Stop Signs Halt Progress on Guilford Avenue Bike Boulevard

This Saturday Baltimore City DOT will close down 32nd street and Guilford Avenue from 7am to 3pm to remove a debated traffic circle at the busy intersection. Neighbors complained that the small traffic circle did little to slow heavy traffic, and made the intersection unsafe for pedestrians. 

Guilford Avenue received a bike boulevard treatment in 2011. The treatment included traffic circles at various intersections, sharrows, and bike friendly speed humps throughout the avenue from University Parkway to Mt. Royal Avenue. Even in its imperfect state, the low stress route has become a popular and necessary north/south connector for bicyclists, with ridership increasing dramatically on the corridor after installation and growing annually since. There was always talk about adding various improvements, but little was added after the first phase of construction. 

When community meetings were first held in 2010, residents were shown photos of similar traffic calming treatments from around the country. Circles featured vertical treatments like plantings or sculptures. As neighbors began taking ownership of these new public spaces, DOT responded by banning any vertical treatments citing safety issues with emergency vehicles being able to pass through intersections. This policy decision grossly undermined the effectiveness of the circles. 

32nd and Guilford Traffic Circle 

A traffic circle in Minneapolis on a similar sized street to Guilford Ave

32nd Street leads to a very popular pocket park just East of Guilford Avenue. Pedestrian safety is paramount, as many families in the neighborhood walk through this intersection during the evening rush hour to play in the park. East bound car commuters like to use 32nd Street as a cut-through to avoid waiting on the light cycle at 33rd Street and Greenmount Avenue. 

When several members of the Abell Community Association reached out last summer to get Bikemore's opinion on solutions to the unsafe intersection, we made the following recommendations to DOT: 

• Remove four parking spots to increase the size of the crosswalks and re-stripe larger crosswalks to improve visibility. 
• Create vertical elements and reflective signage in the traffic circle so that these visual elements slow traffic. 
• Create a concrete "channel" or small median leading up to the circle that makes the turning radius narrow and expands the footprint of the circle, again slowing traffic. 
• Install bike friendly speed humps (humps with small channels for bikes to pass through) leading up to the intersection in all directions. 

Despite DOT staff supporting our recommendations, and working with us to remove the policy that restricted vertical elements in the circle, several neighbors chose to instead advocate for removal of the circle and installation of a four-way stop.

Bikemore attempted to persuade these neighbors to reconsider by offering a small grant to assist with adding plantings to the circle. We have since learned that these neighbors held a meeting in the field last fall with Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke and Former DOT Director William Johnson, where they demanded removal of the circle and installation of the four-way stop. Councilwoman Clarke was not made aware by these neighbors or Director Johnson that a different treatment was recommended by Bikemore and DOT's traffic and bicycle staff.

While we worked to stay informed about the project through December, communication from DOT eventually dropped off. 

So you can imagine our surprise when a few weeks ago four new stop signs were installed. This countered our recommendations to maintain the spirit of the bike boulevard, while addressing residents' very valid concerns of pedestrian safety and traffic speeds. Furthermore, not being able to review plans and weigh in on changes to one of the city's only decent bike facilities felt like a slap in the face--especially when the direction of this project could have been easily raised in any of the multiple meetings we've had with employees involved since we last spoke about it in December. 

In so many ways 2016 is truly the Year of the Bike in Baltimore. Construction begins on Maryland Avenue and many additional elements of the Downtown Bike Network in late June. Bike Share will launch this fall. The city keeps pursuing--and winning--grant dollars for projects to improve bike connectivity. So why insist as an agency on taking two steps back with each step forward? 

According to an email we received from Councilwoman Clarke, neighbors in the Abell Community advocated for bike friendly speed humps in conjunction with the four way stop, and of course as seen in the photos of the new treatment, standard speed humps were installed. DOT cannot even use their standard excuse of responding to neighborhood pressure, because even the neighbors didn't get exactly what they requested. 

If DOT continues to make decisions that either don't consider neighbors' concerns, or only listen to a vocal minority, decisions that ignore our city's complete street policy, that erode hard won trust between the biking community--which public are they serving? 

This is why it is absolutely critical we begin to codify and enforce transportation policy that prioritizes the safety of human beings over car traffic throughput. It is essential we develop ways our Mayor and City Council can hold DOT employees accountable when they willfully ignore the requests of Baltimore residents.

