I heart warming obituary (hopefully that’s not disrespectful.) I found the picture of her going "Whee" (I imagine) quite delightful not not mention a inspirational story. I’m sure she will be missed.
"Karin Vartowski never owned a car. She rode her bike everywhere. Literally, everywhere."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/a-local-life-karin-vartowski-71-who-traveled-everywhere-on-two-wheels/2011/06/07/AGZYHoQH_story.html
Governor Martin O’Malley on a bike
Governor Martin O’Malley had a great time biking this weekend at the Cycle Maryland kick off event!
Continue reading “Governor Martin O’Malley on a bike”
JOIN GOV. O’MALLEY for Kick-Off Event for Cycle Maryland this Saturday
JOIN US for Kick-Off Event for Cycle Maryland
1:30 p.m.
Saturday – June 18
The Chesapeake Exploration Center on Kent Island
425 Piney Narrows Road
Chester, Maryland 21619
Governor Martin O’Malley is hosting a Kick-Off Event for Cycle Maryland at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 18, at the Chesapeake Exploration Center, 425 Piney Narrows Road Chester, Maryland 21619. The site is located just over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, right off of Route 50 on the waterfront along Kent Narrows on Kent Island. It also is the home of the Queen Anne County’s Tourism Office & Visitor Center.
The Kick-Off event will include a 10- to 12-mile bike ride along the Cross Island Trail on Kent Island following the announcement. Cyclists may choose do the 10-mile loop from the Chesapeake Exploration Center to the Terrapin Nature Center and back. For those who have worked up an appetite, you may choose to take the two-mile roundtrip, on-road trail spur to the restaurants on the east side of Kent Narrows.
The purpose of this new initiative is to promote cycling throughout Maryland. Cycle Maryland is a great way to get Marylanders out to connect with each other, their communities and all the wonderful amenities our State has to offer. Cycle Maryland is promoting a series of bicycling events across the state this summer and fall. The Kick-Off event is one of seven across the State from now through October.
Here is a link for the Cross Island Trail Map and description of trail and other access points.:
Address: Kent Island MD 21666
Contact Phone: QAC Parks and Recreation 410-758-0835
Hours: Dawn to Dusk
Directions: Accessible at various locations along the trail. From east to west off street parking is available at the Terrapin Nature Park, Old Love Point Park, Castle Marina Road, the Chesapeake Exploration Center and the public lots beneath the Kent Narrows US 50/301 Bridge. These lots are open daily from dawn to Dusk.
Pets: Allowed on leash (doggie bags provided)
Fees: None
Description: This tree-lined linear park offers a safe avenue for non-vehicular transportation. The trail is 6.5 miles long, spanning east to west from Terrapin Park to the Chesapeake Exploration Center at Kent Narrows, with future plans for expansion. The trail wanders through farmlands, meadows and woods accented with ornamental trees. Flanked by park benches, the trail crosses several creeks with wooden bridges, offering a spectacular view of waterfowl and wetlands. Portable toilets are available year round.
For Bikers who want to travel a further distance, here is a link to a 28-mile loop that connects to additional Kent Island trails:
https://www.parksnrec.org/images/stories/parks/maps/bikeroute1.pdf
Please check out the Cycle Maryland websites (some of these sites will not be live until Saturday, June 18)
Facebook Page – www.facebook.com/cyclemaryland
Twitter Page – www.twitter.com/CycleMaryland
Website with Interactive Bike Map – www.cycle.maryland.gov
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Cycle Maryland Kickoff Event
Governor Martin O’Malley will be leading us out to kick off this wonderful program!
Saturday, June 18 · 1:30pm – 2:30pm
Cross Island Trail
425 Piney Narrows Road,
Chester, MD
Queen Anne’s County Visitor’s Center
(aka Chesapeake Exploration Center)
Cycle Maryland announcement and trail ride with Governor O’Malley.
https://www.parksnrec.org/hiker-biker-trails.html
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[B’ Spokes: If someone (a bunch would be better) could ask O’Malley nicely to let some of that $31 million of unspent federal Transportation Enhancement money be spent by the counties for bike lanes. Or more simply "Please let the counties use federal money for bike lanes. And yes MDOT’s current policy (established in 1992) does not really allow that. But it is nice that you are out participating today."]
