Detroit BikeBlog, Cycling the Renaissance City


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May 27th, Bike News

Just some odds and ends. At long last we've another bikestore downtown! The Wheelhouse bike rental shop opened in April and is located by the Rivard Carousel on the Riverwalk. Judging by the number of Wheelhouse hire bikes riding between Belle Isle and the Ren, they look to be off to a good start. Their hires appear cheerful, sturdy and simple to ride single gears - but they do have a repair and tuning shop inside for anyone riding their own bikes - a small web site is here as well as a blog. Luck to all involved!!

Also the volunteer staffed Back Alley Bikes at MLK/Cass (3611 Cass) have extended their hours and may be expanding with the Hub open 10-6 M-Sa and 12-2 Su. This is all great news for anyone stuck with a bust rim downtown and little choice in the past but to head for the suburbs for repairs.

After nearly five years of biking around downtown I guess I've become used to seeing police cruisers driving the wrong way down one-way streets and through red lights. I'm not sure whether this is a Detroit thing, where I used to live it was rare to see a police driver do this, let alone without warning lights/sirens. But this is a difficult city and the police force has only recently been brought back towards its full strength.

Nonetheless keeping an eye out for DPD cars and avoiding them has always seemed sensible. Over the last weekend two of us were riding along Atwater and keeping well right on the road to allow a large SUV to pass. At this point near the Harbor the street is narrowed by parked cars for maybe a hundred yards opposite the park. The SUV was giving us a good space and we were comfortable with him passing us. Beyond the park a DPD vehicle was approaching. Not at speed. Just slowly cruising towards the parked cars that were on his side of the road. At this point a driver would generally slow or stop to let such a large SUV in a narrow space get by the line of parked cars.

This wasn't what happened. As he approached the parked cars the DPD driver suddenly took an assertive approach, hitting the throttle and taking the middle of the road barreling at a good speed directly at the SUV. The driver had no choice but to move away from the police car and towards us just making enough room for the police vehicle to squeeze by. A worrying experience as there is no way to get over the foot high curbs off the road at that point. The police driver at no time gave warning of his sudden decision to flatten the accelerator and take the middle of a narrow road. The only warning was a loud blast on his siren at the SUV as he passed which only made the driver swerve more towards us. This and other DPD incidents leave me shaking my head...

On a related note, Andy over at BTT recently pointed out The Ride of Silence.