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.

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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

