"[Frederick] Mayor Randy McClement (R) said the city is behind the committee’s efforts, and agreed with O’Connor that the potential obstacle to implementing the group’s ideas was cost."
"Paints and signs are cheap, but they cost money. We need to know what this is going to cost and how to go about getting it. … Your ideas are wonderful. We don’t want them to go away. Come up with the dollars."
Another case of too expensive but too cheep to get the States attention that there is a problem with how it administers Federal funding.
Yep, thanks to Maryland’s highest in the nation local match requirement of 50% that enables bike/ped money to go further (at least that’s what the State claims), another plan for accommodating bicyclists will not receive any funding. Of course that’s probably not the only reason, other made up rules by the State to "promote" bicycling such as: it’s for on-road bike accommodations, it’s not part of a trail, it’s not a stand alone project and it’s not a capital expenditure probably all have something to do with not getting funding as well.
In the meantime if anyone has any ideas on how to spend the $25 million of unspent/unobligated Transportation Enhancement money that Maryland has on bike/ped projects get them into the long rang plans.
You see the problem is not lack of funding but that of trying to shoehorn bike/ped improvements into a process that is designed solely new and very expensive transportation projects. In other words you really cannot go back and enhance existing roads for bike/peds with Enhancement funding per rules our State made up.
Continue reading “No funding for a Bike Friendly Fredrick”
House Passes Extension of Transportation Reauthorization
…
An extension of current programs and funding levels is a far cry from my preferred approach to addressing the nation’s growing surface transportation challenges. Meeting the overall needs of the system and developing a 21st Century surface transportation network worthy of being passed on to future generations can only be accomplished through the passage of a robust and transformational long-term surface transportation authorization act.
However, extending these programs through the end of the fiscal year will provide States, localities, and public transit agencies with the degree of certainty necessary to move forward with their capital programs while Congress continues to work toward passage of a long-term surface transportation authorization bill.
…
Continue reading “House Passes Extension of Transportation Reauthorization”
City man gets 36 years for killing cyclist
By: Luke Broadwater – Examiner Staff Writer
Baltimore City Circuit Judge John Themelis sentenced Keon Stokes, 29, of Baltimore, to a total of 36 years in prison for second-degree murder in the death of a bicyclist.
Stokes received 30 years for second-degree murder, as well as three years for use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence and 18 months each for car theft and arson.
On May 1, 2005, Stokes, in a stolen vehicle, struck and killed Kurt Fulp, 20, while Fulp was riding a bicycle in the 1500 block of Presstman Street, and then fled the scene, prosecutors said.
Police responded to a call of a car fire later that day and determined the burning vehicle matched the description of the one that struck Fulp, according to prosecutors.
Continue reading “City man gets 36 years for killing cyclist”
Why Doesn’t Someone Tell You to Drive Less?
from Streetsblog All Posts by Angie Schmitt
When you become a new parent you are told many things. “By far the biggest killer of children is car crashes” isn’t one of them. In St. Louis you’re told there’s an outbreak of Whooping Cough. You’re told not to let too many people hold the baby given that it’s flu season. You’re told that purple feet are OK, but a purple face is not. You’re told to not tie blue balloons to your front porch handrail, lest you attract child abductors. Why doesn’t someone tell you to drive less with your child in the car?
We’re told about threats to our children from outside the home, but not about those we inflict ourselves. We’re not told to change much of anything other than to buy a certified car seat and read the instructions. It’s incredibly important that a proper child seat is used. An online search for child car seats returns millions of results, most with a variation of the following: “Using a child safety seat is the best protection you can give your child when traveling by car.” There are literally thousands and thousands of pages of advice on which car seat you should buy, diagrams of how to install the seat, how to determine at what height the shoulder straps should be set.
Continue reading “Why Doesn’t Someone Tell You to Drive Less?”
Why aren’t people screaming from the rooftops that this is dangerous?
…
Judy and Joe were on their way to one of his after school activities on the day of the crash. They were just a mile from their home when a young woman driving a Hummer and talking on her cell phone ran a red light and slammed into their vehicle.
Judy was fortunate to escape with only minor injuries. But Joe wasn’t as lucky. His side of the car took the brunt of the impact, and he died the next day at the hospital.
The loss stunned the Teater family–especially when they discovered that the driver who struck them was on the phone at the time of the crash.
"She passed six cars and a school bus that were stopped for the red light, and she did not see them," Judy said. "She was talking and looking straight ahead and didn’t see the cars passing in front of her."
…
Continue reading “Why aren’t people screaming from the rooftops that this is dangerous?”
Car commercials, anything but being stuck in traffic
Streets blog has a collection of car commercials and it really gets you to think, what are they trying to sell us? Random quotes from their article:
Combining wistful nostalgia for the country’s economic glories of the past and bright-eyed optimism for its eco-friendly techno-future, this Chevrolet ad reminds us that our past, present, and future all depend on a healthy US auto industry, even if the cost in dollars and lives seems high.
