Just came from a fantastic event called Soiree on the Greenway – on the Dequindre Cut multi-use path that extends from the Waterfront to Eastern Market and soon beyond. It was a fun swanky celebration on Detroit’s signature piece of bike and pedestrian infrastructure. There was obviously bike parking, a graffiti wall you could contribute to, a great band, drinks, a food truck serving unlimited healthy bites, cool outdoor furniture to hang out in, and of course lots of friends new and old. This type of use of our bike and ped infrastructure is exactly what we need to build awareness and broad support, mix bike culture with a little art with a little fun with a little style with a little food. Snappy Casual as Deirdre would say.
On a completely different topic, yesterday at work I brought up the topic of bike friendliness of my office campus in downtown Detroit. If you subscribe to the law that bikes are not allowed on the sidewalks, there is only one way to get into the office campus – the driveways of the two visitor lots on 1st street. One of the parking lots just had the arms of its security gates replaced. The previous arms were shorter than the driveway by just enough to let a bike pass through at a decent speed. The new arms are the width of the driveway, prohibiting a bike from passing. The sidewalks leading into the parking lot are not ADA so I can’t use them either. Small detail – the length of the gate arms – makes a big difference. I plan on putting together something on the features of bike friendliness of campuses soon. Maybe I will post it here.
In the meantime, please watch this awesome video. One major urban biking problem I have not yet encountered in Detroit, sometimes because there are no parked cars, sometimes because the streets are silly wide. More hilarious videos in the next few days.