Month: June 2011

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Excerpts from Bike Maryland’s June 2011 newsletter

June 30 – Bike Commuter Workshop and Party!

This event is hosted by Bike Maryland in partnership with the Waterfront Partnership. Bike Maryland will cover the basics of commuting by bike and bike safety. Time – 5:30-7:50pm in Harbor East – exact location to be posted soon here.  Please rsvp to Beth Laverick via email here.  Light refreshments will be served.  Anyone who bikes to work or is thinking about biking to work will get a lot out of this talk. We will have advice on getting started, equipment, choosing routes, staying safe on the road, bicycling in various types of weather and more. Tell your friends! All attendees will be entered to win a TREK 700 hybrid bike! 

If you are unable to attend, but are interested in scheduling a bike commuter workshop at your workplace, email us here. Scheduling is flexible and can be tailored to your organization’s specific needs.

 
Bike Maryland Membership – You WILL improve Maryland’s bike-ability by becoming a member of Bike Maryland. Please Join Now Here. 

We represent over 19,000 Maryland bicyclists. Bike Maryland depends on bicyclists like you to continue our work making bicycling a healthy and more sustainable means of transportation and, of course, an all out fun recreational activity. Bike Maryland is the nonprofit organization that has been instrumental in improving bicycling conditions and protecting the rights of bicyclists and organizations across Maryland. We are the only organization actively promoting pro-bike legislation on the state level in Maryland. We improve conditions on the county and city level too.

Thanks to the support of our members, what we’ve accomplished and continue to do is truly remarkable:

  • Passage of six state pro-bike bills in the last two years
  • Passage of the three foot rule
  • Passage of the manslaughter bill – now there are higher penalties and potential jail time for drivers who cause fatalities
  • Working with multiple communities, businesses and universities to promote a Bike Friendly Maryland
  • Bus racks on MTA buses
  • Host of the Annual State Bike Symposium
  • Co-host dozens of free or inexpensive educational workshops with incredible guest speakers
  • Bike Awareness Campaign to reduce youth crash and fatality rates
  • Free Bike Commuter Programs for businesses, universities and communities 
  • Your advocates toward increased motorist education and awareness
  • Promoting open streets for bicyclists and fun, sustainable trails
  • Achievement of a League Bike Friendly Ranking of #10 in the U.S.
  • Host Tour du Port 
  • We are the Voice of Maryland’s Bicyclists and much more!

Your support goes directly toward pro-bike legislation, pro-bike improvements, increased education and enforcement and much more. Bike Maryland is currently staffed by only one full time person. More support is needed. Your support will help us increase the capacity necessary to continue to make Maryland a great place to live and bike!

Become a Member – Join Bike Maryland – Click Here – We Stand Up For You!

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Frederick – keep a look out for a white Chevrolet work van

The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office has released more details about the vehicle believed to be involved in a hit and run incident Wednesday on Yellow Springs Road during which a bicyclist was struck.
The vehicle is described as a white Chevrolet work van with a partial tag number of 40X, rear door windows and a ladder rack with a ladder on the roof, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said in a news release.
The investigation has determined that the van was travelling north on Yellow Springs Road near White Flint Drive just before 7 p.m. when it struck the cyclist, who was also travelling north, knocking him off the roadway, Bailey said. The van continued on and took a right on Bethel Road. The cyclist was treated and released from Frederick Memorial Hospital.
Anyone with information is asked to call Deputy First Class Anthony Ruopoli at 301-600-4139.
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Hagerstown Bike Master Plan

Take a Bike Ride in Hagerstown

The staff of the City of Hagerstown wishes to thank the dozens and dozens of people who reviewed and offered constructive comments on the draft plan. These comments have been reviewed and as appropriate, embedded in the final Bicycle Master Plan document. The final plan is available here for your review, use and sharing with others. The City Council endorsed the plan in March 2010. Please call the Department of Parks & Engineering at 301-739-8577 Ext 125 if you have questions or email the City Engineer Rodney Tissue at
email.

Master Bicycle Plan Final (pdf). Click here to download

Appendix A and B (pdf). Click here to download

Appendix C – Available upon request.

