by Daily Times Staff Report
OCEAN CITY — The Ocean City Police Department is investigating how a cyclist and municipal bus collided Friday night.
The accident took place on Coastal Highway and 132 Street around 8:38 p.m. Friday night when a 49-year-old Cockeysville, Md., man and the bus ran into each other.
The cyclist, identified as Patrick Michael McCusker, was taken to Atlantic General Hospital and then Peninsula Regional Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.
McCusker was the owner of Nacho Mama’s and Mama’s on the Half Shell in the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore.
At this time OCPD is not releasing the name of the municipal bus driver.
Check back at www.delmarvanow.com for continuing coverage or pick up a copy of The Daily Times on Sunday for full coverage.
https://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20120825/WCT01/120825001
Speed Cameras
[B’ Spokes: I thought this point bears highlighting.]
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Excerpt by David Alpert, Greater Greater Washington
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What about lower? What would happen with a $5-10 fine? At that range, some people, especially ones with more money, might conclude that they are in a hurry and just treat it as a toll. It might be interesting to try something like this in the 1-10 mph over the limit range, which some jurisdictions (like Maryland) exclude entirely.
Exempting slight speeding is not really good policy, as it just means every driver treats a 30 mph sign as meaning 40 mph limit, and 10 extra mph of speed makes a pedestrian about 40% more likely to die in a crash. On the other hand, many drivers have become conditioned to believe that such speeding is fine. What about charging a very small amount for such an infraction, to acclimate people to the idea that it’s both illegal and dangerous, but gently?
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https://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/15750/what-is-the-right-level-for-speed-camera-fines/
[Cyclists] Use some common sense
B’ Spokes: This article forgot to mention that cyclists when using a doorway should also press their body as close to the door frame to make room for more important people to use the doorway at the same time. [/sarcasm.]
The point missed here is the travel lanes in question can only accommodate one vehicle side by side at a time. Bicycles need at least 5′ of operating width, so subtract that from the roads in question and you get… motorist must change lanes to pass a cyclist and no amount of riding far right is going to change that. And PLEASE remember Maryland does have a 3′ safe passing distance law, so you CANNOT just squeeze by a cyclists riding far right as implied in this article.
Re: I was raised that if a car is coming and I am in the road then I need to move as far to the side as possible,
I was raised that ignorance does not trump the law. The law clearly gives cyclists the right to the full lane when the lane is too narrow for safe side by side sharing.
Look at it this way, the law of the jungle is such the aggressive person will take advantage of the meek person every time. The defense against the aggressive personality type is not to be even more meek (ride further right) but to assert your rights.
My own point of view is if you are riding among polite and considerate drivers then riding to the right will probably work out. But if you are riding in aggressive traffic, riding far right is the last thing you want to do.
I may be over reacting to a poorly written article from someone ignorant of bicycle safety but I see this as a sign that southern Maryland is getting more aggressive drivers so you need to do the OPPOSITE of what this driver recommends and take the lane to prevent unsafe passing.
For more info on bicycle safety: https://www.baltimorespokes.org/links/index.php?category=Must+read+for+bike+safety
The article to which I am reacting to: https://www.somdnews.com/article/20120803/OPINION/708039857/-1/use-some-common-sense&template=southernMaryland
Experimental safety measures on Va. road
[B’ Spokes: I love the idea of extra measures to get drivers to stop and yield to trail traffic (like they are legally obligated to do.) I would love it if Maryland also took up the attitude of "Let’s observe the actual behavior." instead of through some sort of hocus-pocus under the guise of engineering (that time and time again it has been shown that a lot of so called cause and effect "facts" are just plain wrong or at least more complicated then generally assumed.) ]
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WTOP
WASHINGTON – The zigzag white lines on Belmont Ridge Road in Ashburn are supposed to warn drivers of the popular W&OD bike crossing.
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However, Dittberner also says drivers are slowing down and yielding more. A VDOT study, conducted by the department’s research arm, affirms his statement.
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https://www.wtop.com/159/2977309/Debate-on-experimental-safety-measures-on-Va-road
(This link also has a picture of the treatment.)
Governors Get on Board With Smart Growth
by Tanya Snyder, DC Streets Blog
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Yesterday, a bipartisan group of six governors and ex-governors celebrated the new support of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities – the collaboration of HUD, DOT, and EPA — for the Governor’s Institute. This kind of collaborative work, among federal agencies and with the states, is “common sense writ large,” said U.S. DOT Deputy Secretary John Porcari at the event. “But it wasn’t done in the past.”
States are where the rubber hits the road, he said, and the federal government needs to help them take smart action.
The Institute’s staff advises states on everything from agriculture and economic development to transportation and housing. They hold workshops in states, hosted by the governors themselves, to give specific advice tailored to the needs and particularities of that places.
Its prescriptions are well grounded in the smart growth philosophy. For example, the Institute’s 14 policies for transportation include strategic planning, a “fix-it-first” approach, and complete streets. They evaluate communities based on street grid connectivity and transit-oriented development, not old-school criteria like vehicle level-of-service.
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But the economic question goes far deeper than just temporary construction jobs. As William Fulton, vice president for policy and programs at Smart Growth America and former mayor of Ventura, California, blogged this week on CNN.com, “Where businesses go, where houses go, where roads go, where sidewalks go, where farms and natural spaces go – all of these things collectively affect a community’s economic performance and the cost of providing services there. Put things closer together, the services cost less. Put things farther from each other, the services cost more for the jurisdiction and its taxpayers.”