They made a choice to prioritize four personal car parking spaces over maintaining one of the only comfortable bike facilities in our city, used by hundreds of riders daily. They made a choice to not give the neighborhood the best design available by listening to a vocal minority, and then failed even that vocal minority by not installing the specific facility they requested because of apathy and unwillingness. And because of these choices, those walking through the intersection were not given the best possible solution for improving pedestrian safety. 

Want to let DOT and Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke know you'd prefer to see improvements to bike infrastructure versus removal? 

Use our handy email tool and say your peace with just a few clicks. 

New Police Deployment Begins Today on Guilford and Mt. Royal

In response to a recent uptick in assaults on people walking and biking in the Greenmount West neighborhood, Baltimore City Police have issued an order for increased police coverage for the next thirty days. Bikemore has been working closely with Baltimore City Police for months to bring awareness to this public safety issue, and are pleased to have seen a lot of engagement and action on their part in the past few weeks. You can view the new deployment plan below. 

We have also learned that arrests have been made this week in connection to a recent assault of a Greenmount West resident that was caught on video. It is believed those responsible were also involved in the recent assaults of people riding bicycles. 

Public safety is a critical element of a healthy, livable neighborhood. And while the issue of public safety is so much bigger than bikes, Bikemore has an important role to play in demanding our neighborhoods be safe places to walk and bike. 

As bike riders, it is important we take the time to report incidents of assault or attempted assault. Creating a record of a pattern of violence is critical to getting resources directed to the neighborhoods that need them. We recognize that response wait time, treatment by officers, or the fact that many of the perpetrators are youth may cause some to decide not to report these incidents. Add to that the complication of often having to report a crime in a different district than where the crime took place because that bike rider rode to safety, and reporting can seem fruitless. But after weeks of meetings, the major take away we at Bikemore heard is that we have to report to get the resources we need. 

Some important things to keep in mind if you are ever a victim of an assault or attempted assault: 

1. Ride to a safe place

2. Call 911 and request to report an assault. 

3. Note the responding officers names. Write it down. Also request your incident number so you can reference it later when requesting a copy of your police report. 

4. If the responding officers are not treating you with respect, or it appears they are not actually taking a written report (good indicators include not asking for your name, being dismissive of charges, offering unhelpful advice like telling you not to ride alone or at night) you have the right to request that a supervisor come to the scene and take your report. If you don't feel comfortable doing this at the time, document their name and badge number and communicate this information to Bikemore. We can alert supervisors and demand retraining of patrol officers that do not take these assaults seriously.  

5. Seek support from the bike community. Being a victim of assault can be traumatizing. Ask friends to ride with you for a few days until you regain your comfort biking alone. Don't put a time limit on how long it might take you to feel comfortable riding again--it's a personal choice. Seek professional counseling if the trauma becomes too much to handle on your own. 

As a community we need to support and embrace our bike riding youth. We need to be able to parse out the differences from children riding bikes, and children prone to committing crimes while riding bikes. We have to work diligently to give our city's youth viable alternatives to crime and violence. We need to speak up when conversations about violence turn into coded conversations about race and class. We need to support organizations whose mission is to directly support youth in our city. 

This is not an issue that has an easy solution, but we are committed to remaining engaged with neighbors, police, and lawmakers as a partner working toward improved safety of all neighborhoods in Baltimore. 

Ride safe. 

Bike Improvements Scheduled for Promenade and Potomac Street

A new signage plan for the promenade. Bike traffic was historically restricted but on May 20th the new rules go into effect. 

Some big changes are coming to Southeast Baltimore that indicate major improvements connecting those neighborhoods to Downtown. Two projects--opening access along the Promenade for bikes, and the new Potomac Street Cycletrack mean that beginning this Fall it will be possible to bike from Patterson Park to the Inner Harbor or Fed Hill almost entirely on protected facilities. 

