Towson
Lake Drive, 600 block, between 7:30 p.m. Aug. 21 and 2:30 p.m. Aug. 22. A white mountain bike was stolen from a back porch.
Linden Avenue, 200 block, 11:15 a.m. Aug. 18. 16-year-old boy arrested after he unsuccessfully attempted to steal girl’s bicycle from yard.
Ridge Avenue, 200 block, between sometime on Aug. 17 and 4:30 p.m. Aug. 20. Bicycle stolen from doorless garage.
Continue reading “Towson Crime Log: Bikes stolen”
Don’t ride against traffic and have lights at night, please!
KENT ISLAND
Bicyclist hit
A 14-year-old Queen Anne’s County boy is in critical condition at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore after being hit by a car while riding a bike in Stevensville Sunday night.
State police said the boy was riding on Thompson Creek Road in front of the Food Lion store around 9 p.m. when a car driven by Tara Riley, 23, of Stevensville struck the teen.
Police said Riley had missed the turn for the Food Lion entrance and pulled to the shoulder of the road so she could turn at the next entrance, where she hit the victim head-on.
The boy was riding against traffic, police said, adding that he was wearing dark clothing and did not have a light on the bicycle. He did have a helmet on, police said.
Riley was not injured.
Police ask anyone who saw the accident to call Maryland State Police at the Centreville Barrack at 410-758-1101.
Continue reading “Don’t ride against traffic and have lights at night, please!”
Dawne Lindsey in bicycle accident
Cumberland Times-News
— MIDLAND — Frostburg area resident Dawne Lindsey was listed in stable condition at the Western Maryland Regional Medical Center on Tuesday following a bicycle accident Monday evening in Midland.
Lindsey, who is the Allegany County Circuit Court clerk, was riding north on state Route 36 and attempted to stop her bicycle to avoid a car that had pulled out of Big Lane when she lost control and was ejected from the bike, the Allegany County Bureau of Police said.
She was taken to the hospital around 7:10 p.m. by Georges Creek Ambulance.
[B’ Spokes: For those of you who may not know how to do an emergency stop:
]
Continue reading “Dawne Lindsey in bicycle accident”
You probably could care less
Since very little of our Federal money goes to cycling and by the (lack of) reaction to fact, any action anyone would lake on the League of American Bicyclists alert within the State of Maryland would most likely have zero impact. So just sit back and wave by-by to money that could have been spent on improving roads for cycling and building more trails as almost everyone could care less.
After the fold is LAB’s alert if you are curious.
Continue reading “You probably could care less”
A note on contributory negligence
If this happened in Maryland the cyclist would not be able to recover damages . Why? Because he hit the rear part of the truck. After the fold a link to Washcycle’s coverage of of a left crossed cyclist and our contributory negligence doctrine.
Best policies for biking my foot
1992-2007
| Nationally | Maryland | |
| percent of TEP funds | 55.10% | 44.00% |
| off-road trail projects | 45.70% | 34.00% |
| on-road facilities | 14.10% | |
| rail trails | 11.80% | 10.00% |
“In order to leverage its limited TEP (Transportation Enhancement Projects) funds, the State of Maryland has implemented stricter limitations on the types of trail projects TEP funds can be used for than those outlined by FHWA. Within Maryland, TEP funds may only be used for construction of off-road trails.“
Please note that in 2007-2009 Maryland had the lowest bike/ped TEP spending (13%) which has left ~$20 million in the bank, limited funds my foot.
So besides a consistently lower then average of TEP money going to bike/ped projects no locality can seek money for on road bike projects, which typically run $5,000 to $50,000 per mile. (See our poll on in the right column.)
Continue reading “Best policies for biking my foot”
Pop Musician Ditches the Van for a Bicycle-Based Tour
by Jim Motavalli
You could say singer-songwriter Ben Sollee likes a slower pace of life. Sollee’s music on two recent albums is modern pop, but it’s spare, melodic and played on acoustic instruments–with his expressive cello up front. And if the show you happened to catch started late, it’s not because the band’s van broke down on the highway–Sollee and his percussionist travel by bicycle. Call it the Ditching the Van tour, because they do.
