Expert: Detroit should prioritize bikes, walking

Detroit would be a healthier and more economically viable city if it paid more attention to pedestrians and bicyclists instead of to motor vehicles, an expert on urban mobility said Thursday.

Gil Penalosa, chairman of the Toronto-based 8-80 Cities, an organization that trains civic leaders on how to achieve more walkable urban streetscapes, gave the keynote address Thursday at the annual luncheon of the nonprofit Jefferson East Inc., a civic group concerned with redevelopment of the Jefferson Avenue corridor.

"We need to reconnect with nature as a normal part of everyday life," Penalosa told the 200 guests at Stroh River Place. "I'm not talking about a dream. I'm talking about sustainable mobility."

Showing an image of East Jefferson in downtown Detroit, Penalosa quipped, "Some of these roads are so wide and you have so few cars," drawing laughter from the audience.

What Detroit and so many other cities need, he said, are wider sidewalks, better crosswalks, and "protected" bike lanes, that is, bike lanes separated from the flow of traffic by barriers.

In Detroit, the city in recent years has created about 150 miles of bicycle lanes, but all are merely painted white stripes on the pavement with no separation from vehicle traffic. Only now is the city creating its first protected bike lanes on East Jefferson near the Grosse Pointe line.

If Detroit created more protected lanes, he predicted, bike usage would soar and the city would begin to see obesity levels drop and car-bicycle accidents decline.

"These are not technical issues. These are not financial issues. These are political issues," he said.

Penalosa's organization, 8-80 Cities, is named for the concept that cities work best when 8-year-old children and 80-year-old seniors both find streets and sidewalks safe and easy to use. Penalosa and his staff are returning to Detroit in June for a four-day training session with civic leaders on the issues he raised in his address.

Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep.