Biking in Baltimore
Via Smart Growth America
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If you’re worried about climate, you’ll need to make it easier for people to drive less, and to travel shorter distances when they do drive.
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https://medium.com/@SmartGrowthAmerica/so-your-city-wants-to-uphold-the-paris-agreement-ada7ff3bd400
-> The Governors Highway Safety Association’s annual “Spotlight on Highway Safety: Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State” (https://bit.ly/2qPsouD) projects an 11% increase in the number of persons on foot killed on U.S. roadways last year, compared to 2015. This report offers a first look at state-by-state trends in pedestrian traffic fatalities for 2016, using preliminary data provided by all 50 State Highway Safety Offices and the District of Columbia. States reported 2,660 pedestrian fatalities for the first six months of 2016, compared to 2,486 deaths during the same time period in the previous year. Using this data and historic trends, GHSA estimates that there were 5,997 pedestrian fatalities in 2016. Potential factors contributing to this spike include a better economy, an increase in walking as a primary mode of transportation, and distraction due to growing use of smartphone technology.
GHSA also asked its state members to provide examples of their efforts to reduce pedestrian and motor vehicle collisions. Promising strategies include: high visibility enforcement and public information campaigns aimed at both motorists and pedestrians; identifying high-risk zones and conducting educational outreach in these areas; and strategic partnerships with local universities and community organizations to advance pedestrian safety. https://bit.ly/2p011sW
from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
BY MOLLY HURFORD, Biycycling
Everyone knows that bike commuting is a great form of exercise with some mental health benefits to boot, but now it looks like the benefits of cycling extend into the workplace: Research from Concordia University has shown that the first 45 minutes of your workday can be significantly less stressful if you opt to pedal to work rather than driving.
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https://www.bicycling.com/culture/bike-commute-relieves-stress-workplace
By Willa Ng, Sidewalk Talk
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The idea behind congestion pricing was remarkably simple: when people see that driving costs more, they drive less. This basic economic lesson has been offered in response to recent tech-driven hopes that tunnel networks or self-driving vehicles can solve traffic on their own. “The bottom line is, when you give away something valuable for free, you create insatiable demand,” writes UCLA researcher Herbie Huff in the L.A. Times. “Traffic is the result.”
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https://medium.com/sidewalk-talk/driving-costs-are-hidden-revealing-them-could-help-reduce-traffic-448b416714e2
By Angie Schmitt, treats Blog
Numerous studies have documented the phenomenon known as induced demand in transportation: Basically, if you build highway lanes, more drivers will come. And yet, transportation agencies rarely account for this effect when planning road projects.
In a recent paper published by the Transportation Research Record, author Ronald Milam and his research team reviewed the various studies documenting the induced demand effect.
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https://usa.streetsblog.org/2017/06/21/the-science-is-clear-more-highways-equals-more-traffic-why-are-dots-still-ignoring-it/
[B’ Spokes: Another in cleaning out my mail box.]
By Angie Schmitt, Streets Blog
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The fact is, even children who follow the rules are not free from risk, because drivers travel at dangerous speeds and fail to yield the right of way when they should. But for some reason we hold children to awfully high standards while tacitly absolving all kinds of dangerous driving behavior.
It doesn’t help when official powers contribute to this false equivalence, implying that the licensed adult driver with the capacity to kill and the vulnerable child trying to get to school are equally responsible for preventing traffic injuries and deaths.
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https://usa.streetsblog.org/2016/10/05/why-do-we-put-the-onus-for-traffic-safety-on-kids/
[B’ Spokes: Catching up on some old stuff that still has relevant issues. This is from Ryan Dorsey’s web site:]
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Consider the following data on the current state of our streets:
* With 20,035 crashes per year, the City is Maryland’s most dangerous jurisdiction. The number of crashes per vehicle mile traveled (VMT) is 3.7 times the state average. Crashes cause traffic delay, property damage, injury, and death.
* The Baltimore MSA is 10th worst for traffic fatalities involving pedestrians, at 20%.
* Our average commute is 31 minutes and average transit commute 50 minutes, among the highest in the U.S.
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* Transportation poses a barrier to employment for City residents even for jobs located in the City. City residents only hold 34.6% of City jobs.
* In Baltimore, high crash areas include the Greater Penn-North area, Bel-Air Edison, and Southern Park Heights, all majority Black neighborhoods.
* Children, older adults, and persons of color are disproportionately affected by pedestrian crashes. Nationwide, African American and Latino cyclists are 30% and 23% more likely to suffer a biking fatality than White cyclists, and the fatality rate for African American and Latino pedestrians is 60% and 43% higher than for White pedestrians.
* Automobile dependency extracts money out of our local economy and deprives businesses of customers and communities of investment that come with Complete Streets.
In our City, there are 8 Community Statistical Areas (developed by Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance) where more than 50% of the households do not have access to a personal vehicle. In some census tracts within these areas, the rate can climb as high as 80%. These Community Statistical Areas are:
Cherry Hill (51.8% no vehicle access)
Southwest Baltimore (52.8%)
Sandtown-Winchester/Harlem Park (56.3%)
Madison/East End (56.6%)
Greenmount East (57.8%)
Poppleton/The Terraces/Hollins Market (58.9%)
Upton/Druid Heights (67.5%)
Oldtown/Middle East (71.6%)
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https://www.electryandorsey.com/single-post/2017/02/15/Bringing-Complete-Streets-to-Baltimore-City
[B’ spokes: Lots of good advice here including the quick stop and instant turn. If they are not part of your riding skills maybe it’s time to add them.]
https://www.citylab.com/navigator/2017/05/urban-cycling-how-to/526500/
By Randy LoBasso, News Works
[B’ Spokes: Some helpful arguments that may come up as Baltimore move toward more automated traffic enforcement.]
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First, let’s understand what the National Motorists Association is: an extremist fringe group that thrives on emotional explanations to reason that humans should be able to drive cars without consequences.
Their representatives have actually argued that hit-and-run drivers should not be penalized for leaving the scene of a crash in which pedestrians are murdered.
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Blaming all victims who are not motorists for their own demise is heartless at best and cruel at worst. People may make mistakes, but no one deserves to die because they stepped into or rode a bike on a street. Especially when it is so totally unnecessary.
The facts are this: Most fatal and severe crashes are caused by motorists driving at excessive speed. According to the Pennsylvania State Mayors Association, Pennsylvania has most speed-related traffic deaths in the United States, after Texas and California. That’s a problem.
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https://www.newsworks.org/index.php/opinion-and-essays/item/101231-op-ed-the-national-motorists-associations-drive-toward-alternative-facts
[B’ Spokes: From the 12th but still an interesting read, at least I didn’t know this.]
https://www.treehugger.com/bikes/happy-200th-birthday-bicycle-timely-response-environmental-crisis.html