Changes to Promenade Access and Upgrades on the Jones Falls Trail

Historically biking was restricted on the Promenade east of President Street. Beginning May 20th (just in time for Bike to Work Day!) new signage will be in place signaling the area is now open for bikes. The new signs will indicated shared bike and pedestrian use, caution bikes to move slowly in areas often congested with pedestrians, and direct people away from the Promenade to the Jones Falls Trail where between the Cheesecake Factory and the Science Center bike traffic will remain prohibited. This expands bike access on the Promenade considerably, and simplifies past rules that were hard for those new to the city to understand and even harder to enforce. 

View the entire plan including samples of new signage here. 

Additionally, the Jones Falls Trail will receive a much needed facelift with the addition of green paint indicating that is a bike facility. The Jones Falls Trail will remain a shared use path, but the addition of the green paint will help indicate to pedestrians and the numerous drivers that like to use it as a place to drop off passengers to respect and expect bike traffic. Paint treatment is scheduled to be completed Late Summer/Early Fall. 

Potomac Street Cycletrack

Beginning this year, construction will begin on the Potomac Street Cycletrack. The two-way parking protected lane will extend from Patterson Park all the way to Boston Street. 

The project will be installed using a phased approach. Temporary materials will be used in Phase I to support quick implementation, followed by a community input session on how the cycletrack should be improved permanently. 

Typical cross section of the new Potomac Street Cycletrack. 

At a community meeting held last month, residents came with excellent questions regarding the new construction. All in attendance were excited about the ability of the cycletrack to calm traffic on this residential street by reducing travel lanes and decreasing crossing distance for pedestrians. 

The project will result in minimal parking loss, most standard at intersections in order to "daylight" cyclists behind park cars. Bike stop signs for north bound bike traffic will be installed at intersections, including signs for East and West Bound vehicle traffic to "Look for Bikes" in both directions for drivers previously used to only looking for southbound traffic. 

Better Protected Networks

These two projects together mean huge improvements in connecting Southeast Baltimore to Downtown. Once both projects are complete it will be possible to travel from Patterson Park to the Inner Harbor entirely on protected or off street facilities. Future improvements include bike signals on Boston Street to improve connections from Boston to the Waterfront and way finding signs directing people to useful (but hidden to those not in the know) Eastern Promenade. 

Bike Share is Coming to Baltimore!

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L to R, Caitlin Doolin, Bike and Pedestrian Planner, BCDOT; Jay Decker, Bike Share Coordinator, BCDOT; Liz Cornish, Bikemore 

Good things come to those who wait. After six years of lessons learned and a few false starts, today the city approved Bewegen (Be-Wee-Gen, hard "g") as the City's official bike share vendor. The system, which is set to launch in Fall 2016, will include in it's initial phase 50 stations and 500 bikes, 200 of which will be Pedelec bikes making it the largest fleet of pedal assist bikes in North and South America. 

Bikes

The bikes, which we got to test ride today, are some of the lightest bike share bikes on the market. The non-pedal assist bikes feature eight gears. Both bikes feature a front basket that can hold up to 55 pounds. Both bikes feature a skirt guard, front fender, enclosed drivetrain, front and rear lights, and a digital display and speaker. 

The Pedelec bikes feature a battery that can operate autonomously for one day (60 miles, or 24 hours) on a single one hour charge. 

Stations

The stations are fully modular. The City purchased 5 solar canopy stations. Stations can also be quickly configured using geofence technology--creating flexibility to create additional stations to coincide with special events (think O's games or Artscape). 

The stations automatically lock the bike once docked, and have an option to lock the bike using an integrated cable lock if the station is full. The system also allows you to temporarily lock the bike outside of the system to help accommodate quick errands. But similarly to how Zipcar works, in that only the member with that car reserved can unlock the vehicle, new riders can only unlock bikes from official docking stations or kiosks, and the member using that bike can only lock or unlock it outside the docks. 

Station locations have not been finalized. Bewegen will work closely with the City and Bikemore to engage in a thorough and equitable community engagement process to ensure citizens needs are considered. We can say with confidence though, that given the size of the initial launch and the need for the system to remain densely sited, it's impossible for every Baltimore neighborhood to receive a station during Phase One. Bikemore will be advocating for priority areas that balance the need for bike share to serve as a transportation option--connecting our downtown work centers to surrounding neighborhoods, and providing equitable access to bike share as a viable recreation option in places like Druid Hill Park and Lake Montebello. Removing barriers to bicycling begins with providing access to biking as a form of recreation. 

