Ferndale Moves! Plan Update

Ferndale Moves is the City's plan to improve walking, biking, rolling, and transit, building on the idea that streets are public spaces and should be safe, inclusive, and enjoyable for all. This plan highlights specific improvements that connect all neighborhoods within Ferndale and all of Ferndale’s neighbors with a safe, high-quality transportation network. As a small community within a large regional area, Ferndale continues to work towards its identity as welcoming and accessible for the entire region.

FerndaleMoves is built on four goals that will shape the future of mobility in Ferndale:

To understand the experience of living and moving through Ferndale today, the project team reviewed transportation data, previous planning efforts, stakeholder interviews, and public input from a comment map on the city’s website.   

The 2014 Ferndale Moves plan proposed a Safe Routes to Schools program, the installation of bike lanes and traffic calming, production of walking and bicycling maps, the creation of a bike parking guide for businesses and community placemaking. These programs and policies have had some success and the community is ready to take the next steps.  

To prepare for the 2020 update, the following plans were reviewed for project identification and consistency: Ferndale Moves 2014, Woodward Avenue Rapid Transit Alternatives and Safety Audit, Ferndale Master Plan, 2019 Ferndale Mobility Report, and the Ferndale Complete Streets Policy.

The FerndaleMoves Steering Committee completed a mobility audit for key streets to observe current walking, biking, driving, and transit conditions. In the FerndaleMoves mobility audit, Steering Committee members walked assigned streets and answered questions about the sidewalks, streets, and environment on a standard form. The information provided by the steering committee members regarding sidewalk conditions, crossing experiences, and transit access has been instrumental in developing this plan. Some key findings are summarized here:

Participation by Ferndale community members is crucial to creating a plan that serves the needs of those who work, live, play, and travel through the City. Under unique pandemic conditions, the project team connected with Ferndale community members online and through stakeholder interviews. The plan also considers regional needs by incorporating plans from neighboring jurisdictions and other key regional projects.

The public shared over five hundred comments and dozens of in-depth discussions in online activities over the course of five months.

Existing Conditions Interactive Map – Fall 2020

Open to the public between August 20 and November 4, 2020, residents used an interactive map to share ideas and provide improvement ideas for walking, rolling, biking, and taking the bus.

Around 170 people participated, providing around 260 comments.

Common comments included requests for additional bus stops and shelters, new and upgraded bikeways, and improvements to crosswalks, especially on busier thoroughfares.

Online Community Meeting – December 9, 2020

The project team held an online community meeting via Zoom on December 9, 2020 to initiate the second round of public engagement. The team presented initial findings and draft recommendations, and the 82 participants asked questions and discussed concerns using online polling, chat, and small breakout rooms. The team presented findings and initial plans from a study to upgrade Woodward Avenue by reallocating vehicle travel lanes for people walking, rolling, biking, and using transit. This type of improvement is often called a ‘road diet.’

A recording of the meeting is available online on the  FerndaleMoves website .

Meeting attendees expressed overall support for the projects, a desire to better connect networks with neighboring communities, and specific visions for the future of mobility in Ferndale.

Recommendations Interactive Map – Winter 2021

Following the Community Meeting, an updated interactive map was available through January 18 for residents to view draft recommendations, comment, and express support or opposition to proposed projects.

Around 74 participants contributed around 190 comments. The projects with the greatest amount of public support on the map included:

• Traffic calming zones
• Install bike lanes and improve transit on Woodward Avenue
• Shared use paths on Eight Mile Road and along the railroad

The project team interviewed six stakeholder organizations to learn about specific concerns. Each group shared important insights into constituent needs.

One major message was consistent:

Ferndale Accessibility and Inclusion Commission

This City Council-appointed Commission advocates for the needs of people with disabilities in Ferndale. Important accessibility issues include:

• Provide continuous pedestrian networks throughout the city.
• Lengthen crossing times and enable automatic detection at walk signals to accommodate people who move slowly.
• There is a desire for protected bicycle lanes and barrier-free streets.
• Resolve conflicts with different uses on city sidewalks to ensure pedestrian passage, and use single surface sidewalks for a more comfortable walking surface.

 Read more about the Ferndale Accessibility and Inclusion Committee. 

Ferndale Housing Commission

The Commission provides low-income and senior housing at two multifamily buildings and additional homes throughout the city. Needs included:

• Comfortably connect public housing residents to buses, especially at two multifamily buildings.
• Enhance bus shelters on Nine Mile Avenue.
• Improve the clearance of snow to ensure pedestrian access year-round.

