Category: Biking in Baltimore

Continue reading “Dead Man Walking – Look we are only the 4th worst”

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by buzoncrime

The future of Baltimore is in bicycling, and in walking.

Or it would be except for the horrific news of attacks on bicycle riders in Baltimore’s northern neighborhoods, especially near where Stephen Pitcairn was stabbed to death in a heartbreaking robbery heard by his mother hundreds of miles away.

First there was Dan Rodricks’ piece on an attack on a cyclist during the day near the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. A lot can be said about that story, not the least of which was the slow and uninspired police response, both on the 911 operator, the officer, and most importantly how the police force is structured to respond to crime from law abiding citizens. (Betcha, 23-1, if I said my armored car just got held up and I’m following it on Falls Road, the response might have been a little better). It’s nice that the guy who got pelted with stones was able to use some moral suasion to pester the kids into shaking his hand (some of them, anyway). Buz isn’t sure about that’s staying power. They learn to "bank" people for fun and power in their neighborhood, but it’s usually someone we never hear about. [By the way, I wonder what that police report looks like, when the officer eventually did find the victim–if any report was even written-heh, heh, since, actually, the kids committed an attempted armed robbery.]

Then we learn about folks being attacked as they ride their bikes through the "red zone" between North Avenue and lower Charles Village. Groups of guys knock riders off their bikes, and one of them grabs the bike from the fallen victim, and rides off. This has happened even during the evening commute hour.

Our city’s future and livelihood as a livable urban space is dependent on young persons, young professionals, artists, hipsters, and even good ole bike riders like yours truly getting out of their cars and riding to work or school or just around town. Our future depends on bicycling.

Yep, riding bikes. Nobody seems to get this yet. And our city leaders are all wrapped up in patting themselves on the back for looking backward and sponsoring the past: the silly Grand Prix race in downtown Baltimore. (Nascar has been losing attendance at many venues.)

Wouldn’t it have been wonderful instead, if our leaders looked to the future and took the coming end of fossil fuels, global warming and the oil spill in the Gulf seriously? Many well-educated young professionals get it: they choose local, organic, they recycle and they bicycle and walk.

Can you imagine the leadership shown if Baltimore dedicated itself to being truly bicycle and pedestrian friendly for that week, and making an effort to make cycling to and from work a priority all the time? Instead we pander to corporate interests, desperate to get any hunk of money from them, which will never cover the city’s costs to put on the event. Desperate for few more bucks for the hotels and minimum wage jobs many offer. For a week. For a city with one of the highest asthma and allergy rates in the country, one of the highest air polluted cities in the country, and a downtown already choked with traffic on weekends when really nothing is going on, and which has one of the longest average commutes in the country. Noise, pollution, street closings for people trying to get to work for weeks in advance, and after, oh, and yeah, sure, eventually we’ll go swimming in the harbor. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of police and fire overtime needed for the event, as well–in this fiscally broke city.

But the bike robberies might get a few arrests, then they’ll be forgotten. The message the city is sending: who cares about bikes and safe walking and stuff: let’s all go to cars and race: it’s great. Um, yeah, it’s about as exciting as watching paint dry–till there’s these great crashes and explosions. So, like Preakness, the city evolves into being an entertainment place for a few days, with lots of partying, drinking, out-of-towners having "fun", etc. But the city’s real problems basically get unaddressed, because they’re too hard.

There’s a lot of anger out there between the "haves" and "have-nots", and it often leads to violence. There’s little or no manufacturing jobs out there, and a large chunk of the city is a no-go zone, where an internal civil war rages over the "game", and the anger pops loose–mostly on weekends. One judge told me a couple of years ago, regarding our broken criminal justice "system", "the criminals aren’t afraid of us anymore". He was meaning us in general–the taxpayers.

So, despite what you may have thought about former Mayor Dixon, she did have a vision of clean and green for the city, and was an avid bicyclist herself. As John Lennon might have said, Imagine: closing downtown streets, not for a car race, but for bicycling and walking, in an effort to get folks moving, healthy, and combating obesity, and doing it often, and using it as a marketing and selling point in conjunction with the city’s other strengths. An effort to bring the city to a more human scale, where we get to chat and wave at each other and therefore become safer. Instead, we get 200mph cars racing each other downtown, and the bike robberies and "bankings" continue.
Continue reading “Baltimore and its future: crime and the attack on bicyclists”

By Dave Jamieson

Last night I had a few beers with a buddy who lives in Baltimore. This friend is an avid cyclist who does just about everything with his road bike, whether it’s commuting to the train station, going grocery shopping, or escaping the city limits on the weekends. But lately even the shortest rides around his neighborhood have come with a bit of anxiety. Apparently, a lot of cyclists in his part of town have been getting beaten up by groups of teenagers.

On Saturday the Baltimore Sun reported on the rash of assaults, muggings, and bike-jackings in Charles Village. Three arrests had been made in connection with two robberies before another cyclist was jumped and his bike stolen last Wednesday. "The attacks — which include several instances of harassment and rock-throwing, many that were not reported to police — generated discussion on Facebook among bike commuters and the city’s pedestrian planner, Nate Evans," the Sun reported.

