Biking in Baltimore
Atomized spheres of influence: This street, bus stop, and library in San Antonio have no relation to each other except for a shared sense of emptiness.
PLACE GAMES
By the time Toth hooked up with them, PPS had developed what it calls
Continue reading “What If We Built Our Cities Around Places?”
A lovely article in the Bay Journal about the Gwynns Falls Trail. And don
Continue reading “Take a walk (and ride) on the wild side of Baltimore on Gwynns Falls Trail”
Through conversations with the school this matter has been resolved (but I have not had opportunity to confirm.) So this post is merely to provide a public record of an encounter with an untrained person directing traffic in an unsafe manner.
Continue reading “Roland Park Country School’s exit policy = run over cyclists”
For those of you who have not seen the new bike lane going SE on University just after the Roland Ave split, it is way cool. They removed a travel lane to install a bike lane. This concept is very important to implementing our bike master plan well; obtaining road width where it is not absolutely needed for motorized travel. If you would like to see more road designs that accommodate all road users well, send a thank you note to Frank Murphy frank.murphy@baltimorecity.gov .
We have already mapped out the area
Continue reading “Featured trail: Trolly Line #9 Trail, Ellicott City”
The next trail meeting will be on Thursday, Oct 18 7PM at The Wesley, 2211 W. Rogers Ave.
Come learn what those who support/oppose the trail have to say and have an opportunity to put your own 2 cents in.
Very few children walk or bike to school today. But this
wasn’t always the case. In 1969, according to the National
Household Travel Survey, approximately 50 percent
of children in the U.S. got to school by walking or
bicycling. By 2001, only about 15 percent of students
traveled to school by walking or bicycling. As a result,
kids today are less active and less independent. Over the
past 40 years, rates of obesity have soared among children
of all ages in the United States, and approximately
25 million children and adolescents are now either
overweight or obese.
The increasing trend of driving kids to school also has
other serious implications for health and safety. As much
as 20 to 30 percent of morning traffic can be generated
by parents driving their children to schools, and in the
United States, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause
of death for children ages 3 to 14.
…
Studies have shown that physical activity during youth
plays a critical role in the development of strong bones,
cardiovascular health and overall physical development.
But today, sedentary lifestyles for both children and adults
are, unfortunately, the cultural norm. In fact, on average,
the majority of U.S. children now spend more time each
day watching television and playing video games than
they do in school.
Undercover University Police officers arrested a serial bike thief Tuesday after they spotted him cut the lock on a student’s bicycle in front of Martin Hall, a police spokesman said.
Six charges were filed against Michael Crum, of Washington, including theft for five bicycles that police said he stole from students on the campus.
…
"He’s definitely one of the guys that is a leading stealer of bikes on campus," said Dillon. "It’s a relatively low-risk kind of criminal activity unless you start stealing bikes in front of cops."
…
Plainclothes officers in were hanging fliers on bikes encouraging owners to register with the university’s database of bicycle serial numbers and corresponding owners, when they spotted Crum ride up on another stolen bike with flat tires, Dillon said.
…
"We hope and expect him to see jail time for this," Dillon said.
From One Less Car:
Hello Everyone,
I wanted to give you all a brief synopsis of a meeting that Mark Counselman and
I had last Thursday with John Porcari, Secretary of the Maryland
Department of Transportation, Neil Pedersen, the SHA administrator and Sam
Minnitte, the director of planning for MDOT. Our agenda centered on
ensuring that the state of Maryland have a fully engaged “complete streets”
policy where the safety and convenience of all road users (bike/ped/
transit/cars) is accommodated.
The best news was that the Secretary agreed that county transportation engineers
need training to ensure that local roads are safe for bikes, peds
and transit users. His proposed solution (which we fully agree with) was to
make complete streets training a state funding requirement for local
DOTs. This means that state funds that go to the counties for road construction
would come with a comprehensive complete streets training
component. Right now training for bike/ped/transit accommodations is lacking in
many county DOT offices. This could potentially remedy that
problem. We will definitely be following up with the Secretary to make sure
that this becomes a reality
