Category: Biking in Baltimore

because at least I am safe doing it in my 3000+lbs vehicle.

Yes, it’s true.
The Parking Authority of Baltimore City wants you to leave your car at home.

Living in Baltimore City provides you with lots of alternatives to using your car for either your daily commute to work, or for running errands. According to the EPA website, leaving your car home just two days a week can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1,600 pounds per year. In Baltimore City, you can walk, bicycle, use public transportation, take a cab, rent a car or join a Car Sharing program (coming soon!) to make Baltimore cleaner and greener. Make 2008 the year you reduce your carbon footprint!
Continue reading “Baltimore City Parking Authority – Alternative Transportation”

I can’t stop thinking about the Johns Hopkins University student who was killed in that fatal hit and run accident on Friday.

The news hits close to home because while I was in college, just up the street from JHU, a friend of mine was hit by a car by Loyola. The driver kept going. Fortunately, my friend survived the accident but her life was changed.

Now, I often drive past JHU or Loyola en route to work. I can attest to the fact that it’s certainly an odyssey to cross St. Paul Street or Charles Street or University Parkway at times. As a driver, I’m extra vigilant in that area because I know students are making their way to class, runners are out for a jog, parents are strolling their kids through the neighborhood and there are people just trying to make it home after a long day.

I often think of my classmate Melissa who shared her story in class one day. I have the image of her walking with a cane to class in my head. Even though she was the victim of a hit and run, she had no animosity toward the driver. The only thing Melissa said is that she wishes the person who hit her would have stopped just to show they cared, and that they valued someone else’s life. As police search for the driver who struck Miriam Frankl, her friends are probably wishing for the same thing.

If there’s any good that comes from tragedy, you hope people take a little more time when driving. You hope drivers are more aware. You hope drivers will be courteous to pedestrians, and that pedestrians will be courteous to drivers. You hope no one else is hit while just trying to cross the street.

A response The worst part of this incident is that the police have a suspect, they just won’t arrest him. Not surprisingly, the guy has multiple DWIs…:

Continue reading “Just trying to cross the street”

Dear Mountain Biking Enthusiast:

I recently had the pleasure of meeting with a number of you to discuss the issue of mountain biking at our reservoirs. At that meeting it was determined that a new task force would be convened to review and revise the current Mountain Biking Plan. The task force will have broad-based representation so that all interested groups have the opportunity for input. Please note that our Watershed Rangers have not ticketed mountain bikers for going off-trail, they have enforced, and will continue to enforce, all other regulations including after-sunset trespassing.

I thank all of you who have taken the time to write. I am confident that by working together we can protect our reservoir lands as well as enjoy the recreational opportunities they afford. Please share this message with your fellow mountain bikers.

Sincerely,

Sheila Dixon
Mayor
Baltimore City
Continue reading “Dear Mountain Biking Enthusiast:”

Oops. Another year (or is it a decade?) has come and gone, and you’re no closer to being in shape and feeling healthy than you were last year at this time. You meant to join a gym and start a yoga program and bike to work and go for long walks and wake up early and work out … you really did. So what happened? You got busy, or bored, or you re-aggravated that trick knee from college and had to drop the regimen after a week. Or maybe you didn’t even know where to start.

Look around and you will find yourself in good company. Despite a burgeoning fitness industry and ever-more-compelling evidence linking excess weight to a constellation of public health problems, we keep getting bigger and bigger: The average Marylander has put on at least 18 pounds since 1988. The nonprofit United Health Foundation estimates that by 2018 more than half of Maryland residents will be obese, with the projected cost of additional health care to treat increased illness landing north of $7 billion. Kind of makes the cost of gym membership [or a bike] pale in comparison.
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Continue reading “FIT! The Urbanite Guide to Getting Healthy and Being Well”

BALTIMORE (WJZ) ― A new study ranks Maryland and the Baltimore area among the worst when it comes to pedestrian and bicycling safety.

Derek Valcourt has details on the study and why some question its findings.

Johns Hopkins student Miriam Frankl was killed by a driver while crossing the road, Chuck Yates, 67, was run over by a truck as he rode his bike through Baltimore and a 20-year-old ballet dancer was struck and killed as she was trying to cross Rt. 24 in Harford County.

The horrible headlines have become all too common and, according to a new study by Transportation for America, pedestrians and bicyclists make up 19.4% of Maryland’s traffic-related deaths. That study labels the Baltimore/Towson area as the 29th most dangerous metropolitan area in the nation for both walkers and bikers. That’s no surprise to many Baltimore natives.

“I’ve almost gotten hit down here and I’ve been working down here for over 10 years, at least three times trying to cross the street,” said Carolyn Winder.

The study examines the amount of money being spent on pedestrian safety in Maryland. It ranks the state as second worst in the nation, spending only six-tenths of one percent of its total federal transportation funds on bicycling and walking projects.

State highway officials fault the study for only looking at federal dollars and not looking at how state dollars are spent, and they say more federal dollars are going toward pedestrian improvements than the study indicates.

“We’re really probably a leader in the pack if you look at all of our spending and the whole picture,” said Valerie Burnette Edgar, State Highway Administration.

[Baltimore Spokes: I can not emphasize enough the absurdity of the above statement, imagine going to a doctor to review your progress on your diet and he asks you how much money you have spent on diet food. And he responds you are making great progress as you are spending a lot on diet food. And you are thinking but I gained 100 lbs how is this good progress? Similarly Maryland’s pedestrian fatality rate is now the 6th worst per FARS. Road safety is a lot like a diet as it requires a proper mix of a variety of items and some of those are very low cost items. In rearguards to supporting a variety of items for road safety Maryland is an epic failure. It’s not about how much you are spending it’s about results and how smart you are with spending.]

“I think the report does have some methodological problems to it, but the point is well taken that we need to be doing a lot more in terms of pedestrian safety,” said City Transportation Deputy Director Jamie Kendricks.

[Baltimore Spokes: While I applaud the efforts the City is doing what Federal Aid money I can trace to Baltimore has been Federally earmark funds. That is to say we had to do an end run around the State to bypass the State not following recommend Federal policies in administering Federal Funds. And the absurd bit is now this counts as the State spending funds on our behalf.]

State highway officials say they plan to spend more than $113 million in bicycle and pedestrian improvements over the next five years.

City officials say they’ve already added 45 miles of bike paths in Baltimore and have plans to add another 60 miles of bike lanes next year.

[Baltimore Spokes: Here’s a novel idea; (just to name one) how about also enforcing crosswalk laws? As I said it’s about supporting a variety of items for road safety.and not what is being spent, not mention some things are very low cost.]
Continue reading “Study: Baltimore Unsafe For Pedestrians, Cyclists”

The problem: The bicycle rack at Baltimore’s first on-street bike parking area in Charles Village is missing.
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"It was a big deal. … To have it go away so quickly, it was like, ‘Well, that’s no fun,’ " Walther said.

The good news is, the bike racks will return – although there will be fewer spots for bikes than before, to balance with demand for car parking, said Nate Evans, the bicycle and pedestrian planner for Baltimore’s Department of Transportation.
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[Baltimore Spokes: IMHO the problem was the two hour limit on the bike Parking, people were afraid to park there and then have their bikes confiscated. That is after all the impression you get when you see a warning sign and no bikes. Please next time no time limit unless there is over use by commuters.]
Continue reading “This time, someone took the whole bike rack in Charles Village”

OK nothing about bicycling but boy has the view from Federal Hill changed.
Continue reading “Charm City: 1903”

[Another Baltimore Bicycling Blog? What’s going on in Baltimore anyway? An excerpt:]

Non-cyclists are forever saying that bike riders should be held to the same standards as motorists. Agreed, but turnabout is fair play. Motorists should have to abide by the same behavior expected of cyclists. For instance:

* When drivers arrive at a stop sign or red light, they must open the door and put one foot on the ground to prove they have made a full stop.

* Cyclists who momentarily leave the bike lane to avoid an obstacle always suffer the wrath of motorists. Similarly, cars should not be permitted to change lanes in order to avoid mattresses, ladders, pedestrians and the like.

* Group rides get hassled. So should large groups of motor vehicles. Find yourself driving in a long line of cars on the highway? You’re disrupting traffic for everyone behind. The cops should be able to pull you over and even confiscate your vehicle. (Might be hard to get your car in the back seat of the cruiser, but that’s a detail to be worked out later.)

* Who always gets blamed in a car-bike crash? You got it. Similarly, if a larger vehicle like a dump truck collides with a car, it must be the car’s fault. Because they’re operating a smaller class of vehicle, car drivers de facto don’t know what they’re doing and must be punished.

* Cyclists are constantly being told they don’t belong on the road because they don’t "pay taxes" by buying gas, paying tolls, etc., even though many riders also drive — just not at this moment. Likewise, motorists shouldn’t have access to public services like police protection on the road unless they are actually paying their taxes while driving. [Personally my likewise would be not to let people use the sidewalk unless their shoes where specially taxed to pay for sidewalks.]

Which, unfortunately, many drivers probably do.
Continue reading “Driving me Crazy”

Video on WBAL: https://www.wbaltv.com/video/22073857/index.html