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Bikes strengthen community ties

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Cpl. James Beasock, a community police officer for Prince George’s County District 6, bikes with a crowd of young West Laurel residents July 11. (Photo by Noah Scialom, Patuxent Publishing / July 10, 2011)

By Amanda Yeager

Squad car sirens wailed and traffic temporarily came to a halt on West Laurel streets July 11, but not because of crime: Police officers were going for an evening bike ride with local kids as part of an event called Biking with Beasock.

Cpl. James Beasock, a community police officer for District 6 in Prince George’s County; and his partner, Cpl. Gerald Knight, organize neighborhood walks and train crime watch groups throughout the district. The biking program is their latest effort to connect with Laurel’s youngest residents.

“It seems like a lot of kids today are afraid of police officers,” said Beasock. He explained that sirens and flashing lights can make police seem intimidating to young people. His aim is for children to know him by his name and not by his uniform.

The idea behind the bike ride was to come up with an activity that police and children could enjoy together.

“We decided, let’s do a bike ride, because all kids like to bike,” said Knight.

A ride scheduled in June had to be canceled due to rain.

A group of 40 kids, parents and police officers gathered at Bond Mill Elementary Monday at 6 p.m. for the ride. Knight gave a brief speech about bike safety — telling everyone to wear helmets, stick together and keep to the right of the road — and then they were off, a colorful cluster of kids on two-wheelers, bikes with training wheels, a wheelchair and even a motorized four-wheel mini truck.

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Senate Staff Says Transpo Bill Maintains Dedicated Funding For Bike/Ped

by Tanya Snyder
We reported yesterday that the outline of the Senate bill appeared not to preserve dedicated funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs. It has come to our attention that the complete draft of the bill will include a hard commitment to bike-ped programs. Senate staff tells us that Sen. Barbara Boxer worked hard and was able to maintain her priorities in the bill, including dedicated federal support for bike infrastructure. More details will come out at tomorrow’s hearing on transportation in Boxer’s Environment and Public Works Committee, and we look forward to seeing a complete legislative draft soon.
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Meet the Obscure Unelected Agencies Strangling Many U.S. Cities

[B’ Spokes: Did you know that there is a vacant bicycling advocate position in our MPO? (or was last I checked) the significance of that is hinted at by the quote below. ]
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by Angie Schmitt

Do you know the name of your local Metropolitan Planning Organization or Council of Government? Most Americans don’t. In fact, most people probably have no idea these agencies even exist, let alone what they do. Yet they are surprisingly powerful and play a substantial role in shaping the places where we live and work.

Led by unelected boards, MPOs and COGs, as they’re known, are a special breed among government agencies. They lack the authority to issue taxes or impose laws. As such, they go largely unmentioned in the media and are mostly unknown to local residents, outside of the most wonkish circles. But the low profile of MPOs and COGs belies their considerable power.

Despite their limitations, they represent the strongest form of regional governance we’ve got in the United States, crossing city and county lines. More importantly, they disperse hundreds of millions of federal transportation dollars annually. MPOs and COGs are powerful forces shaping metro regions. While these agencies often distribute transportation funds more fairly than state DOTs, many of them are structured in a way that favors sprawl and undermines cities.
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[B’ Spokes: CMAQ is one fund that our MPO has been highlighted as spending a big fat ZERO on bike/ped projects.]
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Police advise cyclists to lock their bikes securely

By The Baltimore Guide

Thieves were rolling this week and bicyclists were hurting as a rash of cycle thefts hit Southeast Baltimore.

In most cases, cycles were left unsecured and unattended. Many of them were last seen leaning against front steps or parked in back yards of houses.

Police remind cyclists to invest in good locks, and to lock the bicycle through the frame rather than through a front wheel, because front wheels are easy to detach. Bicycles should be locked to a permanent structure such as a fence post or bicycle rack, or brought inside when not in use.
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Natan Lawson, smoothie genius

You can read about Natan here: https://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-07-20/entertainment/bal-likedislike-natan-lawson-smoothie-genius-20110720_1_smoothie-favorite-book-pet-peeve

Or see him in person: Saturday — Waverly Farmers’ Market, E. 32nd and Barclay streets, 7 a.m.-noon. Sunday — Baltimore Farmers’ Market, Holiday and Saratoga streets, 7 a.m.-noon. Other events during the week; check calendar at https://www.wheelygoodsmoothies.com/

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Bikes on Amtrak — Why Such an Ordeal?

[B’ Spokes: Just to note NJ Transit lets bikes on their trains off-peek hours. Basically if the car can handle handicap it can hand a bike. Some photos after the fold.]

By Virginia Bicycling Federation

For several years, the Virginia Bicycling Federation been asking Amtrak to make it easier to take our bikes on their trains.  We think its a win for Amtrak by increasing ridership and a win for cyclists who would like to carry their bikes to destinations for touring, recreation, or making the final connection on their trips, excursions and vacations.

As things stand now, if a person wants to carry their bike on a train in Virginia, they must disassemble the bike and box it — a hassle at best, but a deal breaker for someone who isn’t handy with a wrench.   For someone not mechanically inclined, they would need to take a trip to a bike shop to break their bike down and box it –  which, of course, precludes riding your bike to the train station — and do the same at their destination.  A deal breaker for all but the most dedicated.

You then must pay a special handling fee to Amtrak to transport the bike.

Multiply all this by two for the return trip home.

I think most would agree this is a hassle.

We’ve asked Amtrak to reconsider their policy and carry unboxed bikes – heaven forbid – but have been told  they would need need new, high-tech baggage cars make this difficult situation work.

According to Jay McArthur,  Amtrak’s Principal Officer for Policy and Development:

Roll-on/roll-off bicycle carriage is not possible at this time on our Crescent and Silver Service routes which run through Virginia to and from New Orleans and Florida.

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Loch Raven Trail Access

[B’ Spokes: Two important issues coming up, Make them if you can. More info in the link at the end of the article.]

 The Housing and Community Development Subcommittee will meet on Wednesday, July 27, 2011at 11:00 a.m. in the City Council Chambers, 4th Floor of City Hall, located at 100 N. Holliday Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202 to hear the following legislation:

CC 09-0173R – Informational Hearing – Mountain Biking on City Reservoir Watershed Property

A copy of the legislation can be found here for your review.

We need to pack the house on this one! This may be our only opportunity to be heard in front of City Council, so let’s show them how much interest there is in Loch Raven! Forward this email to every cyclist you know that cares about Loch Raven. We need to show our numbers!

Also, make every attempt you can at coming to the Trail Work Day on July 23 at Loch Raven! These volunteer numbers have been huge for showing our dedication to this resource.

We are having our second trail work day at Loch Raven on July 23, 2011 from 8:00am-12:00pm. This event will be the first of two trail work days using our REI grant to repair erosion issues at Loch Raven.

You can download both a flier and map containing the salient details below:
flier
map

We will be giving t-shirts to the first 125 people that register, so please email lochraven@more-mtb.org to reserve your spot.

Special thanks go out to REI, BOB trailers, and Zac® Tools for their support for this project! Also, a special thanks goes out to Race Pace Bicycles for their immediate and selfless support of our trail work days, no questions asked!

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot us an email.

Cheers,

Bob Compton and Dave Blum, MORE Trail Liaisons for Loch Raven

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