BRAC = Base Realignment and Closure, adding 28,000 new households to Maryland.
Bricks = To wall up with brick, to create a barrier.
Bikes = To travel under ones own power, the lest expensive to accommodate and most efficient mode of travel, also promotes health and clean air (on the later 16 Maryland Counties are in non-compliance with clean air standards.)
By Angela Atwood-Moore –
As Barry, Huck and Jack have hinted, we (NIH and
Naval Medical) are in a very interesting
situation here, since we are in some ways almost
uniquely positioned to appeal to cyclists (our
demographics include many young, healthy
professionals, some of
us must meet ongoing
health and fitness requirements, and we also
employ foreign visitors from countries where
cycling is the preferred method of cheap,
healthy, efficient transportation). Oh yeah, and
some of us are the very researchers whose work
has shown the effectiveness of daily physical
activities (like riding a bike) at staving off an
early death.
Literally thousands of cyclists daily utilize the
major intersections that serve NIH and Naval
Medical, the same intersections that are up for
BRAC specific re-design. Yet the first proposed
designs show absolutely ZERO accommodations for
cyclists. Keep in mind, these are intersections
on roads that are masterplanned for multiple
important bicycle amenities from shared-use paths
to bike lanes.
Even if you don’t choose to join our NIH/NAVAL
BRAC list-serve, stay tuned for continued info
from LAB, WABA, MoBike and
others. Cyclists
everywhere should be OUTRAGED that employees at
the National Institutes of Health and Bethesda
Naval Medical Center not to mention local
citizens who also should have a choice of whether
to drive or bicycle are so far being ignored,
squeezed off the roads and bull-dozed. There will
certainly be requests for letters to support the
need for safe and adequate cycling accommodations
in intersections that are already among the most
congested with the lowest possible level of
service in the state of Maryland!
Google group specifically to deal with BRAC and bicycles around the Naval Medical Center
MoBike
WABA
LAB
If you are part of a cycling advocacy group dealing with the problems of BRAC please let us know.
oldId.20090412083922670