Ferndale's Green Cruise the Antithesis to Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise

FERNDALE, MI — The antithesis of the gas-guzzling Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise celebrating Detroit's role in the development of the American automobile, the 2016 Sierra Club Green Cruise, will be held in Ferndale Saturday, Aug. 13.

It features bike rides, a street fair, and the grand parade of walkers, skaters, bicyclists, and others using non-motorized transportation. Begun in 2006 as a "green" response and counter event to the Dream Cruise, the event has become a regular summer happening and popular event for families and environmentalists. Held in downtown Ferndale, the Green Cruise always falls on the Saturday preceding the Dream Cruise.

In addition to the parade that begins at 1 p.m. on E. Nine Mile Road at Woodward Avenue, there will be three organized bicycle rides this year, including a 42-mile ride to Belle Isle that starts at 8 a.m., a 22-mile ride through Royal Oak and Berkeley to Birmingham that starts at 9 a.m. and a 4-mile family ride around Ferndale that begins at noon. Get details or register here.

The street festival with a kid’s activity tent begins at 10 a.m. and will include vendors, organizational booths, face painting, art activities, and street acrobats.

The annual Green Cruise Parade steps off at 1 p.m. and includes walkers, bikes, skateboards, roller skates, wagons, rollerblades, and other colorful human-powered means of transport. Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash is a Green Cruise parade grand marshall along with Miss Michigan Earth Mina Cunmulaj.

“We need to know there are alternatives to the gasoline engines, fossil fuels and exhaust fumes that are wreaking havoc to our atmosphere,” Nash said in a news release. “The science of climate change is real and it is affecting our lives.”

Greenspace Café and Kohl’s will be distributing 25 free children’s bicycle helmets during the festival and Detroit Bikes has donated a $700 bicycle that will be raffled off at 1:30 p.m.

All of the Sierra Club Green Cruise events can be found on Facebook under Green Cruise.