We are a movement
The latest news and updates from Bikemore
Over the weekend, there was a post in the Bikemore Facebook discussion group documenting the illegally-parked city vehicle you see above.
This is a friendly reminder that with the Baltimore 311 app--available for Android and iOS--there's a category called city employee complaint. Don't forget to take these pictures and report them to 311.
Baltimore City Department of Transportation is planning a "Traffic Calming and Streetscaping" process to improve the Belair Road Corridor. Urban Land Institute was hired for a visioning process to identify opportunities for destination retail establishments along the corridor. The study concluded that the corridor '“suffered from too much high speed traffic, and that traffic calming and a new pedestrian, transit, and bicycle friendly streetscape were necessary if the corridor wanted to become a destination for retail establishments like restaurants, shops, and other places worth visiting.”
Unfortunately, the proposals that DOT has designed for Belair Road will do nothing to address the root issues identified by Urban Land Institute.
The first proposal maintains interstate highway width traffic lanes. The only pedestrian friendly amenity added is improved crosswalks with bumpouts to reduce pedestrian crossing distance. "Sharrows" are provided for cyclists, despite DOT's own recommendations that they are useless safety treatments on arterial roads.
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The second proposal reduces traffic lane width to 11 feet and adds a median in the middle of the street. While this will slow vehicular traffic somewhat, the lanes are still 2-3 feet wider than most traffic lanes striped by cities looking to calm traffic. DOT contends this width is necessary due to buses and trucks using the street. Again, sharrows are provided for cyclists, against DOT's own recommendations to never use sharrows as a treatment on arterial roads.
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We think there is a better approach. If the goal is to make Belair Rd a corridor where people want to stop, shop, eat, and play, traffic speed needs to be reduced. It needs to be safe to walk, bike, park, and take the bus.
DOT contends the only way to provide proper bike infrastructure is to remove parking. We don't agree. Businesses need parking to survive. But they also need safe pedestrian and bicycle access to thrive.
Removing one travel lane each direction on Belair Road would serve the same purpose as a median. It would reduce crossing distance, and it would calm traffic. More importantly, it would free up road space to be used for things that would make the corridor an attractive place to stop and visit, rather than to drive through as quickly as possible.
Yes, eliminating a lane of traffic in each direction on Belair Road would mean reducing road capacity during rush hour. We believe that access and safety for people walking and riding bicycles along the Belair Road corridor are more important for the development of human-friendly urban communities than traffic speed and capacity during a short portion of each weekday. People should not have to take their lives in their hands to walk or ride a bicycle along or across Belair Road simply for the convenience of people driving during rush hour -- many of whom do not live in the city. For people driving into Baltimore from the northeast, there are plenty of other roads to use -- Route 40, I-95, Harford Road, Perring Parkway, Loch Raven Boulevard, etc. If one of our preferred alignments were implemented, there might be some congestion and confusion at first, but people will quickly learn to drive on other roads if their destinations are not along Belair Road.
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An option like this one would remove parallel parking on one side of the street, but add dedicated bus lanes and dedicated bike lanes. Approaching retail clusters, the bike/bus lane could become shared, allowing the addition of reverse angle parking to one side of the street. This would increase available parking, provide better transit service to the corridor, and leave room for dedicated bicycle infrastructure.
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Or, the dedicated transit lanes could be tabled, as seen above, allowing for dedicated bicycle infrastructure, parallel parking on one side of the street, and reverse angle parking on the other side of the street. This would slow traffic and decrease road crossing distance for pedestrians, while adding significantly more parking to the corridor, as well as dedicated bicycle infrastructure protected by raised medians.
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Or, the parallel parking could remain on both sides of the road, and a shared turn lane could be installed down the middle. In this instance, there is still room for dedicated bike infrastructure, protected by medians. Notice we've even left a ridiculously wide 12 foot lane each way in this rendering.
Our message is this: if DOT is serious about creating a Belair Road corridor that will attract retail establishments and their customers, they need to think bigger than 4 lanes of freshly-paved highway-width roadway with pretty brick crosswalks at the intersections.
Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan Findings
Recently, the DOT asked cyclists and pedestrians to take part in a survey for its Bike & Pedestrian Master Plan. Well, the votes are in, and some of the findings are below. For more results, head over to the MDOT site and click on the reports tab, and you'll find the extensive report.
The top reasons survey respondents cited for investing in bicycle and pedestrian improvements included:
Improving the safety of walking and biking
Creating safe routes for walking and biking to schools
Increasing physical health and activity
The top obstacles to walking reported in the survey results were:
Pedestrian facilities such as sidewalks and paths are missing or bad
Traffic is too fast or heavy
The need to transport people or things
The top obstacles to biking reported in the survey results were:
Motorists don’t exercise caution around cyclists
Lack of or poor condition of bike facilities
Traffic is too fast and heavy
The top priority objectives identified in the straw poll results were:
Address gaps and physical barriers in the bicycle network; build connected networks with continuous bicycle accommodations.
Address key gaps in trail systems and improve integration of trails and on‐road facilities.
Provide assistance and/or incentives to local governments to improve biking and walking.
Incorporate Complete Streets principles in all State transportation projects, and promote Complete Streets policies at the local level.
Promote bicycling and walking as normal transportation modes that have a broad diversity of participants.
Focus on improving bicycling and walking conditions in locations with the highest demand.
Here is a video of the updated St. Paul. St bike lane. Previously, the bike lane narrowed to about 1-2 feet on this block -- you can still see the outline of the previous lane marking.
This video, coincidentally, also exhibits the door zone on St. Paul.
What do you think?
Make sure you check out the details of the new bike lane, running between Key Highway and Hamburg Street, over at our friends at B'more Bikes.
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