Active Transportation

This news story popped up today:

New research illustrates the health benefits of regular biking, walking or taking public transportation to work, school or shopping. Researchers found a link between "active transportation" and less obesity in 17 industrialized countries across Europe, North America and Australia. "Countries with the highest levels of active transportation generally had the lowest obesity rates," authors David Bassett of the University of Tennessee and John Pucher of Rutgers University conclude. Americans, with the highest rate of obesity, were the least likely to walk, cycle or take mass transit, according to the study in a recent issue of the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. The study relied on each country's own travel and health data.

Only 12% use active transportation in the United States — 9% walk, 1% ride a bike and 2% take a bus or train — while a quarter to a third are obese, the study said.

By comparison, 67% of commuters in Latvia, 62% in Sweden and 52% in the Netherlands either walk, bike or use mass transit. Latvia's obesity rate is 14%, the Netherlands' is 11% and Sweden's is 9%.

This seems to be common sense... but someone has to "prove" every little fact when it is used to create policy, or the opposition will cry, "not true!"

Detroit Automobiles

I'm not a car nut, but like any American, I enjoy the cars I drive. The Detroit Free Press printed a good short article today shooting down some myths about American cars and the Big 3. It goes to prove that the mistakes the companies made decades ago still haunt them today, even though the problems they used to have are long past. Memories are hard to overcome.

http://www.freep.com/article/20081117/COL14/811170379/?imw=Y

Also, I got a chance to to see a 2010 Camero a few days ago here in the neighborhood. Holy Cow!

Mystery solved! I always wondered what the deal was with that strange interchange on I-94 (Ford Freeway) at Woodward in Detroit. Eastbound, for instance, you go under Woodward, then shoot off on a bit of a siding, which continues east, but to exit, you go onto John R Street and circle back to Woodward. What were they thinking when they built that?

Well, this article and picture answer the question. There were originally stairs leading down from Woodward to the freeway, where pedestrians could link to a planned rapid bus system that was supposed to run on the expressways. Check it out here.

So the idea was that the rapid busses would pull off of the freeway onto the siding, pick up passengers, then re-enter the highway. That would make too much sense. It never happened. Somewhere along the way the stairs disappeared, and we were just left with a crazy interchange. That sounds like the downtown People Mover, which was designed to be the end section of a rapid rail system that ran out the spoke avenues from downtown. The rail system was never built, so the PM is left to circle endlessly, shuttling people around downtown in its counter-clockwise circuit. I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

Here are some thoughts on sustainability, adapted from a posting I made on the Discuss Detroit board.

The idea is that society, or a business, or an industry, is founded and operated on a set of beliefs and understandings, which are translated into rules, regulations, or policies. As long as the rules are working and successful, there is growth and more success. At some point, sometimes, the environment changes and the rules don't fit the reality so well. Operating with the old set of rules doesn't work so successfully any more. If we're lucky, the only result is less success, but the system still operates. Sometimes, though, as time goes on, the gap between the environment and the rules widens, and there can develop a strong downside to operating under the old rules-- so much so that the society or industry causes so much damage that the whole thing implodes or falls apart. The system can't sustain itself anymore, because the old rules don't work any more. Let's take gasoline prices and the effect that will have on our society (even beyond Detroit). Take a look at this chart: http://inflationdata.com/Infla tion/images/charts/Oil/Gasolin e_inflation_chart.htm I know, it's only one chart, but I've seen others that say basically the same thing. Google around and look at some others. The charts say that gas is expensive in adjusted dollars, but no more than was the case at the beginning of the auto boom years, the years when Detroit boomed, too. And during the auto industry's second boom, in the 1950's, gasoline was significantly more expensive than during the 1990's. In fact, we nostalgically see the 1920's and the 1950's a golden years of the automobile. There were two really unusual periods on that chart-- 1980-82, and the '90's. We survived the high prices of 1980, but the '90's cheap prices caused what I think is the biggest difference between now and the '50's. The spike in the 1980's caused people to buy smaller, more efficient cars, the drop in the '90's allowed people to buy bigger less efficient cars, but also to move farther away from any destination and drive many more miles each week. Up until this past year, gasoline had risen to roughly the price it was post-WWII, and people didn't give up their gas-guzzlers back then. The big difference? They didn't drive as many miles. Farmers, yes. Urbanites and suburbanites? Much less. So how do the "rules" work here? The federal government and the state have plenty of laws and regulations that actively support sprawl, from how mortgage money is used to where roads are built to where water and sewer lines are built... right down to zoning ordinances that require quarter-acre lots or larger. (Remember the "super sewer" lawsuits in the '80's? There would be no development west of Novi Rd. if that case had been decided differently.) Even the media get into the act: I read somewhere that Better Homes & Gardens magazine began pushing suburban-style design in the early 1940's. What fuels this? Cheap gasoline and private cars. Are people going to give them up? No. I'm not, either. Can people continue to drive 50 miles each way to work? Depends. If this peak in gas prices is temporary, like 1980, then we'll get through it. Will prices drop to the super-low levels of the 1990's? Probably not. The chart says those were unusually low prices. If those low prices are what drove the sprawl out to the exurbs, then the exurbs are probably not sustainable. The rules of the 1990's fall apart. Books like "The End of Oil," whether you buy it or not, warn that at the very least, oil prices will be very volatile and spike wildly for the next two decades. At worst, they will spiral up and up with no end in sight. Look at this chart: http://www.randomuseless.info/ gasprice/gasprice.html For the last three years, the graph swings wildly up and down... big jumps with big drops. The cycles lasted about a year, but this last peak looks like a six-month cycle, with a super-high maximum. Will prices drop soon? Maybe, but in the long run, the trend is always up, at least since 1997. That's an 11-year trend. I think "up" is the trend from now on. A lot of factors have contributed to this. It is not the stupidity of the US auto industry. It is not the War in Iraq (1997 was four years before 9/11). It's not even George W. Bush. Nor was it Bill Clinton. He's been out of office a long time. It is our reliance on rules that are not sustainable. If we're smart, we'll change the policies that support those unworkable rules, and quit throwing our money away, money that supports big boxes and miles of infrastructure in places that will show zero growth very soon.

