Big Jump

Big Jump Extension: Support Alternative #1 with Parklets

The Greater Remington Improvement Association, with a letter of support from Baltimore City Department of Transportation, was awarded a $50,000 Baltimore Regional Neighborhood Initiative grant from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development in 2022 to create a road diet on 28th Street, expanding The Big Jump to directly connect to the Maryland Avenue cycletrack.

The grant was specifically written for a design like the one shown in the streetmix above, and included provisions to maintain existing community parklets like the one at 28th and Huntingdon, serving Mount Royal Soaps and Café Los Sueños. The grant timeline included an install schedule of March 2022.

Last night, the 1st of March 2023, Baltimore City Department of Transportation held their first public meeting on the project. While they included the above design as one alternative, they also provided a second alternative that would not comply with the awarded community grant. And, in the first alternative, they claimed it was necessary to remove the community parklet to increase level of service for cars. This would also not comply with the awarded community grant, and is completely inconsistent with Complete Streets.

You can see more information on the BCDOT project page here. Public comment is open until March 20, 2023.

Bikemore endorses Alternative #1, with retention of the existing community parklet and no turn lanes. Send an email to BCDOT:

Big Jump Detour for Druid Hill Reservoir Construction

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Background

The ongoing Department of Public Works construction project in Druid Hill Park to install tanks to store treated city drinking water is moving to a phase of pipe construction to connect the two tanks our water system. The pipe will cross Druid Park Lake Drive at Linden Avenue, and follow the roadway along the median east to the JFX on-ramps. To make this connection, DPW will need to dig a trench in the median of Druid Park Lake Drive.

In between the original plans for this construction and today, Baltimore City Department of Transportation received a grant from People For Bikes called The Big Jump, to install a temporary shared use pathway along Druid Park Lake Drive and across the 28th Street bridge, a road diet and protected bike lanes on Huntingdon Avenue and 25th Street, a bike boulevard on 27th Street, and bike lanes on Remington Avenue.

Of those grant funded projects, only the most important one—the connection across Druid Park Lake Drive and the 28th Street bridge—has been constructed. The shared use path, installed in June 2018, allows people to walk, bike, skate, and use a wheelchair or mobility device to safely cross from Reservoir Hill to Remington for the first time.

The Detour

The trench work for the Druid Hill Reservoir will require detour of The Big Jump for approximately one year, and work will begin as soon as September 28, 2020. Motor vehicle traffic will move to the existing travel lane utilized by The Big Jump from Linden Avenue to the Mount Royal Avenue slip lane. Water filled barriers along this portion of roadway will be replaced with concrete barriers. The Big Jump will be relocated to an adjacent 8 foot sidewalk, which DOT is working to clear of weeds and debris.

The existing Big Jump route is shown in red. The detour route is shown in green.

The existing Big Jump route is shown in red. The detour route is shown in green.

The Big Jump will follow an 8 foot sidewalk from Linden Avenue to Lakeview Avenue. DOT is working to mow and clear debris.

The Big Jump will follow an 8 foot sidewalk from Linden Avenue to Lakeview Avenue. DOT is working to mow and clear debris.

At Lakeview Avenue, The Big Jump will move to the northern side of the street adjacent to Lakeview Towers, repurposing an existing parking lane. It will then cross over to the existing pathway on the 28th Street bridge through a newly created curb cut underneath the existing non-ADA accessible pedestrian overpass from Druid Park Lake Drive to 28th Street. To facilitate safe crossing at this location, the Mount Royal slip lane will be closed to motor vehicle traffic with physical barriers—a huge safety improvement.

The Big Jump detour from Lakeview Avenue past the Lakeview Towers to the Mount Royal slip lane.

The Big Jump detour from Lakeview Avenue past the Lakeview Towers to the Mount Royal slip lane.

The Big Jump detour will connect back to the original Big Jump path through the Mount Royal slip lane, which will be closed to motor vehicle traffic.

The Big Jump detour will connect back to the original Big Jump path through the Mount Royal slip lane, which will be closed to motor vehicle traffic.

What’s next

While the sidewalk element of this detour is not ideal, there are very encouraging opportunities that the trench work unlocks. Since the existing water filled barriers are being replaced with concrete barriers through the duration of the detour, it’s possible we could keep the concrete barriers in place when The Big Jump returns to the street, improving safety and reducing maintenance. It’s also possible to reconfigure and resurface the motor vehicle travel lanes along Druid Park Lake Drive. This will further reinforce The Big Jump as a semi-permanent pathway.

