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Delaware Governor signs Vulnerable Road Users Bill into law

[B’ Spokes: Note that the Maryland legislator and MDOT is very opposed to “special” privileges unless of course you are a road worker. I guess that’s different because they have ligament reasons to be in the road and we don’t.]

by Jeff

Today Delaware Governor signed SB 269 into law. The bill, modeled after an Oregon law, enhances the penalty for drivers convicted of careless or inattentive drivers who cause serious physical injury to cyclists, pedestrians and other vulnerable road users. The new law includes sentencing guidelines such as:

  • completion of a traffic safety course
  • perform up to 100 hours of community service related to driver improvement and providing public education on traffic safety
  • fines up to $550
  • suspension of driving privileges

In response to the bill signing, League President Andy Clarke said “We’re excited that Delaware is becoming the third state in the nation to pass such a Vulnerable Road Users law that offers additional protection to cyclists and other non-motorized users of our shared roadways. It is this sort of leadership that has propelled them to 10th in our annual state rankings and garnered them a Bronze Level Bicycle Friendly State designation. We look forward to Delaware’s continued progressing in making their state a great place for bicyclists.”

If you live in Delaware please be sure to thank bill sponsors Senator Sokola and Representative Barbieri and co-sponsors Sen. Bunting and Reps. Bennett, Carson, Hudson, Jaques, Miro, Schooley, D. Short, Walls & Brady. Thanks also to Bike Delaware, Delaware Bicycle Council and Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia for their work in advocating for this law.

~Jeff Peel
State & Local Advocacy Coordinator

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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.)
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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.
…
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San Francisco rolls out new smart parking meters with ‘demand-responsive pricing’

[B’ Spokes: I’ll assert that free on-street parking takes usable space from cyclists so it would be nice if these things could fund bike/ped projects. But that aside, cheep parking means too many cars and expensive parking means more alternate transportation so this is a great way to arrive at a balance. (I’m not anti-car just pro appropriate use of cars, and no I am not trying for the Olympics just because I can bike 6 miles, that distance should be doable for the vast majority of people.)]

by Donald Melanson

San Francisco has been working on making parking “smarter” for quite a while now, and it’s just recently taken another big step in that direction by starting to replace over 5,000 older parking meters with the snazzy new model pictured above. Those will not only let you pay with a credit or debit card (and soon a special SFMTA card), but automatically adjust parking rates based on supply and demand, which means you could pay anywhere from $0.25 to $6.00 an hour depending on how many free spaces there are. Those rates are determined with the aid of some sensors that keep a constant watch on parking spaces, which also means you’ll be able to check for free spaces in an area on your phone or your computer before you even leave the house. Hit up the link below for the complete details, and to check if the neighborhoods you frequent are included in the initial rollout.

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Western Baltimore County Draft Pedestrian and Bicycle Access Plan

From the Western Baltimore County Pedestrian and Bicycle Access Plan website:

The technical advisory committee and the Office of Planning have developed a preliminary draft for public comment. The draft is also being circulated among county and state agencies for additional input on the plan.

The citizen input from the workshops helped create the implementation recommendations of the plan. Office of Planning staff compiled and analyzed the discussion notes and surveys from each of the workshops, along with the more than 270 surveys that were submitted online.

In the fall, a public meeting will be scheduled to receive additional public comment. A revised draft plan will be submitted to the Planning Board and ultimately to the Baltimore County Council for approval as an amendment to the County Master Plan.

View the full document (23 MB) (PDF)

View the plan in sections:

Table of Contents (1 MB) (PDF)
Introduction and Shared Use Paths (pp. 1-14) (3.5 MB) (PDF)
Walking 1 (pp. 15-26) (5.5 MB) (PDF)
Walking 2 (pp. 27-32) (4.5 MB) (PDF)
Bicycling 1 (pp. 33-41) (1.5 MB) (PDF)
Bicycling 2 (pp. 42-49) (5 MB) (PDF)
Bicycling 3 (pp. 50-58) (6 MB) (PDF)
Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Evaluation and Appendices (pp. 59 to end) (2 MB) (PDF)

View full size color maps:

Proposed Pedestrian Improvements (5.5 MB) (PDF)
Proposed Shared Use Path and Bicycle Improvements (5.5 MB) (PDF)

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Pedestrian safety issue hits close to home

from Welcome to the Fast Lane: The Official Blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation by Ray LaHood

Early Wednesday afternoon, a Department employee was struck by a dump truck while crossing the street near DOT Headquarters and taken to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries.

She was in the crosswalk.

Sadly, she was not the first pedestrian coming to or from our building to be hit by a car. In late April, Amy Polk, a DOT contractor and mother of two young children, was killed.
…
And I am really, really worried about our employees’ safety.

So I met this morning with DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier, DC Transportation Director Gabe Klein, and staff from the Metropolitan Police Department and the DC DOT to see if we could brainstorm some ways to prevent future pedestrian injuries.

We agreed to work on a plan that attempts to solve this problem from a variety of angles. Some ideas under consideration include:

* Extended crossing-guard hours
* Stepped-up pedestrian and vehicle enforcement
* Pedestrian training and education
* Speed trailers (the roadside digital signs that display a driver’s speed)
* Prohibiting "right turn on red" in the Southeast Federal Center area
…
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[B’ Spokes: Say what? No targeting just j-walking pedestrains or billboards showing distracted pedestrains getting hit by cars? Come on let Balamore show you how it’s done without these practical and might actually work type solutions. (And we wounder why DC’s ped fatality rate is lower then the whole State of Maryland.)]

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