Continue reading “Cycle Maryland Kickoff Event”
Getting a Fair Share for Safety
First before posting LAB’s article let’s look at Maryland and how it compares to the national averages:
Bicycle and Pedestrian Fatalities as a Share of All Traffic Fatalities
| State | Total traffic fatalities (FARS) |
Bicycle + pedestrian share of total traffic fatalities |
Pedestrian fatalities (2009) |
Cyclist fatalities (2009) |
Combined bike/ped commuter share (ACS 2009) |
Walk commuters (ACS 2009) |
Bike commuters (ACS 2009) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | ||||||
| Maryland | 547 | 23% | 113 | 20.7 | 11 | 2 | 3.0% | 2.6% | 0.4% |
| USA | 33,808 | 14% | 4092 | 12.1 | 630 | 2 | 3.5% | 2.9% | 0.6% |
State HSIP spending on Bicycle and Pedestrian projects
Maryland $0
To be fair there maybe an error in record keeping on the amount of money spent but still we have 23% bike/ped traffic fatalities (vs 14% nationally) with a lower then average “exposure” (the amount of people that do walk or bike.) This is a serious issue!
From the League of American Bicyclists
The Advocacy Advance Team, a partnership between the League of American Bicyclists and the Alliance for Biking & Walking, has released a new report on the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), a core federal-aid funding program. The report, called Getting a Fair Share for Safety from the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP): Bicycle and Pedestrian Advocacy Case Studies, examines the states that have successfully dedicated federal safety funds to reduce bicycle and pedestrian fatalities and crashes. In a number of cases, advocates have taken a leading role in ensuring the transportation agency prioritized road safety projects for non‐motorists. These case studies can help advocates and officials in other states access this untapped resource for badly needed bicycle and pedestrian safety projects.
To date, bicycle and pedestrian projects have not received a fair share of HSIP funds. Fourteen percent of traffic fatalities nationwide in 2009 were non‐motorists. Yet, according to the Financial Management Information System (FMIS), only 6 states (CA, FL, NJ, OH, VA, WA) had HSIP funds coded as bicycle and/or pedestrian projects in 2010. Six states (AL, CA, FL, MN, NC, VA) coded HSIP funds on bicycle/pedestrian projects in 2009.
The Report contains the following recommendations to access safety funding for bicycling and walking safety projects:
- Understand the HSIP planning process. Get acquainted with the program criteria, requirements, schedule and personnel. The following suggestions will help you do it.
- Cultivate internal advocates. Get to know your state’s HSIP staff. Find out who else influences the relevant policies, processes and project selection. They can include local agency staff, State Highway Safety Engineers, District Safety Engineers and others. These folks understand the system. They are important sources of information and can be your best allies – many of them care deeply about bicyclist and pedestrian safety.
- Cultivate elected officials. Elected officials wield influence over programs and priorities; when they show interest, it matters. They can also be more heavy‐handed. When agencies need a nudge, state legislation (or the threat of it) can produce results. The first step can be to highlight the need for safety interventions in your community. Find elected officials who care about this issue at the state and local levels. (Hint: they will care if they know their constituents care.)
- Influence the Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). In order for bicycle and pedestrian safety projects to be eligible for HSIP funds, the state’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan must identify them as priorities. Find out if bicyclist, pedestrian, and/or vulnerable road user safety is a plan priority area and get involved with revising the plan for bike/ped improvements and data collection. (See the matrix of SHSP priorities.) Plans have to be revised periodically. Find out when and recommend like‐minded officials and advocates for the relevant committees.
- Learn the project selection criteria. How does the state select and prioritize safety projects? What are the performance outcomes being measured? Figure out how bicycle and pedestrian projects can compete, before the selections are finalized, to influence the project selection and prioritization process.
- Collect crash and fatality data. The HSIP project selection process is data driven. For projects to be funded, they need to be shown to address to proven and quantifiable safety need. Gather this data and encourage the state to develop a better statewide reporting system and GIS mapping to make this data more available to local agencies.
- Announce the funding opportunity. If your HSIP proposal deadlines are public, share them with state and local advocates, your constituents and the public, and provide tips for what to emphasize in the application to make for a successful project. If not, find out and share other key deadlines, like for the Transportation Improvement Plans (TIP) and Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSP).
- Follow up. Meet with the department and elected officials after safety projects have been selected. Thank them for funded bicycle and pedestrian safety projects, and remind them of the continued need. Follow‐up with local communities that were funded for bicycle and pedestrian projects to ensure that they do a good job with the funding and that they evaluate the results. That way you can publicize how they got the funding and made the improvements to inspire other agencies to apply for HSIP funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects in the next round.