Check Out Process

Membership pricing has not yet been determined. We do know however, that bikes will be available for check out using a credit card at kiosk for daily rentals and RFID key similar to Capitol Bike Share or a cash membership option for the unbanked for monthly or annual members. One of the most exciting payment options includes integration with the Charm Card transit pass, and the ability to check out the bike using a mobile phone app. 

It's important to note that integration with Capital Bike Share in DC was not part of the initial contract, but the barriers to integration have more to do with coordinating each jurisdiction, and less to do with technology. Bewegen is confident that the technology available on their bikes leaves the door open to integrating with Capital Bike Share down the line. We will continue to advocate for this integration with Capital Bike Share and look forward to beginning discussions with our partners in DC. 

Building Community Support for Bike Share

One of the best things bike share does is normalize every day bike riding. We know the number one way to improve the safety of people who bike, is to increase the number of people who ride. Bike share programs do this incredibly well, providing a comfortable, stable upright riding experience--without having to think through some of the barriers to bike riding: where will I lock up, where will I store my bike in my home, what if I want to ride to a location but take transit back, etc. Bike share also has the ability to dramatically improve first and last mile solutions for transit riders. In a city with a challenged public transportation system, bike share also has the ability to limit transfers, improving the on time reliability of transit. 

But given the challenges the City has faced upon launch, and the many years the naysayers have had to develop their gripes, the politics of launching bike share presents a real challenge. One of the most exciting parts of the contract includes Bewegen locating their North American headquarters in Baltimore, creating approximately 80 new local jobs.  Already having launched a successful program in Birmingham, AL, and set to launch Richmond, VA ahead of Baltimore, Bewegen and their pedal assist bike share systems are positioned for growth. Having their headquarters in Baltimore has the real potential to put us on the map as innovators in how bicycles integrate into urban life.  Also, we were impressed at the City's ability to turn a $2.3 million dollar contract into 80 local jobs, solidifying the fact that bikes truly mean business. 

It's also really important that our members have all the facts available to them, so that they can truly be the new system's best ambassadors. That is why we are partnering with BCDOT to provide a bike share open house where Bikemore members will have a chance to test ride the bike share bikes and ask questions of city staff. Stay tuned for our announcement of the date and time of that event. We expect to host it sometime in April or May. 

The community engagement process to answer questions and determine specifics of operation including station siting and membership rates is just beginning. Bikemore is committed to leading this effort in partnership with the City so that an inclusive, successful system of bike share in Baltimore is achieved. We are currently soliciting funds to help this effort. If you or your organization would like to support us please donate here, or contact Liz Cornish, liz@bikemore.net to learn more. 

Bikemore Priorities Update Part I: Maryland Avenue Cycletrack

Early rendering of the Maryland Avenue Cycletrack shown here between 29th and 28th st. Updated designs include flex posts throughout the project. 

When Bikemore was formed in December of 2011, our board and stakeholders set forth advocacy priorities. These included the Maryland Avenue Cycletrack, Mt. Royal Streetscape Project, and Charm City Bike Share. While there have been many accomplishments along the way, these three priorities have continued to encounter critical challenges that have meant none of these projects have been completed. 

We wanted to start the new year by taking a moment to review and update you on how these priorities continue to fit into our organizational goals. In a three part series released over the next few days, we will discuss where each of these projects stand, and how you--our members--can support our advocacy efforts to see each of these priorities is achieved. 

Part I: Maryland Avenue Cycletrack

Summary

The facility is a two way cycle track on the east side of Maryland Avenue. The length of the facility is 2.6 miles and extends from 29th street to Pratt. The road will be narrowed to one southbound travel lane. Street parking will be retained throughout most of the corridor, and serve as the barrier “protecting” the cycletrack from moving traffic. Flex posts are also included in the design. 

Challenges

• Funded through state and federal grants, the project has been subject to the State Highway Administration (SHA) Review process. 
• Challenges in relationships and changing staff at both Baltimore City DOT (BCDOT) and at the Maryland Department of Transportation led to lengthy approval processes at each stage of the design process. 
• Maryland Avenue became part of a larger project--the Downtown Bicycle Network which includes protected bike lanes on Monument and Madison and conventional bike lanes on Preston and Biddle, which led to further engineering delays as new plans were drawn and ushered through the approval process. 
• Plans had to be reworked again in order to respond to community push back from the Mt. Vernon Business Association in order to retain hundreds of parking spaces. 
• In 2015, the project spent most of the year in a back and forth between agencies on ADA compliance at intersections. The facility is now ADA compliant. 

