Twenty 20 Cycling
A new bike shop in Hampden with a clear vision for the future of cycling in Baltimore.
725 West 36th Street Baltimore, MD 21211
Phone: (443) 759-5620
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Cars Cause Congestion
Komanoff found that every car entering the CBD causes an average of 3.23 person-hours of delays. Multiply that by $39.53—a weighted average of vehicles’ time value within and outside the CBD—and it turns out that the average weekday vehicle journey costs other New Yorkers $128 in lost time.
He translates all traffic impacts—delays, collisions, injuries, air pollution—into dollars and cents; that way, it’s easy for users to compare the benefits and costs of different plans. He has even come up with a plan of his own that would, according to his calculations, collect $1.3 billion in motorist tolls per year—all of which would be spent on improving public transit—and save $2.5 billion in time costs by reducing delays. To that, add $190 million from decreased mortality as a result of making streets more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly, $83 million in collision damage reduction, and $34 million in lower CO2 emissions.
he produced a detailed statistical analysis of pedestrian and cyclist deaths—it showed that casualties are not random, unpredictable accidents but the foreseeable result of given traffic conditions.
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To Address Demand for Oil, We Must Focus on Transportation
by Earl Blumenauer
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The truth is that we are drilling 150 miles offshore and one mile below the earth’s surface because we have run out of accessible oil. Most shocking is how small a difference this oil makes to our energy needs. The 35-60,000 barrels spewing daily from the Gulf floor would be enough to power our nation’s cars for just four minutes.
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They Have to Do the Right Thing or Else They’re Going to Get Killed
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Mike Pintek of Pittsburgh radio station KDKA. (Photo: KDKA)Last year, we posted a piece about a couple of shock jocks in Detroit who thought it was funny to talk about throwing things at bicyclists.
This year, the hateful talk is coming over the airwaves from Pittsburgh.
Streetsblog Network member blog Reimagine an Urban Paradise has been following the story of a Pittsburgh DJ, Mike Pintek of KDKA, who made some ugly remarks about being “tempted” to hit people on bikes with his car. The audio has been taken down, but here’s a partial transcript of what Pintek said from Reimagine’s author, Lolly:
“There are some bicyclists who are just these arrogant little dorks that think they can do anything they want because they’re on a bicycle and ‘we’re being green and environmentally friendly’…
“I have been thoroughly tempted — I haven’t done it ’cause I’m not going to do it — I’m not that kind of person…but I have been so tempted to just bump ‘em.
“I have been so tempted to pull up behind them when they’re doing this — you know spread out across the road — put my car in neutral, jam the accelerator down, race the engine and scare the living crap out of them.
“They’ve got to stop being so arrogant about what they’re doing. They’ve got to obey the rules. They have to do the right thing or else they’re going to get killed.”
This all is playing out in a city where several bicyclists have been attacked in recent weeks by gangs of kids, as reported by Bike PGH.
Reimagine’s Lolly has this to say about what she thinks the consequences should be for the DJ:
Driver’s licenses are a privilege, not a right and if a person announces their desire to use their vehicle as a weapon, they should lose their license. If they use their job to incite others to commit violence, they should lose that job.
She also notes that in the case of a San Francisco driver who allegedly did target people on bikes and used his vehicle as a weapon, the charges are felony attempted murder.
PGH Is a City and WWVB have more. Apparently Pintek is going to talk about what he said on his show today. We’ll keep an eye on it.
On another note entirely, we’d like to thank the folks at the Top Online Engineering Degree blog for including Streetsblog.net on their list of Top 50 Blogs for Civil Engineers to Read. It’s a terrific list that we’re looking forward to digging into. You should definitely check it out. And we’re honored to be included.
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Whodunnit… Henry Ford.
“My experience convinces me that the criminals of twenty and thirty years ago were cleverer, more daring and enterprising than the criminals of today…. The increase in serious crime is due not to education, but to the incoming of the motor-age. The introduction of the motor-car has made life easy and less risky for criminals. They travel faster and farther afield, and this increased mobility makes the chance of capture infinitely less than it used to be. The activities of criminals knows no bounds… In the old days a smash and grad was done by a pedestrian with a brick, and he had to rely on his legs to get him quickly out of danger of capture. The motor-car gave him considerably increased facilities both for committing a crime and escaping detection.”
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Md. Bikers Injured After Head-On Collision
By Kenny Gamble
BETHESDA, Md. (WUSA) — A spokesperson for the Maryland National Capital Park Police said two bicyclists were injured after a head-on collision on the Capital Crescent Trail near Little Falls Parkway.
Sgt. Lauryn McNeill said it happened Friday around 8:30 a.m. She said a cyclist headed for the National Institutes of Health moved around two pedestrians and into the path of an oncoming cyclist.
McNeill said both cyclists were transported to Suburban Hospital for treatment.
Chief Darien L. Manley said this is not a common occurrence. "I hope that the parties involved recover from their injuries soon," he said.
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Only cars have the right to use deadly force
Crime, bicycle thieves and police attitudes
[B’ Spokes: There is no doubt in my mind that bicycle theft is a deterrent to everyday people biking more and even more poignantly a major obstacle to kids mobility and them getting the exercise they need to stay on the path of a healthy life style. A bicycle is more then just its dollar value, it is freedom of mobility for kids, it’s health and quality of life for the mature. A bicycle thief should be viewed as we did horse thieves in the wild west or a heinous crime like steeling candy from a baby as it is an attack on the quality of life and should not be tolerated.
I will point out once again that studies show that increase traffic enforcement reduces crime and other locations have solutions to reduce bicycle thefts yet in Baltimore its a none issue.]
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By Paul Rebman, Baltimore
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The story originally caught my eye, not due to the fact that Ms. Bush Hager’s name was attached, but instead I was intrigued by noticing a story about stolen bicycles. You see, I truly feel the pain Ms. Bush Hager and her husband must have felt to have their bicycles stolen. I too live in Baltimore City and have had not one, not two, but five, yes five, bicycles stolen from me in just five years of living here. Some from my house, some from Penn Station (I commute to work every day on my bicycle, it is more than recreation for me, it is transport). Thus, the article did tug at the heart strings, knowing the feeling that someone else was going through what I have gone through five times now.
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In journalism, it is the name that draws the attention. I did have five bicycles stolen. My neighbors have been held at gunpoint in their own garages. My friends have had their front door smashed in and houses ransacked, but I still have yet to see a word in print on any of it.
And it extends beyond journalism. I was happy to hear that not only the Baltimore City police were looking into the case but the Secret Service were as well. For my part, it took no less than seven calls to the police to report the theft of my stolen bicycle. Like Ms. Bush Hager’s bicycle, my bicycle too was valued at over $1,000 and served as my transportation to get to work. When the police finally did arrive 10 days after the first call, the actual response I received from the officer was "Seriously? You brought me out here for a stolen bicycle? You want me to do a police report for this? I have more important things to do with my time." Perhaps I should have called the Secret Service.
Or maybe, yes maybe I should have been a Bush or a Ripken or an O’Malley. Maybe I should have lived in Federal Hill instead of Pen Lucy. Maybe my life should have been noteworthy.
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Completing the streets in Michigan
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they want to move away from “local and statewide car-centric transportation policies focused on accommodating motorists alone and fail[ing] to address the needs of non-motorized roadway users – including pedestrians, bicyclists, older citizens and persons with disabilities.”
On LMB’s own blog, they quote a state legislator making this key point: “It doesn’t cost anything to think differently and to plan differently.”
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