baltimorespokes

from Bikeleague.org Blog by Meghan

The League of American Bicyclists announces a new round of Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) designations that includes 11 new and 14 renewing communities today at the Interbike Expo in Las Vegas, Nev. “The League congratulates all of our BFC winners for implementing successful, long‐term bicycle plans and programs that provide quality of life improvements for their citizens,” said League President Andy Clarke. “Cities are choosing investment in bicycling, even in tough economic times, as a key to building the places people want to live, work and visit.” There are now 190 BFCs in 46 states.

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Fall 2011 Honorable Mentions

• Hagerstown, Md.

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Continue reading “Hagerstown receives Bicycle Friendly Community Honorable mention”

Victim’s mother, cyclists continue fight for safer roads
by Natalie McGill, Staff Writer – Gazette
Sophie Chan-Wood didn’t know Natasha Pettigrew, but when the avid cyclist heard about a Saturday morning memorial ride honoring the Cheverly woman, she saw an opportunity to ride to Prince George’s County via the Watts Branch Trail from Washington, D.C.
However, it wasn’t until the Rockville woman was hundreds of feet from the site of the Sept. 19, 2010, hit and run that claimed cyclist Pettigrew’s life that the car honking began, a reminder that both motorists and bicycles should be able to share the road.
Chan-Wood was among a group of 20 including Pettigrew’s mother Kenniss Henry that gathered on Largo’s Prince George’s Community Campus for a memorial bike ride in honor of Pettigrew and Henry’s mission to make roads safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
"Unfortunately the circumstances of why we’re here still bring a lot of pain to me," Henry said to the group before the ride which circled Upper Marlboro’s Watkins Regional Park before returning to campus. "She grew from being my daughter to being my best friend."
Pettigrew, 30, was riding her bike about 5:30 a.m. near the intersection of Campus Way South and Route 202 when driver Christy Littleford of Upper Marlboro struck her from behind with her sport utility vehicle. Pettigrew, a Green Party U.S. Senate candidate who was training for a half-triathlon, died from her injuries on Sept. 20, 2010.
Littleford, who thought she hit a deer according to Maryland State Police, dragged the bicycle underneath her SUV all the way back to her Upper Marlboro home before realizing she had struck Pettigrew instead. The most Littleford could face is a charge for leaving the scene of the accident but Henry said she doesn’t know what penalty she could face. Littleford will not face wrongful death charges because there were no witnesses, Henry said.
Michael Turner of the Mount Rainier Bicycle Co-Op, helped plan the ride, wanting to have it close to the site of the Sept. 19, 2010, incident as a gesture of healing. Henry said Turner reached out to her earlier this year after hearing about Pettigrew’s story.
Henry went to Annapolis two to three times a week during the 2011 Maryland General Assembly session, encouraging legislators to toughen the laws on vehicular manslaughter. Her persistence paid off when elected officials passed Maryland House Bill 363 "Manslaughter by Vehicle or Vessel Criminal Negligence." The bill, which becomes law on Oct. 1, lessens the burden of proof a prosecutor needs to prove a driver was grossly negligent and could guarantee an offender three years in jail, a $5,000 fine or possibly both, Henry said. Previously prosecutors needed to meet a high burden of proof such as intentional gross negligence on the part of the driver, Henry said.
Henry said she encountered push back from legislators who told her she was trying to put mothers and grandmothers in jail who hypothetically could be distracted by children or grandchildren and accidentally strike a pedestrian or cyclist, Henry said.
It’s not an issue if the driver actually stays on the scene, Henry said.
"When you hit someone and you leave and you act as if you had the right to hit them and the right to leave, that’s my issue," Henry said.
Turner said more people would bike rather than drive if major roads such as Routes 202 and 450 had more bike lanes but the perception is you cannot because the roads don’t allow space for bike lanes. Any development scaled to accommodate a wheelchair could likely benefit pedestrians and bicyclists, he said. Turner cited an example of parents of Mount Rainier Elementary School students who drive across Rhode Island Avenue to drop off kids rather than walk because it’s safer.
"Our infrastructure should accommodate the mobility of everyone and our infrastructure doesn’t do that right now," Turner said. "It accommodates the motorist foremost."
Continue reading “Memorial bike ride honors 2010 Green Party U.S. Senate candidate”

By David T. Whitaker, AICP 

A seldom discussed element of Smart Growth involves trail corridors and the ability of communities large and small to create profitable businesses, home-grown employment opportunities and a renewed sense of place along abandoned rail lines and other newly developed multi-purpose trail corridors.

An exceptional example of rural recreational tourism-related Smart Growth can be found in the communities along the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) Trail in Southwestern Pennsylvania and Allegany County, Maryland.

Last month, Jamie Bridges of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council and I bicycled 215 miles on the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) Trail and the C&O Canal. It was a superb and highly memorable bicycle outing to check out the route for a possible future Maryland Department of Planning bicycle ride from Pittsburgh to Cumberland on the scenic and historic GAP Trail.  What was to be unique cycling adventure also turned into a lesson on the economic benefits of long-distance trail facilities on municipalities and boroughs along an extraordinary rail to trail link between Pittsburgh and Cumberland.

