Wheel-friendly curb aprons are planned for the trail crossing Maiden Choice Lane in Paradise.
By Bruce Goldfarb, Arbutus Patch
New curb aprons at the Maiden Choice Lane crossing are planned for the Short Line Trail in Paradise, according to a notice posted at the site.
The Short Line Trail is a two-mile path straddling the beltway that meanders from Mellor Avenue in Catonsville to Charlestown Retirement Community near Maiden Choice Lane and Wilkens Avenue.
Recently announced plans envision a short segment of the Short Line Trail being developed into a bicycle route to connect Frederick Road and the University of Maryland Baltimore County campus.
Inside the beltway, the Short Line Trail runs about a mile from Paradise Avenue, and along Baltimore National Cemetery to a point behind Charlestown.
The curb aprons will facilitate use of the trail with strollers, wheelchairs and bikes.
According to the undated posted notice, construction of the curb aprons will begin in 30 days. Markings at the curb indicate that construction has begun.
Continue reading “Improvements Planned for Short Line Trail”
Big Bad Corn
If you’ve ever creeped your way through a corn maze at Halloween, you know how it can grab ahold of your imagination, turning benign stalks into monsters and discarded cobs into severed limbs. It’s just a trick of the light–but take a look at the ways that the U.S. uses corn, and you’ll see that a holiday thrill isn’t the scariest thing about this product. It was first subsidized in the late ‘70s as a fossil fuel alternative, but it’s turned out to be inefficient source of fuel. Not only that, ethanol from corn actually increases the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a higher rate than gasoline. Yet, the U.S. pays $10 to $30 billion dollars each years in farm subsidies to raise even more of it, with no clear benefit to consumers. So every time you eat a pound of corn products–which statistics say you will do 37 times over this year alone–remember this graphic, which was created so you can learn stuff about the effects of corn, America’s biggest agricultural product.
Baltimore Velo
I want to give a recommendation for you to take a look at the Baltimore Velo blog. In some ways they are covering events and issues that I don’t have the time to get to.
Top 10 Transportation Projects in Country Compete for National Awards
Washington, D.C. – Across the nation, state transportation departments are completing projects that make us safer, our drives shorter and less stressful, and our communities better and stronger. Now, the top transportation projects across the U.S. are going head to head in a competition that will determine which of those projects earns the title of best in the nation.
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“This year’s projects are marked by innovation and discipline,” said John Horsley, AASHTO executive director. “Whether it was deploying new technology or trying unique contracting methods – these projects show how states can deliver projects that make sense ahead of schedule and under budget.
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Maryland—Intercounty Connector: Maryland State Highway Administration’s $2.4 billion Intercounty Connector, a 19-mile long multi-modal highway connecting the I-270 and I-95 corridors north of Washington, D.C., earned the nickname of “America’s Greenest Highway” after allocating roughly $375 million to ensure the project was done with good environmental stewardship.
https://www.americastransportationaward.org/
Cough, cough. Ah yes “a highway is not an environmental problem, but a bike path is an environmental problem” project, great example of environmental stewardship, NOT!
One candidate is Maryland’s $2.4 billion Intercounty Connector, a “19-mile multimodal highway.” This road was “designed for 20 years of future sprawl,” wrote Greater Greater Washington , and today its wide asphalt expanses are a testament to how little the region needed this project to be built. Here’s an actual headline from a local radio station: “Why does ICC seem so empty? “
But they forgot to mention:
At $2.56 billion, the ICC is the most expensive road ever built in Maryland. Although it will be financed largely by tolls — and hefty ones at that — building this road and the $1 billion worth of express toll lanes on I-95 north of Baltimore means that the Maryland Transportation Authority is on course to nearly reach the limit of its borrowing capacity in fiscal 2017.
https://thedailyrecord.com/2011/12/01/editorial-the-icc-conundrum
And when you take this all together, this is in competition for the best transportation project in America??? Costly, over built, and destroying a master planed bike trail project is the best? With the price of gas going up and the amount of money available for road projects going down this is an exemplary project? May the bicycle saints protect us.
As Streets Blog points out, all our choices are road projects. :/
Dear American Association of State Highway and Transportation, Can we please be allowed to vote for none of the above?