 Read more about the Ferndale Housing Commission. 

Detroit Greenways Coalition

The Coalition advocates for bike facilities and bike culture in Detroit. Comments from the Executive Director included:

• Adding bicycle lanes on Woodward would be a major game-changer for mobility in the city and region.
• Crossing Eight Mile Road is a major barrier for bicycle and pedestrian connectivity.
• The City should implement policies to require bicycle parking at businesses.
• Ensure that traffic enforcement does not exclude or harass BIPOC riding through the city.

 Read more about the Detroit Greenways Coalition. 

Ferndale Inclusion Network

This community group formed to discuss racial justice and equity in the city; it also advocates for the needs of older adults. It has led discussions in Ferndale City Schools to discuss perceptions and challenges of race and equity.

• While the City of Ferndale is majority white, the shared Ferndale School District has a much higher population of BIPOC students (68% African American) due to the greater diversity of the District.
• Physical barriers between jurisdictions make it difficult for students to walk to the schools from Royal Oak Township, and students expressed concerns about how they are percieved by neighborhood residents.
• Areas of concern include the lack of sidewalks along 8 Mile Road and Livernois leading to the High School.
• Access from the west side of Ferndale Highschool, where Royal Oak Township is located, is limited.

The Ferndale Aging Friendly Report was produced by the Ferndale Inclusion Network, and it addresses issues for older adults, such as better snow removal, longer crossing times, traffic calming, increased seating on major roads, and more frequent bus service.

 Read more about Ferndale Inclusion Network. 

Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART)

SMART is the region’s suburban transit provider. The comments they shared included:

• Woodward Ave improvements, including removing a lane and dedicating space to bus traffic, are greatly needed.
• The agency wants to work with Ferndale on upgrading and maintaining stops and are open to creativity for stop design meeting basic design standards.
• SMART is open to developing microtransit pilots and exploring new transit options.

SMART also conducted a system-wide rider survey in 2019. Though responses came from throughout the region, some trends are relevant to considering transit improvement in Ferndale.

• Sixty-two percent of SMART riders are African-American.
• Ninety-one percent of riders walk to access their bus stop.
• Only eleven percent of passengers would drive if the bus was unavailable, and twenty-three percent would be unable to make their trip without the bus.
• Sixty-five percent of comments on the survey requested new service, and fifty-nine percent asked to increase service.
• At bus stops, passengers commented on the need to ensure snow clearance and trash cleanup and improve weather-proof shelter designs.

 Read more about SMART. 

Transportation Riders United (TRU)

TRU advocates for increased funding and coordination for Detroit-area transit. Comments included:

• More frequent and reliable bus service is needed to make it a popular option. Riders should be able to show up at FAST bus stops and catch a bus within 10 minutes, without having to check schedules. 
• More space needed along the roadways for bus stops and amenities.
• Promotion of routes and destinations of bus routes through signage and other initiatives could help increase ridership.
• Connecting to the new transit facility in Detroit under development is key.

 Read more about TRU. 

Ferndale’s streets are a part of the Detroit region’s transportation network. People move between cities in the region to meet various needs for work, recreation, shopping and more. An effective active transportation network must work across borders. Ferndale’s plan has been coordinated to tie into regional projects and plans, including those described below.

To promote equity in the region and meet the City’s 2020 “Commitment to Antiracism”, there is a need to remove physical barriers and welcome mobility between communities. Communities surrounding Ferndale, such as Royal Oak Charter Township and the City of Detroit, have many more Black residents than Ferndale and its other suburban neighbors. 

Eight Mile Road has the historic perception as a barrier or boundary between Detroit’s Black population and the whiter suburbs. Working together with its neighbors, Ferndale can blur this boundary by creating safe and welcoming crossings and continuous networks.

Regional initiatives that coordinate with or tie into this plan include:

Woodward Avenue Vision

Cities throughout the region have worked for many years to develop a vision for high-capacity transit and mobility-oriented development along Woodward Avenue (as described in the Existing Conditions section). Ferndale’s plans for Woodward Avenue would be a concrete step and could lead the region closer to achieving this vision.