Also coming up is the release of the Big Jump evaluation report. It’s exciting in that it reveals The Big Jump had almost no effect on traffic conditions—one of the major vocal complaints from drivers.

Long-term, Baltimore City Department of Transportation has committed to a corridor realignment study to propose a complete redesign or removal of the highways that separate Druid Hill Park from communities. None of this work would have been possible without community partners and the leadership of Councilman Leon Pinkett. Neighbors and advocates are organizing around the corridor realignment study under the banner of The Access Project: Druid Hill Park. You can read more at TAP Druid Hill.

A roving block party connects neighbors to Druid Hill Park

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A key part of our mission at Bikemore is improving connectivity to our public parks - a core piece of building a safer, healthier, and more livable city. Back at our October Bike Leaders Breakfast, our long-time friend and public artist Graham Coreil-Allen brought flyers and shared the goals of Arches & Access, an event he co-organized, to illuminate the connections between West Baltimore neighborhoods and Druid Hill Park.

We showed up in West Baltimore on the night of Sunday, November 3rd, joining over three hundred residents from the neighborhoods surrounding Druid Hill Park who came together to create a space for a roving block party and parade on Druid Park Lake Drive. People danced, marched, performed, and celebrated access to public green space. 

The event was first conceived by artist Jessy DeSantis and advocate Courtney Bettle, both Reservoir Hill residents, as an idea based off DeSantis’ colorful painting of the historic arch on Madison Avenue and Druid Park Lake Drive. Later teaming up with Coreil-Allen, who lives on Auchentoroly Terrace, they organized a light exhibit through the Neighborhood Lights initiative of the Brilliant Baltimore/Festival of Light and Literature. Together, they expanded their original vision of lighting up the arch to include a parade of solar-powered lights leading into the park and ending at an equally vibrant Rawlings Conservatory.

“Collectively they expanded the vision to include solar powered lights leading into the park, activated by a joyful community parade showing what life could be like without highways hindering pedestrian access to Druid Hill Park.”

A parade studded with a marching band, Benevolent Bubbles’ lighted bikes, and speeches from neighborhood leaders, including 7th District Councilperson Leon Pinkett, created a welcoming, exciting environment that attracted many who joined from side streets and through the Big Jump.  

The organizers shared that by the end of the night, residents were already looking forward to making Arches & Access an annual event to unite communities of West Baltimore with Druid Hill Park. Through a lively parade, they truly accomplished their goal of “show[ing] what life could be like without highways hindering pedestrian access to Druid Hill Park.”

This need for safe access for people who bike, walk, and use mobility devices is why we’ve been building relationships in the neighborhoods surrounding Druid Hill Park for years. When the Druid Hill Expressway was built, the five-lane highway separated neighbors from safely and comfortably accessing a vital greenspace in the city. When we installed the Big Jump along 28th St and Druid Park Lake Drive, it created access for people to travel between West and Central Baltimore. It decreased the speed of traffic and shortened crosswalks to make it easier for neighbors to walk to Druid Hill Park. 

The liveliness of the celebration that neighbors created reinforced that the work we do at Bikemore is not to reinvent the wheel. Communities have always known what they want: streets for people. 

We are constantly seeking to uplift the strength, creativity, and power that residents already have.

This is why we spent more of our capacity in 2019 than ever on community building. We don’t need to be the center of work for transportation change. In creating an equitable transit system, the process is just as important as the deliverable. That means that we have to center the voices of people who have been advocating for safer streets that have also been historically and structurally ignored.

In 2020, we want to support more of our neighbors - so that they can create spaces that prioritize connectivity and accessibility to parks in our city; so that they can activate their community; so that they can be the leaders of political change in Baltimore. 

Help us support changemakers across Baltimore by donating to Bikemore today. We can build Complete Streets together.


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Read more about Arches & Access at the blog post from TAP Druid Hill. 

Baltimore neighborhood leaders, elected officials and DOT learning together in Memphis

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Last week Bikemore staff traveled with neighborhood leaders, elected officials, and DOT staff members to Memphis to learn together with PeopleForBikes. This study tour was part of Baltimore’s Big Jump grant from PeopleForBikes.