"Going green" for many bands means fueling the vehicles with biodiesel and playing on solar stages. Sollee is from Kentucky, where producing energy often means the environmental disaster known as mountaintop removal mining (a theme that runs through his second album, Dear Companion). That would be reason enough to park the gas-guzzling van, but the bicycle-based tour that begins August 18 is more about thinking and acting locally than it is about reducing carbon footprints.
…
The tour starts in San Diego at a combined sushi bar and art gallery, and winds its way through southern California before heading east for stops in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. It’s not about big venues–stops include the Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Festival in Kempton, Pennsylvania, Biller’s Bikes in Havre de Grace, Maryland, the Edmund Burke School in Washington, D.C., and the Tour da Arts in Santa Monica, California.
…
Continue reading “Pop Musician Ditches the Van for a Bicycle-Based Tour”
Gaithersburg cyclists? Help needed!
Are there any Gaithersburg residents out there, especially living in the city?
Gaithersburg has released a transportation master plan to the public for review. Bicyclists need to weight in! The city is certainly not known for it’s support of bicycling, and every cyclist living in the city needs to be heard.
The plan site is https://www.gaithersburgmd.gov/poi/default.asp?POI_ID=664&TOC=664 . In particular the Transportation Element needs to be reviewed (about halfway down the page). I think they are only taking input for 3 more weeks.
Jack Cochrane
MoBike
Bicyclist Searches for Driver/Closure
by
I was recently sent this article about a cyclist in Frederick County who was injured in a hit and run accident. (tip)
Keith Krombel was on the final leg of a 250-mile bicycle ride with
his friends on May 30, 2009. The journey had taken them on a loop along
Md. 180 and Md. 17 into Brunswick
, across the Potomac River into Virginia and eventually came back
through Gettysburg, Pa., after they went to Hancock and Newville, Pa.Krombel
was on Yellow Springs Road, five miles from the end of the ride, when a
vehicle struck him. He was just south of the Bethel Road intersection.The force of the crash threw him into the air. Krombel landed on the side of the road, bicycle parts scattered around him.
The driver disappeared.
After more than a year, the Frederick
County Sheriff’s Office closed the case. No witnesses to the crash were
found, and after a year and a day of investigation without success, the
sheriff’s office can close the case.Krombel has hired a lawyer
to help him look for leads with the idea of pursuing civil action, he
said. The $10,000 reward is for information leading to an arrest and
conviction.
Considering that cyclists can get hit, get a partial plate and a description of the driver without an arrest I can’t say I’m surprised that in a case like this – where the police have little to go on – that the driver got away with it. Hit and run deaths are on the increase according to AAA-Mid-Atlantic, and 60% of them are pedestrians.
Sidepath Means No More School Bus
by washcycle
When a new bike/ped sidepath was added along Travilah Road, some neighborhoods lost school bus service.
Montgomery County public school officials have told parents that their
children no longer will receive bus service because a new bike path
leading to the school provides an adequate walking route.Because of the completion of a bike path along Travilah Road, the school
system is suspending bus service to students who live within a mile of
the school, leaving parents to wonder why the bus cannot make a last
stop for the safety of their children.Residents who live along Natia Manor Drive, which creates a horse
shoe-shaped loop off Travilah Road, say the path is too far and too
dangerous for children to walk alone. They cite the 2004 hit-and-run
death of Solomon King,
a Thomas S. Wootton High School junior, who was struck at Travilah Road
and Noland Drive, about one mile east of the neighborhood and roughly
two miles from the school. No other fatal pedestrian collisions have
occurred along that stretch of Travilah Road, said Capt. Paul Starks, a
Montgomery police spokesman, but five vehicle collisions have occurred
there from 2004 to 2008.The 8-foot-wide, shared-use path for pedestrians and cyclists was
completed in June of last year, said Bruce Johnston, a division chief
with the county Department of Transportation. The path, which runs
between Darnestown and Dufief Mill roads, cost $11 million and was built
in response to complaints that Travilah Road was narrow and had no
shoulder, he said.Residents said they are concerned that the path is on the same level as
the busy street, with no barrier for children who might wander or
vehicles that might swerve. Lewis said he has seen motorists drive on
the path.The school will add patrols to monitor children as they walk to school
While a mile seems like a long walk for a five year old (am I wrong parents?) I doubt this is unsafe, and I think it’s a good idea.