Transit again

In a recent podcast of the Smart City radio program, a researcher from the National Housing Institute, Alan Mallach, discussed a new report he recently published on the factors that help revitalize neighborhoods. The way it is done, he says, is to increase the demand for housing, and that is accomplished by adding or changing neighborhood features that make it desirable. The number one factor: adding a light rail station. This feature will change a neighborhood more quickly than anything else. He cited two examples, such as the increase in development that has happened in East Los Angeles after they announced a new light rail line to the area. Transit is part of neighborhood amenities, one of six factors that affect the housing market. The entire report is available in .pdf format here.

Links to Detroit Webcams

I just added links to webcams in Detroit, just for fun. The links are in the right column of this blog page.

The Detroit River Webcam is user-controlled, which can be great... but if the camera is panning and zooming all over the place when you log on, that just means that someone is playing with the controls. This one is used by a lot of freighter hobbyists. You'll see a listing of vessel passages on this page. Actually, the Detroit News keeps a similar log every day. There are a lot of people who follow which boats (that's what huge lake freighters are called) and ocean-going freighters pass through each day. And, for those of you who don't know, the Detroit River isn't a river: it is a straits between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie. If Lake St. Clair were included in the list of the Great Lakes, what would happen to the acronym used to memorize the names of all of the lakes? HOMES=Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. HOMESS? SHOMES? HOMSES? SOMESH?

Work Starts on Grand River

Construction on the Grand River project started about three weeks ago. The work started at Southfield, and currently goes west to Artesian. They have torn up the sidewalks on the north side of the avenue, and have actually poured some concrete close to Southfield/Fenkell/Grand River.

BUT... I DON'T SEE ANY BUMP-OUTS! We'll see how this all progresses.

Grand River Improvements-- maybe traffic calming?

I get really fed up with the crazy way traffic moves on Grand River Avenue-- and on Fenkell Avenue, for that matter. Heck-- on every main street around Detroit. People drive much too fast, and the bad habit of passing at high speed in the parking lane makes me crazy! It is definitely all about "Get out of my way!" Dangerous, thoughtless, and rude. One very visible result: smashed light posts all around town. Two summers ago, the city installed new light posts along Grand River, which is also known as M-5, as state trunk line. Grand River Avenue actually runs from Lake Michigan, along the Grand River itself, all the way to downtown Detroit. (A sign at the end of our street says, "To Canada.") It is a major highway. But, it is also Rosedale Park's main street. Unfortunately, it is a main street that you can't use as a pedestrian. There isn't a traffic light for over six-tenths of a mile between the Southfield Expressway and Warwick, and traffic really gets moving. And as people zip into the right turn lane at the few lights, then floor it to get ahead of traffic, they often lose control when a parked car gets in their way, and they smash into one of the new light posts. At least it isn't a pedestrian!

