Continue reading “Delegate Maggie McIntosh on a bike ride (District 43, Baltimore City)”
City BMP update
News
- Bike Station Improvements
- Herring Run Trail Extension
- Middle Branch CSX Bridge
- Baltimore & Annapolis Trail – Northern Extension
The Bike Summit on May 1st provided an array of ideas on improving biking in Baltimore. Now comes the fun part: Contributing to make this vision a reality! A summary of the Bike Summit is available below.
New Bike Parking – The Department of Transportation’s Maintenance Division has installed over 92 bike racks over the past 5 weeks! The communities of Highlandtown, Belair-Edison, Waverley, Remington and Hamilton are some of the areas where the new racks are installed.
ARTSCAPE, the nation’s largest FREE arts festival, is July 16th – 18th and features BIKE PARKING. The University of Maryland is sponsoring free bike parking for a less-stressful option for to getting to and from Artscape. The bike parking will be staffed with volunteers who will provide goodie bags to cyclists. To volunteer for the event, please contact Kathy Hornig at Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts. Following then President-elect Obama’s visit, this is the 2nd major event in the city this year that offers bike parking.
In time for Artscape, the winners of the Station North Bike Rack Competition will be installed. These unique racks can be found along the 1700 & 1800 block of Charles Street and the unit & 100 block of West North Avenue.
Our prayers go out to Carol Silldorff for a speady recovery
Just heard from Carol’s dad that she was in a very serious bike accident during Bike Virginia .
She hit a deer at high speed, it was killed, and she has some fractures and other facial injuries. She is in the hospital in Charlottesville, VA. She can talk but is very swollen.
She will likely transfer to Baltimore in a day or two.
More as I hear it.
Cyclists Can Breathe Easy
A Dutch study has proved, yet again, that the level of dangerous microparticles are higher inside cars than on bikes.
I posted about how Traffic Kills More People Than Traffic Accidents before, but this recent survey reconfirms the science.
Despite the air pollution it is healthier to cycle in traffic than sitting in a car. The levels of particles in the air are greater inside a vehicle than on the bike lanes. So even though a cyclist breathes in more air than a motorist, the concentration of microparticles is lower for the cyclist.
The health benefits of cycling greatly overshadow the harm caused by breathing polluted air, the study adds.
Continue reading “Cyclists Can Breathe Easy”
Middle River gets a new trail along water
Doug Tomecek, community development director of Hawthorne Community Association, beams as County Executive James T. Smith Jr. presents him with a street sign indicating that part of the 3.46-mile trail in Hawthorne-Midthorn Park will be named Tomecek Trail. (Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston / June 24, 2009)
Continue reading “Middle River gets a new trail along water”
MDE ignores bike/ped again
Pursuant to the Living Shorelines Protection Act, MDE has prepared rules on where and how one can build erosion-control structures. Those structures often eliminate the public pathway along the shore (all land below mean high water is owned by the public so unless it is high tide, you can walk or ride a fat-tire bike along the shore). Some of the environmentally friendly techniques (planting marsh) also impair access along shores that were previously pebble and sand beached. In some states, to get a permit, property owners must create pathways inland of the shore protection–but these rules are silent entirely on public access. As written, MDE can allow property owners to eliminate public access along shores that people currently use to go somewhere.
Continue reading “MDE ignores bike/ped again”
Baltimore has the first all electric fleet of car sharing vehicles in the United States.
Exxon unveils electric, car-sharing fleet at Maryland Science Center
Visitors to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor Tuesday take a look at the electric car outside the Maryland Science Center.
ExxonMobil Corp. launched an all-electric car-sharing fleet at the Maryland Science Center on Tuesday.
Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and Maryland Energy Administration Executive Director Malcolm Woolf helped unveil the program, called AltCar, at an afternoon press event.
Continue reading “Baltimore has the first all electric fleet of car sharing vehicles in the United States.”
Law Enforcement Bias and the 3ft Law
Officer re 3′ passing law: “It’s very hard to do. The officer has to be in the right place and he has to observe a vehicle not giving the cyclist three feet. And if there’s on coming traffic, it’s hard for the motorist” said Dusty Stokes of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department."
Excuse me? Hard for the motorist? …
Continue reading “Law Enforcement Bias and the 3ft Law”
Breaking news: Transportation bill released
Capitol Hill is buzzing with the news: just moments ago, a new transportation bill was released, and the Obama administration is pushing Congress to pass a funding plan quickly. Why the rush? Transportation funding is running out. But we can’t afford to keep throwing money at transportation agencies unable to show progress on the issues that matter to us all: Affordable ways to get around; alternatives to congestion; reducing our oil dependency; protecting the climate; safe and vibrant communities and access to jobs. Tell Congress: No new money without a real, sustainable plan. The National Highway Trust Fund – which pays for road work, bike and pedestrian facilities and transit projects – will run out of money in August. With funds drying up, the pressure to throw more money at our problems is growing. Some in Congress are poised to take money from other needs to prop up the trust fund, which comes from gas taxes. They would prefer to go on spending our tax dollars without a real plan. But more money with no strings attached is not the answer. The U.S. hasn’t had a vision for transportation policy in decades. We’ve been trying to build our way out of a congested and inefficient system with no accountability and no actual plan to link our roads, trains, buses, bikeways and pedestrian-friendly streets. The result? Longer, more frustrating, less safe and increasingly expensive commutes for all of us. But now we have an opportunity for change. We must ensure that our country’s transportation investments strengthen our economy, our environment and our health. Tell your representative we need real reform before we throw more money at our problems. Don’t let Congress make the same mistakes it’s made in the past. We must fund transportation, and we must do it right this time. Thank you for your support at this crucial moment. Sincerely, Ilana Preuss |
Caravan/Prague screens at Red Emma’s!
Thursday, June 25 @ 8PM:
In the Summer of 2000, more than 100 cyclists set out from Hannover,
Germany on a 500-mile bike caravan across Europe to join the mass
mobilization against the IMF/World Bank meetings in Prague. Just a
year after the historic protests in Seattle against the WTO, the
Prague mobilization was an important moment in the then-still-growing
antiglobalization movement – it was a moment where it still felt
possible to change the world, when protests still seemed to mean
something, to effect some dent in the status quo of multi-national
organizations. It’s no wonder, then, that the “Money or Life” bike
tour took shape – not just a bike caravan aiming to get participants
to the mobilization, it was an attempt to create a tuly mobile utopian
community … and filmmaker Zach Weinstein was there to document it
all. Caravan/Prague is Weinstein’s video diary of the days, nights,
and times in-between he spent on the road, with the bike caravan, all
the way to Prague. Whether you like bikes or not, and whether you
agree with his (largely anarchist) politics or not, it’s a great film
– bizzare, informative, entertaining, and challenging. This screening
kicks off our summer film series (every Thursday until the end of
August!) – don’t miss it!