Category: Biking in Maryland

from Getting There by Michael Dresser
"Like the leaders of Maryland’s other 19 jurisdictions, the mayor and county executives are grappling with severe cutbacks in the amount of local highway money the state sends to local governments each year. Baltimore’s highway aid has been cut nearly in half, while the counties have lost about 97 percent of their highway money over the past two years."
Continue reading “FYI”

Ulman wants gas tax share for Shock-Trauma
from Getting There
Howard County Executive Ken Ulman supports a 10-cent-a-gallon increase in the state gasoline tax to help improve roads and transit — but that’s not all.
In his testimony Tuesday before the House Ways & Means Committee, Ulman also urged legislators to set aside a half-cent of the proposed increase for the Maryland Shock-Trauma Center and emergency medical services.
Ulman noted that vehicle crashes are single most prevalent reason patients wind up needing trauma services.
Continue reading “Motorist should pay for their ancillary services”

from Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space by Richard Layman
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At the minimum, all "urban" counties in the State of Maryland (and any state for that matter) should have:
– a bicycle and pedestrian master plan (including coverage in the transportation element of the County Master Plan)
– at least one bicycle and pedestrian planner
– a bicycle and pedestrian oversight committee
– implementation program for the recommendations in the bicycle and pedestrian master plan.
That’s it, and it’s based on the findings of the League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Community program, which has determined those are key factors that differentiate the quality of the bicycling-mobility environment between better performing and lesser performing communities.
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Continue reading “Bike planning minimum requirements”

You may not be aware but Maryland is moving toward the new video detection cameras that control lights. The good news is they can detect bicycles, the bad news is they have to be set up so the detection area includes where bicyclist will stop. My impression so far is that a cyclist stopping far right will not get detected, additionally at intersections which have one really wide lane that unofficially accommodates a right turn lane a cyclist in the center of the "right" lane doe not register as well. You essentially have to be in the middle where a car would be to be registered by the light. While this might be sound safety advice it still is not the default behavior of most cyclists and what will a cyclist do if not detected by the light, run the red light of course.
We have decades of training that lights do not detect bicycles so we run red lights as a mater of course. To put an end to this we need to place a symbol on the ground where a cyclists should be to get a green light or detect a cyclist wherever they might be. This is already Maryland policy but I have never seen any symbol on the ground at lights and detection of my bicycle is really hit or miss at most intersections and I know how to place my bike on various loop detectors while most cyclists don’t. I really think Maryland goes out its way so bicycles are not detected rather then are detected.
from The Bike Nazi by Bikeboy he adds:
"Ya know what would be really nice? If both the detection cameras and ground loops triggered some subtle signal – a small yellow light, or a beep, or whatever – to acknowledge to the driver, "I’m aware you are there. Sit tight – I’ll let you through." That would let us know whether we should wait, or start looking for an opening in traffic."
Acknowledgment by the system that it is "working" is standard engineering practice in all fields except traffic engineering for bike/peds and it amazes me that their has not been a malpractice lawsuit yet.
John Allen has this to say:
"However, the problem of bicyclists’ running red lights has an additional and even more troubling dimension. If I told you that bicyclists are being psychologically programmed by evil, unseen forces to run red lights, would you think that I am paranoid?"
Should I remind traffic engineers of what negligence is? You don’t need to do this on purpose, in Maryland (at least) you are neglecting your responsibilities per state law in accommodating cyclists as part of the transportation network.
Bikeboy has a nice article on this topic as well as a link to a video that enplanes the traffic detection cameras https://bikenazi.blogspot.com/2011/02/video-detection-cameras.html
John Allen goes into some detail about the problems and solutions with ground loop detectors.
"Putting an end to the actuator problem is a job for bicyclists’ organizations: put your local and state authorities on notice that bicycle-insensitive traffic signal actuators are defective and illegal. "
https://www.bikexprt.com/bicycle/actuator.htm