Our Baltimore delegation consisted of Keshia Allen (Westport Community Association President), Councilman Kristerfer Burnett, Rita Crews (Belair-Edison Community Association President), Fabienne Dorceus (community organizer), Celena Owens (Oliver neighborhood leader), Corey Paige (office of Councilman Dorsey), Ashiah Parker (No Boundaries Coalition/Bikemore Board President), Charles Penny (Baltimore City Department of Transportation), Councilman Leon Pinkett, and Delegate Melissa Wells.

Why Memphis? Memphis has a comparable population to Baltimore, and faces many similar challenges of long term disinvestment, poverty, and historic racism. But it’s also similar in that that are visionary leaders at both the neighborhood and city level striving to do things differently. We intentionally didn’t talk to any bike advocates, but everyone we spoke with shared that mobility was a key component to the success of their vision for Memphis, and they worked to advocate and include improved mobility for people who walk and bike in all their projects.

Here are some of the things we saw, and lessons we’re brining back to Baltimore with us:

First stop: National Civil Rights Museum

To set the context for the trip, the first stop we made was at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. We were reminded of the role transportation played in both giving activists a platform, as well as how those with power used restricting access to public space for protests as a form of control to advance racism.


South Memphis bike tour of their Big Jump and a learning farm

We rode bike share bikes and visited Green Leaf Learning Farm at Knowledge Quest, which will be piloting local grown produce delivered locally by paid youth on cargo bikes. Knowledge Quest runs a learning farm and various youth and family programs. When Director Marlon Foster spoke with us, he emphasized being thoughtful about being invited into spaces vs. inserting themselves, as well as creatively using a single highly recognizable paint color to mark the spaces they use and are developing in the neighborhood.

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On mobility and leadership from a former mayor and an affordable housing developer

Former Mayor A C Wharton, Jr. shared how he stuck to his instincts and committed to building bike infrastructure because he understood the related economic, health, and community benefits that would result in better connectivity. There were a lot of people who questioned his leadership, but by having a clear vision and supporting his staff to carry it out, that vision became reality.

Roshun Austin, President/CEO of The Works Community Development Corporation, shared the innovative housing and lending programs they run to provide affordable housing and provide new sustainable pathways to home ownership. Roshun didn’t learn how to ride a bike before she started partnering with PeopleForBikes, but they now lead regular rides as a key component of their community work. They also run the South Memphis Farmers Market, setting up creative partnerships with local farms and grocers to make it financially possible to access local food.

Making a park surrounded by highways accessible

Executive Director Tina Sullivan took us on a tour of Overton Park, which much like many parks in Baltimore, is struggling from being surrounded by wide streets that serve as highways on three sides. By creating artistic gateways and connecting entrances with planned bike paths, and being intentional about where in the park to create activation with things like playgrounds and dog parks, they are making real strides in inviting more neighbors into the park. Future plans include high-visibility crossings tied with further traffic-calming in addition to direct connections to separated bike paths.

A former Sears warehouse turned into a mixed use vertical development

Porsche Stevens from Cross Town Concourse and Crosstown Arts took us on on a tour of the mixed use Cross Town Concourse development, which houses everything from doctors offices to a school to arts organizations to small retail businesses. After the building sat vacant for years, it took 30 funding sources and commitment of nearly 40 founding tenants to get the project off the ground. She talked about how small things like the choice of music in the space has the ability to make various people feel welcome and invited into the space. We visited their state-of-the-art theatre space, and talked about the dignity and pride in bringing the best of the best resources to a historically disinvested neighborhood.

Placemaking in a medical district

In a creative partnership between the city and Memphis Medical District Collaborative, a five lane road was narrowed to three lanes. They installed quick build artistic crosswalks, bike lanes protected with flex posts, and planters to reduce crossing distances and slow traffic. The City paid for basic markings and resurfacing and the Medical District Collaborative paid for all of the extras: delineators, planters, and art.

Public art in an automotive district

In the Edge District we checked out a a traffic calming and placemaking road diet at a previously dangerous intersection. It reclaimed part of the road at a confusing intersection though installation of planters, tables and chairs, a bike fix-it station, and bike parking — and put an artistic, movement-filled shade structure above it.

