Category: Biking in Maryland

Continue reading “Missing person alert – Southern Maryland”

[B’ Spokes: Just to note I think this article is a mishmash of current thoughts from supporters and older news from Frosh. I don’t think anyone knows his reaction for yesterdays hearing yet.]
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WBAL
A proposal to create a new criminal penalty for drivers who fatally hit bicyclists or pedestrians is in trouble in the state Senate.
WBAL-TV 11 News reporter David Collins said the concern is the bill, as written, is too broad. For example, a driver could be charged after taking their eyes off the road because they turned the radio dial.
A group of bicyclists who took off from Baltimore City Hall to Annapolis on Wednesday in support of the bill support the proposed misdemeanor offense of criminally negligent manslaughter by vehicle or vessel. The bill has already cleared the House of Delegates, but, as written, the bill is meeting resistance in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.
Committee Chairman Brian Frosh said there’s still time to amend and pass the measure, listing the criteria in which it can be applied.
"I’m not sure we have room in our jails for people who have killed somebody totally accidentally while they’re changing a radio station. That’s negligence. I’m afraid this bill in its current form is at that point. I think it can be fixed," said Frosh, a Democrat who represents District 16 in Montgomery County .
The bill’s supporters traveled to Annapolis exactly a year to the day after Larry Bensky, 44, was struck and killed riding his bike along Butler Road in Baltimore County . The driver received a $500 fine and three points against his license.
"I’m sorry, I mean, you can pay more than that if you park illegally in Baltimore City and you get towed. What is the comparison here?" said Penny Troutner, a cyclist.
"I think if people understand that there is a penalty more than just a minor traffic penalty behind hitting a cyclist, then they’ll be less likely of being aggressive around us," said Harry Campbell, a cyclist.
For Tami Bensky, losing her husband that way has been unimaginable and difficult.
"When you’re going through the grieving process, you need something to hold onto that, yes, this terrible thing happened, but someone is being held accountable," she said.
State Highway Administration worker Rick Moser, 57, was struck and killed while clearing away debris from a Route 340 ramp in Frederick County . The driver received a $280 fine and three points against his license.
"A lot of people have come up with the idea that driving is a right, and there is a true responsibility that goes with this," said Moser’s wife, Laurie.
A driver with a history of driving offenses, including driving under the influence, struck and killed 15-year-old Conner Kohl in August 2008 as he pushed a dirt bike along a country road.
"He was struck and (dragged) 215 feet, and the driver took his foot off the brake after about 100 or so feet, and then, when he got out of the van, he didn’t offer any assistance," said Kohl’s father, Ed.
Under the bill, a person convicted of this offense faces a three-year jail sentence and $5,000 fine.
Continue reading “Panel Puts Brakes On Stiffer Penalties In Bicycle Accidents”

from TheWashCycle by washcycle
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[quote]
I was driving along River Road this evening when I rolled to a stop at an intersection where a bicycle was waiting for the light to change. I was in the middle of my lane – the rightmost through lane — and the bicycle was partway into the lane. There was plenty of room to its right, in an unoccupied right-turn-only lane.
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I approached the next intersection, I was as far left as I could go, with my tires just about touching the dotted white line. The bicyclist had also moved leftward, well into the lane. As I stopped, he threw his bike against my car and started screaming that I had hit him.
[end quote]
Sigh, I want to take Berner’s side because I’m not a fan of pounding or screaming, but when the cyclist moves left to take the lane (something I do when I feel like my kindness is not returned) Berner misses the message and pulls up beside him again, instead of waiting behind him. But Berner, I guess, doesn’t get that he is supposed to stop behind the cyclist.
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Continue reading “"Bike assaults car"”

By Frosh’s logic why do we have any criminal law what so ever? If you get robbed let the guy go free and take him to court to recover what he stole that should be adequate deterrent to prevent him from doing that again right? Better yet, for traffic law, let at fault drivers go free and make the insurance carrier pay for the damages. What’s the worst that’s going to happen, really high insurance rates for everyone?
Guess what we are already there at the 2nd highest car insurance rate https://www.insweb.com/auto-insurance/state-rates.html
You could save 50% or more on your car insurance by having safer drivers on Maryland’s roads.
The good news is Frosh has been trying to keep insurance down by fighting bills for comparative negligence. The bad news is this "savings" is born on the backs of bicyclists and pedestrians that have been bared from recovering any damages by at fault drives.
From a local law firm blog:
"Laws in the Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia are all slightly different when it comes to negligence. Some jurisdictions state [Frosh’s County has a reputation for being the strongest on enforcing the following] that if a cyclists is found just 1% negligent in an accident case, that they will be prevented from seeking damages."
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The status quo is not working!
Yet when it comes down to distracted driving with a cell phone that causes a crash, apparently Frosh thinks a $40 fine is enough of deterrent and has voted down HB 222 (Use of Wireless Communication Device – Prohibited Acts, Enforcement, and Penalties)
The pattern is becoming clear, Frosh is a friend of careless, distracted and reckless drivers and thinks all Marylanders want to see more of these on the road, not less.
Even more disturbing are his comments about HB 363 (Manslaughter by Vehicle or Vessel – Criminal Negligence) do we really have a Chairman of Judicial Proceedings that is so ignorant of legalese? All his comments have been addressed but he insists on twisting words to make the law out to something that it is not.
Whoever is going to run against Frosh next election please let us know!
Continue reading “Why suing car insurance carriers for a at fault driver is not a punishment that fits the crime”