Does Hopkins get pedestrian safety or are they playing the blame the victim game?
In this Baltimore Sun article Hopkins students get Walking 101 has an overall tone that distracted walking is a major problem.
That’s one of the university’s most notorious spots for “pedtextrians,” students blithely waltzing through traffic, heads buried in smart phones.
OMG look at that pedestrian using a cell phone while in a crosswalk, that’s dangerous. Well Streets blog and Washcycle get into the issue of why making distracted walking a major issue is just wrong.
The issue is if you actually do walk in Baltimore you know drivers way too often do not stop for you in crosswalks. I have almost been run down by drivers on the cell phone while they were turning. So ya, maybe distracted walking is a problem… that is only if we expect pedestrians to have super powers and be able to jump out of the way of distracted drivers. :/
But you are supposed to yield to cars. I can’t tell you how often I have heard that while riding my bike. If drivers feel this way about another vehicle what hope do pedestrians have? The second part of this is few fully understand pedestrian laws, see Surprising Aspects of Pedestrian Laws
Let’s look at pedestrian safety initiatives elsewhere:
Update: Yield to pedestrians or else
The Best Way to Deal With Crosswalk-Blocking Drivers Ever
Sadly I have to interject that failing to come to a complete stop where you are supposed to is beyond rude, it is intimidating as heck to pedestrians. Too many drivers fail to even stop at all when making a right-on-red (the video is in Europe so they have a left-on-red) so even when a pedestrian has the right-of-way at a light they are confronted with a steady stream of motorists not stopping. Once this becomes the norm it is safer to cross mid-block. Failure to acknowledge the mass civil disobedience called “jaywalking” is the result of pedestrians trying to increase their safety because of unlawful motorist behavior is a major problem in the state of Maryland. Enforcement needs to crack down on both motorist and pedestrians, the emphasis on cracking down on pedestrians with a made up issue but NO mention of known driver issues is very sick. IMHO.
Back to the Baltimore Sun article
Drivers, too, will be asked to be careful through signs on university buses and a banner hanging from the pedestrian bridge
Seriously, that’s it, drivers just be careful?
The university will hang 3,000 pairs of shoes — footwear officials and volunteers spent months gathering and collecting. They’re all spray-painted bright caution yellow to make them impossible to miss, along with their intended message that boils down to “watch where you’re going, kids.”
I just wanted to cry when I read this, it starts out so good and I am anticipating something like “Motorist cause pedestrian injuries and death so motorist obey the law and stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk.” Instead it concludes “watch where you’re going, kids.” That is just so wrong. This is what is implied to drivers:
Drivers don’t worry if you hit a pedestrian, they don’t know what they are doing and need to get out of your way.
Great safety promotion guys, NOT! We need something better then this!
Lastly they mention long term plans for road improvements so I will point out this out SIGNALIZED INTERSECTION ENHANCEMENTS THAT BENEFIT PEDESTRIANS
When to take the lane and when not to
B’ Spokes:
I have yet to see a good discussion on this subject and the article that has promoted this tangent discussion is no exception (over all I’m not impressed but with the article but there are good points in there and some thought provoking points as well.) In general the cycling safety camp is dived up into the always take the lane and the always ride far right (with some exceptions.) So who’s right? Well it just depends on road and traffic conditions… and that’s the sticky part, how to describe those conditions. My own rule of thumb for when to move further left into the roadway is if a motorist passes too close or right hooks you MTFTTL (Move Two Feet To The Left.) Over time you’ll learn a good road position for the roads and traffic conditions you ride in. And in the other direction, always look for an opportunity to be courteous to your fellow road users and move to the right when it is safe to do so.
Vigilante Vehicular Cyclists
This is my term for those who insist on always taking the lane to prevent right hooks even when no right hook opportunity exists. Even John Forester the author of “Effective Cycling” and who coined the term ” Vehicular Cyclists” says “I would not bother to control [take] the lane because there is no reason to do so.” Of course the gotcha is in the reasons why not to.
Gutter Bunnies
This seems to be the term for those who always ride far right. The point I would like to make on this is being timid in aggressive traffic is a no win situation for cyclists, you need to learn to be assertive in aggressive traffic. For that I recommend reading the links I have here: Must read for Bike Safety.
