Category: Biking in Baltimore

Via Bikemore

Bikemore, the bicycle safety advocacy organization for the Baltimore metropolitan area, is pleased to see the priority which has been placed on multi-modal transportation planning in the Southeast Strategic Transportation Vision, and is encouraged that DOT continues to prioritize biking and walking in future planning efforts.
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We do have concerns with a few specific points within the plan:
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https://www.bikemore.net/news/bikemore-comments-on-the-southeast-strategic-transportation-plan

Learn about Baltimore’s long history with vacant houses (both tearing them down and fixing them up), the famed Dollar House program, and more on this bike ride and tour Eli Pousson, Director of Preservation & Outreach at Baltimore Heritage.

The tour is approximately 10 miles with multiple stops.

https://baltimoreheritage.org/event/vacant-houses-preservation-demolition-renewal-bike/

[B’ Spokes: So after the police started ticketing cyclists for failure to stop at stop signs, the cyclists got together and they all stopped at stop signs as the law requires. Motorists were not happy with the result.]

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/07/30/wiggle-stop-in-cyclists-bring-san-francisco-traffic-to-a-standstill-wednesday/

By Mi Letts

Every time the weather warms up in Baltimore, it is time for bicyclists to think about how to protect themselves from children banning together to beat, and steal from bicyclists. Since we have few protected routes or practical streets of passage, our choices of travel are limited– making us fish in a barrel, prime targets for these groups. We want the city to become proactive in protecting the cyclists, rather than reactive. We want plain clothed bicycle police patroling to stem the tide of violence in the most problematic areas.

Sign the petition: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/353/698/597/stop-violence-against-cyclist/

By Luke Broadwater, The Baltimore Sun

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“Baltimore City could make millions of dollars,” she said. “People come up with all kinds of excuses, but they’re just lazy. I’m surprised no one has gotten run over.”

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Hornbeck regularly includes messages in the school newsletter that emphasize “we want people to park their cars a couple blocks away and walk their kids to school,” he said.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-school-fines-20150330-story.html

By Kevin Litten, Baltimore Business Journal

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Laria also makes an intriguing choice because he understands the consequences of not implementing the bike infrastructure called for. He called the master bike plan “really not a luxury, but an imperative — a must,” and warned that if there isn’t “real progress,” people will begin to believe the plan will never become a reality.

“We need visible changes soon. We need to earn credibility. A year from now things have to look different,” Laria said. “There needs to be a visible manifestation of this commitment, or people are not going to take it seriously.”

https://m.bizjournals.com/baltimore/blog/real-estate/2015/04/how-real-estate-lawyer-jon-laria-became-an.html?r=full

“Don’t be caught dead wearing black.” [B’ Spokes: Like we don’t have street lights and black is an illegal color. :/]

Better, actually a lot better:
“Don’t kill anyone with your car.”

We need to stop the victim blaming!

My synopsis of https://www.vox.com/2015/3/31/8319189/pedestrian-safety-campaign

-> Dublin ranks just under Los Angeles for having some of the worst traffic jams in the world. The problem is predicted to get worse as the city quickly growssomehow, it will have to squeeze in 20% more commuters over the next decade. That’s why the city is now deciding to make a radical shift: It wants to ban cars from several major downtown streets. In the proposed plan, the city wants to route cars around the city center, and turn major streets into car-free plazas and passages for buses, bikes, pedestrians, and a new tram line. [https://bit.ly/1IggFqg]

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.

[B’ Spokes: Greater density calls for greater density forms of travel and single occupancy vehicles with three or more empty seats is not it.]

“One-way separated bike lanes should have a minimum width of 5 ft. ”

See Figure 8
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/publications/separated_bikelane_pdg/page07.cfm#chapter5_dir

https://www.citylab.com/navigator/2015/05/what-to-do-when-youre-hit-by-a-car/393809/?fb_ref=Default