New East Lansing Bike Advocacy Group Pushes for Safer, More Inclusive Cycling Community
East Lansing is officially designated a bicycle-friendly community, but local cyclists are on a roll to make sure the city is as safe as possible.
In April, the Bicycle Friendly East Lansing community was formed. The group’s mission is to connect and organize cyclists from the streets, sidewalks and trails of East Lansing to build a stronger, coordinated voice for bike safety in the city.
Evan Martin is a volunteer on the East Lansing Transportation Commission and is a member of the Bicycle Friendly East Lansing group. He became involved with the City of East Lansing’s Transportation Commission a few years ago because he was concerned about the transportation infrastructure and culture locally. Currently, he meets with the Transportation Commission once per month to discuss a range of topics around transportation and provide recommendations to the City Council.
A few years ago, the East Lansing Transportation Commission began looking into what it would take to renew the city’s status as a ‘bicycle-friendly community’ as designated by the League of American Bicyclists.
Martin said the process, which involves an in-depth application, is lengthy, but worthwhile.
“A few of us in the commission were working on that for a while,” he said. “It’s a good way to take an audit of where you’re at as a community in terms of a bicycle-friendly and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure and programs.”
After submitting the application, Martin said the commission received support from the League of American Bicyclists and the Bicycle Friendly America program. The organizations sent a representative last April to present a two-day workshop.
“The workshop went over what other communities are doing, what we can do as a community to try to improve bicycle and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure and to make the city safer and more welcoming,” Martin said.
Following the workshop, those in attendance decided the work wasn’t done yet and rolled up their sleeves and formed the Bicycle Friendly East Lansing group. Since then, the group has grown organically — with over 170 members in its Facebook group. The group regularly hits the pavement for rides, inviting cyclists of all ages, and with different levels of experience and interest.
“Throughout the summer, we did weekly group rides starting at the East Lansing Public Library and visiting different neighborhoods,” Martin said. “We’ve also started doing more fast-paced, long-distanced rides as well to accommodate different types of cycling.”
Most of the rides were aimed at slower, community rides around 10 miles per hour through different neighborhoods like the Flowerpot neighborhood, or Glencairn.
“The goal of these rides is to gain interest from that specific neighborhood and those community members,” Martin said. “We want to use these bike rides as a launching pad to discuss traffic safety, neighborhood improvements, pedestrian improvements, and hear concerns of residents. We want to try to generate interest in this discussion of making the city more bicycle and pedestrian-friendly.”
Last month, the East Lansing City Council designated September as Bike Month, and the group hosted a bike rodeo.
“The rodeo was essentially an event where we invited community members to bring their bikes and learn about bicycling safety, maintenance, and we set up a course so they could test and improve their skills,” Martin said. “It’s mainly aimed at younger or newer bicyclists.”
The event also brought together many local organizations including MSU Bikes which provided tuneups, and Sinus Dramus Law Firm which donated helmets.
Attendees received instruction on how to ride safely in different scenarios, learning how to be aware of surroundings, how to be predictable, how to use hand signals to take corners correctly and how to use a bike lane.
Martin hopes the group can continue to meet for monthly bike rides as weather permits moving into the colder months.
“Over this winter, we’re hoping to do more planning on how to continue progressing as a group and working on our goals,” Martin said.
There’s a lot of concern from local neighborhood groups and residents who don’t feel safe while riding a bike or walking in their neighborhood, said Martin. Many of those concerns were voiced at a Neighborhood Traffic Safety Town Hall at the Library this summer.
“Folks shared how they are gardening near the roadway or if their kids are crossing the road or riding their bike, and they just don’t feel safe and don’t know what to do about this. It seems like from those meetings, people are frustrated. There’s a lot that needs to be done,” he said.
Data from Michigan State Police shows pedestrian involved traffic accidents have increased in recent years, indicating road safety has room for improvement.
“I think that there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to change the culture around respecting everyone that’s using the roadway and making sure that we have transportation equity,” Martin said. “We want to make sure our roadways, sidewalks and crosswalks are safe for everyone to use, especially for the most vulnerable users.”
The group meets monthly at the East Lansing Public Library. To keep up with when meetings and community bike rides are taking place, follow the Bicycle Friendly East Lansing Facebook page.