What’s generally missed when encouraging cyclists to ride far right.
With all things what is safe is a matter of degree, not absolutes and there are things you can do to mitigate issues. To that end I will point out if you ride far right the Quick Stop and the Quick Turn should be part of your defensive riding arsenal. (This is good as well.)
Points I would like to make from the article
Note this is not a point by point rebuttal but simply tangents I would like to put forth.
If you are in Howard County this is good advice, in other counties we need to get the same attention from the police as we do in Howard County. The issue is too often the police feel they must witness a crime in order to issue a citation but with too few plain clothes police officers out on bike the reality motorist can get away with assault with a deadly weapon. But in Howard County the owner of the vehicle (if you get the plate number) will get a letter from the police, this is a nice compromise position or at least it is a place to start.
The point I would like to make here is imagine what is pictured is one of Baltimore’s one way streets and instead of riding far right (position B) imagine it far left. This has two advantages 1) Drivers know where the left side of their big honking SUV is a lot better then they know where the right side is. 2) The danger from the door zone is considerably less on the left (no driver side doors opening) then on the right.
Proper response to motorist honking is better motorist education NOT cyclists should move to the far right
Too often cycling advocates feel they are limited to just talking to other cyclists while drivers seem to have no problem telling cyclists what they are “supposed” to do even if flat out wrong. Well, a bunch of cycling advocates in Maryland got an improvement in the Maryland Driver’s Handbook. IMHO This should be promoted by other cycling advocates over always promoting deferring to aggressive motorists.
Continue reading “When to take the lane and when not to”
Glen Echo pushes for Maryland’s first stop sign camera
[B’ Spokes: I am all for this! 1) We need a campaign that teaches that a significant safety issue is drivers rolling through stop signs (counter the idea that only cyclists roll through stop signs.) 2) If police can’t get enough personnel out there enforcing public safety (and yes traffic enforcement is a public safety issue) then we should go with the automated enforcement.] Highlights:
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Unlike speed and red light cameras, Maryland law does not allow stop sign cameras. Beers hopes to get the issue before the Maryland General Assembly in the upcoming session.
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Alternatively, the county could begin allowing the town to keep the revenue earned from tickets given to drivers who roll through the stop sign, Beers suggested.
Since the town is too small to have its own police force, it hires off-duty county police officers to monitor the stop sign. But paying the police officers gets expensive, Beers said, and the extra revenue — which the county keeps — would help.
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Stop sign cameras can keep people safe, Townsend said. Intersections controlled by stop signs account for more than 40 percent of all fatal crashes.
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https://washingtonexaminer.com/glen-echo-pushes-for-md.s-first-stop-sign-camera/article/2504291
NYC: Most City Pedestrians and Cyclists Killed by Drivers Who Broke the Law
B’ Spokes: Besides the interesting breakdown of the major cause of bike/ped fatalities, they also make a case for better enforcement. But I’ll give NYC Police credit for having crash and ticket data available… something that is very hard to get around here, heavy sigh.
Here’s the link: https://www.streetsblog.org/2012/08/06/ta-most-city-pedestrians-and-cyclists-killed-by-drivers-who-broke-the-law/
Energy Plan
President Obama: “My plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet. Because climate change is not a hoax.”
Romney: “There remains a lack of scientific consensus on the issue . . .and I believe we must support continued debate and investigation within the scientific community.”
September Brings “Back to School” Jump in Traffic Congestion
by Tanya Snyder, Streets Blog
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According to the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, up to 20 or 30 percent of morning traffic can be generated by parents driving their children to school. Today, about three-quarters of school-aged kids in America get to and from school by car [PDF]. In 1969, half of all schoolkids walked or biked to school, but that rate has fallen to 13 percent, according to the SRTS Partnership.
This creates a dangerous mess of cars pulling over and merging back into traffic in front of schools — with small children walking around. The result: child injuries and deaths, especially on high-traffic streets with on-street parking. A 2007 Department of Justice report [PDF] found that, to make matters worse, delayed drivers often speed when congestion eases, in order to “make up time” and out of a perverse sense of road rage.
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https://dc.streetsblog.org/2012/09/05/september-brings-back-to-school-jump-in-traffic-congestion/