Category: Politics

by washcycle

Scott Goldberg, a 26 year old law school student, is running for a District 16 seat in the Maryland House of Delegates.

Goldberg says he will promote more bike lanes and facilities such as locker rooms in businesses to help encourage residents to commute without their cars.
Continue reading “Scott Goldberg, Pro-Bike Candidate for MD District 16”

Just one of many issues:

Walkable & Bikable Neighborhoods: What makes for a great place to live? Is it a community engaged in its own decisions? Is it access to restaurants and convenience retail? Is it proximity to transit, and the ease of walking and biking, whether for trips to the store or to the park? Surely it is all of the above and plenty more. I believe we must reform our Department of Transportation’s mission to focus more on making great places to live. A simple step is to prioritize walkability and put our resources behind it. A community that is walkable is a community with a high quality of life. The Federal government is moving to treat walking and biking as “equal” to driving in its prioritization. How many people would ride bikes if it were more safe and convenient? We should find out. Not only do we need connected, safe, separated bike lanes and trails county wide, but we should see just what we can accomplish in a city like Rockville, Bethesda or Silver Spring if we made biking a real priority. Let’s build a test case for a new vision.

Continue reading “Hans Riemer, a Democrat running for an at-large seat on the Montgomery County Council”

Political hobnobbing is not everyone’s cup of tea, but events like last Sunday are a great way to voice what is going right and wrong in Baltimore County’s support of bicycling. If you want to see a change get involved!

To highlight some of the people I talked with:

Ted Levin (running for County Council), how can you not be impressed with someone who on their first page of their brochure mentions Rails-to-Trails?

Vicki Almond (running for County Council), “Let’s sit down over coffee and talk what needs to be done to better accommodate cyclists.” I was really impressed with her lets get down to details and how can I help attitude.

Jon Cardin (State Delegate), how can you not be impressed with his continued support of cycling?

Bobby Zirkin (State Senator), another of our supporters in Annapolis.
Continue reading “Recap of Last Sundays Dancing in the Streets”

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Dear Friend,

I wanted to invite you to join me tomorrow, [today if you are reading this via email] Sunday, June 6, at 2:00p.m. at Dancing in the Streets in Pikesville. Reisterstown Road will be closed between Sudbrook Road and Slade Avenue from 2:00-7:00p.m. for concerts, food, and fun. Meet in front of Jilly’s Bar and Grill at 1012 Reisterstown Road to pick up a District 11 Team T-shirt. I’m looking forward to an exciting campaign season alongside my friends, Senator Bobby Zirkin and Delegates Dan Morhaim and Dana Stein.

Be sure to check out my Facebook page and invite your friends to become fans! If you have any questions, please visit my website at www.JonCardin.com.

Hope to see you on Sunday,

Jon S. Cardin

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Public Safety: Besides wanting to ensure that excessive crowding in Downtown Columbia not lead to undue increases in crime, I want to take a look at how police officers are deployed for maximum impact and integration with the communities they serve. For example, I would like to explore increasing bicycle patrols in our neighborhoods and village centers
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Continue reading “Alan Klein. a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Howard County Council in District 4”

I would love to see more politicians riding around on bikes and meeting and talking with the locals then standing on street corners waving at cars as they go by.

>>>[B’ Spokes: As I have noted elsewhere that Maryland has a very high pedestrian fatality rate and I will note here that the latest FARS data shows 34% of our pedestrian fatalities involve some level of alcohol. That’s way too high. This story along with the Snow hill fatality outcome is very depressing.]

JOSEPH F. VALLARIO JR., chairman of the House Judiciary Comittee in Maryland and a defense attorney by profession, has made a career of making problems go away for drunk drivers — both in the courthouse and in the legislature. He proved it once again in the recently ended legislative session in Annapolis by killing a measure that has proven effective elsewhere in preventing drunk drivers from operating vehicles. As a result, Maryland missed an opportunity to diminish the carnage on its roads, and the General Assembly blew a chance to rehabilitate its reputation as a haven of good-old-boy lawmakers in bed with special interests such as the alcohol industry.

Mr. Vallario killed a bill that would have allowed convicted drunk drivers to start their cars only after after blowing into the mouthpiece of devices installed on their dashboards that determine whether they are sober. The devices, called ignition interlocks, are simple and effective. In New Mexico and Arizona, where they are required for those guilty of driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 or above — a 180-pound man who’s downed more than four beers in a hour, for instance — they’ve helped cut the number of liquor-related accidents and deaths. The bill was passed without dissent by the state Senate and backed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the state police, Gov. Martin O’Malley, and, quite probably, a majority of the members of Mr. Vallario’s committee.
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Continue reading “Plastered”

While I will give former Governor credit for pushing through MD’s portion of the Great Allegheny Passage (https://www.atatrail.org/) But his choice for Secretary of Transportation (Robert Flanagan) resulted in the most draconian period for cyclists in this state in recent years. Flanagan wielded MDOT’s policy of accommodating cyclists where "practical and feasible" as a carte blanche rule for violating state law that the needs of cyclists MUST be considered in ALL transportation projects. Under Flanagan’s tenure Government employees where threaten to support the state’s position on the ICC trail or be fired. Flanagan in testimony before the legislature bragged about coming in under budget $40 million for years in a row while denying cycling accommodations as "too expensive" that would be only a small fraction of that amount. I will strongly assert any government agency that comes in under budget by that large of an amount is not performing its duties to the citizens of this state.

I feel that it is my duty to inform all those who support cycling that during Ehrlich’s administration the most absurd and laughable assertion ever that a bike trail is not environmentally friendly while a multi-lane highway full of single occupancy vehicles is environmentally friendly. We have made progress in undermining Ehrlich ‘s anti-ICC trail and a change back to that administrations could jeopardize that progress.

Continue reading “It’s Official: Robert “Highways are environmentally friendly but bikeways are not” Ehrlich plans to rematch O’Malley”

[Trimmed just for MD members]

	MEMBER	PHONE	STAFF
11.	Bartlett, Roscoe R-MD	52721	Faye Powers
35.	Cummings, Elijah E. D-MD	54741	Nikki Jones
135.	Ruppersberger, Dutch D-MD	53061	Deborah Casteel
166.	Van Hollen, Chris D-MD	55341	Bill Parsons
195.	Edwards, Donna D-MD	58699	Terra Sabag

If your member isn’t on the list, contact them!