Hub City Bicycle Network Route Map (pdf). Click here to download

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Maryland Department of Transportation presents

Watch Maryland’s new bicycle safety video “Competence & Confidence: A Bicycling Guide for Adults.” It’s chock full of great tips on how to be a safer cyclist in Maryland.

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Cycle Maryland

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Enjoy the outdoors, get some exercise, support a greener environment and discover Maryland’s magnificent landscape as you pedal your way around the state.

Cycling offers up-close, authentic experiences. Select one of the hundreds of bike trails in the state. Maryland also has an abundance of on-road routes that are well-suited for cycling.

CONTEST
In tribute to the Cycle Maryland series of bicycling events across the state this summer and fall, the Maryland Office of Tourism is hosting a contest for bicyclists on the Cycle Maryland Facebook Page. Enter this contest by posting a photo of your participation at any of these special cycling events. A winner, selected in a random drawing, will receive a $250 gift card prize. Visit the Cycle Maryland Contest page by clicking here.

EVENTS
Kick-Off Event
June 18, 2011
Cross Island Trail
Queen Anne’s County
Announcement and trail ride with Governor O’Malley.  More info coming soon!
More info/map of trail…

2011 Garrett County Gran Fondo
June 25, 2011
Deep Creek Lake
Garrett County
The Gran Fondo is a celebrated tradition in Italian cycling culture. A Gran Fondo is a long distance, mass-participation cycling event – not a race – that welcomes professional, amateur, and recreational cyclists.
More info…

The Greatest Bicycle Tour of the Historic C&O Canal
July 9-12, 2011
Cumberland to Washington, D.C
No hills, no headwinds and no cars. Plenty of food, lots of support, ride at your own pace, well organized.
More info…

Ride to See – A Tour of Kent County
August 13, 2011
Galena
Kent County
15, 30, 40, 62 and 100 miles take in the scenery of the heartland of Kent County, Maryland, historic towns, and great country stores.
More info…

Saint Mary’s Century (Formerly the Amish 100)
September 17, 2011
Leonardtown
35, 62 and 100 miles through some of the most beautiful scenery in Southern Maryland.
More info…

Anacostia River Trail Opening
October 1, 2011
Bladensburg
Prince George’s County
Ribbon Cutting and trail ride.
More info coming soon.

Tour du Port
October 9, 2011
Baltimore
Tour du Port is a superb way to intimately tour Baltimore. It is one of the coolest bike events around – and it certainly supports a cause that we support – bicycle safety! What more could a bicyclist or commuter tired of congestion ask for from a bicycle event!” — Baltimore Bicycle Club
More info…

 

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The Motorized Menace

Socialist Government Subsidies of Cars Must End!
by Elly Blue

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THAT GIANT sucking noise? That’s the great socialist burden. Our liberal ruling class keeps real Americans struggling under an unbearable tax burden: cars.

The truth is, my friends, cars are emptying our pocketbooks and putting us in the red. The regional and federal governments’ tab for road land values, environmental costs, subsidized parking, and mopping up after crashes adds up to 28 cents for every mile driven. That means the average Portland driver eats up $1,972 of the public bankroll every year. Despicable!

Drivers have never covered their own costs, tossing a mere pittance to the state and fed—$325 each per year in taxes that go to roads and so-called “user fees”—while 40 percent of national road funding comes from our general taxpayer coffers.

Not that this should surprise anyone. Henry Ford himself, the father of the automobile, was a National Socialist. And that wasn’t a euphemism. He hoped for his product to be nationalized. Ninety years later, his dream came true with the auto industry bailouts.

Ford’s big-government, lock-step funding of wasteful car programs is the ultimate betrayal of the American way of life. We are in danger of paving over the very family values that have created our exceptional society of bold men and strong, lusty women. These days, our children can’t bike to school. Our elders can’t cross the street. Instead, we have wider and wider roads, filled with more and more cars that pump our hard-earned money directly into foreigners’ bank accounts. As if that weren’t enough, these same cars are frequently—and I would not lie to you, my friends—driven by homosexuals.

And gas. Gas! A filthy substance. It’s over $4 a gallon now, but its true cost is closer to $9. So who is paying for the other half? Taxpayers, that’s who. When the government subsidizes every gallon of gas to the tune of $5, it’s all of us who pay in the end.