Lexus: “The Next Big Thing”
Billions of dollars of ads touting safety have helped convince Americans that the phrase “safe car” is no oxymoron, notwithstanding the roughly 380,000 crash deaths over the past decade. Here’s a Lexus ad that takes to a dizzying new level the myth that car technology will solve—any minute now—the problems that the car itself has created. Its suggestion that “a real driver in a real car reacting to a real situation without real consequences” is a real possibility fosters a false sense of safety among drivers that encourages dangerous risk-taking.
Dodge Charger: “Man’s Last Stand”
Chrysler stokes the gender wars with this ad suggesting that the American male may seem to have been tamed by the boss and neutered by the wife, but all that the rebel within needs to bust out is a $38K fully loaded Dodge Charger. The road is his last refuge, the one place where he can still be a manly man. He’ll “eat fruit” at home, but he won’t be a fruit in control of the kind of growling, ferocious muscle car that had its heyday back when men last really had it good.
Continue reading “Car commercials, anything but being stuck in traffic”
Boohoo, it takes me a half hour to get to work
The results are in from the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Maryland with it’s second worst commute time of 31.1 minutes. Really? This is a problem?
Well you can probably look forward to that little factoid promoting faster and more car centric road designs rather then looking at the lack of transportation options (just to name one factor.)
From the Getting Back on Track: Aligning State Transportation Policy with Climate Change Goals report I covered earlier:
"Although the new highway [Maryland’s ICC] was intended to relieve congestion on local roads, it will actually create more traffic by triggering sizable changes in the local travel demand patterns."
Yep more roads are going to fix the problem, not.
Continue reading “Boohoo, it takes me a half hour to get to work”
Which Came First, The Bike Or The Bike Lane? (Video)
via Treehugger
Image credit ::Modern Mechanix
When Richard Masoner of Cyclelicious asked “What came first, the bikes, or the bike lanes? Do bike facilities encourage people to bike? Or are they a response to increased demand after there are more bikes on the road?” I sent him a link to a post we did showing that bike lanes existed in 1928, but another commenter sent in a fabulous video telling the history of bike lanes, which explains how they date back to Napoleonic times.
The film explains that there were not a lot of roads in the Netherlands; the primary means of transport was by canal boat. Road building was tough in the soggy soil. Napoleon build a network of roads, but they deteriorated rapidly. When the bike came along, the Napoleonic roads were narrowed and given over to bikes. By 1905 there were strong rules to keep cars and carts off the bike lanes, and soon trees and hedges were planted between the bike paths and the new roads being built to accommodate the car.
So in fact, the bike lanes did come first. More in Cyclelicious. See also Copenhagenize for the history of bike lanes in Copenhagen.
Continue reading “Which Came First, The Bike Or The Bike Lane? (Video)”
MD Gets Transportation Policy for Positive Climate Change Goals but Not Non-Motorized Transportation :(
* State Support for Non-Motorized Transportation
Walking and bicycling are the only modes of transportation that produce zero greenhouse gas emissions, and there is tremendous potential to shift short car trips to these modes if the infrastructure is there to support them. Installing walking and bicycling facilities and building out these networks is relatively inexpensive compared to other surface transportation improvements. A little bit of funding goes a long way. Virtually all of the aid from the Federal Highway Administration can be used for non-motorized projects. Nationally, pedestrians and bicyclists make up 13 percent of all road fatalities, yet less than 1 percent of the federal safety funds are used to make these travel options more secure. This study examines what proportion of the FHA’s Surface Transportation Program (STP) funds states actually use for pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure.
A state can receive a maximum of 17 points for its financial support for non-motorized transportation through the flexible federal Surface Transportation Program (STP). A state receives 17 points for spending more than 2.5 percent of STP funds on non-motorized transportation. Point allocations decrease gradually to 0 for a state that spends less than 1 percent of STP funds on non-motorized transportation.
>>> MD >>> ZERO points!!!
************************************************
* Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plans
Bicycle and pedestrian master plans indicate whether the state department of transportation is evaluating and planning for the needs of non-motorized users. Master plans are also important in prioritizing infrastructure investments and ensuring there are uninterrupted networks of walkable, bikable streets. While ad hoc improvements may be useful on a granular scale, walking and bicycling do not become real options for people unless there are reliable, safe, and completed networks in place.
*****************************************************************************************************************
[B’ Spokes: This is an interesting as we got the points for having this even though there is nothing about our Bicycle Master Plans that prioritizes infrastructure investments. If 20% of our State roads that are unbikeable, interrupt a bike route or are all in urban areas where there is a need for better bicycling conditions… well that’s is according to our bike master plan. 🙁 ]
Continue reading “MD Gets Transportation Policy for Positive Climate Change Goals but Not Non-Motorized Transportation :(“