found via Washcycle:

Amtrak Call to Action

Dear Trail Supporter:
The Allegheny Trail Alliance and the Trail Town Program have been advocating for the roll-on/roll off service along Amtrak’s Capitol Limited Route and need your continued help! Thanks to your support we are that much closer to seeing this happen, and you can still contribute! The attached letter thanks Amtrak for their interest and encourages them to provide this service as soon as they can. Please adapt the letter below and make the necessary changes (highlighted as red text) to personalize it for your own situation and interest.

Amtrak prefers hard copies rather than e-mails, so we ask that you send a copy directly to the address listed in the supplemental letter below.  Also, please mail a copy of your letter to the ATA at P.O. Box 501, Latrobe, PA 15650, or e-mail it to admin@atatrail.org

Your immediate help is necessary and greatly appreciated! Thank you for your time!

Letter of Support

Date
Mr. Joseph H. Boardman
President and CEO of Amtrak
National Railroad Passenger Corporation
60 Massachusetts Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20002

Dear Mr. Boardman,

Thank you for your interest in providing enhanced bicycle service on the Capitol Limited.  I am excited by the prospect of being able to roll-on and roll-off on the Capitol Limited route between Pittsburgh, PA and Washington, DC.  I am encouraged with the news that it might be available in Spring 2011.  I want to bike the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal towpath and appreciate the opportunity to ride the rails before I ride the trails.  I look forward to using the service every year/month/week, especially between x and y.

We appreciate Amtrak’s commitment to enhancing tourism opportunities and multi-modal transportation networks. 

Sincerely,

(Your signature)

Copy: Ray LaHood, Secretary, U. S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20590

Trail Towns

Click here for Trip Packages & Bike Rides
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Download the Trail Town Manual and Other Materials

• Trail Town Manual
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Visit the Trail Towns website to learn what’s happening in towns along the Great Allegheny Passage.
Click here for the 2008 Economic Impact Study
Continue reading “Rail Trail Groups lobby for unboxed bikes on Amtrak and Commuter rail”

By Matt Pacocha, US editor, in Boulder, USA
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At points the group found peaceful corridors through rough and ragged neighborhoods, while in other areas there was an appalling lack of bike access. “In Maryland, on our way into Baltimore, we followed this road that pops out on the Susquehanna River — it’s half a mile wide or more, it’s huge — and there’s no way to get across it,” says Johnson. “The sign says, ‘pedestrians, bicycles prohibited’. The story gets even better. We’re sitting there for, like, 20 minutes looking at this sign that says ‘no bikes’ and we’re just about to start hitchhiking when a cop car pulls up.
He throws the lights on and asks us what’s going on. We got through the ‘hey, get the heck out of here thing’, I kind of explained what we were doing and he said, ‘how fast can you go on those things?’ I said 25- to 30mph, and he said, ‘if any of you drop below 30, I’m going to give you a ticket’. This thing was two lanes, jersey barriers on both sides, not one inch of extra room, and we blasted across this thing with him giving us a police escort from behind… It was a lot of fun. He hooked us up.”
Rarely do riders have police escorts to get across auto-only bridges, though. “You look at the map… and that’s the only thing within 15 miles," says Johnson. "To find a bridge to ride across would have taken 25 miles. It was impossible. Whether it’s a bridge or a four-lane-wide road in front of a mall, the barriers [to bikes] are there.”
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B’ Spokes: In the linked article there is a lot of "up" stuff about Tim Johnson’s Ride on Washington including pictures and a video. But if you are appalled as I am about the lack of bicycle access over the Susquehanna and why the State "needs" two bike prohibiting high speed toll bridges a mile apart, write Michael Jackson mjackson3@mdot.state.md.us
For a decade we have had a state law "The Department shall ensure that the State maintains an integrated transportation system by working cooperatively to remove barriers, including restrictions on bicycle access". When is that going to happen exactly?
Continue reading “Appalling lack of bike access”

