different story. Even with my front and back light on my bike, some cars would intentionally steer close enough to try to scare me to death [[this occurred on the night of July 3 on Joy Rd), but I shake it off and keep going.

State law says I have every right to ride on the far right side of the street as long as I'm adhering to the rules of the road. Both the curb and the sidewalk are dangerous depending on what street you're on. I have to deal with making sure that I don't run over any glass or anything to flatten my tire. So far I've been lucky.

The city has starting putting bike lanes on Belle Isle and Downtown. Now if only that could be done for the rest of the city. The bike racks on ALL DDOT buses would help very much.

The high insurance here in Detroit, the gas prices is more than enough of an incentive to start biking.

[Russix]

Designated motor free streets? How about it?

Nope, I prefer motorized streets over pedestrianized streets for cycling. Cyclists need to behave more like their 4-wheeled offspring and this special-needs view discourages standardized traffic behavior. I still see lots of people biking on the wrong side of the street without helmets or lights which means we need to focus more on general public bicycle safety awareness over developing small zones to let them run amuck.

[Jimaz]

City of Detroit: America's best urban biking?

[3rdDegreeBurns]

Not really the same thing, but I'd start by closing Russell Street from the parking lot South of Shed 2 to Wilkins on market days 6AM to 4PM. Should make for a more pleasant atmosphere with more space for vendors/wholesalers, street performers, etc...

Rivard and Ripolle should provide plenty of access to the market for cars. The Fire Dept. already pulls a couple of trucks down to Gratiot on Saturdays because they know there is no chance to get through on Russell quickly.

[mwilbert]

The riding in Detroit is pretty good. I would like to see better bike parking facilities though.

[Tig3rzhark]

The riding in Detroit is pretty good. I would like to see better bike parking facilities though.

Agreed. It would be a lot easier for those bike parking facilities to be located near transfer points for DDOT and SMART. Putting them downtown and at the Rosa Parks Transit Center is a start, but it isn't enough.

This city is going to have to be more accommodating to bikes.

[Hypestyles]

hopefully there will be many more bike paths/greenways to come..