BIKING, WALKING AND “ROAR”ING FOR AUTISM
For the upcoming Autism Awareness Month families will join together, on bike and by foot, at Kennedy Krieger Institute’s annual ROAR for Autism event on Sunday, April 29. With a united “ROAR”, participants will help to break the silence surrounding autism, a condition affecting the ability of nearly 1.5 million American children to communicate, understand language and form relationships.
In an effort to raise critically needed funds for autism research, Kennedy Krieger Institute will host the eighth annual ROAR for Autism at Oregon Ridge Park. Kennedy Krieger, one of the nation’s leaders in autism research, strives to provide earlier diagnosis and discover how autism spectrum disorders affect the brain in order to develop successful treatments.
A day full of fun family activities, ROAR for Autism will feature several bike rides, including 50- and 25-mile rides for cycling enthusiasts, a 10-mile ride for recreational bikers, a 5-mile ride for beginners and a youth fun ride for the next generation of cyclists. Rather ditch the wheels? Attendees can also take a scenic walk on Oregon Ridge Park’s family friendly trails. Finally, after your ride or walk, relax your heels and wheels at the Family Fun Festival and enjoy music courtesy of DJ Kopec, children’s entertainment and carnival games, along with healthy snacks provided by Wegmans.
Participants and teams may go online to register, join a fundraising team and build personal fundraising pages—all in support of autism research. Don’t think you can drag yourself out of bed for a 6:30 a.m. bike ride, but still want to support ROAR for Autism? No problem! Snore for ROAR allows you to register and fundraise while you sleep in.
Additionally, an iPad2 valued at $600 will be raffled off at the event. Tickets are $5 each or three for $10.
For more information about ROAR for Autism, or to register, visit https://www.kennedykrieger.org or call 443-923-7300.
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Gas tax increase
Here’s an issue that our voice needs to be heard on: https://discussions.baltimoresun.com/20/balnews/bs-md-gas-tax-20111017/10
(Also, write your state delegates and senator!)
Bill Ford’s “Blueprint For Mobility” Calls For Cars, Bicycles, Pedestrians In Integrated Network
By Derek Kreindler, The Truth About Cars
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In the short term, Ford is hoping to take a leading role in both car sharing services like ZipCar, as well as mobile phone integration, with a new program called AppLink being integrated into the company’s SYNC system. The end goal will include vehicle-to-vehicle integration over WiFi spectrum, single seat or two seat commuter vehicles and eventually, autonomous vehicles. Long term, Ford is looking at how to manage traffic in terms of motor vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians. Gridlock is already a major problem in many countries, and with 60 percent of the world’s population expected to live in urban areas in the future, congestion will not only be a major annoyance, but it will have an undoubted impact on car sales as public transportation, cycling or walking becomes a more desirable method of transportation.
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* Ford envisions a radically different transportation landscape where pedestrian, bicycle, private car, commercial and public transportation traffic are woven into a connected network to save time, conserve resources, lower emissions and improve safety
* Ford is already developing new business models and partnerships in anticipation of personal vehicle ownership in cities becoming increasingly impractical
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It’s On! Baltimore City Begins Climate Action Plan Process to Address GHG Emissions
(BALTIMORE, MD) – The Baltimore City Department of Planning, Office of Sustainability, has launched its Climate Action Plan process for the City. A kick-off meeting was held on January 10th, where close to 50 citizens, advisory committee members, city department leaders, consultants, and other stakeholders rolled up their sleeves and got down to brass tacks to identify and articulate strategies for reducing Baltimore City’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the next 10 to 20 years.
Four working groups have been formed — Building Energy; Land Use & Transportation; Adaptation; and Waste, Water, and Green Infrastructure. All of the working groups have met and outlined a shortlist of existing and proposed strategies for inclusion in the Climate Action Plan that can reduce GHG emissions.
The CAP process will entail looking at trends in greenhouse gas emissions and create emissions forecast scenarios through the next 20 years; identify building energy, transportation, waste, water, and green infrastructure strategies to achieve short- and long-term reductions in greenhouse gas emissions; recommend strategies for adaptation to identify climate change impacts; and develop procedures for tracking implementation and effectiveness of recommendations. The CAP process also includes holding a public town hall meeting early this Summer to present a draft CAP plan to the citizens of Baltimore.
Baltimore City has hired AECOM, Design + Planning Division, an international U.S. firm, to develop its CAP. AECOM has prepared over 70 climate change adaptation plans for municipalities, utilities, and businesses throughout the U.S. and abroad.
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Guide to Safe Bicycle Passing
Family, friends and cyclists remember Krasnopoler – and pledge to fight for him
By Brew Editors, Baltimore Brew
Bicyclists who generally use their bikes for transportation and pleasure turned them into vehicles for mourning and advocacy Sunday, as they gathered to remember fallen Baltimore cyclist Nathan Krasnopoler.
On the one-year-anniversary of the accident on a city bike lane that claimed the life of the 20-year-old, about a dozen cyclists toured Baltimore wearing orange vests that said “Nathan’s Ride.”
Their seven-mile memorial ride took them along Guilford Ave. designated as the city’s “bike boulevard,” and along Mount Royal Ave., where cycling advocates are pushing the city to resist pressure to kill a planned bike lane.
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“We hope to make Maryland roads safer,” Cohen said, reviewing the legislation the family has been promoting in the Maryland General Assembly.
The bills they’re pushing would require Maryland drivers to pass competency tests and would increase penalties for failure to remain on the scene of a serious accident.
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Brew Baby, Brew!
B’ Spokes: I’ve been mussing over the idea of what if Congress wanted to encourage a certain coffee chain known for their high priced coffee to lower their prices by giving them financial incentive to build anywhere and everywhere. After all it’s simple economics, when supply out strips demand the prices will drop.
Keep in mind that coffee is a local market while oil is a global market, so those who are supporting "Drill baby, drill!" are thinking along the lines that if we could just get that expensive coffee shop to open more stores on all four corners of their current location (same market) they’ll go "Oh look were are producing more coffee then what we can sell at this price so I guess we are stuck with that and well have to lower our prices."
My question is what kind of business will purposefully and continually invest capital to produce a product in greater quantities then demand so the end result would be they would have to lower their profit margins? And even if they started down this road what is the incentive to keep the excessive and less profitable operation going rather then just shutting it down so supply matches demand and current profit margins are maintained?
My challenge to Congress is if you wrote a bill that guaranteed $2 a gallon at the pump in exchange for drilling the arctic refuge that’s a whole different ball of wax then the current "If we let them drill wherever they want we will [wink, wink, nudge, nudge] all benefit."
A coffee shop will not open a new store unless forecasts shows there is enough demand to support that investment in capital. Why do we think oil companies will be any different? As long as there are locations (markets) that will support the current high prices of this coffee chain then that’s were they will build and no amount of making it easier and more lucrative for them to build is going to change that. And similarly as long as there are other countries (markets) willing to pay more for gasoline then that’s what the oil companies are going to cater to,
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