Month: February 2012

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Transit Networks & Design with Jarrett Walker: baltimore: speaking at lunchtime, feb 7!

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Transit Networks & Design with Jarrett Walker

Tuesday, Februrary 7

12 – 1 PM

Metro Gallery

1700 N. Charles Street at Penn Station

Please RSVP to info@buildthetrolley.org

Feel free to bring your lunch

The event is free and open to the public

Details:

“Public transit is a powerful tool for addressing a range of urban problems. But while many people support transit in the abstract, it’s often hard to channel that support into good transit investments. Part of the problem is that transit debates attract many kinds of experts, who often talk past each other. Ordinary people listen and decide that transit is impossible to figure out.”

Jarrett Walker, an international consultant in public transit planning, believes that transit can be simple if we focus first on the underlying geometry that all transit technologies share.

In this discussion on Tuesday, February 7 at Noon, Mr. Walker will detail how this “fundamental geometry” shapes successful systems; and leads to transit-friendly development.

Walker will address the key questions that should be addressed and debated within communities in order to create systems that are both resilient and useful for the communities they serve.

Jarrett Walker has been designing public transit systems for over 20 years. He is an independent consultant in North America and Principal Consultant with MRCagney in Australia.

He writes the popular transit blog HumanTransit.org.

Copies of Human Transit will be available for sale.
Continue reading “Transit Networks & Design with Jarrett Walker: baltimore: speaking at lunchtime, feb 7!”

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City bikers look for more recreation, commuting options

By Candus Thomson, The Baltimore Sun

Representatives of Baltimore’s biking and hiking community gathered Saturday for a "state of the trails" summit to set a course for creating more opportunities for recreational users and commuters.

Despite a sluggish economy and a tight budget, the city is continuing work on several projects,
…

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-trails-summit-20120128,0,4241573.story

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Loch Raven mountain bikers welcome council resolution, but compromise on trails remains elusive

By Jon Meoli, Baltimore Sun
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"I’d say it’s farther along than it ever was," said Dave Ferraro, president of Mid-Atlantic Off Road Enthusiasts (MORE), a mountain biking advocacy group.
But he added, "I wouldn’t say it’s close, because my constituency — trail users — have been using trails out there for 30 years. "There’s this legacy network that’s basically being shut down.
"What we’re trying to find is where the happy medium is. Is it close? I’d say it’s starting to get there, but we’re not there yet."
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https://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/baltimorecounty/news/ph-tt-reservoir-update-0208-20120131,0,3189111.story

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Neighborhood leaders share tips for engaging residents

"Nothing upsets the city more than when we don’t have a protocol that respects the things they [the people] deal with day in and day out,"

https://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/baltimorecounty/publications/baltimore-messenger/ph-ms-neighborhood-leaders-0202-20120127,0,7750334,full.story
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[B’ Spokes: Yet it seems they are shutting out cyclists more and more frequently in Baltimore.]

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Really John? Our drivers are safe???

This line from the patch caught my eye:
-> "John Kuo, administrator of the Motor Vehicle Administration,_ said he feels sympathy for Krasnopoler’s family, but said he feels the state is taking adequate steps to ensure its drivers are safe."
One thing I learned at my time as your representative on BRTB-BPAG is that "What gets measured gets done."
The State does not measure it’s pedestrian fatality rate against the national average (Maryland is the 4th highest in the nation.)
https://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20110318114606250
The state does not measure our average motor vehicle crash rate which Baltimore has come out really bad by a report from Allstate.
https://www.allstatenewsroom.com/releases/baltimore-ranks-192-on-2011-allstate-america-s-best-drivers-report
What it does measure is something that would make a whole lot of sense if we were a state of traveling salesmen with expanding territories. That is to say the miles driven between crashes is going up. Of course they don’t state it that way but my way is just as valid as their way.
The jest of what this comes down to is while other states are making progress on reducing vulnerable road user fatalities but in Maryland it is getting worse or at best no significant change.
And since they don’t report this they do not see this as an important issue.
This needs to change!
Continue reading “Really John? Our drivers are safe???”

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Krasnopoler family pushes for competency tests for Maryland drivers

By Fern Shen, Baltimore Brew

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Krasnopoler is much more comfortable when he’s talking about the tougher driving skills requirements his family is backing in the Maryland General Assembly this session – changes he thinks could prevent tragedies like the Feb. 26, 2011 crash that claimed the life of his son, Nathan Krasnopoler.
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“The state is already offering these [functional capacity] tests but they are done by medical referral or voluntarily,” he said. “It would be easy to make them a requirement.”
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The family is suggesting the tougher license requirement be added to an MVA-sponsored bill (SB 111) that proposes to increase the amount of time between license renewals from five years to eight years. Not surprisingly, the Krasnopolers oppose that change.

“I can’t think of any reason they would propose this other than to save money,” he says witheringly.

Other Issues

There are two other legislative priorities on the family’s agenda this session, Krasnopoler said yesterday.

One is to increase the consequences of failing to remain on the scene of an accident that results in injuries or death.
Doing so is currently a misdemeanor offense that is rarely enforced because the offender gets no points on their license, he said. (Witnesses said the driver whose car struck Nathan Krasnopoler got out of the car and left it running while the injured cyclist was still pinned underneath it.)

“We want it to be an 8-point infraction so people take it seriously,” Krasnopoler said.

Another change the family seeks is a clarification in the Maryland health surrogacy law that would allow family members to make decisions regarding organ donation even if their incapacitated family member is not on a ventilator.
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https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/02/01/krasnopoler-family-pushes-for-competency-tests-for-maryland-drivers/