Declaration of Intent
UPDATED 12/26/2009:
My Wheels are Turning was created to explore how and why it is we move. It was created to examine the values that we promote when we make those choices. It’s for walkers, bikers, motor vehicle users and users of other modes of transport.
Does anyone use a goat-cart?
It was created with three intentions:
- To share ideas & stories from within Northern Michigan as well as from beyond.
- To advocate & organize for livable streets. Communities.
- To celebrate community & non-motorized transportation. To play.
As a basis, this blog assumes that our communities have inherited an infrastructure and culture that is dominated by the automobile—a machine that is amazingly useful. It is also a machine that is very expensive, inefficient and externalizes its true costs for individuals, as well as society.
From that vantage point, we want to explore all roads & possibilities. Asking questions. Finding answers. Asking more questions.
Northern Michigan has success stories. Among them:
- The TART trail system is a statewide model.
- Traverse City’s Downtown Development Authority has some intriguing mock-ups.
- The City of Traverse City (PDF) has an infrastructure policy that includes language from Complete Street philosophy.
- The Grand Vision has clearly made the case that citizens want to be involved in regional planning.
To take the next step, Northern Michigan needs venues where this energy can be harnessed and the great ideas can be fully articulated, explored and promoted. It needs venues where the visionaries can collaborate with those who know how to move bureaucracies. Places where people who know how to locate, shift and generate funding can assist a citizen led redesign of the region.
This is just one venue. We need a network of resources.
This blog wants and needs to hear from readers of all perspectives. Are you a resident who has a specific idea? A visitor who sees an area in need of addressing? Are you a government representative who is looking for support or has further questions?
After you pull over, please send a message, comment on a post, talk on twitter or invite the author to coffee.
Let’s ride. Or, walk. Let’s meet.
We live in downtown Suttons Bay and have noticed that Village commuters need to get their stories out too… My family sends one breadwinner to T.C to work in a carpool daily and hopefully by bike in warmer weather. We have noticed that TART Trails needs help routing the Leelanau Trail through the Village of Suttons Bay and northward. Can you check out… why does the Leeanau Trail effectively stop at the SB Depot? When will the Village of SB support bikers with signs and a safe route?
What infastructure do we need to support safe Bike Wine Tours? There are several parks owned by townships and villages along M-22, what do they need to support bike tourists? Do the wineries have basic bike support gear?
Thanks for the comments, Jenee. This BLOG is certainly a regional endeavor and Suttons Bay is on the list. Thank you for the heads-up. And the tourist money associated with bicycle tours through wine country has just begun. Regional governments need to step it up and provide support for it. Citizens need to step it up and ask for it.
There will be initial limits to the scope that this site can cover. In addition to a steep learning curve, volunteer time and energy will need to be monitored. However, I’m in it for the long haul and that includes generating a way for the work to be supported.
TART owns the former railroad right of way all the way up to Bodus Road. The Suttons Bay Village Council and TART need to sit down and cooperate. When the Leelanau Trails Association bought the right of way, many in SB were MAD! Have opinions in SB changed? Let’s let the trail go all the way to Bodus Road. Interestingly, one anti-trail family based in Northport bought the right of way from Bodus Road to the Northport Marina to scuttle any plans of the trail heading north! They forced all of the adjacent land owners to buy the property, thus, forever denying the trail to head to Northport. That bad karma continues to this day. Northport is struggling and stranded. Wanna fix it?
Eventually, I would like to write and advocate more for all of Northern Michigan. Including trail extension, but also for improved road amenities so bike riders feel more safe on the roadways. As I dig into this, it is increasingly layered with issues. And, I have less and less time! Spring and summer are times when I expect Wheels to reach further afield. As always appreciate the comments, support and advice.
http://www.cyclistview.com/ Looks great!
it’s a shame that family couldn’t have just put up a fence if they don’t want to see people. i’d really like to know their reasons why they were so against it.
i would love to see frankfort’s trail extended further north as well! unfortunately, there are no bike lanes though.
long distance rides are so much nicer-not to mention MORE SAFE with a dedicated path or trail.
it would be nice if someday there was a complete alternative to roads so bicycles wouldn’t have to ride next to motor vehicles period.
http://www.cyclistview.com/
TART owns the former railroad right of way all the way up to Bodus Road. The Suttons Bay Village Council and TART need to sit down and cooperate. When the Leelanau Trails Association bought the right of way, many in SB were MAD! Have opinions in SB changed? Let’s let the trail go all the way to Bodus Road. Interestingly, one anti-trail family based in Northport bought the right of way from Bodus Road to the Northport Marina to scuttle any plans of the trail heading north! They forced all of the adjacent land owners to buy the property, thus, forever denying the trail to head to Northport. That bad karma continues to this day. Northport is struggling and stranded. Wanna fix it?
+1
FYI:
The City’s plan for the proposed Boardman Lake Avenue does not include
any bicycle lanes. We should address this now. Does MWAT have a position
on this? thanks!
I wish you’d been on the corner of 10th and Lake Sts in front of Oryana for the smart commute breakfast this morning Mary Beth. We had an impromptu debate regarding this issue, more precisely the need/or not for this road anymore. It’s certainly not designed with bikes in mind.
