I recieved an Email from Tom Regan, one of a few whose working on making a South Eastern Michigan city bike friendly. The city of Royal Oak is about 8 miles West of GM's Technical Center. Below is his latest report on how it's going with the advocacy....

I just want to bring into light how the economy is affecting cycling here in Michigan. I'm sure if one or all the Big Three go bankrupt we can pretty much erase any future progress from the work below off the face of the Earth for a time being.....

Of course, this is just my thinking for the basis for Mr. Hoover's reply, but then again.....


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Biking and Walking in Royal Oak‏
From: Tom Regan
Sent: Sat 11/29/08 10:30 AM
To:

This is an update about our campaign to improve conditions for bicyclists and pedestrians in Royal Oak.

Our task force met with Royal Oak City Manager Tom Hoover and members of his staff on Tuesday, November 25th. We discussed four items.


We gave Mr. Hoover and his staff literature from the League of American Bicyclists on how a city can seek certification as a "Bicycle Friendly Community," http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/b...a/communities/ . We suggested that winning this certification should be our long-term goal.
We asked Mr. Hoover if the city would hire an outside consultant to write a Non-Motorized Transporation Plan. We estimated that this would cost about $40,000. Mr. Hoover and his staff agreed that Royal Oak would benefit from writing a non-motorized transporation plan, and that it should be done by an outside consultant. However, Mr. Hoover noted that Royal Oak (like nearly all Michigan cities) faces an extremely tight budget. Mr. Hoover stated that our task force should investigate thoroughly if any outside funding sources exist before asking the city commission the question. Several task force members agreed to investigate possible funding sources.
If you know of any possible funding sources please let me know immediately by responding to this email.
We asked Mr. Hoover about scheduled street repavings that offered immediate opportunities for making streets more bicycle-friendly, such as road diets and bike lanes. The city engineer agreed to investigate this.
We discussed special needs and opportunities along Woodward Avenue. Heather Carmona of the Woodward Avenue Action Association agreed to investigate potential funding sources and potential cooperation with neighboring cities.

The task force will meet again in mid-December to report on our separate searches for possible funding sources.

Reminder, please join us at the next Royal Oak School Board meeting to speak at public comment. Our purpose it to explain why a Non-Motorized Transportation Plan would benefit Royal Oak school children and to ask the school board to support the effort:

Thursday, December 11
7:00 pm
1123 Lexington Blvd., Royal Oak, MI 48073

Reminder, please write letters to the editor and call on Royal Oak to take steps to improve bike and pedestrian safety:

Royal Oak Mirror ksmith@hometownlife.com
Royal Oak Review clangrill@candgnews.com
Royal Oak Daily Tribune editor@dailytribune.com
Oakland Press vop@oakpress.com

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