Through Detroit: Route advice on getting to St. Clair Shores

[flippantfeet]

I'm planning to ride into St. Clair Shores from Lansing. Some well meaning family members who live in the area are filling me with absolute horror stories about my chances of survival. They are swell people whom I love, but they are not too keen on bicycle touring, so I feel their advice is a little jaded by fear. I know the Detroit Metro area is bad, but how bad can it be? Or, I guess a better question is, how can I get where I need to go in the safest manner possible? What is the best route to get from Lansing to St. Clair Shores? Please help!

[DougG]

Well, you'll have to cross the entire metro area, where the most direct route also happens to be the busiest east-west corridor in the area (I-696). If you really want to grit your teeth and just do it, you might try picking up 12-mile road on the west side around Novi and just follow it all the way across to St. Clair Shores. But it's not going to be easy and there are a few wicked intersections to negotiate.

The most pleasant route would be to go around the metro area on the north side, taking various county and state roads. But that would add many miles to your trip. Sorry I can't be more specific, but I don't do that type of riding at all (for me, the less traffic the better).

By the way, a good route from Lansing to the metro area might be to follow "old" Grand River. I used to ride this on my motorcycle and it was scenic and not heavily travelled.

[Road Fan]

I'm planning to ride into St. Clair Shores from Lansing. Some well meaning family members who live in the area are filling me with absolute horror stories about my chances of survival. They are swell people whom I love, but they are not too keen on bicycle touring, so I feel their advice is a little jaded by fear. I know the Detroit Metro area is bad, but how bad can it be? Or, I guess a better question is, how can I get where I need to go in the safest manner possible? What is the best route to get from Lansing to St. Clair Shores? Please help!

The shortest distance is a straight line, and if you draw one between Lansing and St. Clair Shores you pass thru very little of Detroit proper. I would try to get cycling maps of the counties between Lansing and SCS, and try to plot a route there. I would see no good reason to cycle all the way into Detroit (where Grand River Road will take you) and then cut northeast to get to St. Clair Shores.

If you have to deviate from the straight line, I'd choose to deviate north, avoiding the city and the closer-in suburbs.