Bike lane must turn right and other "humorous" bicycling facilities in College Park
This posting on Washcycle is very close to the tongue and cheek efforts of the Warrington Cycle Campaign Facility of the Month which is a very humorous look at “accommodating” cyclists in Britain.
It is very funny when this stuff happen to someone else but here in Maryland, I just want to cry. Indirectly directing cyclists to ride the wrong way on a one way road and then “cyclists press this crosswalk button if you have successfully gotten this far”, is well … WTF?
Other stuff includes stop signs AFTER the crosswalk and signs placed for cyclists on the trail facing crossing traffic and not the trail. And there are other circuitous routing issues noted in the article.
All this seems to be an over preoccupation with the concept that cyclists are pedestrians on wheels and must never ever cooperatively cross paths with motorists and if cyclists have to cross paths put all the onus on the cyclist and for their “safety” make them walk like a pedestrian in a state with the 4th highest pedestrian fatality rate and motorists noted for not stopping at crosswalks. … Ya, like that’s is going to work out real well,
Conclusion: We need better understanding that cyclists by law are vehicles and can/should operate totally and fully as a vehicle. Providing “accommodations” ONLY for pedestrian mode cyclists is wrong. Sure, some cyclists might feel more comfortable in pedestrian mode but other cyclists are more comfortable and safer in vehicle mode as the law is on their side when operating that way. I feel very strongly that on-road accommodation for bicyclists must be first and foremost be vehicular in nature (treated just like any other vehicle lane and if it helps, think of truck climbing lanes and how they end. Does anyone really go “OMG someone is going to die when a 70mph car hits a 10mph truck”? No, because cooperative merging works and is done all this time.)
If pedestrian mode accommodations can be provided at some of the more intimidating crossing areas, fine, but do not place regulatory signs (black on white) so now by law all cyclists have to go into pedestrian mode and have lost their original right-of-way rights, in particular the right to keep going straight and have turning traffic yield is now flipped (witness stop signs for pedestrian mode cyclists at signalized intersections.) How about advisory signs (white on green) if you want to help the timid cyclist and do no harm to the cyclists that can operate as any other vehicle on the roadway.
Seriously, take a case where a cyclist gets hit by a turning car, is giving the cyclist a green light plus a stop sign, must dismount sign and a crosswalk going to help prove the cyclists had the right-of-way? Wouldn’t be logical to assume in ALL cases that the crossing cyclist did not obey the stop sign so even a speeding non-signalling turning car would be perceived as having the legal right-of-way over a crossing cyclists, especially if the cyclist failed to dismount?
This kind of design does NOT appearer in AASHTO nor in NACTO recommendations for best practices in accommodating cyclists. I will assert that this is in violation of State law § 2-602. Public policy. which says in part: “The General Assembly finds that it is in the public interest for the State to include enhanced transportation facilities for pedestrians and bicycle riders as an essential component of the State’s transportation system, and declares that it is the policy of the State that:
(1) Access to and use of transportation facilities by pedestrians and bicycle riders shall be considered and best engineering practices regarding the needs of bicycle riders and pedestrians shall be employed in all phases of transportation planning, including highway design, construction, reconstruction, and repair…”
One of these days I really hope that someone sues to get some serious attention on this stuff . In the meantime it seems “Since cyclists go slow they will not mind going even slower. And cars need to go fast and should never be slowed down even by a few seconds.” is the modus operandi. Hey, I got an idea how about a return to “Motorist can easily make up any small delay experienced in accommodating vulnerable road users.” Todays thinking is too close to “There are two legitimate excuses for killing someone, in self defense and if they might slow your car down for two seconds.”
We need to start thinking differently!
Continue reading “Bike lane must turn right and other "humorous" bicycling facilities in College Park”
Ask Sen. Cardin of MD to Sustain Bicycling and Walking Funding
ALERT:
Ask Sen. Cardin of Maryland to Sustain Bicycling and Walking Funding
Sign your name to our constituent letter
We need your help: the future of funding for Safe Routes to School, trails, walking and bicycling in America is in serious jeopardy. Some Senators and Representatives are pushing to eliminate key bicycle and pedestrian programs, even though they are funded at less than two cents of every transportation dollar and have tremendous impacts on their communities.
Maryland’s Senator Cardin sits on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and has made clear he supports trails, walking and bicycling.
Now, we need you-as a Maryland constituent-to urge Senator Cardin to take the next step:
- Simply add your name to our constituents’ letter* to ask Senator Cardin to lead the charge to sustain bicycling and walking funding. We will compile all the signatures and deliver to Senator Cardin both in Maryland and in DC.