Beautiful and busy public space and a day-lighted stream

We checked out Loflin Yard, a restaurant featuring an outdoor space that felt a lot like a friend’s backyard, that was filled with people playing games and relaxing, and featured a beautiful view of a stream, one of the only parts of the waterway that is not contained into a drainage pipe.

We learned a lot from this trip. We learned (or were reminded!) that change is possible, but it takes times and visionary leadership to do it well. Many of the projects we saw started 10 years ago and were just being built, but we saw that they are possible in Memphis and they’re possible in Baltimore.

And we were reminded that we need to ride bikes and have more fun together. One of the most valuable parts of the trip was the informal time we spent walking, biking, eating and just hanging out together, when we got to know each other as people. When leaders from different neighborhoods shared their stories, when elected officials and advocates shared their challenges and resources, we were reminded that together we are much stronger, and that we have the knowledge and vision within Baltimore to create the change we want.

Many thanks to PeopleForBikes for providing this amazing experience, and to the Baltimore delegation that saw the value in taking the time out of their busy lives to learn with us. We collectively came up with lots of ideas for continuing this energy in Baltimore — so stay tuned!

Druid Park Lake Drive Update

For three years, Bikemore has been devoting time and resources to advocating for traffic calming, lane reductions, and better biking and walking connections to Druid Hill Park along the expressway-sized roads that divide the park from adjacent communities. We were inspired by long-time neighbors who had put immense effort and resources behind things like the Druid Hill Farmers market to draw more west side neighbors to the park. We wanted to draw attention to the dangers of Druid Park Lake Drive, Auchentoroly Terrace, and Druid Park Drive , and the inequity these streets exacerbate by creating a chasm between beautiful, historic neighborhoods and a world-class historic park.

We began in 2016. Following the lead of our partner Rails-to-Trails and their effort to create a 35 mile protected greenway around the city, we spent months meeting with stakeholders to understand the challenges and opportunities. Out of that came a demonstration project meant to highlight the dangerous crossing at Gwynn Falls Parkway and Auchentoroly Terrace, a crossing that prevents young and elderly neighbors from safely accessing their neighborhood farmer’s market by foot.

In 2017, the issue gained more traction and we were able to direct resources to Reservoir Hill. A coalition was formed, led by Councilman Leon Pinkett, and neighbors, academics, artists, architects, and nonprofits met with DOT regularly to demand improvements and drive the process of making the streets safer forward.

The construction at the reservoir played an important role. With the popular lake loop obstructed, crossings eliminated, and traffic lanes reduced, suddenly the need to make the park safer, more accessible, and better programmed to serve the residents most in need felt more urgent. If we didn’t capitalize on this moment, it would be possible that once the EPA-mandated construction was complete that everything would go back to being the same.

More people weighed in after Davin Hong’s opinion piece linked above, focusing on the the historic and equity issues that made the case for acting now even more compelling.

Meanwhile, we continued to direct resources, meet neighbors, create art, and throw parties to get people to think differently about how Druid Park Lake Drive could be designed. We wanted the imagination of elected officials, neighbors, and city officials to soar – we wanted a Big Jump.


This week, in what is a small first step towards realizing this vision, the Department of Transportation issued a Request for Proposals for a design firm to do a study. This study will require a consultant to reach out to neighbors and other stakeholders and determine what Complete Street interventions would be the best way to take what has become a convenient thoroughfare for commuters and restore it to its original purpose. Druid Park Lake Drive was a way to gain access to the park. Not keep people away. Auchentoroly Terrace was a neighborhood street that children could safely cross to access a park, not a multi-lane highway with cars speeding in excess of 60 miles per hour.

You can read the RFP here. Over the next few months, our job will be to monitor and provide input into the RFP process and maintain a seat at the table during these early phases of community consultation and eventually, conceptual designs. It will also be our job to make sure neighbors’ voices are being heard. We will continue doing programming that connects people to the park, this design process, and to one another. We will be joined by residents who have been empowered in this process to seek change and conduct research themselves, including Dr. Daniel Hindman and artist Graham Coreil Allen of Auchentoroly Terrace.

This is the beginning of what will no doubt be a multi-year process. But as we reflect on the last three years, we are so proud of what we’ve been able to contribute to this important and historic effort. Projects like the Big Jump are always controversial. We heard a lot of no’s before those big white barriers got put up. But it did exactly what demonstration projects are supposed to do--demonstrate what’s possible when you connect communities with safe places to walk and bike for the first time.





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