Forum Seeks Public Input on Bike Paths in Grosse Pointes

The plans for a bike path weaving throughout the Grosse Pointes will be revealed Wednesday during the first public hearing regarding the project, which has been discussed by a committee for about a year. 

The bike path plans are an initiative through the Live Well Grosse Pointe campaign by the Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce. The committee that has been working on the plans for the last year consists of chamber representatives as well as the city managers, public safety directors and city traffic engineers from each of the five Pointes.

It also includes Wayne County Commissioner Tim Killeen, who has secured $70,000 from the Wayne County Parks and Recreation budget to pay for the project. Killeen often hears complaints from residents about paying Wayne County taxes but not receiving any benefits related to parks and recreation, which is due to having private/residential only parks.

Money out of the county's budget must be used for projects that are available to the public as a whole, not just select portions, Killeen said. The money must be used by Sept. 30, 2012, he said. 

The biggest challenge of creating a bike path is determining the streets to be used, Killeen said. Some streets are obvious locations for the path, such as Grosse Pointe Boulevard, while others are clearly too busy, too narrow or too much in disrepair, he said. 

Although the route is not yet finalized, officials have eliminated Lake Shore/Jefferson Road as a possibility for the bike path, Killeen said. Despite being a desirable path, the traffic lanes are too narrow and the road is too heavily traveled by motorists to be a safe route according to the city officials, Killeen said.

The other challenge in this project is marrying the routes from Pointe to Pointe to make the path one, Killeen said.

The committee had initially come up with a route but the route was rejected by officials from the cities and representatives from each of the cities were asked then to come up with a new plan, Chamber Executive Director Jennifer Boettcher said. 

City Manager Al Fincham said the traffic safety engineers are reviewing the streets chosen to determine they are indeed appropriate considering traffic flow.

Streets that are being considered in the Woods include Morningside, Cook and Chalfont, Fincham said.

Meanwhile, establishing a route in has been difficult independently of the other cities simply because of its small size and lack of main thoroughfares other than Lake Shore Road, Killeen said.

The plans for all the cities is to be revealed Wednesday during the forum, Killeen said, explaining he's anxious to introduce the bike paths to the residents.

Once a route throughout all the Pointes is selected, the money from the county will cover the cost of signage, road markings and possibly benches. Some streets may have a bike lane established while others may simply have reminder chevron striping, Killeen said.

Bicyclists are expected to ride in the street and follow all the same traffic rules as a motorist, according to the League of Michigan Bicyclists. The establishment of bike routes is one measure to help make cycling safer in a community. 

One focus of the Grosse Pointe project has been to make the path go to community areas, such as the Village, the Hill, the and others, Killeen said.

The attempt to connect community assets in establishing a bike route is one of the recommendations by the League of Michigan Bicyclists, according to their online "Bikeability Assessment Guide."

 The Bike Route Community Open House will feature Norm Cox, president of the Greenway Collaborative Inc., which is an Ann Arbor-based company that focuses on establishing and planning routes for nonmotorized travel.

It begins at 7 p.m. in the Connelly Auditorium of .