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https://dc.streetsblog.org/2012/08/02/governors-get-on-board-with-smart-growth/
From A Governors’ Guide to Growth and Development
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Transportation departments generally rank the performance of roads by their level-of-service, but employing this standard can inadvertently discourage or block development in urban core areas, because they typically rank low on standard level-of-service measures. Many jurisdictions, for example, have responded to growing traffic congestion by developing performance standards to ensure that traffic speeds are maintained as areas become more developed. But these standards ignore the role that walking, biking, and transit play in more densely developed areas. Design decisions based on high level-of-service performance measures can end up serving only the motorist at the expense of the very communities that the road is supposed to serve. Decisions made only for the peak hour may tune the roadway to work well for motorists during those hours, but render the road over-designed for the rest of the day and ineffective for all other users. To remedy this, state transportation departments should review how they apply level-of-service standards and, if necessary, work with local governments to revise how the level-of-service is measured.
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Man on bicycle taken to hospital after car accident
[B’ Spokes: Typically from my experience "bike collided with a vehicle" means the cyclist was right hocked and the police are looking to make sure the driver faces no charges. Shameful if you ask me but there is not enough information to state this one way or the other but then why the statement in favor of the motorist?]
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The Capital Gazette
A 54-year-old was taken to the hospital after the bike he was riding collided with a vehicle Sunday afternoon in Pasadena.
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they found the man suffering from serious but non-life threatening injuries, fire department spokesman Division Chief Michael Cox said.
Preliminary reports from police indicate that the man was involved in an accident with a Lincoln Town car, police spokesman Justin Mulcahy said.
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Annapolis Police catch 2 bicycle thief suspects
Annapolis police said they charged a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old in two separate bicycle thefts on Monday.
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When officers located Cain a short time later, he admitted that he had been riding the bike but told officers "it should be OK because I gave the bike back to the guy."
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New Maryland signs emphasize cyclists’ right to the road
[B’ Spokes: if there is a road where you think this sign would help contact the appropriate government agency (and cc’ing the appropriate bicycle advocacy organization would not hurt.)]
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by Jim Titus, Greater Greater Washington
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The meaning of "share the road" has evolved. For decades, the law required cyclists to keep as far to the right as practicable. This made sense when most cyclists were children proceeding slowly. But at higher speeds, riding too far to the right is hazardous. Drivers and pedestrians are not looking for fast vehicles close to the curb, and cyclists can’t see them emerging from driveways, cross streets, or parked cars.
When lanes are too narrow for a car to pass a bike safely, too many drivers try to pass bikes within the lane anyway. So on those roads, it is safer for a cyclist to ride near the center of the lane, according to Maryland’s Driver Manual.
Section 21-1205(a)(6) of the Maryland Transportation Code says that a cyclist may ride in the center of a narrow lane. But many drivers learned to drive (and bike) back when cyclists were supposed to simply keep to the right. And on any given road, drivers and cyclists may have different perceptions about whether the lane is too narrow to share. So "drivers and cyclists often must guess what the other is going to do," says Shane Farthing, Executive Director of the Washington Area Bicyclists Association.
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"The signs will increase safety by providing drivers with a warning about where bikes may be," says Dustin Kuzan, SHA’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator. A study in Austin, Texas found that placement of similar signs has little impact on where cyclists ride. But drivers moved to the left as they passed bikes enough to increase the median passing clearance by 3 feet.
John Townsend of AAA Mid-Atlantic agrees: "These signs are a really good idea. Bicyclists have the right to use the full lane on narrow roads. As drivers, we are operating the heavier vehicle which can seriously injure a cyclist. So it is up to drivers to avoid a collision. But drivers need information about where the bicyclist might be riding, and these signs will help."
"The signs may also decrease hostility between drivers and cyclists by informing all road users that cyclists have the right to be in the center of the lane," Kuzan adds.
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Read more: https://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/15264/new-maryland-signs-emphasize-cyclists-right-to-the-road/
The Grave Health Risks of Unwalkable Communities
By Richard J. Jackson And Michael Mehaffy, The Atlantic Cities
America is facing an alarming epidemic. In 1960, fewer than one in 10 American children were overweight or obese, but today, that number is one in four. Formerly very rare (and very serious) childhood diseases like Type 2 diabetes have become increasingly common.
It’s not just kids who are being affected: a quarter of adults are now obese, way up from one in 10 in 1990. That’s contributing to soaring health costs – over $190 billion a year, or 20 percent of all health care spending, according to a recent Cornell University study.
What’s the cause? Some analysts point to the growing consumption of junk food and sedentary lifestyles, and they’re certainly right. But there’s also evidence of a close correspondence between obesity and unwalkable, car-dependent neighborhoods. People in these neighborhoods are likely to be more sedentary, heavier and less fit, a deadly combination that begins when we are young.
For those over 40, a little experiment is telling. In our talks, we often ask our audiences how many of them walked or biked to school. Most hands usually go up. Then we ask them how many of their kids, grandkids or friends’ kids now walk or bike to school. Almost no hands go up. We have wrought a huge change in the lifestyles of our children, one that is taking a tragic toll. We chose to do it when we created unwalkable (and unbikable) suburban environments. No wonder our kids stay indoors, or worse, get lured into a drive-through lifestyle, with rafts of fast food and little activity.
Safe, walkable neighborhoods are not just an amenity, they’re a matter of life or death. They create environments where we can live active, engaged lives. And more walking brings more social interaction, more time outdoors, more recreation, more smiles and more "life" in every sense.
But in modern times, aren’t we stuck with these car-dependent neighborhoods? No, we aren’t.
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https://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2012/06/grave-health-risks-unwalkable-communities/2362/