The state awarded a grant to the local development group to enhance the streetscape in the neighborhood. The work is supposed to start next month. One of the announced features: curb bump-outs at bus stops. Excellent! That means that every two or three blocks the parking lane will be blocked, regardless of the number of cars parked along the curb. Maybe that will slow down traffic. Some other traffic calming features were slashed by budget cuts, such as more traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, and a median that would run all the way through the area. These things have been proven to slow things down, making the areas safer and more usable for pedestrians. Some strategic pedestrian islands will be built at some intersections. Let's hope for the best!

Balanced Transportation

Although this is still a state dominated by the automobile-- dominated in the economy, in the way we sprawl, in the way we think-- several trends are popping up to hint that things may be changing. Yesterday I wrote about the HOV lanes that will appear next week on Michigan Avenue. That also includes a joint operation between SMART, DDOT, and MDOT. Amazing! And last week came the announcement that Grand Rapids has nailed down millions of dollars from the federal government for a transit "New Start" operation, which will be a bus rapid transit system that will run south from downtown Grand Rapids along Division Avenue. That will be the first new transit program in the state funded by the federal government. And, it appears that by taking this funding, it will open the doors to funding for future projects all across the state.

I continue to believe that the biggest transportation issue in Michigan, and specifically Metro Detroit, is that we don't have a balanced transportation system. The vast majority of suburban residents drive as their only means of transportation. Figures from the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) show that in some suburbs, as many as 95 percent of residents drive to work alone. In the region as a whole, 85 percent drive alone, nine percent carpool, and two percent use public transit. Virtually no one in the region walks to work (again, only two percent), and in some areas, the number of people who use public transportation is counted in dozens rather than as a percentage. Several upscale suburbs have opted out of the SMART bus system, thinking that the added tax burden, which would amount to less than $50 per year for the average home, only supplements low-income people who use the system to come into the community. Those riders add up to about a quarter-million riders per week on SMART. The separate Detroit bus system serves many more riders--nearly 40 million riders per year--and a much larger percentage of DDOT riders rely entirely on busses for their transportation. There is no commuter rail system, even though that would serve primarily white-collar commuters. There is no rapid transit at all. In the meantime, our roads are falling apart as construction efforts are spread more and more thinly to reach the ever-expanding boundaries of what we now call the metropolitan region. The region is so spread out that using slow bus systems makes it a daunting challenge to travel from one side of the area to the other. So, it is no surprise that most people choose to use their own individual car to commute. Still, the policies put in place by the state Department of Transportation local governments have determined the growth patterns, and therefore the transit options available to us. Look at the projects outlined by MDOT, (no transit projects are listed) and look at the transportation data provided by SEMCOG, and you'll see what is important to our leaders. As of this writing, virtually all of the information was about highways, traffic counts, traffic bridges, road conditions-- and only a minor amount about transit or other transportation options. As recently as SEMCOG's latest version of the 2030 regional transportation plan, highways and automobile transportation were essentially all that got serious attention. All of this as oil hits $100 per barrel, and SEMCOG lists hot topics on their site such as the "dilemma" of transit funding, and the need to address environmental issues brought on by automobile pollution. Thank goodness that SEMCOG and DDOT are each studying transit alternatives in two projects: commuter rail to Metro Airport and Ann Arbor; and light rail on one line in Detroit and perhaps Dearborn.

Compare our situation to that in Seattle. They have a much more fully-developed bus system (even though it is operated by several different entities), bus and light rail tunnels under downtown that allow more rapid movement around the area; free bus fares within downtown; commuter rail to the north and south; two streetcar lines, one along the waterfront and a new line in the South Lake Union area just north of downtown (100,000 riders in the first six weeks); a new light rail system set to open next year between downtown and SeaTac Airport; another light rail extension that is about to begin construction toward the University District and north; and now a bus rapid transit system that will serve the West Seattle neighborhood. In addition, they have bike lane networks and have provided for pedestrian uses in many places. They also have an extensive car and pedestrian ferry system run by the state, serving spots in the city and the outlying islands communities. Not all of these elements have come without a fight--a monorail system between downtown and the Ballard neighborhood to the north was voted out of existence when costs began to spiral upward. They look at their commuter auto traffic as a real problem, and have found many ways to offer alternative transit, each of which seems to be appropriate to the neighborhood it serves. Only nine of 18 transportation projects in Seattle this year are specifically street or highway projects. The rest are trails, transit, or other kinds of projects.

