"Today we went on a bike trip where we had to shoot BB guns and do archery," said Greg Streeton, an eighth-grader at New Market Middle School and a scout in Troop 268."
[I got this summery in my Google news alert and it made me think of a new style of self-defense riding skills class much like what was needed in the wild west where one would have to defend their rights in a very assertive manner because no one else would but it is simply the annual Klondike Derby. (Though riding your bike can at times seem like the wild west with every man for them self and the police getting involved is virtually unheard of.)]
Continue reading “Boy Scouts test life-or-death skills”
2010 Benchmarking report
State Overview of Primary Benchmarking Indicators (or 196 pages in 3)
Maryland:
Mode Share – Middle 1/3 among states
Safety – Bottom 1/3 among states
Funding – Bottom 1/3 among states
Staffing – Top 1/3 among states
Bike/Ped Policies – Top 1/3 among states
Advocacy Capacity – data unavailable
Baltimore:
Mode Share – Top 1/3 among states
Safety – Top 1/3 among states
Funding – Middle 1/3 among states
Staffing – Middle 1/3 among states
Bike/Ped Policies – Bottom 1/3 among states
Advocacy Capacity – Bottom 1/3 among states
High to Low Ranking of Bicycling and Walking Levels
Maryland 32 out of 50 – Baltimore 11 out of 51
Low to High Ranking of Bike/Ped Fatality Rates
Maryland 35 out of 50 – Baltimore 13 out of 51
High to Low Ranking of Per Capita Funding to Bike/Ped
Maryland 45 out of 50 – Baltimore 33 out 51
Bicycle Safety RANKING
Maryland 36 out of 50 – Baltimore 27 out of 51
Pedestrian Safety RANKING
Maryland 35 out of 50 – Baltimore 10 out of 51
Continue reading “2010 Benchmarking report”
You Can’t Fight the State DOT – Or Can You?
It seems to be remarkably difficult for citizens to influence the decisions of major transportation agencies. I use the example of a state DOT here, but it could be a transit agency. How might one go about doing this effectively? There are two major parts: political and technical.
[No doubt we need good bicycling advocacy in the state so those of you who want to try your hand at this here is a good primer on what & how basics.]
Continue reading “You Can’t Fight the State DOT – Or Can You?”
Good Fences May Make Good Neighbors, but Bad Neighborhoods
by
Steve Offutt has a great post on CommuterPageBlog about how sometimes developments are built with unnecessary fences that hinder the kind of connectivity that makes walking and biking easy. OK, he didn’t mention biking, but it’s the same idea.
the end of Forest Drive almost touches the parking lot of the
apartment building on Jefferson Street (although it’s at a somewhat
higher elevation).The
building, instead of installing a staircase that would allow
neighborhood people to easily walk from the neighborhood to the shops
on Jefferson St., including the Giant Food and Starbucks, blocked it
with a fence (see two photos). In the same way, the fence prevents
residents of the apartment building from being able to walk around the
neighborhood, say to walk their dog or just for enjoyment.
There are a couple of areas like this on my commute where a road ends a few tantalizing feet from making a useful connection. In one case I off-road it for it about 20 feet (connecting these two parts of Margo Lane) on a billygoat trail. And as Offutt points out, there are many more.
There are certainly thousands of these small linkages that could be
unblocked or created. Each one might open up pedestrian opportunities
to a few people or a few score of people. But all multiplied together
one could imagine literally thousands of short car trips being
eliminated and quality of life for those people improved.
Continue reading “Good Fences May Make Good Neighbors, but Bad Neighborhoods”
A More Bike-Friendly Mount Rainier in the Plan
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The City of Mount Rainier is working on a Mixed-Use Town Center Development Plan to promote reinvestment and redevelopment opportunities in the older commercial core of Mount Rainer. The area being studied includes 11.5 acres around the Rhode Island Avenue and 34th Street areas, and one thing they want to do is make the area more bicycle-friendly.
After months of community meetings and studies, Washington, D.C.-based
consultants Cunningham Quill Architects presented a preliminary “vision
plan” to residents on Jan. 12.The presentation included details on decreasing street parking spaces
from 14-feet to standard 8-feet wide spaces and using the extra space
for wider sidewalks and commuter bicycles lanes.Resident Dave MacMillan said he liked the integration of bike and
pedestrian culture in the plan, but wanted some measures to discourage
additional liquor stores from opening in the city.
I’m not sure the two are related.
