Contrary to popular perception, Detroit is great place to bike. The city’s roadways are engineered for traffic three times larger than the current population, so there are plenty of wide roadways with few cars. Because Detroit follows a grid, there are also plenty of parallel neighborhood streets that can be used to avoid busy roads. On top of that, the city has been investing in protected bike infrastructure, and is beginning construction on the Joe Louis Greenway, a 27.5 mile biking and walking trail.
You can combine roads with protected bike infrastructure and roads that are naturally ideal for cycling (wide road with little traffic) to produce long routes that are low stress. These routes aren’t often marked on maps, and are usually learned through experience. To make it easier for new cyclists, I’m going to outline one of those routes, which connects downtown Detroit to Ferndale. I call it the Cass / Hamilton / Livernois bike corridor, or the Hamilton Bikeway for short.
Route
The Hamilton Bikeway starts at the beginning of the Cass Ave protected bike lane in downtown Detroit (Cass and Fort), and runs 11.4 miles to the end of the Livernois Ave protected bike lane at Livernois and 9 Mile in Ferndale.
It runs via Cass Avenue (Detroit), 2nd Avenue/3rd Avenue (Detroit), Hamilton (Detroit/Highland Park), and Livernois (Detroit/Ferndale).
Route Preview
The bikeway contains a variety of road configurations, reflecting various levels of traffic stress.
The first three miles run on the Cass Avenue bike lane, which is a parking protected bike lane.
Then we cross Grand Boulevard and turn onto 2nd Ave, which is a northbound one-way. 3rd Ave is the southbound counterpart, and has the same configuration. This roadway has four lanes but has low traffic volumes. It’s common to be able to take a full lane for yourself, and cars are still able to leave a full lane between for passing.
For one to three blocks, you have to use Chicago Blvd. If the curb lane is taken up by parking, you might have to ride close to traffic. You can also use Boston Boulevard, one block north, which has the same configuration but far less traffic.
Hamilton is another road that is fairly wide but has very low traffic volumes. Usually, cars will leave a full lane between them and you. You can also continue on 2nd/3rd Avenue, which run parallel to Hamilton and feel more like neighborhood streets.
After crossing back into Detroit, Hamilton turns into Pontchartrain and runs through Palmer Park. This stretch of roadway has a protected two way cycle track.
You do have to turn onto 7 Mile, which is by far the most stressful segment of this route. There are only two lanes in each direction, so you can usually hug the curb and leave enough room for cars to pass without getting close. I usually cut through Sherwood Forest.
After a few blocks on 7 Mile, you’re rewarded with the gorgeous Livernois Avenue bike lanes. These are raised onto the sidewalk, and run for a mile until the Ferndale/Detroit border.
In Ferndale, Livernois continues to be protected, albeit on-road. It continues like this to 9 Mile.
This route could use some infrastructure upgrades. In particular, 7 Mile really needs protected bikeways to connect Palmer Park and the new Livernois Ave lanes. Hamilton and 2nd/3rd could also use bike infrastructure. However, Highland Park is in a worse financial state than Detroit so it’s not clear when that would happen.
Points of Interest
I have only lived in Detroit for a little under two years, so I am not an expert in everything that there is to see and do along this route. But here are some things to check out along the Hamilton Bikeway (starting from downtown). Some of these points are not exactly on the bikeway, but are only a short (< 0.3 miles) distance away. I don’t spend a lot of time in certain neighborhoods (as you can tell by lack of recommendations), but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t many points of interest there!
Downtown Detroit
- Rosa Parks Transit Center (central bus station)
- Capitol Park
- Canelle (coffee shop)
- Detroit Bikes (bike shop)
- Beacon Park
Cass Corridor (south of Selden St.)
- Little Caesar’s Arena (sports arena, home of Pistons and Red Wings)
- Masonic Temple (event space)
- Temple Bar (bar)
- Founder’s Brewing Company (brewery)
- Detroit Shipping Company (food hall)
- Downtown Detroit Bike Shop (bike shop, not actually in “Downtown”)
- Hub of Detroit / Back Alley Bikes (another bike shop)
Midtown (north of Selden St.)
- Honest John’s (bar/restaraunt)
- Old Miami (classic dive bar)
- Slows to Go (restaraunt)
- Source Booksellers (Black owned bookshop)
- Treat Dreams (ice cream place)
- Spread Detroit (sandwich shop)
- Avalon Bakery (very cool bakery with coffee)
- Cold Truth (vegan ice cream place)
- Wayne State University (public university)
- Detroit Public Library (library)
- Detroit Institute of Arts (art museum)
- Detroit Historical Museum (museum)
Techtown / New Center to Boston Edison
- WeWork (co-working space)
- TechTown (co-working space)
- Detroit Amtrak station
- Former GM Headquarters
- Fisher Building (historically significant building)
- Pallister St (pedestrianized street)
- there are several churches and religious institutions along this stretch, but I’m not Christian so I’m not too familiar with them
- Peaches and Greens (grocery store)
- Voigt Park
- Boston Edison Historic District (largest residential historic district in country)
Highland Park
- Nandi’s Knowledge Cafe (known for poetry and books)
- Puritan Ave / Moss St (cool houses)
Northwest Detroit
- there are a lot of apartments with cool architecture around Palmer Park
- Palmer Park (park and recreation area)
- Detroit Golf Club (pretty sure this is private, but it is nice to look at)
- Dorothy G. Turkel House (only Frank Lloyd Wright house in Detroit, but is a private residence)
- Narrow Way (coffee shop)
- Kuzzo’s Chicken and Waffles (restaurant)
- Good Cakes and Bakes
Ferndale
- Ferndale Project (food hall)
- Blue Nile (Ethiopian food)