- And, please pass this alert on to all your colleagues, friends and family members in Maryland. This is one of the biggest fights we’ve had in years-and every signature is absolutely critical to our success.
Make no mistake: if we lose this battle, communities all around the country will find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to build the sidewalks, crosswalks, trails and bike lanes they need.
Thank you for your help!
Deb Hubsmith, Director, Safe Routes to School National Partnership
Frederick – keep a look out for a white Chevrolet work van
The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office has released more details about the vehicle believed to be involved in a hit and run incident Wednesday on Yellow Springs Road during which a bicyclist was struck.
The vehicle is described as a white Chevrolet work van with a partial tag number of 40X, rear door windows and a ladder rack with a ladder on the roof, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said in a news release.
The investigation has determined that the van was travelling north on Yellow Springs Road near White Flint Drive just before 7 p.m. when it struck the cyclist, who was also travelling north, knocking him off the roadway, Bailey said. The van continued on and took a right on Bethel Road. The cyclist was treated and released from Frederick Memorial Hospital.
Anyone with information is asked to call Deputy First Class Anthony Ruopoli at 301-600-4139.
Continue reading “Frederick – keep a look out for a white Chevrolet work van”
Hagerstown Bike Master Plan
The staff of the City of Hagerstown wishes to thank the dozens and dozens of people who reviewed and offered constructive comments on the draft plan. These comments have been reviewed and as appropriate, embedded in the final Bicycle Master Plan document. The final plan is available here for your review, use and sharing with others. The City Council endorsed the plan in March 2010. Please call the Department of Parks & Engineering at 301-739-8577 Ext 125 if you have questions or email the City Engineer Rodney Tissue at
email.
Master Bicycle Plan Final (pdf). Click here to download
Appendix A and B (pdf). Click here to download
Appendix C – Available upon request.
Hub City Bicycle Network Route Map (pdf). Click here to download
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Maryland Department of Transportation presents
Watch Maryland’s new bicycle safety video “Competence & Confidence: A Bicycling Guide for Adults.” It’s chock full of great tips on how to be a safer cyclist in Maryland.
Cycle Maryland
Enjoy the outdoors, get some exercise, support a greener environment and discover Maryland’s magnificent landscape as you pedal your way around the state.
Cycling offers up-close, authentic experiences. Select one of the hundreds of bike trails in the state. Maryland also has an abundance of on-road routes that are well-suited for cycling.
CONTEST
In tribute to the Cycle Maryland series of bicycling events across the state this summer and fall, the Maryland Office of Tourism is hosting a contest for bicyclists on the Cycle Maryland Facebook Page. Enter this contest by posting a photo of your participation at any of these special cycling events. A winner, selected in a random drawing, will receive a $250 gift card prize. Visit the Cycle Maryland Contest page by clicking here.
EVENTS
Kick-Off Event
June 18, 2011
Cross Island Trail
Queen Anne’s County
Announcement and trail ride with Governor O’Malley. More info coming soon!
More info/map of trail…
2011 Garrett County Gran Fondo
June 25, 2011
Deep Creek Lake
Garrett County
The Gran Fondo is a celebrated tradition in Italian cycling culture. A Gran Fondo is a long distance, mass-participation cycling event – not a race – that welcomes professional, amateur, and recreational cyclists.
More info…
The Greatest Bicycle Tour of the Historic C&O Canal
July 9-12, 2011
Cumberland to Washington, D.C
No hills, no headwinds and no cars. Plenty of food, lots of support, ride at your own pace, well organized.
More info…
Ride to See – A Tour of Kent County
August 13, 2011
Galena
Kent County
15, 30, 40, 62 and 100 miles take in the scenery of the heartland of Kent County, Maryland, historic towns, and great country stores.
More info…
Saint Mary’s Century (Formerly the Amish 100)
September 17, 2011
Leonardtown
35, 62 and 100 miles through some of the most beautiful scenery in Southern Maryland.
More info…
Anacostia River Trail Opening
October 1, 2011
Bladensburg
Prince George’s County
Ribbon Cutting and trail ride.
More info coming soon.
Tour du Port
October 9, 2011
Baltimore
Tour du Port is a superb way to intimately tour Baltimore. It is one of the coolest bike events around – and it certainly supports a cause that we support – bicycle safety! What more could a bicyclist or commuter tired of congestion ask for from a bicycle event!” — Baltimore Bicycle Club
More info…