The presentations don’t have a lot of specifics on bikes, but they show the Bike Station, bike lanes and artistic bike racks. They also have a lot of cool old photos of Mount Rainier during the streetcar days, if you’re into such things. I often bike through the area on Rhode Island, and it’s not too bad really, but some bike lanes would be nice.
…
Continue reading “A More Bike-Friendly Mount Rainier in the Plan”
Maryland Safe Routes to School Network Organizer – Patrick McMahon
Safe Routes to School just got a new Network Organizer – Baltimore’s own Patrick McMahon. Congratulations Patrick!
Continue reading “Maryland Safe Routes to School Network Organizer – Patrick McMahon”
Are there best cycling practices that are clearly illegal in Maryland?
12 ways our region could reform bicycling laws
by David C. (on Greater Greater Washington)
The percentage of people riding bikes for transportation has been rising for the better part of two decades and there is every reason to believe that trend will continue. While engineers and traffic planners work to update the infrastructure and physical elements to encourage cycling, there is more that legislators can do to help too.
Some laws unnecessarily restrict safe cycling or where cyclists can ride or park. There are other laws that haven’t caught up with technology and make the roads more dangerous for all. And there are still other laws that fail to protect vulnerable users or punish negligent drivers.
These laws should be rewritten. In many cases the change in laws will protect pedestrians and/or drivers as well. Below is a summery of recommended changes for the DC region that ran as part of a series on the Washcycle.
- Replace contributory negligence with comparative negligence. Maryland, Virginia and DC are three of only five “states” that use contributory negligence to establish damage awards in civil cases. Under this standard, if an injured road user was even 1% at fault for a crash with another road user they would be unable to recover damages unless they could prove that the other road user had the “last clear chance” to avoid the accident. Last clear chance involves proving four separate facts about the crash, all of which must be true, and can be difficult to prove.
Every other jurisdiction uses some form of comparative negligence, which allows the injured party to recover some of their loses even if they were partially to blame. Contributory negligence is loved by big business and the insurance industry but it punishes victims — who are disproportionally pedestrians and cyclists — twice, and should be changed.
- Close the negligent driving loophole. In Virginia and Maryland, it can be very difficult to convict a negligent driver with a crime. In both states recently, drivers who were over-driving their vision or not paying attention hit cyclists from behind and killed them. In one case the driver got a $313 ticket in the other the driver wasn’t punished at all.
The problem is that simple negligence is only a misdemeanor in Maryland and not a crime at all in Virginia. DC, on the other hand, has a law against “careless, reckless or negligent” driving that can result in 5 years in prison or a fine of up to $5000. Virginia and Maryland should close the loophole that allows negligent driving to be treated as “just an accident.”
- Ban distracted driving. Distracted driving is quickly emerging as one of the major causes of road casualties. DC, Maryland and Virginia should move swiftly to make distracted driving (and that includes cycling) illegal.
This means making texting while driving a primary offense in Virginia, where now it is a secondary offense, and increasing the fine from $20. It means banning the use of electronic devices while driving, including phones, computers, pagers and video games. Hands-free phones aren’t significantly safer than hand-held phones and drivers should not be allowed to use those either. Finally, drivers should not be allowed to manipulate a GPS device while driving, though they can listen to directions.
- Treat cycling as transportation. Complete Streets is a doctrine requiring transportation agencies to build roadways that enable safe access for all users. Several states have adopted complete streets legislation or policies.
Maryland adopted weak Complete Streets legislation in 2000, but it needs to be stronger. Virginia has a policy to accommodate cyclists and pedestrians, but it needs to be expanded. DC has no complete streets policy and should pass legislation to that effect.
In addition, both DC and Maryland should emulate Virginia’s ban on culs-de-sac, as they make for circuitous cycling on traffic sewers. M-NCPPC should end its policy of closing trails at night or when it snows and region-wide, critical trails should be cleared after a heavy snow. People still commute at those times.
- Leave a safe distance. Maryland and Virginia should follow DC’s lead and pass a three feet minimum passing distance law, as well as a law making it illegal to open a car door unless it is safe to do so.
- Fix equipment requirements. Maryland, Virginia and DC require some equipment that isn’t needed, fail to require one piece of valuable equipment and should try to standardize their light rules.
The three have different laws about what kind of lights are required, but a common set of rules would help DC area cyclists. Combining the three state’s laws could create a requirement for, at minimum, a front light visible 500 feet away attached to the bike, a rear light visible at the same distance attached to the bike or the rider and a rear reflector visible 100 feet away.