Shane Farthing, executive director of WABA
You probably think that if a negligent driver kills a member of your family, that person would face the prospect of jail time. But if you live in Maryland, you would likely be wrong. Currently, Maryland law has no mechanism for criminal punishment of a driver who kills another unless there is evidence of intoxication or gross negligence. Gross negligence is an unreasonably high standard that essentially means proving “reckless disregard for life.” In the real world, this standard is almost never met.
With less than two weeks left in Maryland’s legislative session, the House of Delegates has unanimously passed House Bill 363, which would fix the gap that allows negligent drivers to kill other road users and get off with a traffic ticket that can be discharged without even interrupting their day to appear in court.
Despite this unanimous House passage and strong support in the Senate, however, Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chairman Brian Frosh (D-Montgomery) has shown reluctance to penalize the guilty party in fatal negligent driving crashes — empathizing with the driver rather than the deceased and family left behind.
Frosh says that advocates need to define “precisely what their target is.” Okay, how’s this? The target of the bill is someone who kills another as a result of behavior that is a substantial deviation from the standard of care expected. In other words, it is aimed at those who do not just deviate from the duty to drive like a reasonably prudent person, but those who deviate a great deal. Someone guilty of simple negligence would not be charged under the law.
And this bill does “thread the needle” — the standard Frosh says he is seeking — between simple negligence and gross negligence. In fact, all it would do is put Maryland on par with most other states, using a mechanism derived from the respected and often-utilized Model Penal Code.
Frosh has expressed the worry that a mother could be jailed following the death of her child in a crash for which she was at fault. But the law offers flexibility by setting a maximum standard of three years, with no minimum, while leaving prosecutors and judges discretion in charging and sentencing. In the 20 states that have adopted this standard, no court has ever convicted a mother of killing her own child. Such tortured hypotheticals simply do not reflect reality.
Frosh’s comments suggest that he thinks civil penalties are a sufficient punishment for negligence. But civil suits are meant to deal with disputes between private citizens. We use the criminal code of a state to express what behaviors are so out of bounds as to be worthy of sanction. Operating a vehicle in a manner so negligent that it substantially deviates from the driving of a reasonable person ought to be on that list.
Passing House Bill 363 is the way to make this statement, giving the state a tool that it could exercise when appropriate to prevent the sort of absurd result experienced by Ed and Kathy Kohls, whose 15-year-old son, Connor, was killed by a driver proceeding at a speed well in excess of both the speed limit and his ability to control his vehicle. The driver received mere traffic citations.
But they know that his behavior has not changed, as he has since been convicted of driving under the influence. Given the gap that exists in Maryland law, perhaps such a charge is the only way to get a driver like this off the road. Under current law, a driver can kill a Connor Kohls without facing the possibility of criminal sanction — so long as he does so negligently rather than drunkenly.
While I certainly support drunken driving laws, they do not cover everything. There are many dangerous, deadly, reckless, substantially negligent things one can do behind the wheel. It’s time for Maryland to send a message that doing one of those, and taking the life of another person, is unacceptable.
The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday to decide whether the bill can move forward. We hope that Chairman Frosh, the committee and the Senate will do the right thing by passing House Bill 363.
Continue reading “Kill on the road. Get off with a ticket.”

Cycling advocates and business owners learned about bicycle-friendly business tactics at a Frederick Bicycle Coalition workshop Tuesday afternoon.
The C. Burr Artz Public Library Community Room was packed with about 35 participants, including a panel of speakers.
Tom Rinker talks to business people every week who are interested in becoming more bicycle friendly. Even more often, he hears from workers interested in finding employment that accommodates bicyclists.
"People do think about it, especially young professionals," the Bicycle Escape store owner said.
Businesses can benefit from being bicycle friendly, he said, including being more attractive to potential employees and creating a more creative environment with less stress, Director of Economic Development Richard Griffin said.
Making strides toward becoming a bicycle-friendly business is easy, according to Bill Nesper, director of the League of American Bicyclists Bicycle-Friendly America Program.
Participating in Bike to Work Day — scheduled for May 20 — and providing bike safety tips to employees can get businesses on the right track, Nesper said.
FBC member, business owner and bike rider Bob McCutcheon would like to apply for the bicycle-friendly business designation in the future, but needs to add bike racks for customers and employees at his downtown store, McCutcheon’s Apple Products Inc.
"More bicycle-friendly businesses mean a more bicycle-friendly city," McCutcheon said.
The Commuter Check for Bicycling program, a national benefit to allow bike commuters to receive $20 per month as a subsidy to pay for commuting costs, is certainly friendly.
People can use the vouchers at participating businesses to pay for things like bike storage at work, the purchase of bike-related equipment and repairs, said Paul Doran, director of sales for the program. Rinker’s business utilizes the vouchers, though they haven’t had many cyclists turn them in.
Clyde Hicks, co-owner of The Trail House outdoor shop, would likely apply for the designation, he said.
"I thought we were (bicycle friendly)," he said at the Tuesday workshop, where he learned about more extensive measures the store can take to aid cyclists.
"Most businesses we deal with can find quite a few things they are already doing that is (potentially) accommodating," Nesper said.
Continue reading “Businesses receive lesson in bicycle-friendly tactics”