Some feel the current design is out of date and doesn’t reflect the many changes in the community over the last decade, (Oryana’s commitment to the neighborhood, removal of tracks, addition of the pedestrian bridge over the river, etc.) Some feel it would help the neighborhoods by allowing a relief to traffic zigging and zagging from 8th to S. Cass. Some feel the road could simply become another Division St, separating the neighborhoods from parkland. And finally, some feel it might work if it were redesigned as a true parkway, like those around the lakes in Minneapolis or even Milwaukee – two lanes, narrow, slow, with intentional view-sheds, and obvious, safe, places for pedestrians to cross.
You’re right to put this back on our map. It needs new sets of eyes.
Thanks for bringing this up for discussion, Mary. I was a little put off a couple weeks ago when, at the city commission meeting, Boardman Avenue was discussed as a done deal waiting to happen. I certainly don’t recall ‘a promise’ to the Old Towne neighborhood for this road to be constructed or the city striking promises with one neighborhood specifically. I have looked at the stack of paperwork and history of this project, as well as the current preliminary design by the engineering department. To be honest, I’m planning on doing so again for a future post (July?) as I wasn’t expecting such a body of paper to sort through.
Needlessly to say, I didn’t leave the governmental building confident that this project was good for Traverse City. As designed and planned, West Boardman Lake Avenue would serve one purpose, to move cars as quickly as possible a total of about a half mile from 14th Street to 8th Street. It is planned as a 35mph stretch, which would be designed to handle cars going 45-50mph (and many would take advantage of that) and includes no bike lanes, no sidewalks, no parking, no real traffic calming enhancements. If I recall correctly, it DOES have non-signalized crosswalks and middle ‘refuge’ islands. I can’t remember the specifics, but I wasn’t overly impressed; it’s a road to move cars.
I question it’s intention as relieving cut-through traffic through the Old Towne neighborhood. Road building seldom reduces traffic. It typically increases traffic by making it more convenient to drive as well as reducing the comfort level of active transportation options. The new deck the city is so proud of is between Union and Cass St. and I hazard to guess that the majority of those vehicles are going to continue to use the neighborhood. It’s only a half-mile and there is no clear advantage to going out of the way for a half-mile by-pass.
Bill summed up this morning’s conversation quite well. it was a debate trying to see the multiple sides of the issue, myself even trying to find a reason we might ‘need‘ a road through this corridor…I can picture one, something like a true parkway, with additional development, but I can’t envision such a thing with the current leadership, staff and funding. They will do it on the cheap and it will be far from complete; just another Division Street dividing parts of the city from each other and our natural wealth.
OK. Well, that was my quick reply. Not sure if it is a MyWHaT official editorial position or if all the information is 100% accurate. I promise to return to the matter in the near future. It currently isn’t moving anywhere fast, but you’re correct that we need to address it before it gets too far as the money is there for what they have planned.
I found one Record Eagle archived article from 2001 announcing the progress of the West Boardman Lake Avenue project. I agree with the idea that this area could use attention and is underutilized part of the urban scene, however, building one dimensional infrastructure is no longer understood as sound investment. Like car ownership, the moment you drive it off the lot, or in this case finish construction, it begins to devalue and cost you more than is often worth.
TC’s ‘West Boardman Lake Avenue’ closer to becoming a reality
By BILL O’BRIEN June 24, 2001
TRAVERSE CITY – The city’s plans for a new road on the west side of Boardman Lake got a $1.5 million boost from the State of Michigan.
The Michigan Economic Development Corp. has approved Grand Traverse County’s request for a state “brownfield” designation for the area where the city has proposed building West Boardman Lake Avenue.
The new road would start at Eighth Street and travel south to 14th Street to route traffic around the neighborhoods west of the lake.
The city commission will discuss the brownfield designation at its next study session scheduled for July 9 and could assign a specific timetable to a project that a just a few months ago appeared to still be at least several years away.
“This puts it up near the top of our priority list,” city manager Richard Lewis said.
While the brownfield designation doesn’t mean any money up front for the project, it will eventually provide an estimated $1.5 million in what’s termed “tax recapture” funding by diverting future state and local tax revenue back to the city. The city also has been setting aside money for Boardman Lake road from the sale of several city-owned properties that were pieced together over the past several decades for an east-west arterial road. Plans for that road were officially scrapped by the commission last year.
City officials project that the new West Boardman Lake Avenue will divert 18,000 vehicles per day from Cass and Union streets in the Old Town neighborhood. (HOW?)
Construction costs are estimated at $4.5 million, not including costs for right-of-way acquisition. The city already has completed some preliminary engineering work for the project, first listed in city plans around seven years ago.
The city also will purchase two easements from developers of a nearby housing project to provide access to a public recreation area on Boardman Lake waterfront, and eventual development of a pedestrian trail to circle the lake.
The state Department of Transportation also has agreed to allow the city to relocate the railroad tracks on the west side of the lake to accommodate the road plans.
The road project is an extension of an earlier brownfield designation by the state for Boardman West LLC, which is building a 174-unit condominium project on a 13.5-acre parcel on the west side of the lake. Recent changes to the state brownfield legislation also provides for tax recapture moneys for items like new roads and other infrastructure work, building demolition and site preparation.
“The company’s investment in Traverse City will restore a severely underused property and help increase the property value along the waterfront,” said Doug Rothwell, head of the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
Bill, thanks for the post with all the info. West Boardman Lake Ave needs to be a place for pedestrian and all other modes of travel, not a pain… what can we do?