 State Fairground Redevelopment and Transit Center 

Detroit recently approved a redevelopment of the State Fairgrounds at Woodward Ave and Eight Mile Rd. This will include a new transit center and connection hub between SMART and DDOT buses and proposes enhanced bicycle and pedestrian connectivity throughout the interior of the development site. The project will need to address bus access from Eight Mile Road into the site, and any changes to the intersection should also incorporate enhancements for pedestrian crossings of Eight Mile Road.

 Livernois Connection 

Detroit recently built a protected bicycle facility with streetscape enhancements along Livernois up to Eight Mile Road. This plan seeks to improve that connection for a smooth and continuous transition across jurisdictions.

 SEMCOG Regional Network 

The Metropolitan Planning Organization maintains a database of the existing and planned bikeway and pedestrian network. The database shows proposed projects in all of Ferndale’s neighboring jurisdictions.

Planned facilities include bikeways extending along Eight Mile Road and Woodward Avenue, a shared-use path along railroad right-of-way from Ferndale to Pontiac; extension of the bikeways on Nine Mile Road in both directions, and a dense network of bikeways throughout Detroit that could tie into the Ferndale network in multiple locations.

 Charter Township of Royal Oak Master Plan 

Royal Oak Township’s master plan has a stated goal to encourage non-motorized linkages with neighboring communities. It also aims to encourage the integration of a continuous region-wide bike/walkway system, seamlessly connecting to adjoining communities.

 Oakland County Trails Master Plan 

The countywide trails plan Includes Woodward Ave as being “under consideration” for a county multi-use trail. It also shows other potential routes under review to the west on Nine Mile Road and along Lincoln Avenue in Royal Oak.

 Royal Oak Master Plan 

Royal Oak’s master plan encourages the renovation of Woodward Avenue so that it accommodates all users, including pedestrians, bicycles, transit, freight, and motor vehicles, and includes a goal to implement a road diet for Woodward Avenue.

 Oak Park Complete Streets Plan 

Oak Park’s plan includes a stated priority of redesigning Nine Mile Road to accommodate all modes, with some of this work already underway.

 Hazel Park Master Plan 

Ferndale’s eastern neighbor has the stated intention to extend the road diet and bicycle facilities to the east on Nine Mile Rd.

Multimodal connectivity is the degree to which you can access destinations safely and directly by walking, biking, rolling, and using transit. Places with greater multimodal connectivity have dense networks of direct, comfortable routes that can be used to access many destinations. Places with lower multimodal connectivity have incomplete networks, areas where destinations are inaccessible without an automobile, or other deficiencies. 

The following recommendations respond to feedback from community input, stakeholder interviews, and an analysis of Ferndale’s current mobility network.

• 24 policies/programs
• 80 infrastructure projects
• 42 crossing upgrades 

See the  Complete Project List  and the map below for more details.

People will be more likely to use Ferndale’s new investments if they feel safe, know how to use them, and feel ownership in new facilities. This is where programs and policies come in.

Programming can support transportation in many ways, including getting residents to see their streets in a new light. Examples of programs include walk-to-school programs, engagement programs, open streets, bike clubs, bike maintenance classes, safety education for all users, and programs that measure the success of active transportation investments through evaluation.

Policies also contribute to the success of infrastructure investments. Examples of this include Vision Zero policies based on the concept that all traffic related deaths and serious injuries are preventable. Complete Streets policies which say that streets should be balanced to support all users, or Land Use policies which govern the way that streets interact with and support private property.

This work is not new to Ferndale. Programs and policies already in place in Ferndale include Bikeshare operations, regular street safety education campaigns, Bike to Work Day celebrations, Bike Rodeos, and the adoption of a Complete Streets Ordinance in 2010. Some key non-infrastructure recommendations are highlighted below, find the full list  here  and in the appendix.

• Update or adopt Design Standards to include contextual guidance for curb cuts, sidewalk widths, crosswalks, bike lanes, and signal design.
• Engage youth in street design and safety through increasing Safety Town and Bike Rodeo events as well as beginning a Safe Routes to Schools program that engages schools in the identification and implementation of street improvements
• Develop and adopt citywide principles for future transportation technologies such as dockless bike share, scooters, automated vehicles, connected vehicles, and other "smart" transportation technologies. Principles should ensure that emerging technology place a high priority on public transit, plan for future systems, and address curbside use.
• Increase access to electric charging stations for vehicles of all sizes
• Shape decision making policies around climate action to ensure that new transportation spending is used to reduce emissions. This must be coordinated with surrounding communities including Detroit, Hazel Park, Oak Park, Royal Oak Township, the City of Royal Oak and Pleasant Ridge.
• A Vision Zero Policy and Plan committing to working towards zero traffic-related deaths and serious injuries.
• Establish curbside management policies that priorities vulnerable road users and ensure that those that need access to the curb have it. This policy should address driveway standards, parking regulations, and pick-up/drop-off zone regulations.
• Lessen the impacts of construction on those walking, rolling, and biking by establishing guidelines for temporary traffic control that maintains pedestrian and bicycle access.