 We started out with lights on our bikes before dawn on Friday, August 19^thin the suburbs of Pittsburgh. We rode 60 miles to Ohiopyle, PA arriving a half-hour early for an extraordinary white water rafting trip on the Lower Youghiogheny River. We learned at the raft outfitters that cyclists are quite often riding along the GAP Trail to Ohiopyle to join rafting trips through the Class 3 & 4 rapids of the mighty Lower Yough. After our five-hour rafting trip, we opted to stay at a guest house in Ohiopyle for the night and enjoy the local restaurants.

On Saturday, we continued our ride at a more leisurely pace stopping at the communities of Confluence, Rockwood and Meyersdale to check out the coffee shops, bakeries, bicycle stores, restaurants and the many bed and breakfast operations that have sprung up near the GAP Trail. These businesses opened as a result of the trail. They employ local residents in communities where high unemployment was the norm in the years prior to the opening of the GAP Trail. Municipalities along the GAP Trail clearly have invested a lot in bridges, streetscape improvements, campgrounds, restroom facilities, signage and other public investments to draw GAP Trail users onto their streets. It is also clear that local property owners have invested substantial sums in beautification of their buildings to attract a flow of trail users to their businesses and B&B’s.

Saturday, Jamie and I rode through the communities and over the Eastern Continental Divide and through the Big Savage Mountain Tunnel, eventually down to Frostburg for a stop at the Trail Inn for a late lunch. The Trail Inn represents a significant investment by a local entrepreneur to provide a restaurant, rooms and a campground for users of the GAP Trail.

After Frostburg, we rode downhill to Canal Square in Cumberland. This being a Saturday, quite a lot was going on in Downtown Cumberland. After checking in to our accommodations, we had a nice meal and listened to excellent music in an outside venue on Cumberland’s Downtown Mall. Following that, we walked over to Canal Place to hear additional music and see events associated with an arts festival there. We also paid a visit to the excellent Queen City Creamery, which was really packed by ice cream lovers on Saturday evening.  This was quite a change from 20 years ago when, it seemed, most Cumberland businesses closed their doors early on a Saturday.

Sunday morning, we woke before dawn, rode to Canal Place with our lights and started down the C&O Canal towards Hancock, MD. We stopped for a nice breakfast at the Oldtown Kitchen, located in the former Oldtown School. Then we rode through the Paw Paw Tunnel and onto Hancock to refill water bottles. We were impressed by the sheer number of users of the Western Maryland Rail Trail that runs through Hancock. The local bicycle shop near the trail had a constant flow of trail riders coming through its door and nearby restaurants had bicycles stacked near their front doors. The sound of cash registers catering to trail users filled the air in many local businesses in Hancock. After a stop in Hancock, Jamie and I then rode onto Williamsport, MD, near Hagerstown, where a soon-to-be-upon-us thunderstorm with the threat of quite large hail ended our ride for the day.

Some observations: The GAP Trail has one of the best riding surfaces of any non-paved trail I have ever cycled. The route from Pittsburgh to the Big Savage Mountain Tunnel has very little grade and is a preferred riding option over the route up from Cumberland with its 20-plus mile hill climb from the ride start at Canal Place to the Eastern Continental Divide.

One really needs to come out firsthand to see the large number of businesses that have opened recently to cater to trail users. From Connellsville to Confluence, PA, Meyersdale, PA to Frostburg, MD, the GAP Trail is an amazing recreational tourism success story. Many B&B’s, bicycle stores, coffee shops, bakeries, delis and restaurants are now open all along the route catering to GAP trail users. The Trail Inn at Frostburg is busy almost all hours of the day, primarily from users of the GAP trail. The great staff at the Trail Inn makes a fine sandwich and they provide nicely furnished rooms and a campground for those inclined to stay overnight near the Maryland portion of the GAP Trail. These trails and their nearby towns offer the most compelling example I have yet seen of the impact that trails facilities and recreational tourism can have on economic development in municipalities.

This is rural “Smart Growth” at its core and many lessons can be learned from the economic impact that the relatively small monetary investments to construct the GAP Trail and the Western Maryland Rail Trail are having on rural communities and small cities in Maryland and Pennsylvania.  The latest economic estimates show an infusion of $40 million per year resulting from completion of the GAP Trail alone.  

These trails offer clear proof that if we “build it they will come.”

Continue reading “Finding Smart Growth along the GAP Trail”

By Matthew Bieniek -Cumberland Times-News
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The company will prepare the Allegany County Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan. The plan is designed to connect bikers, pedestrians and local transportation systems into a network throughout Allegany County, county planning staff have said.
The selected consultant will meet with members of the Cumberland Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s technical committee to nail down the scope of the work, the request for proposals stated.
An integrated plan could make more recreational opportunities available for residents and tourists, Siera Wigfield, a county planner, has said.
Ideally, the plan would provide a way to use the county’s transit buses to carry walkers, hikers and bikers from one path to another when direct access is limited. And it’s not only about recreational uses, the plan would also aid those walking or biking to work or to shop, Wigfield said.
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Continue reading “Allegany County Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan”