The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com News 2 — Wednesday, March 16, 2022 PHOTO Moving beyond Gold-Level: Ann Arbor cyclists want better biking infrastructure Bike-lane advocates talk safety, accessibility concerns ALI CHAMI/Daily Kelly Hoppenjans performs at Michigan’s Got Talent on Wednesday evening. The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is publishing weekly on Wednesdays for the Winter 2022 semester by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. If you would like a current copy of the paper mailed to you, please visit store. pub.umich.edu/michigan-daily-buy-this-edition to place your order. PAIGE HODDER Managing Editor phodder@umich.edu DOMINIC COLETTI and KRISTINA ZHENG Managing News Editors news@michigandaily.com Senior News Editors: George Weykamp, Kaitlyn Luckoff, Kate Weiland, Nadir Al-Saidi, Roni Kane, Shannon Stocking Investigative Editor: Sammy Sussman, Vanessa Kiefer JULIAN BARNARD and SHUBHUM ‘SHUBS’ GIROTI Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com Senior Opinion Editors: Brandon Cowit, Quin Zapoli, Siddharth Parmar, Olivia Mouradian, Jess D’Agostino SABRIYA IMAMI and LILLIAN PEARCE Managing Arts Editors arts@michigandaily.com GRACE BEAL and TESS CROWLEY Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com GRACE TUCKER Managing Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com Deputy Editors: Taylor Schott, Julia Maloney CAROLINE ATKINSON and ETHAN PATRICK Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com Senior Copy Editors: Melissa Kurpiers, Ella Krumerman, Alex Stamell, Lizzie MacAdam, Olivia Bradish, Dana Elobaid, Audey Ruhana DORA GUO and ERIC LAU Managing Online Editors webteam@michigandaily.com Project Managers: Zach Breger, Simran Pujji, Christina Tan, Aasher Akhlaque, Der-Yu Meng, Salik Aslam HANNAH ELLIOTT and JULIA RAGUCKAS Managing Video Editors video@michigandaily.com Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Yasmine Slimani, Maya Kadouh, Anchal Malh, Safura Syed Senior Sports Editors: Aidan Woutas, Josh Taubman, Brendan Roose, Jack Kingsley, Jacob Cohen, Abby Snyder Senior Video Editor: Jordan Shefman Senior Social Media Editors: Christian Juliano, Justin O’Beirne, Martina Zacker, Jillian Sacksner, Mishal Charania, Mae Veidlinger, Kirti Aplash, Jacob Cohen Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com ARTS SECTION arts@michigandaily.com SPORTS SECTION sports@michigandaily.com NEWS TIPS tipline@michigandaily.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR tothedaily@michigandaily.com EDITORIAL PAGE opinion@michigandaily.com AARON SANTILLI Business Manager business@michigandaily.com JASMIN LEE Editor-in-Chief eic@michigandaily.com PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION photo@michigandaily.com NEWSROOM news@michigandaily.com CORRECTIONS corrections@michigandaily.com JARED GREENSPAN and NICK STOLL Managing Sports Editors sports@michigandaily.com Senior Arts Editors: Emilia Ferranti, Mik Deitz, Katrina Stebbins, Sarah Rahman, Fia Kaminski Arts Beat Editors: Emmy Snyder, Jacob Lusk, Kai Bartol, Laine Brotherton, Matthew Eggers, Meera Kumar SOPHIE GRAND and ERIN SHI Managing Design Editors design@michigandaily.com JESSICA KWON and ELIYA IMTIAZ Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com EVAN DELORENZO and ZOE STORER Managing Social Media Editors socialmedia@michigandaily.com Editorial Staff Business Staff Senior Photo Editors: Julia Schachinger, Jeremy Weine, Kate Hua, Emma Mati, Anna Fuder Assistant Photo Editors: Dominick Sokotoff, Jenna Hickey, Lila Turner, Julianne Yoon, Becca Mahon IRENE CHUNG Creative Director DOUG MCCLURE and MAX ROSENZWEIG Managing Podcast Editors podeditors@michigandaily.com KATIE LYNGKLIP Sales Manager ADVERTISING wmg-contact@umich.edu AYA SALIM Digital Managing Editor ayasalim@umich.edu ANDY NAKAMURA and RIPLEY NEWMAN Chairs of Culture, Training, and Inclusion accessandinclusion@michigandaily.com Senior Podcast Editors: Sofia Terenzio, Isaac Mintz Associate Editor: Lilly Dickman CHEN LYU Daily Staff Reporter Senior Layout Editor: Ellie Orlanski JULIANNE YOON/Daily When Nate Phipps, the co-founder of Bike Alliance of Washtenaw and managing director of the Center for Education Design, Evaluation and Research at the University of Michigan, first moved to Ann Arbor from Boston in 2014, he said he felt disappointed by the comparative lack of biking infrastructure. Since then, Phipps decided to get involved in community organizing to make Ann Arbor more bike- friendly. “My (first) impression was that (Ann Arbor) is fine for me, but it’s not fine for people who are more cautious or less experienced riding in a city,” Phipps said. “For a decade, Ann Arbor was behind (in) real progressive bicycle infrastructure.” Since Phipps arrived, biking infrastructure in Ann Arbor has improved substantially. In December 2021, Ann Arbor was named by the League of American Bicyclists as a Gold-level Bicycle Friendly Community in recognition of recent infrastructure improvements, with its bike lanes expanding from 37.4 miles in 2012 to 90.1 miles in 2022. Across the U.S., 35 of 850 communities who applied were awarded Gold-level status, with just 5 awarded the highest status: Platinum-level. This award is not only based on quantitative data — such as the number of bikers and miles of bike paths — but also takes into account community education and biker advocacy. In July 2020, the city of Ann Arbor also implemented the Healthy Street Pilot Projects, which included closing off downtown streets to expand social distancing procedures for pedestrians and bicycle traffic. State Street and its intersection with North University as well as Catherine Street and Miller Avenue are two major street areas included in the project. City Council’s July resolution asks the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority to implement the project through 2022, so the project will return again this spring. While the city is supportive of biking infrastructure, since it aligns with the A2ZERO plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, biking development in Ann Arbor still has room to improve. To take a deeper look into the current state of biking accessibility, The Michigan Daily spoke with multiple cyclists and bike-lane advocates to discuss safety and accessibility concerns they have about biking infrastructure in Ann Arbor today. Inter-campus commuting concerns Fred Feng, U-M Dearborn researcher and assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, said he biked over the East Medical Center Bridge hundreds of times during the five years he was a Ph.D. student at the Ann Arbor campus. The Fuller and East Medical Center Bridge leads to the University’s medical center and connects the Central and North Campuses. Recently, the Ann Arbor City Council approved a proposal to widen the bridge with a fifth lane for automobiles, which prompted community backlash, particularly from pedestrians and cyclists who rely on the bridge for daily commuting. Based on his research into safe and sustainable transportation methods as well as his personal experiences, Feng said the proposed design for the Medical Center Bridge is not only counterproductive to climate change mitigation efforts — by accommodating more vehicle traffic — but also exacerbates existing safety challenges to cyclists. “The Federal Highway Administration recommended a minimum of 5 feet width for people to walk side-by-side (in one direction),” Feng said. “A total of 8 feet, which is the width of the new design on the west side, was too narrow even for current bi-direction walking and biking traffic.” The University’s community relations director Michael Rein suggested at the Feb. 7 City Council meeting that reducing the width on the west side of the bridge to 8 feet will be offset by widening the east side of the bridge to 13 feet, which could divert some non-motorized traffic from the west. Feng, however, warned it might be more difficult than the University thinks for commuters to adjust their usual routes in light of the changes. “If we learned something from the past decades, it is that some people are going to do things that make the most sense to them,” Feng said. “Simply narrowing the west side of the bridge, which is the most straightforward connection for many, and telling (them) not to use it is highly unlikely to work.” Read more at MichiganDaily. com BUSINESS Condado Tacos combines signature flavors, grafti-style art in new downtown location Ohio-based company opens with a special “Year of Yum” for first 100 customers Downtown Ann Arbor is now home to its very own Condado Tacos, a build- your-own taco joint complete with vibrant floor-to-ceiling murals and a signature margarita menu. The Ohio-based company opened its new location to the public on March 3 with a special “Year of Yum” which offered the first one hundred visitors one free taco per week for a year. The eatery also offered all customers $5 margaritas and the chance to win a $1,000 gift card. The opening-day special offerings attracted hundreds of students and local residents to the restaurant, with the first visitors lining up as early as 8 a.m. LSA senior Katherine Springer said she attended the opening for the chance of earning a year’s worth of free tacos, especially since she has visited other locations of Condado Tacos. “We love free food,” Springer said. “My sister actually lives outside of Cincinnati (and) she has (Condado Tacos locations) around her so we’ll go to eat (there). And I know they’re really good tacos, so I just got really excited.” Since the company’s establishment in 2014, 30 Condado Tacos locations have popped up across six states in the Midwest. According to Rob Hanley, the Ann Arbor location’s general manager, 401 E. Liberty Street is the company’s fourth installment in Southeastern Michigan’s Detroit metropolitan area. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Hanley said he attributed much of the opening day’s success to the company’s reputation across the Midwest. “We got past a hundred (people by) around 9:15,” Hanley said. “We have a lot of people that go around the Midwest, where we’re predominantly located, (who) want to come in (and) be one of the first ones in the space to see all the new artwork and stuff like that … So we filled up shortly after we opened for the first time at 11.” Inside, the restaurant’s wall murals are filled with vibrant splashes of color and graffiti-style lettering. One tag reads “University of Yum,” referencing the location’s proximity to the University of Michigan’s campus. Hanley said the restaurant collaborated with local artists to bring the indoor space to life. “We hire a lot of local muralists and artists to come in and give our space a unique and very vibrant display,” Hanley said. “We are very big on supporting the arts … Part of our building is (designed) to remind people of the Ann Arbor Graffiti Alley. So we have portions of our building that recreates that vibe with the different types of graffiti art that artists came in and did.” LSA junior Zhen Lin said the restaurant’s ambiance was well-suited to the younger demographic of U-M students. “The first thing I really like is the environment and the backdrop,” Lin said. “I think it’s more fitting to our generation. We like to Instagram a lot of our food and (take) pictures around them. (This) is the perfect place to do that, everything’s really eye-appealing.” Hanley said the restaurant is looking forward to creating new job opportunities within the local community. “We’re big believers in ‘come as you are,’” Hanley said. “Being able to give opportunities to people to (grow with the company) and advance themselves … Being able to employ a lot of the local people is absolutely amazing … We don’t have a uniform, we want you to come as you are.” Daily Staff Reporter Irena Li and Daily News Contributor Serina Jiang can be reached at irenayli@umich.edu and sejiang@umich.edu. IRENA LI & SERINA JIANG Daily Staff Reporter & Daily News Contributor