My buddy asked me a question in earnest last night: Which do I think would be easier to use while biking — a can of Mace, or one of those retractable (and illegal) batons?

To people who ride in D.C., the situation in Baltimore must seem pretty familiar, especially the bit about the rock throwing. A few years back the City Paper ran a couple of articles about a spate of random assaults directed at cyclists and pedestrians in Columbia Heights and the U Street corridor. As Ryan Grim reported, rocks and bricks were raining down from Garfield Terrace onto cyclists who were trying to brave the bike lane along 11th Street above U. And as I reported, kids fresh out of Garnet Patterson Middle School in the afternoon were taking aim at cyclists and pedestrians.

I remember stopping to talk to a Garnet student who had trained a rock on me, unprovoked, while I was biking on V Street NW. The boy, who was among a large group, had been suspended before for rock-throwing with his friends. He explained to me that they often pulled cyclists off their bikes just to get a chase going. In other words, it was mostly about having fun. When I asked what kind of people they did this to, he looked me up and down, smiled broadly, and pointed right at me. If I recall correctly, I was wearing a Social Distortion t-shirt and an oversized blue bike helmet, looking every bit the gentrifying 20-something dork.

The recent incidents in Baltimore seem to be more about thievery than anything else; the kids have been, above all, after the bicycles. But the rock-throwing and harassment at play certainly suggest an undercurrent of joy to the whole thing. Honestly, I don’t really get it. But I do know this: When I’m riding my bike and I see a group of a dozen kids on the side of the road looking especially bored, I’ll often cruise over to the other side of the street. And I won’t feel guilty about it. [And I’ll note making a u-turn and finding another route is also equally viable.]

Continue reading “Why do some kids in Baltimore and D.C. take such joy in beating up cyclists?”

By Davelove

Continue reading “Tour dem veggies: An East Baltimore bicycle garden tour review”

A 0.7 mile pedestrian and bicycle loop between Franklin, Mulberry, Fulton and Calhoun Streets.

https://westbaltimorepedbikeloop.posterous.com/july-workshop-meeting-minutes

And this came up in in the comments on Baltimore Sun’s blog:

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Comment by: Baltimore Eagle

While I agree that firing the officer seems harsh on the surface, I know that Officer Rivieri had a pattern of overreacting that went much further than scolding a few “bratty” kids. There were a few incidents that I know of, one included running me off my bike in the service road near the Power Plant. I road onto the sidewalk to avoid him as he drove a vehicle at high speed down the bicycle lane, I reentered the bike lane after he passed and was shocked to see him in reverse chasing after me. He wedged my bike between his vehicle and the curb, jumped out, produced a club and shouted threats at me and actually pulled a can a mace out.
There was no provocation from me as I only stood there in shock, then backed away from him as he threatened me, apparently my offense was riding on the sidewalk.

Before you turn on the boys and their parents, “Dude,” “Man,” “Officer” are inconsequential…
I said matter of factly, “I rode onto the sidewalk because you were driving in the bike lane” and that just made matters worse.
There was an incident report filed and I eventually spoke to Internal Affairs.

If you can remember there were a few other videos of him exhibiting abusive behavior. Baltimore is of course not a easy job for police, I cut officers a lot of slack but provoking people is NOT helpful , he probably needed to be on desk duty, but it is also possible that he behaved that way towards his bosses and they had enough.

In short there’s more to this than the guy having just one bad day.

Continue reading “Baltimore cop who berated skateboarder fired”

I wrote this for Baltimore Brew but too late for the deadline:

Bob got reintroduced to the joys of bicycling by taking a class at AACC late in life. For him it was like discovering the fountain of youth and all the joys that life has to offer. For those of us who road with him you you could almost see a little boy emerge as he rode. After retiring he embarked on a cross country bike tour with not much more then a map and some camping supplies. For Bob life was a never ending adventure with something new and exciting around every corner. He considered everyone his freind, even the cars that honked at him, nothing could spoil the joy he experienced while cycling.

Bob clearly understood how to make the advocacy triangle work by connecting people, government and advocacy organizations together. I believe his most successful endeavor was the Gwynns Falls Trail, he was on the trail council and was influential in getting funding for the trail to be built, he lead regular rides on the trail through the BBC and helped start the first Tour dem Parks, Hon ride with Penny, all to promote the trail and cycling.

He brought the same energy to BYH and started the Moonlight Madness Rides to promote the Hostel and cycling in the City. There is not a spot in Maryland where you could drop Bob off and he could not find a bike route to the nearest scenic opportunity and the City was no different, from a bicycle there is something to see around every corner, something you are most likely to miss from the confines of a car. This is the spirit of Bob Moore, to live life with joy and not to miss the beauty it has to offer while making a freind or two or three along the way. And this is the spirit that lives on in the Moon Light Madness Ride.
Continue reading “Who is this Bob Moore and what does he have to do with the Moonlight Madness ride.”

Continue reading “Design Conversation #23: (Bike) Parking”