Month: November 2011

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New Baltimore Bicycling Advocacy Group in the Works

Via Baltimore Velo

A few weeks ago, preliminary plans were drawn out to create a dynamic new bicycle advocacy group for Baltimore’s cycling community. Local bicyclists met with various people experienced in bicycling advocacy to discuss how the group will operate in years to come. Groups like Bike Maryland have done great work to make bicycling a more viable means of transportation in Baltimore, but it looks like theres a consensus that a new group could do a lot more on the ground and elsewhere.

As new bicycling infrastructure takes shape around the city, and the number of bicycle commuters continues to rise, a strong advocacy group will become more and more essential to educate detractors and head off those who campaign against safety improvements for bicyclists.

If you have any intrest in attending the next planning meeting, …

Link to email and original article found here: https://baltimorevelo.com/2011/11/new-baltimore-bicycling-advocacy-group-in-the-works/

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How Eco-friendly is our city? (Baltimore Green map.)

Can the choices you make in daily life – how to get from place to place, where to shop, learn, relax and have fun, what to consume, when to reuse or recycle – make a difference? Absolutely.
Baltimore Green Map will help you to find eco-opportunities in your neighborhood and around our region. Using the international Green Map® System Icons, we map Baltimore’s ecological and cultural resources and our city’s progress toward becoming a healthy, sustainable* urban environment.
Baltimore Green Map is an ever-evolving project, including online maps, print maps, events and activities. Now you can even check out local green resources on the fly with the new mobile app.
https://www.baltogreenmap.org/v1/index.html

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A Post-Holiday Thank You for an Improved Rumble Strip Advisory

From League of American Bicyclists
Three of America’s largest cycling organizations — Adventure Cycling Association, Alliance for Biking & Walking, and the League of American Bicyclists – wish to thank the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for the significant improvements the agency made last week in an important technical advisory (TA) regarding the application of rumble strips on U.S. roadways.
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The newly revised TA, released on November 16, 2011, is a substantial improvement. It includes a new section about the accommodation of all roadway users (Section 9), with a special emphasis on the needs of cyclists, and lays out “a number of measures that should be considered to accommodate bicyclists,” including wide shoulders, bicycle gaps (intervals without rumble strips that allow cyclists to safety cross back or forth), and customized rumble treatments to allow more space for cyclists. The new TA also includes a significantly improved section on public outreach and involvement.
There are still sections of the new TA that raise concerns for cyclists, including Section 7b, which identifies the optimal “length” (or width) of rumble strips as 16 inches, a dimension which can make it more likely that these strips will cut into useable road shoulder space for cyclists.
It will be important for local citizens and organizations to pay close attention to the proposed addition of rumble strips on existing roadways and when roads are being built, reconstructed or repaved.
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https://networkedblogs.com/qLxqj

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Occupy the Lane

By Mighk Wilson
Streets are our predominant public spaces in our cities and neighborhoods. If you measure all of our streets compared to that of our parks and plazas, the streets cover far more area. Historically the street was the gathering place for commerce and socializing, not merely a place for transportation. But then came the automobile. And since the earliest auto owners — not to mention the manufacturers and gasoline companies — were rich and well-connected, they were the ones who rewrote the traffic laws in the 1910s to favor speed over access. By the late 1920s, after gasoline taxes had been instituted in many states, people came to think of our streets as commodities to be bought with gas taxes for the purpose of moving motor vehicles at high speed. Only two decades earlier our streets were seen as a Commons that was managed for the benefit of everyone and for purposes beyond mere transportation. One could say that our streets today are ruled by a form of tyranny; the Tyranny of Speed. If you aren’t going or can’t go fast, you don’t belong.
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Read more: https://mighkwilson.com/2011/11/occupy-the-lane/