Where the project stands today: 

On December 16th, Bikemore received notification from SHA that plans for the Downtown Bike Network were officially approved and are now back with the city. It is now up to the City to advertise. This is the furthest in the process this project has been, and marks a significant milestone. The city must advertise for a minimum of 21 days before a contract can be awarded. According to our sources at BCDOT, much of the work to prepare the Request for Proposals has been complete. 

It’s our best estimation that if the city moves quickly, they can advertise and award in Feb/March. We believe that given all the delays, we will still be pushing for their estimated March 2016 groundbreaking. The construction will happen in stages, with Maryland Avenue being the first project to break ground. Construction is anticipated to last 90 days. The entire installation for the Downtown Bicycle Network is anticipated to last six months. 

Lessons Learned

Communication between agencies at the city and state level is critical. We are grateful for new leadership at Maryland Department of Transportation and State Highway Administration that seems committed to ensuring that city plans don’t languish unnecessarily in the review stage. Both agencies have been helpful in listening to our concerns about project delays and being proactive in uncovering where the plans were held up in the process. 

But even despite relationship building at the city and state level, both agencies engaged in a level of finger pointing that makes it difficult for us to truly assess where and why the delays occurred. It is our assessment that there are three factors at play that make it so difficult for Baltimore City to move quickly on state and federally funded projects. 

1. City and State engineers are not “on the same page” when it comes to engineering guidelines for biking facilities. The state has alluded to the city needing to produce stronger plans that would result in fewer revisions, and the city has alluded to the state needing to adopt more flexible design standards. We know from this recent article published by FHWA that this finger pointing is not a problem exclusive to Maryland, but our hope is that through our continued advocacy efforts we can get engineers at the state and local level to see eye to eye on where we can be innovative and flexible in our design choices to produce the safest, best infrastructure for our region. 
2. Lack of Political Will. When bike projects fall behind schedule, there is not a chorus of public outcry that follows. We’d like to change that. Many current elected officials don’t believe these livable streets projects are a priority of their constituents--so there is little incentive to act. But we found that often a few phone calls and in person meetings were all that it took to remind folks that people were watching and waiting on these projects to move forward. We wonder how much faster projects would move if there was more political leadership on these issues. That is why our advocacy campaign, I Bike, I Vote is so critical to changing the landscape for how and when these types of projects get built. When you have elected leaders that understand the intersectionality between public health, economics, safety and bike lanes, it's much easier to get folks to pick up the phone on your behalf. 
3. Lack of Accountability. As evident from the recent audit of DOT, it’s clear that while we know there is some great work occurring, we also know that there are few systems of accountability agency wide. Further, we know that because of the City’s procurement process that requires them to go with the lowest bid of a contractor, it nearly guarantees low quality work or excessive and costly change orders to compensate for the ridiculously low bid. We’ve seen this time and time again--facilities that are not installed to specifications that end up reducing the facility’s quality and safety. So the system of who installs and inspects these facilities is broken, and effects so much more than just bike and pedestrian facilities. 

Advocacy Next Steps: 

• Vote and encourage others to vote. Getting the right political leadership in place this next year will be critical to ensure we don’t take steps backwards. Bikemore will begin releasing candidate’s responses to our questionnaire beginning in February to help inform voters of their choices. 
• Get involved in your community association. We find that a lot of the community backlash tends to concentrate here. Misinformation, anger over change are all things that can bubble up as projects begin construction. Having people that understand the facts and benefits of bike projects attending those meetings and building relationships with neighbors will go a long way. Not sure what your community association is or when they meet? Use this city website to look it up. 
• Follow our facebook page to stay up to date on upcoming opportunities to show your support for the Maryland Avenue Cycletrack. 

A year from now, biking in Baltimore is going to look and feel very different. Now is the time to continue to grow support for biking to make sure that these new facilities we fought so hard for are installed correctly, and not undermined by community backlash. 

Tomorrow: Mt. Royal Streetscape Project