This Summary was compiled by Bill Kelly 2-1-07<\/p>\n
\nHi Bike\/Ped Folks, We just finished our 10th Annual Successful Bike\/Ped
\nSymposium in Annapolis on Friday Feb 9, 2007. Many of you attended and many
\nmore were unable to attend so we would like you know what you missed. This
\nSymposium is untaken with great efforts from\/by Jim and Jane Hudnall, Oxon
\nHill Bicycle &Trail Club and OLC. For the past nine years the Symposium was
\nalways held on the first Wednesday in February, many asked why we changed
\nto Friday and this year at the request of the Bicycle Advisory Committee it
\nwas changed to Friday to accommodate their Annual Annapolis Meeting, but to
\nour frustration they did not meet at the Symposium, but across town. Several
\nMBPAC members did show up in the afternoon-Richard Cushwa-Jim Titus-David
\nWhitaker-Sgt. Janet Harrison-Jim Swift-Dave Dionne(6 out of 21) Many of the
\nattendees and elected officials were asking about the MBPAC. Sec. John
\nPorcari(Newly Appointed Sec. of Trans-MDOT) was there early about 8:00AM
\nand spent over an hour talking with and answering questions about Bike\/Ped
\nTravel in Md. All were very excited about John returning to MDOT and
\ncarrying on the great Bike\/Ped Policies from the Gov. Glendening
\nAdministration. There were over 20 Displayers from around the State with
\nmany great handouts and info on local projects. St. Mary’s Co. was
\ndisplaying their Three Notch Trail., Frank Stevens from Bowie(The Best
\nBicycle City) had an outstanding displays of the Bowie’s very progressive
\nBike\/Ped Advancements. Barbara Kliefort from WABA \/Met Branch Trail,,Adam
\nSchwartz UofM\/ Cooperative Bike Extension, Fred Shaffer MNCPPC had a very
\nnice update on Prince George’s Co. Inventory of past Bike\/Ped Completions
\nand Plans in works. Glen Harrison from WABA was there with the Washington DC
\nRegions Plans\/Displays and accomplishments and Eric Gilliland from WABA was
\nanswering questions and working with Andy Clarke from LAB on a joint Panel
\non Bicycle Friendly Communities & Complete Streets. Baltimore Bicycling
\nClub-BBC, Oxon Hill Bicycle & Trail Club-OHBTC, College Park Area Bicycle
\nCoalition-CPABC and many more groups had very informative displays. You
\ndidn’t have time to see all of them. Too much good conversation.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nAbout Mid-Morning a Legislative Award Program started with awards going to
\nnewly elected Sen. Jim Rosapepe((A long Time Bike\/Ped Legislator) and
\nDel.Maggie McIntosh, Chair of the Environmental Maters Committee. Next came
\na wonderful talk by Doug Simmons Assistant Administrator of SHA on the
\nongoing accomplish- ments of SHA on Bike\/Ped Projects. Doug talked about the
\nnew State of Md. Bike Map and the mark-up copy that Harvey Muller had
\nbrought along to display and asked for comments. The best part of the map
\nwas the On-Road-Signed Bikeways(In Kelly Green to Go) on the map that
\nstarted out to be 100 miles and when all calculated came close to 500 miles.
\nAbout five years ago there were only 8 miles of Signed-Marked Bikeways in
\nMd. Doug Simmons and SHA received a large round of applause for this
\nmonumental achievement. Doug reconfirmed SHA’s commitment to make all new
\nroads and reconstructed roads Bike\/Ped\/ADA Compliant. He stated how
\nimportant it was that STATE LAW was changed by the advocacy groups to allow
\nState Highways Funds be used in Non Motorized Travel. Doug talk was most
\nrefreshing as he talked on about mass transportation, connecting Bike
\nRoute\/Trails to stations\/schools\/workcenters.-Safe Route to Schools and
\nusing Fed Funds and TEALOU Funds along with Trans Funds to make Md. More
\nBike\/Ped Friendly. He introduced Felicia Baker the new Bike\/Ped Person at
\nSHA Dist. #3 which handles all of Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties.