While bells are nice, they shouldn’t be required. I’ve never met a cyclist who thought their life, or anyone else’s, was saved by a bell. And Maryland and Virginia should match DC’s unique law allowing fixed gear bikes without a separate brake.
- Improve the return of recovered and impounded bikes. All three jurisdictions should create a process that maximizes the number of recovered stolen bikes and impounded bikes returned to owners. They should check all such bikes against the national bike registries. They should place photos of them on a recovered bike web site, as Arlington County does, and make it searchable by serial number.
The serial number of bikes that are auctioned, donated or scrapped should be recorded in a searchable online database so that owners can recover the money or donation receipt for their bike. All jurisdictions should regularly report recovered bike statistics such as total number, number returned, number disposed, etc… as well as registries used to return them.
- Let cyclists decide where to ride. The uniform vehicle code, which most states use to define traffic laws, requires cyclists to ride “as closely as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway” and then lists several exceptions. While Denver has rewritten the law to make cyclists the judge of where in the lane a cyclist should ride, a more dramatic change is needed.
It’s not unreasonable to require cyclists to move right to accommodate faster traffic when safe and necessary, but attempting to codify this has led to frequent misinterpretation. A better rule would require riding right only when the lane is wide enough to allow a car to pass a bicycle safely in the same lane (safe), and when there is only one lane in that direction (necessary). Those cases are actually quite rare, so DC, MD and VA could be required to sign those roads as “Ride Right Roads.” In addition, Maryland should repeal its law requiring cyclists to use bike lanes and shoulders when present.
- Let cyclists ride more than two abreast. Most places limit cyclists riding in a group from riding more than two abreast, and only when not being passed. Cyclists riding in an informal group ride often find themselves riding three or even four abreast, and under current law that’s illegal. Instead the law should only require cyclists to stay in a single lane, except when legally changing lanes, and to move right to facilitate overtaking vehicles when judged safe and necessary.
- Improve access and parking. Building rules restricting bike commuters from bringing bikes inside as well as rules restricting bike parking in the public space make it unnecessarily difficult to park a bike. The region should adopt a rule similar to New York City’s Bicycle Access to Buildings law which requires buildings to allow bicycles inside under certain circumstances. Cyclists should also be allowed to park their bikes to poles within bus zones or located within 25 feet of an intersection.
- Decriminalize safe cycling. Laws that were written for cars and drivers shouldn’t necessarily be applied to bikes and cyclists. The Idaho stop law allows cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs and stop lights as stop signs, which is what many cyclists do anyway. Since it’s inception in Idaho, cycling has actually gotten safer.
Another change should allow cyclists waiting at a light to move past the advanced stop line while the light is still red so as to stay in front of and in view of drivers. And finally, Maryland should review its law requiring cyclists to have both hands available for reaching the handlebars. DC and VA don’t have such a ban and and this law could make it illegal for a cyclist to do something as simple as grab a water bottle.
- Allow more sidewalk cycling. Though sidewalk cycling is a critical tool to effective cycling, it’s illegal in Prince William County, Alexandria and most of Maryland.
While it might make sense to ban it in certain areas with heavy pedestrian traffic, such as DC’s Central Business District, a county-wide ban is excessive and imprecise. These jurisdictions should make bans the exception and not the rule. Even in areas where its been decided that a ban makes sense, the law should allow riding on the sidewalk for the purpose of parking, as is done in Denver.
Continue reading “12 ways our region could reform bicycling laws”
The City of Laurel Gets Tough on Cyclists Riding on Public Parking Lots? WTF?
"It is unlawful for any person to ride any bicycle, moped, motor vehicle or play vehicle, on any public parking lot and public sidewalks in the City of Laurel, except those areas designated (none current and when approved, by sign designation)"
Oh and lose that "Recreational Vehicle" title some people believe it or not use their bike as transportation just like a car.
Continue reading “The City of Laurel Gets Tough on Cyclists Riding on Public Parking Lots? WTF?”
Maryland Budget Map Game
I played with the basic tack of getting cars to pay their own way and cut $700M from the budget with no opposition reported. But I doubt any of those items will happen. Keep in mind that recommendations are limited to what they give you so I will strongly assert that half of our budget crises is because of supporting a (government paid) discount on overly car centric development.
In all things there is a balance and nothing wrong with cars per se but they are not paying their own way as many think.
Continue reading “Maryland Budget Map Game”