Seattle and Detroit are different, with different densities, different patterns of development, different industries, and certainly different needs. But Detroit should be able to find a balance that will work for us, just as they are working to develop a balance that works for Seattle.

HOV lanes come to Detroit

This is something I never thought I'd see-- lanes reserved for high occupancy vehicles (HOV lanes) in Detroit. They are a common sight in other cities, but not here. I can't imagine the violent response to the idea that you can't drive your car anywhere, anytime. Heck, I've had guys pass me on the expressway ON THE SHOULDER AT 70 MPH!

Here's how the lanes are getting started: the state Department of Transportation is rebuilding the interchange area around the Ambassador Bridge to Windsor, Ontario, Canada. That will require basically closing I-75 for about two years, and that will cause drastic impacts on traffic headed north from the downriver areas. So, SMART and DDOT are running joint express bus routes from Gibralter to downtown, and traffic is being rerouted to several other main arteries, including Michigan Avenue (US-12). That's where the HOV lanes come in. Michigan Avenue will have lanes set aside during rush hours for high occupancy vehicles and busses only.

We'll see how it will work, but even though it might be a sneaky way to get HOV lanes going, at least they'll get a test in Michigan for the first time. I'll guess that they'll be more common here in five years.

A Couple of Museums

During the holiday break my wife and I decided to finally visit the newly-remodeled Detroit Institute of Arts on January 2. We are members of the Founders' Society, so we have free entry, but it turned out to be a poor choice of dates. Midtown was packed! There was absolutely no place to park-- anywhere. Even the parking structure at Wayne State two blocks away was full, since classes had apparently started again, and there wasn't an on-street spot anywhere. The Science Center was jammed with the Bodies exhibit (held over for the last eight months, at least). It was a nice problem to find, I guess, but frustrating, none the less. We ended up driving to Dearborn and visiting the Arab American Museum, which we had never visited before, so the day wasn't a loss. Actually, the Arab American Museum is actually a little gem of a place on Michigan Avenue in east Dearborn, right across from Dearborn City Hall. They have a really interesting collection of silver jewelry from around the Arab world, and a multimedia display that chronicles the history of Arab immigration to the United States. That part of the museum just reinforced in my mind the senselessness of the anti-immigration sentiment we see so often these days. The pattern is the same one the US has witnessed for centuries: hard-working people immigrate to our country, and their children work hard, study, are successful, and become significant contributors to our society. Why would we want to keep them out? Everyone is enriched by their contributions and by the energy they inject into our communities.

We ended up trying the DIA again on Saturday. It was, again, extremely busy in that part of town, but we decided to use the valet parking so finding a spot wasn't an issue. The museum was great. The art is presented in a totally different way, thematically rather than chronologically or by artist (with some exceptions). So, for instance, modern art isn't divided by decade, but abstract expressionism is together, installations are together, and themes are developed as you walk through. Decorative art and furniture are included with the artwork to give a sense of how these themes played out in other art forms. Landscapes are presented together, and a flow of how they changed over decades is pointed out. The new, larger gallery space allowed them to put out lots of works that weren't displayed before. There was much more African and Native American art, which was really interesting, and plenty more. I saw a Stuart portrait of George Washington that I don't recall seeing before, and there were several American Impressionist paintings that seemed new to me. I highly recommend a visit, or two. We just did a quick run-through, which is not how I like to visit, so I'm sure we'll be going back soon for another look.

As we left, and we waited for the overworked valet to literally run to get our car, we noticed that a line of at least 200 people were lined up outside of the Science Center to see the Bodies exhibit. Knowing what the inside of the building is like, I'd guess at least that many more were in line. All of the surface lots and street parking appeared to be full again.

I felt really guilty about giving up on finding a parking spot on our first try. I hate to think of myself as someone who is so dependent on my car that if I can't find a parking spot, I bail out. But, face it, that is not that far from the truth. I don't have a problem walking for a few blocks to park, but the problem is that everyone else who came to the area that day did the same thing. By the time we gave up looking for a space to park, the museum only had a couple of hours left on their schedule for the day. We wasted an hour on our quest for parking. And, there was no option. There's no rail we could take downtown with a transfer to a Woodward line to get to the DIA. Instead, we had to join a hundred thousand other people who all wanted to spend a day in midtown, all looking for someplace to park their car. Our bus system is a joke, so that was out. All of that needs to change. Then I wouldn't have to feel so guilty when I want to visit a museum for the afternoon.