Alta Planning + Design was hired by the Downtown Detroit Partnership (DDP) to work with the City’s bike share operator, Shift Transit, to oversee system planning, site design, and permitting for the 43-station program.

As an evolving city with an active downtown and Midtown cultural, educational, and medical district, a key challenge for the system planning was to provide access to residents in struggling neighborhoods that lie adjacent to or in between, dense mixed use areas that typically prove ripe for bike share usage. Alta developed site plans for stations along Detroit’s evolving protected bike lane network, in a diverse range of residential neighborhoods and commercial districts.

Permitting required collaboration with various departments within the City of Detroit, as well as the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), Michigan Department of Natural Resources, and the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). For a handful of stations, Alta worked with DDP to secure license agreements to provide access to stations installed on private property, as well.

Read more about this project on the Alta blog.