\nSo far Dist. #3 is the only SHA District with a Bike\/Ped Person on board.
\nWe are hoping that all seven SHA Dist. Will get a Bike\/Ped Person to assist
\nHarvey Muller. Doug Simmons stayed on for over an hour after his talk to
\ntalk with and answer questions from the audience. There were so many talks
\nand conversations\/Displays going on that folks had to move between groups
\nto keep up. During this time many left the Symposium Room to talk with their
\nSenators\/Delegates from their Home Districts. While Jim Hudnall and I were
\nwalking the halls of the Miller Senate Office Bldg. we encountered Neil
\nPedersen, Administrator of SHA and had a nice chat. He asked us how the
\nSymposium was going and said he would try to stop by to visit. We told him
\nabout Doug Simmons talk and he reconfirmed SHA Commitment to make Md. More
\nBike Friendly. We thanked for his good Bike\/Ped work at SHA and left him
\nwith a Kelly Green Bicycle on his lapel. OLC supplied pizza for lunch so we
\ndidn’t have to go out to eat and miss valuable time at the Symposium and it
\nwas gone in a flash. The Md. Legilative Bike\/Ped Caucus under the able
\nleadership of Chair Del. Jon Cardin met in the hallway during this time with
\n6 to 8 Caucus members to discuss the impending Bike\/Ped Bills.
\nWe found out that the word “CAUCUS” is an Algonquian Indian word that means
\nwhen the”Big Chiefs Meet to Discuss Important Matters”. This terminology
\ncertainly extends to our Legislative Bike\/Ped Caucus. We believe there are
\nvery few if any Bike\/Ped Caucus across the county and our Md one is great.
\nThe Caucus discussed HB 173Bike Safety Bill and were in support of the
\nconcept.\n<\/p>\n
\nLater on in the afternoon Dave Dionne-Anne Arundel Co. Greenways introduced
\nTerry Maxwell from the RecTrails Program and Mary Keller Transportaion
\nEnhancement Program at SHA. Terry Maxwell talked about the $1 Million
\nDollars which is available each from SHA to do small trails enhancement
\n$15,00- to $30,000 per project to improve safety and access to mostly
\nnon-auto travel. We talked about using Rec Trails Fund to do our CPABC Mid
\nMd. Bike Map Printing costs. Mary Keller talked about enhancement funds of
\nlarger dollar worth of the $800,000 to $1 Million range for bigger projects
\nfrom SHA sharing Fed Funds. The overall idea was that there was funds
\navailable to do many non-auto transportation out there and once again to
\nmake Md. More Bike\/Ped Friendly. Shortly after these talks the crowd
\nstarting tinning out as it was Friday afternoon and it was Friday get-away.
\nEveryone was very pleased with the whole Symposium and were only
\ndisappointed that they could not talk with everyone there because there were
\ntoo many people to see and not enough time to not to visit with everyone.
\nJim Hudnall,s “Yellow Books’ with 194 Bike\/Ped Contacts Folks listed
\nthere-in disappeared from the welcoming table(Thank you Monica) by the end
\nof the day. If you didn”t get one of these very important “Yellow Book””
\nyou missed out, check the OHBTC\/CPABC Web_site and click Directory.You will
\nfind this “Yellow Book’listed there.. We want to thank everyone who worked
\nso hard to make this 10th Annual Bike\/Ped Symposium the best we have had.
\nJim & Jane Hudnall deserve the biggest thanks because they do so much more
\nthan anyone else. Hope to see you in February 2008\n<\/p>\n
oldId.20070211215900640<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This Summary was compiled by Bill Kelly 2-1-07 Hi Bike\/Ped Folks, We just finished our 10th Annual Successful Bike\/Ped Symposium in Annapolis on Friday Feb 9, 2007. Many of you attended and many more were unable to attend so we would like you know what you missed. This Symposium is untaken with great efforts from\/by … <\/p>\n