…
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Cul-de-Sacs Are Killing Us: Public Safety Lessons From Suburbia

from Streetsblog New York City by Tanya Snyder
People choose suburban neighborhoods over urban ones for myriad reasons: because they can afford it, because the schools are good, because it’s a quiet street, or crimes rates are low, or everyone walks around with baby strollers and golden retrievers, or their family is nearby. But countless other consequences stream from their decision of where to live.
If people can’t or don’t walk or bike where they need to go, they’ve also bought themselves carbon emissions from excessive driving. Hours lost in traffic congestion. Growing waistlines from spending time behind a wheel instead of on two wheels, or two feet. Stress and relationship problems. And even worse: The suburb they chose “because it’s safe” ends up being far more dangerous than the city they fled.
William Lucy, a professor at the University of Virginia and former chair of the Charlottesville Planning Commission, says that people’s decision making about where to live has such sweeping ramifications that he’s concentrated his professional work on it. And it’s why he focuses on danger and death: specifically, the danger of leaving home.
At a daylong forum yesterday on intelligent cities at the National Building Museum, Lucy could barely wait to lay into cul-de-sacs, which he says were designed for safety but end up being more dangerous than through-streets.
“They turn what should be a 100-yard walk into a two-mile drive, and they put more people in cars for more reasons than they should,” Lucy said. And because they get lulled into a sense of security, he said, parents don’t teach their kids about street safety and the “difference between street and sidewalk and driveway and yard.”
But the greatest danger to a young child, he said, is being backed over by a motor vehicle – usually driven by their own parents in their own driveway. Indeed, “backovers” account for 34 percent of “non-traffic” vehicular fatalities among children under 15 years old. (“Frontovers” account for another 30 percent, meaning that 64 percent of “non-traffic” vehicular fatalities still involve children being run over, according to KidsAndCars.org.)
Because these incidents occur on private property, they’re not considered “traffic” accidents and data is not collected by national traffic safety organizations. Meanwhile, Lucy said, squeamishness over openly reporting on the tragedy of a parent killing his or her own child with a car leads newspapers to bury news of backovers – missing a “teachable moment.”
Back to the “danger of leaving home”: Lucy compares the rates of homicides by strangers and traffic fatalities. (He studies homicides by strangers because he focuses on the danger of leaving the home: 80 percent of homicides are committed by someone the victim knew.) When people choose “safe” neighborhoods, they are often trying to protect their children (and themselves) from crime. But he finds that the likelihood of dying in a traffic accident is 13 times greater than the likelihood of being killed by a stranger. The most dangerous places, therefore, are those thought to be the safest, Lucy said: the outer suburbs.
He also stressed that “more crashes” doesn’t mean “more danger.” In urban areas, where cars are going slower, there are more crashes — but lots of them are fender-benders that don’t result in injury. Indeed, Lucy said, you’ll find less danger where there are more crashes. But where cars are traveling at high speeds, crashes are far more serious – both for people in cars and people biking or walking along the road.
“Young parents are choosing a location based on schools, but unfortunately, there are not enough parents of young children who are sufficiently aware that young children grow up to be teenagers,” Lucy said. “Nothing is more dangerous than a teenager in a car on a two-lane road at midnight after having had a little too much to drink.”
Perceptions of safety can sabotage actual safety in other surprising ways. Lucy likes to say that it’s the fire department that plans a city. Fire departments argue for wide intersections with gradual corners, even onto tiny cul-de-sac streets, making pedestrian crossings longer and more dangerous. Or the fire department mandates so many expensive fire-code fixes as old buildings get retrofitted for new uses that the project becomes too expensive. And then the outcome is a vacant building, which is far less safe than an occupied one.
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Transportation Enhancements Spending Report FY 1992 – FY 2010

Analysis of the States’ Use of Federal Funding [With tables summarized just for Maryland.]

[B’ Spokes: Note this table is for the life of the program so small changes in the percentage is a lot of money. To date the State has focused on the Programed amount (setting aside projects and their funds and as you can see Maryland is at 99%.) And we have focused on the Obligated amount of available funds. (Projects getting done and consuming funds and as you can see Maryland is not that good at 81%. (The State has promised to address this issue but no specifics yet.)]

