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Reporter tries bike commuting

For years, I was scared to bike to work. In Portland, of all places.
I was afraid I’d get flattened, out there on my rinky-dink bike amid the beefy Yukons and boxy Westfalia vans that roam the region. These are not unusual fears. Even in the nation’s bike-happiest city, fewer than five percent of Portland workers pedal to the office, according to U.S. Census estimates. Some of the rest might consider the option if persuaded they’d get home in one piece.
I wasn’t persuaded. But I tried it anyway. Three months later, I’m alive to report: The fear is gone.
Pretty much. …
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Station North Bike Rack Competition

Station North Bike Rack Competition– thought I’d pass this information on:

"Station North Arts & Entertainment, Inc. announces the Station North Bike Rack Project. Eight (8) uniquely designed bike racks will be created and installed throughout the Station North Arts & Entertainment District to enhance the area with these sculptural installations, while simultaneously promoting bicycling within the city of Baltimore.
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Baltimore County Announces Employee Carpool Program

Encourages Citizens and Businesses to Carpool, Use Transit [Hey! Why no mention of bikes??? 🙁 ]
BC Rider. Save Money, carpool.
Towson, Md. (September 11, 2008) — In an effort to reduce the monetary and environmental costs of commuting, Baltimore County Director of Sustainability David Carroll today unveiled a new carpooling incentive program for county employees. He also encouraged citizens to carpool, use transit and other environmentally-friendly options; and advocated for businesses to offer programs that promote these options to their employees.
The new carpool incentive program, called BCRider, invites County employees to "green their ride" and enjoy free parking, guaranteed rides home and other program elements that help increase convenience and cost savings. Employee carpools with at least three participants are provided with convenient, reserved, carpool spaces in County-owned garages, and a free guaranteed ride home in the event of a family emergency or unscheduled, mandatory overtime. Carpools will be given one extra parking card for members to use occasionally on days when car pooling is not feasible.
Savings
"With gas prices of $3.50 per gallon, an employee with a 35-mile round trip commute spends more than $5,300 per year in gas, parking, wear and tear and other costs, and somebody driving to Towson from one of the neighboring counties could be spending upwards of $7,000 annually," said Baltimore County Sustainability Director David Carroll. "Between the cost savings, and reduced environmental impact, carpooling makes a lot of sense."
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Volunteers for Tour du Port

Tour du Port needs volunteer for the event on October 5th. They particularly need route marshals. If you are willing to be a volunteer email Charina Chatman cchatman"at"onelesscar.org

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School siting, a change is coming in Maryland

While 50% of parents biked or walked to school when they were kids only 15% of todays kids bike or walk today. And coincidently (or not) that difference is close to our current obesity rate. To me one of our core issues whether our roads should be unsafe or should they be safe to bike or walk to school (and to other destinations by kids.) Allowing schools to prohibit students to walk or bike there (with no attempt to fix the problems,) allowing the construction of bus accessible only schools where even from the very start the plans strongly discouraged any student ever from biking or walking to school. If it is acceptable to do this with kids then it is acceptable to do this with any who want to bike or walk.
Well Maryland Department of Planning has produced this exemplary guide on the subject. While the contents may not be of interest to the average reader of this site it is worthy of note that it looks like Maryland gets the "state of the art" award on this very complicated subject.
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Dave Troy: Fueled By Randomness

[A most excellent blog entry. Which I will highlight the conclusion: "We have a lot to learn from the rest of the world with respect to our relationship with our own landscape, and we could start by making bicycling a more usable, more human experience for average people."]

Bicycles

I spent the last two months in Europe — mostly in Berlin, Germany. While I was there, I had the opportunity to use a bicycle as a primary mode of transportation, and it was a great experience. I looked forward to biking because every trip was a revelation: about urban design, road planning, and building on a human scale.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to bike from my home north of Annapolis, Maryland into the city. This is a trip I’ve made on previous occasions and I’d found it underwhelming for a variety of reasons. But with an extensive (and positive) biking experience under my belt in the last few weeks, I’m now able to articulate the reasons why the experience of biking is so much different between the US and Europe.
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Assault while riding?

Part of the City’s Bike Master Plan we are trying to track incidents. If you have been assaulted while riding if you could email the following information to the City’s Bike/Ped Planner "Evans, Nate" <Nate.Evans@baltimorecity.gov>:

Date of assault:
Time of assault:
# Of Assailants:
If the bike was stolen:
Owner’s name:
Street Location:
If police report was filed:

Thanks for your assistance in helping make Baltimore a better place to live.

I will also note feel free to contribute a story here on Baltimore Spokes. Our mission is to help promote biking in the city, whether its problems to be fixed or sharing positive experiences, whatever it is we are all part of a community that is out to help one another.