For those of you following this, a nice rundown of the issues here: https://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/11/09/two-year-transpo-bill-moves-on-to-full-senate-without-bikeped-protections/
[Baltimore] County’s new bicycle, pedestrian advisory committee hits the ground running
Panel hopes to pursue state, federal funds for county trail initiatives
By Jon Meoli
With a goal of making Baltimore County more bike and pedestrian friendly — and also setting the wheels in motion for state and federal funding for projects — the county’s new Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee held its inaugural meeting Tuesday, Nov. 8, in Towson.
Carol Silldorf, executive director of the advocacy group, Bike Maryland, called the committee’s formation a "groundbreaking" step, and said, "Baltimore County can really start to move ahead in its bikeability and become an example for other counties."
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https://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/baltimorecounty/ph-tt-ped-bike-committee-1116-20111108,0,2363682.story
Baltimore bikeshare program revived, 300-bike network possible by next fall
Exclusive agreement with Denver-based B-cycle calls for no public subsidies.
Pancake Breakfast Century Ride
Sunday, November 13, 2011, 7:30 AM
Starbucks – 1340 Smith Avenue, Baltimore, MD
The next Ramble route has become one of my favorite routes in the series and I’m not sure whether it’s because of the beautiful course through Carroll county or because I love eating breakfast. Likely both. The Pancake Interception route was a ride I cobbled together quickly based on a very silly idea- ride a bike to the all-you-can-eat breakfast at the Union Bridge Fire House. Several things about the ride just fell into place:
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https://www.meetup.com/Biking-in-Bmore/events/40395512/?a=ea1.2_lnm&rv=ea1.2
BICYCLING COULD SAVE BILLIONS
If people chose to take half of their car trips on two wheels instead of four, health care costs could drop by billions.
By Emily Sohn
THE GIST
* Biking instead of driving could save billions of dollars in health costs and thousands of lives.
* Cities with more biking infrastructure see lower rates of disease.
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Compared to driving, bicycling is clearly better for the environment and your health. But how much better is it?
A new study offers some hard numbers: If people in the upper Midwest chose to take half of their car trips by bicycle, health care costs would drop by $7 billion. And with better air quality for its now more-fit citizens, the region would end up with an estimated 1,100 fewer deaths each year.
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Continue reading “BICYCLING COULD SAVE BILLIONS”
Senate Transportation bill is bad for cyclists, bans biking where trail exists
{B’ Spokes: This is not good. For me the whole issue on why we need bike/ped money in the first place is because a lot of road engineers thought it would be good to save a penny or two on the dollar and build roads for cars only. And now they are trying to build more car only roads… as I said, not good.]
Excerpt from Washcycle:
But if the effective loss of federal funding isn’t enough, there’s also the loss of access to federal roads (page 226 ):
(d) BICYCLE SAFETY.—The Secretary of the appropriate Federal land management agency shall prohibit the use of bicycles on each federally owned road that has a speed limit of 30 miles per hour or greater and an adjacent paved path for use by bicycles within 100 yards of the road.
Even if the trail is in very bad shape, and the road is perfectly safe, the Secretary will have no leeway to allow cyclists to continue to use the road if a trail is available. This is very bad policy. Among other things it would end biking on portions of the Rock Creek Parkway where the speed limit is 35 mph.
Not that I think this rule is needed, but it’s especially bad to set the limit at 30mph – which is far too low for banning cycling. And 100 yards is a very wide net. A trail that far away serves a very different purpose than a trail just off the road.
Continue reading “Senate Transportation bill is bad for cyclists, bans biking where trail exists”
Spooky Ride Baltimore 2011 [video]
Spooky Ride Baltimore 2011 from Marc Hartley on Vimeo.
[From the link:]
A fun ride around Baltimore to some spooky landmarks and through a handful of questionable streets haha! Ride was pushed back a week dwindling some of the numbers, but still a great group. Awesome to see the little guy keep up not to mention lead the group on his BMX.
Camera – GoPro HeroHD…helmet mount this time.
Music – Statosphere by Digitalism
Grand Prix organizers owe city $1.5 million
Since the city used our safety money to help accommodate this event, not to mention what seems to be the stress from city hall away from whats good for the people that live here to out of town tourists.
https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2011/11/08/grand-prix-organizers-owe-city-1-5-million/
Miller tells business leaders: Higher gas tax is coming
https://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/2011/11/taxes_dominates_discussion_amo.html
Excerpt: "Del. Anthony O’Donnell, the House Republican leader, made clear that his caucus would not support a gas tax increase. “When people are banging on the door for a tax increase, think about the little guy,” he said, telling business leaders that consumers already are strapped and can ill afford more taxes and fees."
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B’ Spokes: The way I see it, is the state is trying to penny pinch road projects by excluding bicycle and pedestrian safety issues because the "need" for more road projects is so great. But the fact the road revenue is not keeping up with road "need" in and of itself says volumes.
Do road projects have the right to turn public space into killing zones? Maryland has the 4th highest pedestrian fatality rate https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/States/StatesPedestrians.aspx
Clearly Maryland is not doing something right.
Of course the big unspoken issue is in Maryland there is very little choice for too many including the "little guy", they "need" to drive. And that’s the real big issue, we are just digging ourselves into one big unsustainable pit with more and more road projects and no other options. Maryland is not saying lets do this road project well and for all users within what we can afford. Instead Maryland looks at cutting cost so we can do even more road projects, like my Mom says "If you squeeze every last bit from that tube of tooth paste you can then afford something nice." – While there is a point here about not being wasteful but in reality no mater how much you squeeze out it will never get you anything close in value to that tube of tooth paste. We need Maryland to rethink what is needed. And keep the goal as "mobility for all" instead of just for cars.
AAA puts annual cost of area crashes at $4.4 billion
[B’ Spokes: Something to think about, be part of the problem or part of the solution. Biking can reduce congestion as well as crashes.]
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Highlights from Getting There by Michael Dresser
"That year the cost of congestion was $98 billion in the U.S. and $2 billion in Maryland, according to AAA. The study found that the cost of crashes exceeded that of congestion in each of the 99 metropolitan areas in the study — whether large or small."
"AAA estimated that the crash losses amounted to $1,627 for each person in the Baltimore region, compared with $810 for congestion."
Continue reading “AAA puts annual cost of area crashes at $4.4 billion”