This plan outlines a course of action for meeting the access, equity, environment, and community goals of Ferndale. It is intended to help integrate walking, biking, and transit use into everyday decision-making and long-term planning. Together, these efforts will work to create a safer, more equitable transportation system for Ferndale.

Building a complete network of high-quality walking and biking infrastructure in Ferndale will take time. This plan focuses on projects that are either easy to implement, aligned with ongoing work such as repaving, or critical to creating a basic connected network. Moving forward, Ferndale is committed to updating FerndaleMoves every five years and while this plan includes some long-term projects that will take 10+ years to complete, the implementation strategy focuses on the near-term steps that will make those projects a success.

After compiling all the potential projects, as shown in Section 4, projects were prioritized based on this Plan’s goals, feasibility, and public support. Read more about FerndaleMoves project prioritization process here:  Project Prioritization .

Read more about the first projects the City will address in the  5 Year Project List .

Read more about non-infrastructure recommendations to be implemented in the next 5 years in the  5 Year Program and Policy List .

Woodward Avenue, Hilton Road, and the Ferndale Slow Zones program are key to establishing a connected network of complete streets. Completing the Woodward Avenue separated bike lane installation will change the experience for everyone entering and moving through Ferndale. Woodward will no longer be a barrier to people walking and biking. Hilton Road is scheduled for repaving in the next 5 years and this presents an enormous opportunity for Ferndale to act on the Complete Streets ordinance and upgrade the Hilton Road bike lanes with protection for bicyclists and improvements for those crossing Hilton Road on foot or using mobility devices. Finally, traffic calming is a common request from residents of Ferndale; this program will establish residential streets as comfortable, slow-speed community spaces that encourage walking and biking. 

Slow zones are more than just areas with lower posted speed limits. Physical measures will be used to reduce the speed at which vehicles can safely drive. These measures, known as traffic calming treatments introduce physical changes to the roadway to help manage vehicle speeds and volumes, increase comfort for all roadway users, and reduce conflicts. Treatments are most effective when placed at regular intervals of around 200 to 400 feet. Pedestrian islands, traffic circles, and curb extensions should be combined with signage to act as a gateway treatment on all streets entering the Slow Zone.

Some improvements may be initially installed as demonstrations using low-cost, removable materials before more permanent features are installed.

Treatments for Slow Zones may include some combination of the following improvements, or others as appropriate:

The 2020 update to FerndaleMoves involved a dedicated group of elected and appointed officials, steering committee members public employees and the general public have helped to shape this plan. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic made 2020 a challenging year to gather important feedback from Ferndale residents and visitors that is so critical to a successful plan. The project team has had to be creative in the outreach approach and has used stakeholder interviews, web surveys, interactive maps, and virtual tours to ensure that this Plan reflects the communities needs and goals.

Ferndale Moves is a living plan that is always looking for ways to improve transportation in the City of Ferndale. In order to continue to promote a community supported vision, the City of Ferndale is committed to continually prioritizing transportation projects, programs and policies that address the ambitious goals outlined in this Plan:

1. Environment - Decrease emissions by prioritizing and investing in energy-efficient transportation options.
2. Community Life - Connect Ferndale’s key destinations with a network of safe, comfortable streets that make daily travel an enjoyable aspect of community life. 
3. Equity - Prioritize access to high-quality, non-automobile transportation options for people historically underrepresented in transportation planning including people of color, low-income people, and people with disabilities.
4. Regional Mobility - Promote and improve public transit and high-quality biking connections to economic centers throughout the entire region. 

The City and project partners encourage continuous feedback on this plan and the exciting mobility projects to come! Do you have questions or comments? Please provide your feedback here:

•  Complete Project List 
•  Project Prioritization Method 
•  Priority Project List 
•  Priority Program and Policy List