by P.D. Lesko

Ann Arbor recently applied for and was awarded Gold-level status by the League of American Bicyclists. Cities self-report bicycling infrastructure (i.e. whether bike lanes are cleaned and plowed) in an application for League recognition. However, over the past 16 months cyclists and others have been pleading and posting photos to social media about scofflaws parking in the City’s bike lanes, including in the protected bike lanes. On Mar. 6 Ann Arbor City Council members voted to crack down on vehicles parked either intentionally or accidentally in the City’s bike lanes, including lanes that run through downtown that are protected by bollards.

It’s a crackdown similar to the one carried out when the City’s crosswalk ordinance was put into place. Since installation of the mid-street crosswalks and passage of a local ordinance that requires cars to stop for pedestrians entering a crosswalk, pedestrian-auto crashes and fatalities have risen slightly, according to AAPD data. Bicycle-car, and bicycle-pedestrian crashes (around 75 per year) have also increased, according to the latest crash data.

During a recent crackdown on vehicles parked in bike lanes, the Ann Arbor Police Dept. issued 28 tickets to motorists. City Council voted on Mar. 6 to continue the stepped up enforcement and to expand it.

According to a recent mobility plan prepared by City officials, around 83,400 people community daily into Ann Arbor and 24,100 people who live in the city commute to jobs within the city. The same mobility plan broke down usage of major thoroughfares (Washtenaw, Packard, S. State St. and W. Liberty). On each of the major streets, usage by people driving far exceeds the usage by people biking. On Packard, for example, the City’s data show the percentage of people driving (64%), taking the bus (20%), and walking (12%) is exponentially higher than people on bikes (4%). Nonetheless, the expansion of protected bike lanes has supported alternative transportation, but revealed a lack of planning by City Council and City staff where the need for downtown business deliveries are concerned. On Division St., for instance, delivery vehicle drivers are forced to choose between blocking protected bike lanes or lanes of traffic.

Nonetheless, according to Council member Dharma Akmon (D-Ward 4), an active cyclist who campaigned for Council by biking around to meet voters in her Ward, “Letters will be sent to all delivery companies (UPS, Amazon, FedEx, US Post Office, Uber Eats, Door Dash, Lyft, Grub Hub) informing them of our bike lane ordinance, which we are actively enforcing.”

One reason why bicyclists can’t commute year round is the weather and the condition of the City’s bike lanes.

A piece in The Michigan Daily about the bicycling infrastructure in Ann Arbor included an interview with Rachel Jacobson. She uses her bike “as her main source of transportation to get to work and participate in recreational activities. When winter came and the neighborhood streets along her usual route were not sufficiently plowed or salted in time for her to leave for work, Jacobson said she was left scrambling to adjust her daily schedule.” 

“Our family only has one car,” Jacobson told The Michigan Daily. “I work in Ypsilanti and sometimes it coincides with my husband’s meeting schedule, so it definitely affects my family. It feels like the city is deprioritizing clearing snow outside driveways and major arteries.”

While the saying “snitches get stitches” suggests it’s dangerous to be a tattletale, Council’s enforcement plan encourages those who spot violators parked in bike lanes to take photos of license plates and include the photos with complaints to the City’s Community Standards Dept. (an office whose staff members are supervised by the Ann Arbor Police Dept.). Should the violator have left before the arrival of a Community Standards officer, according to Akmon, “if they have a photo with a license plate along with the date/time/location, they [Community Standards] will send a warning letter to the registered owner of the vehicle that says future infractions may result in civil infraction.”

The City also plans to install new signage where there is none in bike lanes and to install bollards at the entrances of protected bike lanes. According to Akmon, the City already has the bollards, but was unable to install them because a smaller street sweeper needed to be purchased. At the Mar. 6 Council meeting, the money was allocated to purchase the new sweeper.

Will the crackdown and improvements increase bike commuting? Bollards can’t change the fact that frigid winter temperatures bring ice and snow. In fact, according to research “the most common barrier to biking is bad weather…. Snowy conditions are often synonymous with snow-clogged bike lanes and treacherous ice on the roads, but both can be mitigated with strong commitments to maintain cycling infrastructure in all four seasons.”

Ann Arbor plows curb-to-curb but in winter, engineered drainage from the middle of roads to the edges turns some bike lanes into sheets of ice from freeze-thaw. Those who do commute by bike point out that Ann Arbor’s protected bike lanes are behind the times. In other college towns, such as Bloomington, IN, bike infrastructure is completely separate from auto infrastructure. Bike paths are elevated above streets and/or run underneath major streets, such as the proposed path beneath the Maiden Lane bridge that leads to Michigan Medical.

Then, there are the frustrated drivers.

Nick Else is an Ann Arbor resident who regularly drives and bikes around the city. He understands drivers’ “reluctance to support bike lanes on every street since his travel time while driving along Main Street is now longer due to the presence of new bike lanes.”

“With the protected bike lanes, they now want you to follow the crosswalk signs on a bike in the protective lane,” Else said. “So that confuses a lot of people, especially cars, because they’ve been told all along that bikes have to follow the same laws as cars at these intersections.” 

The mayoral appointees on the Downtown Development Authority have said they appreciate the increased enforcement downtown. The downtown business owners whom the DDA members are supposed to represent, are less enthusiastic about the crackdown.

One downtown pizza shop owner was incandescent and has been for quite some time about the on street parking that was displaced by protected bike lanes. “How the hell am I supposed to receive deliveries? When I rented this space, there was on street parking. Now, there’s a bike lane and delivery drivers are going to be targeted? For little guys like me, small business owners, this town is just swirling down the toilet, and the DDA is doing the flushing for the Mayor and his idiot fanbots on Council.”

Anyone who sees a vehicle parked in a bike lane can call 734-994-2911 to report the location to the AAPD and Community Standards will respond.