"If you build it they will come" | Pedestrians and bicyclists and the Gordie Howe International Bridge

I mentioned this bridge in a blog entry about Trump ("Fourth of July | US 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence").  

The Windsor Ontario-Detroit Michigan crossing is the #1 place for goods movement between the countries.  

The Howe Bridge was built to provide better connections in the face of access and environmental issues with crossings at the privately owned Ambassador Bridge and that the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel is not big enough to accommodate the size of today's trucks, let alone the volume of traffic

Of course, Trump f* it all up.  Canada ended up paying for the entire cost, and will give a portion of toll revenues to Michigan.

But one of the most interest points from the standpoint of bicycle and pedestrian mode planning, is that the Bridge, even though it will require going through Customs/Border Patrol on both sides, because it is an international bridge, planned for bicycle and pedestrian access.

Pedestrians on the Gordie Howe International Bridge.  

Photos: Justin Wan, Detroit Free Press

And bicyclists

Even a wheelchair user

A lot of intra-nation/intra-state bridge planning ignores this.  This came up when I worked as a bike planner for Baltimore County Maryland.  While there are a number of bridges in the DC area like 14th Street from DC to Virginia and Wilson Bridge from Maryland to Virginia, many bridges in the Baltimore area don't have this kind of accommodation.

Under anti-sustainable mobility governor Hogan, Maryland deliberately didn't include bike and pedestrian accommodations on the Nice Bridge, which crosses the Potomac River, connecting Maryland (Charles County) and Virginia (King George County) via US 301, a bypass route, in the exurban part of the DC region ("No Bike Path for New Nice/Middleton Bridge," Maryland Matters).

There is another bridge crossing barrier on I-95, the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge carries Interstate 95 over the Susquehanna River between Havre de Grace and Perryville, Maryland. (It's also an issue between Philadelphia and New Jersey.)

While it's said that a bike crossing isn't allowed because it's an Interstate freeway, technically that isn't true.  Maryland could put a bike path there because ultimately these decisions are made at the state level.

Conclusion.  Generally I don't believe in "build it and they will come."  Instead I believe in "build it in the right place and setting it up for success and they will come," Canada illustrates the latter.  The right infrasstructure in the right place will be successful.  And it's better to add to access and connections rather than to subtract it.

Kudos to Canada!  

Ana Guajardo crossing into the USat Laredo, Texas on a 1,555 mile journey from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon to Chicago, Illinois ("Cyclist with a cause passes through Laredo on 1,555-mile journey," Laredo Morning Times).

Pedestrians and bicyclists can cross on at least some of the bridges from Laredo or El Paso to Mexico.

And there is a special international crossing, for pedestrians, only, the Cross Border Xpress, from California to the Airport in Tijuana.