Written by Mitchell Mantey, a Detroiter, bus rider, TRU volunteer, and member of TRU’s Board of Directors.
What is more important – the safe and convenient movement of people or pavement type and storage for vehicles?
The Michigan Department of Transportation is planning an exciting reconstruction of Michigan Avenue through Corktown that entails installing dedicated bus/autonomous vehicle lanes, high quality transit stops, curb protected bike lanes, and additional pedestrian crossings. These changes would substantially improve the roadway for transit riders, people riding bikes, and people walking or relying on mobility devices and are likely to improve safety for all road users.
Caption: MDOT rendering of planned improvements to Michigan Avenue. Available at US-12 (Michigan Avenue) Corktown Improvement Project
Yet the Corktown Business Association recently launched a campaign to, in their words, “protect Michigan Avenue in Corktown” from this terror. This “Save the Bricks” (STB) campaign calls MDOT’s proposed improvements to Michigan Avenue a secretive threat to their community’s heritage because implementing these improvements will relocate many of the bricks currently used in the roadway.
While STB seeks to protect bricks and parking, TRU and MDOT are working to protect transit riders and people walking or cycling on Michigan Ave!
The historic bricks do not need saving – they’ll be reused in new, widened sidewalks.
At the heart of the matter lie Michigan Avenue’s historic bricks, which date to the 1930s, when, according to MDOT’s planning and environmental linkages report (PEL), 190 businesses were partially or fully demolished in order to widen the avenue from its historic 66 feet to its current width of 120 feet.
Although predicated on “saving” the brick, the STB campaign presents a fundamentally distorted picture of the bricks’ fate. The bricks do not need saving, because the bricks – the physical pavers currently used in the roadway – are going to be saved. MDOT’s plans call for reusing the 1930s bricks in the new, widened sidewalks in order to honor their history while also enhancing the pedestrian experience. Moving them to the sidewalk has the additional benefit of saving the bricks from additional wear from trucks, buses, and other motor vehicles. According to MDOT’s PEL, the Corktown Historical Society accepted this plan.
Parts of the roadway will even keep their current “brickish” appearance. MDOT’s plan calls for concrete pavers that mimic red brick to be installed on Michigan Ave’s road surface between (roughly) Brooklyn and Trumbull and between Rosa Parks and 14th. Any improvements to Michigan Ave must balance the need to improve the road surface with the importance of maintaining the look and character of Michigan Ave, and MDOT’s proposal strikes that balance as best as anyone could hope.
So what’s the opposition really about? Sharing the road?
However, the real issue here is that the STB campaign places a higher priority on the “preservation” of these bricks than the safety and convenience of people who aren’t using a motor vehicle. The flyer making the rounds asks people to “Keep 4 lanes, Turn Lanes, & On-Street Parking!” If you’re counting at home, that’s a whopping seven lanes devoted exclusively to the transportation and storage of single-occupancy vehicles.
MDOT proposes to repurpose two lanes for use by buses and autonomous vehicles, leaving one general purpose travel lane in each direction, a left turn/U-turn lane at major intersections, and parking lanes. In fact, because the bus stops will now be located in the median of the road instead of at the sidewalk, there may actually be more parking available when the project is finished.
Yes, MDOT could have done more to make the public aware of this project and build support in the community. However, MDOT held multiple public engagement meetings from 2019 to late 2021 and, according to the agency’s PEL, proactively consulted with the Corktown Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office, and the Corktown Business Association. Many of the concerns the CBA raised in those meetings were addressed in the final plan, making the STB campaign’s accusations regarding a lack of transparency appear rather misleading. I personally attended three of MDOT’s community meetings as well, and the clear majority of attendees supported the bus, bike, and pedestrian improvements.
Returning Michigan Avenue to its multimodal historic roots.
The truth is that Michigan Avenue, like many of the “spoke roads” in Detroit, once was a multimodal road with transit lines running down the middle. The street cars running down Woodward, Gratiot, Fort, Grand River, Jefferson, and, yes, Michigan were removed in the 1950s. Now, 70 years later, MDOT proposes to restore median-running facilities for transit vehicles. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely the streetcars will return any time soon, but TRU nevertheless enthusiastically supports MDOT’s decision to return Michigan Avenue in Corktown to its historical function as an important transit corridor with high quality transit infrastructure running down its middle.
Caption: Street Cars running down Michigan Avenue transporting fans to Tigers Stadium. Courtesy of the Detroit News. Not pictured: many of the businesses now opposing the bus lanes.
Support serious improvements in transit service for SMART, DDOT, and future transit
As important as it is that we honor the past by prioritizing transit and improving the pedestrian experience, it is even more important that we prepare Michigan Avenue for the future. The proposed transit lanes would support DDOT’s reimagined service plan. DDOT Reimagined calls for multiple bus routes to converge on these new bus lanes, thus improving them all. Riders of the Joy, Linwood, Michigan, and Vernor buses will enjoy the lanes, enhancing services for residents across Corktown and beyond. Naturally, riders on SMART’s Michigan FAST service would also benefit from the improved facilities. The buses will be free of conflicts with car traffic due to the dedicated lanes, speeding up trips for transit riders and improving safety for everyone.
Bus stops will also be much larger, nicer, and more accessible to people using mobility devices. Importantly, the bus stops will also be shaded and compatible with future BRT service, which would improve connections for everyone from Corktown and Southwest Detroit to the western suburbs and DTW. Failing to invest in these improvements now, when the funding is available and construction ready to be scheduled, would be yet another wasted opportunity for the region at the expense of transit riders.
MDOT is finally getting smart, finally treating transit riders and people walking and biking like real human beings with dignity.
In the end, if we want our city and region to work for everyone, we cannot keep losing these battles. The needs of metro Detroiters who rely on the buses must outweigh concerns that the new brick-looking concrete pavers will not be the same exact brick that was laid in the 1930s.
It is deeply saddening that the STB campaign is organizing to push MDOT backwards. If the STB campaigners get their way, and the new bus facilities join the scrapheap of aborted Detroit transit investment, it will be yet another blow to the dignity and stability of the tens of thousands of metro Detroiters who rely on our bus systems. It will send the message that we care more about dead bricks than we do about the lives and livelihoods of our neighbors, friends, and relatives.
So, please, join us in our campaign to Save the Bus Lanes!
Share this action alert, and mark your calendar for MDOT’s next public meeting on this project:
Thursday, September 12, 4:30-7:00 pm, at the Gaelic League of Detroit (2068 Michigan Ave., Detroit, MI 48216)