If so, we need your story.
We are looking for stories of cyclists and pedestrians who were involved in crashes, but were unable to recover damages for their injuries or property damage because they were found at-fault.
We need stories from the throughout the region, so please let us know if this happened to you, and forward this request to your friends who have been in crashes.
DC, Maryland, and Virginia are three of the last jurisdictions retaining a liability standard that allows blaming the victim for his or her injuries and denying any recovery if any fault can be attributed to that victim.
We want to begin chipping away at that standard and making the roadways fairer, where those at fault must pay a fair percentage for the harm they cause. But we need the real, concrete stories to make the case.
To tell us your story email us at info [at] BaltimoreSpokes.org and/or Bike Maryland https://bikemd.org/page.php?id=166
In the DC metro area follow the link after the fold.
Continue reading “Have You Been in a Crash & Denied Recovery?”

by Rob Kasper
In the springtime bicyclists flood the streets, some hauling their bikes out of winter storage, other hardy souls simply changing their riding garb.
As the number cyclists increases, so do the chances of crashes. In Maryland over the last five years there was an average of 773 bicycle crashes resulting in 644 injuries and eight fatalities each year. Forty percent of these police-reported bicycle crashes occur in the late afternoon and evening, between four and eight o’clock. Twenty-four percent happen in Baltimore City. These data come from the State Highway Administration.
When a car and a bicycle collide, the cyclist always suffers. One of the most dangerous collisions result from the so called “right hook” turns in which a vehicle in front a cyclist makes a sudden right turn into the cyclist’s path. In the past year two incidents involving right hook turns in Baltimore resulted in the death of one cyclist and put another in a coma. John R. Yates was killed after he was crushed by a large truck making a right turn off Maryland Avenue onto Lafayette Ave., and Nathan Krasnopoler, a John Hopkins student, has yet to wake up after colliding with a car that made a right turn in front of him on University Parkway. In both cases the cyclists were traveling in bike lanes.
Motivated by these crashes and by the fact that police failed to cite the drivers of either vehicle, bike advocates are pushing for better laws and increased efforts to educate motorists about how to safely interact with cyclists.
This week in Annapolis, a manslaughter bill that bike advocates say is designed to stop motorists involved in fatal bicycle crashes from getting off with a minor traffic court violation, cleared the House of Delegates and was sent to the Senate. This legislation would give prosecutors another option for charging motorists who cause fatalities by driving in a criminally negligent manner while sober. The offense would still be considered a misdemeanor and would carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison and/or a fine no higher than $3,000.
This is a more sensible approach to the current options of a prosecutor either sending the case to traffic court or charging a motorist with the difficult to prove felony manslaughter, subject to a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
While enacting a misdemeanor manslaughter law makes sense and follows the modern penal code used by many other states, it alone won’t improve bike safety. The possibility that a negligent motorist might face a stiffer penalty than traffic court advances the cause of justice, but it is unlikely by itself to make drivers more cognizant of bicyclists, and that is what it will take to make our roads safer.
Education and publicity are the most effective tools we have. One idea, offered up by the cycling group Bike Maryland, is for state motor vehicle administration to include a sheet in driver’s license renewal forms that would spell out how to safely pass cyclists, reminding them to give cyclists at least three feet of clearance when passing, in accordance to a state law passed last year, and not to drive, park or stop in designated bike lanes. Putting more signage on roadways heavily used by cyclists is another smart suggestion. Training police officers on the rights of cyclists is yet another.
This is a two-way street, and cyclists have to do their part by following the rules of road, including obeying traffic signals, giving clear hand signals, wearing bright clothing and when riding after dark and equipping their bikes with strong lights. Veteran cyclist advises fellow riders to assume that they are invisible to cars and to make to plans to react to motorists’ movements.
There are many types of cyclists and motorists on our roads, those who follow the rules and those who flaunt them. The rule breakers ride at their peril. Guidelines for how the rest of the motorists and cyclists should share the road need to be clearly stated and regularly repeated. Both groups have the rights to use the roads and both need to be accountable for their actions.
Continue reading “A call for better bicycle safety”