From the Gazette:
"McClement said the best way for the city to contribute to the project was through in-kind work, and said fundraising could be done to help finance the rest of the project."
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There is an underlying error in the Aldermen’s thinking and it goes something like: cars pay for roads and cyclists don’t. Not to mention cars have superior rights for exclusive use of roads and can lawfully harm people, property and the environment in pursuit of fast transportation, as every second counts and it is totally worth killing at least a person a day so cars can save a few seconds.
Let’s look at the latter first. In order to save money Government can’t dump toxic waste in your back yard but some how they think they can do the equivalent when building roads. State laws say that the needs of bicyclists and pedestrains are part transportation planing and building. And that there is appropriate money available for this. (Laws after the fold.)
As for the first part, I’m thinking why not set up bicycle "user fee" just like cars. Let’s have a specialty tax that goes into a Bicycle Bank Trust Fund, just like cars who’s specialty taxes don’t go into the General Fund but into the Highway Trust Fund. So all the sales tax we are now paying would go into a separate account for our exclusive benefit just like cars. Of course the road building budget could not be supplemented by the General Fund to the same extent that it has been but why should cyclists be paying for exclusive car use anyway? If cars are not willing to share "their" money we should not be willing to share our money either.
From memory I remember seeing studies of several trails that brought in ~.$3 million to the local economy each. That’s $180,000 in sales tax revenue per year from cyclists. And unlike cars where only 16% money spent stays in the local economy cyclists support a wider verity of goods and services that support a stronger local economy.
In summary supporting car centricity is supporting foreign oil and an inactive life style. The public roadways should be serving the greater public good. Supporting bicycling financially is not the end of the automobile nor the road to economic ruin, it is in fact the opposite, the more people who we encourage to bike and walk by complete street designs the safer our roads will become for everyone and helps put more money into the local economy.
Continue reading “Bake sale for bike lanes?”

Besides what’s mentioned in the article the Great Allegheny Passage, C&O Towpath and Gwynns Falls Trail have all received congressional earmarks.
Read More: https://www.wypr.org/news/end-congressional-earmarks-maryland

The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office says it has issued two traffic tickets to a woman who accidentally killed three fellow churchgoers with her car in Emmitsburg in August.
Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said Friday that 63-year-old Mary Camilleri, of Fayetteville, Pa., received citations for unsafe backing and negligent driving.
Bailey says Camilleri was trying to parallel park her Mercury Mountaineer SUV when she struck a group of people leaving St. Joseph’s Catholic Church Aug. 12.
Killed were 89-year-old Marian Derosa of Emmitsburg, her daughter Patricia Mauro-Cillo and son-in-law John Cillo.
Bailey says the investigation is now closed.
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[B’ Spokes: Just another case of "oopssy" and nothing more I guess.]
Continue reading “Woman gets traffic tickets in Md. deaths”

from Greater Greater Washington
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The Maryland State Highway Administration has put Silver Spring pedestrians in danger by failing to uphold its own standards for pedestrian safety at the construction sites, at the intersection of East-West Highway, Newell Street and Blair Mill Road.
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Continue reading “Silver Spring construction shuts sidewalks, violating policy”

Since becoming law in 2000 the White Flint Sector Plan becomes the State’s first Bicycle-Pedestrian Priority Area (BPPA). From the state code a “Bicycle and pedestrian priority area” is a geographical area where the enhancement of bicycle and pedestrian traffic is a priority.
Congratulations to White Flint but still I wounder what’s going on with the rest of the State, one BPPA every 11 years is wrong. This is one of the duties of our Director of Bicycle and Pedestrian Access. Again from state code "After consultation with political subdivisions in the State, identifies bicycle-pedestrian priority areas to facilitate the targeting of available funds to those areas of the State most in need."
If this is indeed the mechanism that directs "the money the State spends over and above Transportation Enhancements" IMHO why don’t all (most) local bike master plans also get the BPPA designation? Why does Montgomery County with the lowest bike/ped fatality rates then the other "big 5" counties in the State not to mention the richest county in the State get the "most in need" BPPA designation? Something does not seem right here.
Continue reading “First Bicycle-Pedestrian Priority Area in Maryland”

Today’s spring board comes from Greater Greater Washington’s article "Maryland transportation "lockbox" has a big hole" https://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/9163/maryland-transportation-lockbox-has-a-big-hole/
So my tangent piece: We all know about Sales Tax and how it helps pays for everything from education, police, fire and other emergency response systems as well garbage collection. And we all more or less agree that this is a necessity to help fund government. To abstract the concept GGW brings up, let’s say a bunch of big business got together and said "You know what, rather then pay sales tax, let’s pay a special interest fee that only we will benefit from. We could use the money to build an exclusive club houses for us and we could say that would help us do our jobs better and help Maryland economy."
That’s the problem in a nut shell with the Transportation Trust Fund, much of the fund comes from what should be in General Fund under regular conditions, calling these taxes "user fees" brings about a sense of self entitlement (roads should be for cars only and who cares what harm they do to "outsiders") and deprives other services provided by government much needed revenue. As more and more of our disposable income is being spent on cars, it should stand to reason that there is also a shift from taxes going into the General Fund now going into the Transportation Trust Fund.
The conclusion from GGW: "But ideas have consequences. The idea behind the lockbox amendment is that drivers pay for the roads they drive on. This idea is mistaken, but it’s widely held, and it’s an enormous obstacle to sensible transportation planning. The danger lurking in the lockbox is that this damaging misconception could be reinforced, making it even harder to correct failed transportation policies. "
If you are inspired, write your State reps and encourage sound transportation policies as well as sound fiscal policies and say no to the "lockbox" concept. https://mdelect.net/