Month: October 2010

From the League of American Bicyclists (LAB)
With nearly 34,000 traffic fatalities in 2009 — 630 of them of bicyclists – there is a huge need to spend safety funds quickly and strategically. However, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has released information showing that states have spent just 62 percent of the total available from the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), one of the most significant federal safety funding sources. In our Advocacy Advance report, we discuss how HSIP funds can be spent on bicycle and pedestrian safety projects and how the spending rate, or “obligation rate,” has been extremely low since the beginning of the program.
It is disappointing to see states are still not aggressively tapping into these funds.
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[B’ Spokes: OK this is a national problem covering all modes of travel, so the big question is how does Maryland stack up? OK gentlemen place your bets, is Maryland doing better or worse then the national average?
The answer is worse, with Maryland spending only 44.6% from the Highway Safety Improvement Program verses 61.9% nationally and the best state (Wyoming) at 88.9%.
Combine that with Maryland’s absolutely the lowest spending rate of Transportation Enhancement money on bike/ped projects with $20M in the bank still unobligated it really looks like improved road safety is a low priority for Maryland. So while we are waiting for Maryland’s 2009 pedestrian fatality rate ranking to come out any bets on on the movement of our current ranking of 6th worst fatality rate?
Continue reading “States still slow to spend safety funds”

Updated update: While I did get a written response John Kuo, I will not post it. The issue is the only tools at John’s disposal are the Drivers’ Manual and Drivers’ Ed materials, he is not in a position to interpret laws. While this seems reasonable at first glance using car centric MVA materiel to interpret bicycling laws and having more AAG’s (Assistant Attorney General) in the phone directory then I can shake a stick at, this is really turning into more bother then what should be necessary. For now Maryland’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and Maryland Highways Safety Office (Peter Moe) is working on this issue, so hold off on writing folks till we see what they come up with.

The upside to all this there has been a lot of conversations around improvements at MVA and John is a pleasant person to talk with and very receptive to ideas but as far as bicycle laws he knows what he knows and that’s that. Again let’s wait till we see what others can do before jumping on anyone’s case.

Update: I just got a call from John Kuo MVA Administrator he sends his apologies and they will be issuing a correction as well as putting information about how to drive safely around cyclists on the MVA web site. They will also be consulting with Peter Moe of Maryland Highway Safety Office who does a good job of presenting issues fairly, his work can be seen here

Good job to everyone who responded! We got some serious attention on this. Thank you.

Original alert after the fold. (No longer applicable.)
Continue reading “Updated Update: MVA Misfeasance”