Table 1: State TE Program Benchmarks for FY 1992 through FY 2010 (in thousands of $)

State Apportioned Rescinded* Available* Programmed* Obligated Reimbursed ‡
FY 92-10 FY 92-10 Rate FY 92-10 Rate FY 92-10 Rate FY 92-10 Apport? Avail? FY 92-10 Rate
Maryland $186,901 -$15,018 -8% $169,253 91% $185,417 99% $137,757 74% 81% $119,564 87%
Total to States $12,466,774 -$2,625,423 -21% $9,883,474 79% $9,868,813 79% $8,745,625 70% 88% $7,582,956 87%

[B’ Spokes: Note that Maryland’s rescinded rate has been favorable (some of the report focuses on states with less favorable rescission rates) but $12 million of Maryland’s $15 million was rescinded in 2009. Too many out of the ordinary things are happening under O’Malley’s watch. ]

[B’ Spokes: The big question here is what happened in 2008, the second year O’Malley was in office? Did John Porcari just get distracted by his future appointment as Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation? Reauthorization issues of the Transpiration Enhancement fund did not happen till late 2009. It’s very puzzling why Maryland took a nose dive in 2008 and then stayed below average.]

Table 2: Yearly Obligation Rates by Fiscal Year 2006–2010*

State 5-Year Average
Annual
Apportionment		 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 5-Year Cumulative
Obligation/
Apportioned		 Unobligated
Balance
Maryland $12,304,109 72% 137% 5% 68% 51% 67% $31,495,736
Total $831,571,148 65% 71% 64% 74% 64% 68% $1,181,417,434

[B’ Spokes: This table is interesting as it shows not only our obscenely high match rate but also our obscenely high project cost. Lets look at total average project cost (The Table shows just the Federal portion): Maryland – $700K/40%=$1750K; Average – $380/71%=$535K. So the average Transportation Enhancement project for Maryland is three times higher then elsewhere (on average.) The explanation is fairly straight forward: Most states use this fund to build on-road bicycle accommodations (anything from shoulders to bike lanes) but Maryland forbids it. Most states can fund accommodations for bicycles as part of another projects (it’s a lot cheaper that way) but Maryland forbids it. Seriously, in this economy why are we are placing obstacles in the way of cheep accommodations for bicyclists?]

Table 4: Cumulative Programmed Federal Awards and Matching Funds, FY 1992 through FY
2010 (in thousands of dollars)

State Project Count Federal Awards Avg. Federal Award Matching Funds Match Rate*
Maryland 265 $185,417 $700 $272,606 60%
TOTAL 25,999 $9,868,813 $380 $4,006,636 29%

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Caltrain Update — All Trains have Two Bike Cars

Filed under “News You Will Not See In Maryland”

Multi-modal transportation commuters in the San Francisco Peninsula have a reason to be happy. All Caltrain gallery trains have two bike cars, and hold 80 bikes. Some of the trains (the Bombardier cars) still carry just 48 bikes, which is why the San Francisco Bike Coalition still has an active “Bikes on Board” group to monitor the number of people getting bumped and continue to improve the service for cyclists.
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Running stop signs

Excerpt from The Washcycle

Q. “Dr. Gridlock, several times in the last few months you’ve written that “drivers run stop signs too, but at least they slow down” as though that is a sign of greater virtue. But isn’t different behavior by different modes just a result of the technology, not the virtue of the operators? Drivers slow down because they’re going faster to start with, they can’t see or hear as well as cyclists, and they aren’t as maneuverable. In short, they slow down because they have to to avoid a crash. The prevelance of other illegal behavior seems to negate any claim to higher virtue. Would you not agree that cyclists, drivers and pedestrians do what they feel they can get away with without getting caught or being in a crash. So no group is more virtuous than other, right?”

Dr. Gridlock: My point exactly: Travelers generally comply with traffic law when they think there’s a reasonable chance they’ll get caught for a violation. Drivers complain about cyclists. Cyclists complain about drivers. But I don’t see any class of travelers having the moral high ground on complying with the law.

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