A before-and-after illustration of East Jefferson and its new bike lanes. Click image for a larger version.
East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit will go on a road diet this spring, shrinking from three to two lanes in both directions and gaining protected bike lanes.
The bike lanes will be similar to ones already installed on East Jefferson near the border with Grosse Pointe Park in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood. They’ll stretch from Lakewood Street to Rivard Street downtown, according to a flier being distributed by Jefferson East Inc. to local businesses that also touts traffic calming, safer pedestrian crossings, re-striping the roads and designating on-street parking as benefits.
Crain’s Detroit Business reports the $1 million project will start in early May. The bike lanes will be marked by plastic posts and protected by a lane of on-street parking, similar to bike lanes installed last summer on Cass Avenue in Midtown.
Melanie Piana, deputy director of Jefferson East, said the community development nonprofit received funding from the Knight Foundation last year to develop educational pieces and support the Detroit Rides campaign. On the Daily Detroit Happy Hour Podcast last year, we spoke with Jefferson East Executive Director Josh Elling about bike lanes and other redevelopment efforts, including what he said at the time was $53 million in real estate investment. You can listen to that episode in the player below.
Separately on Tuesday, the Detroit Greenways Coalition said the city of Detroit is close to signing off on the acquisition of 8 miles of abandoned rail corridor for the planned 26-mile Joe Louis Greenway, formerly known as the Inner Circle Greenway. The organization is also asking bicyclists to come out to a public meeting April 18 from 6-8 p.m. to show support for more bike lanes in Detroit at the Northeast Guidance Center at 2900 Conner St.
It figures to be another busy season for bicycling infrastructure projects in the Motor City.
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