Cardin Annapolis Reports
Delegate Jon S. Cardin 
District 11, Baltimore County
Week 6 Annapolis Report (2/20/09)
On February 13th Congress passed the $789 billion Economic Recovery Act. For numerous reasons, including our proximity to Washington and the numerous federal agencies and military installations located here, Maryland stands to receive a significant influx of capital and programming money. I expect to see road and bridge projects ($600 million), Medicaid stipends ($1.2 billion), education ($1 billion), and renewable energy jobs among others growing in our state because of this important federal initiative.
We will receive nearly $3.8 billion over three fiscal years. While this is an incredible amount of money, much of the funding is based on federal formulas or block grants and will not be part of the state’s general fund budget. This will require us to be careful and creative when using these funds, with an eye towards using the money to sustain ongoing concerns, not creating new programs.
[Unless we change MDOT policy bicyclists will NOT be getting their fair share of this.]
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This is the fourth year for HB 496 – my bicycle safety bill – a law that would require a safe three-foot bubble around a cyclist when being passed by a car. Whether in a car or on a bike, this is a common-sense rule which would keep all parties from mishaps. A little bit of patience and attentiveness goes a long way in avoiding accidents. The hearings in the House and Senate went well, and now I encourage all of you bike enthusiasts to remind your legislators to pass this nationally recognized and effective safety effort.
https://www.joncardin.com/blog?key=1134
No Federal funds for on-road bike facilities: https://www.sha.state.md.us/ImprovingOurCommunity/oppe/tep/tep_chap2.pdf
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"This is the fourth year for HB 496 – my bicycle safety bill – a law that would require a safe three-foot bubble around a cyclist when being passed by a car. Whether in a car or on a bike, this is a common-sense rule which would keep all parties from mishaps. A little bit of patience and attentiveness goes a long way in avoiding accidents. The hearings in the House and Senate went well, and now I encourage all of you bike enthusiasts to remind your legislators to pass this nationally recognized and effective safety effort."
No it’s not common sense, common sense is not sticking your hand in a fire. This bill is an un-enforcable law. Safely operating a vehicle around bicycles is far from being common sense. Most people don’t know what to do when approaching a cyclist, some honk, some veer wildly, others nudge you over, some(in the the case of MTA busses) just hit you and keep going. Cars have no way of knowing exactly how close they are. Are cyclists supposed to ride around with a tape measure extending from the outermost part of their body? The only way you will be able to prove that a motorist has broken this law is if they hit you. Lets say someone violates the three foot bubble, is the cyclist supposed to call the police? There just isn’t room on the road for a three foot bubble. You just have to get used to being elbow to mirror with cars sharing a lane, or you take the lane.
Forget all the laws, bills, codes, and regulations, I am sick of the nanny-state metality, how about a simple, request, to the city of Baltimore to turn the storm drain grates so they are perpendicular to the curb, not parallel?
Funny you should mention storm grates, the exact same thing came up in a conversation about the stimulus bill, if we are fixing aging infrastructure, and promoting alternate transportation then storm grates should be in there as well and I got confirmation that they could qualify.
As far as being unenforceable it is my hope in sideswipe situations that this bill would limit the defense "the cyclists swerved." The driver who killed Yoram Kaufman (famous NASA scientist working on Global Warming) was found not at fault because Yoram might have swerved into the vehicle, discussion of safe passing distance never really go into it.