Complete Streets Initiative

On December 2nd, 2008 TART, in association with the Fixed Gear Gallery, Inside-Out Gallery, and BikeRiot had a combined night of film and conversation with the local premiere of Contested Streets, a documentary about how large cities around the world are beginning to set the clock back on auto-centric community design and engineering. Following the film there was a structured conversation looking for doable solutions for our own community.

Out of that discussion, with the 60 or so participants present, there came several threads of interest.

1. To work with MDOT in demanding that Division become a safer street for pedestrian/bicycle traffic. Calm the traffic, take the current four lanes down to three. Create real and practical crosswalks. These are just a few of the immediate suggestions.

2. Create a coalition of concerned and motivated citizens who will commit to being a presence at local government meetings including; Traverse City, GT County, and Garfield Township. Have someone from the coalition present at each meeting to make our presence known and to help correct ongoing issues.

3. Create a "Two - Wheel Tuesday" approach to having school children ride their bikes to school. Starting with a weekly assisted group ride from the Central Neighborhood to West Jr. High.

4. Advocate to Munson Medical Center to become the driving force for the physical wellness of their own employees and staff with a more proactive approach to pedestrian/bicycle participation in going to and from work at Munson.

5. Create one example of a "Cyclovia" type event that partitions a section of the community for a limited time each week or month for pedestrian traffic only. Create events that close streets with the intent of education people about pedestrian and bike friendly modes of transportation.

A steering committee was formed to keep these ideas moving in the community. This BikeRiot group area is for the furtherance of that discussion. Please feel free to add to discussions, and otherwise contribute to the project which we've deemed The Complete Streets Initiative.