Maryland Avenue Cycle Track Breaks Ground

Construction on the Maryland Avenue cycle track began this morning.

We've been as weary of delays as you, so when the notice to proceed was issued early last week, we kept our fingers crossed and our lips sealed. But it's happening, right now.

You may not see much at first, because preliminary work will focus on ADA compliant sidewalk ramps, roadway patching, and grate replacement. But crews will be working block by block to install the cycle track from 29th Street to Pratt Street for the rest of the summer. 

The city has chosen a reputable contractor with has a strong record of completing projects on time, so we hope to be able to ride a completed cycle track when bike share launches this fall. 

Construction will then continue on the Madison and Monument Street cycle tracks and the Preston and Biddle Street standard bicycle lanes, all of which are a part of this Downtown Bicycle Network project.

The city will be hosting an open house on the project at the Baltimore School for the Arts in August. We will announce that date as soon as it is available. In addition to this public meeting, DOT will be hosting pop-up events to explain the project over the next month. The first pop-up is next Tuesday, July 26th, from 8:00 to 9:00am in front of the Bikemore offices at 2209 Maryland Avenue.

One of the reasons we’ve developed Bikemore’s advocacy arm is to ensure projects like this, that have sat shovel ready for years, are no longer held up by bureaucracy or a minority of noisy NIMBYs. 

Thank you for your patience and faith in our advocacy, and please continue to give generously so that we see more victories like this one, and that we see them faster.

Statement on Charm City Circulator Cuts

Credit: m01229 on Flickr

Today the Baltimore City Department of Transportation announced proposed changes to the Charm City Circulator, including elimination of the Banner Route, elimination of the Green Route, and elimination of the Purple Route Northern Extension from Penn Station to 33rd Street.

There is insufficient revenue to fund current operations, partially because the Banner Route was continued after its funding source—a grant tied to the Star Spangled 200—ran dry.

The Charm City Circulator is incredibly popular, with ridership in excess of many streetcars in other cities. It is a testament to the fact that Baltimoreans overwhelmingly desire access to high quality, frequent transit services. The challenge is getting our residents and elected officials to understand the costs of running these transit services, and the options to pay those costs.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake proposed in this year’s budget a 4% increase in the parking tax at public garages to fund the Circulator, but the City Council balked at this idea. Instead, some on Council proposed an ill-advised $1 fare for the service, which when factoring in purchase, installation, and operation of fare equipment, would net no profit while likely reducing the ridership of those most desperately in need of this transit service.

Funding mechanisms such as the proposed parking tax increase recognize that parking lots downtown promote car travel to downtown, causing a negative impact to congestion and to quality of life in our city. Paying a fee to fund alternatives to personal car travel is a common mechanism used in cities across the country and world to offset that negative impact.

Instead of scrapping routes that provide important mobility along corridors that are not well served by the MTA and have some of our highest rates of houses unable to afford cars, Baltimore City Department of Transportation should look at how to best improve efficiencies of existing routes while elected officials aggressively work to pass parking tax increases and investigate new parking revenue sources, such as monthly fees for Residential Permit Parking, that could allow us to further expand city funded transit service to other underserved neighborhoods.

As seen by the State’s cancellation of the Red Line, a sustainable funding source for public transit under local Baltimore City control is much needed, and will allow the City to address specific mobility needs as identified by city residents, instead of by political winds in Annapolis.

$ Monthly Parking Costs $

Baltimore's parking rates are already significantly less than neighboring cities. We cannot continue to subsidize the true cost of single occupancy vehicle use at the expense of congestion reduction, improved air quality, and transportation options for our residents. 

We believe the Circulator fills a critical transportation gap, and strategies should be employed to increase and improve service--not eliminate it. That will require all of us and our elected officials to get real about what it truly costs to park cars. The time has come to bring our revenue from downtown parking in line with neighboring cities, and ensure that revenue is used to improve active and public transportation options for all Baltimore residents.

Simply put, we cut transit to keep parking cheap.

You can help support Bikemore's efforts to demand our city put people before cars:

Baltimore's Critical Juncture

It’s frustrating how far behind other cities Baltimore has fallen in building walkable, bikeable, transit friendly neighborhoods. It’s often difficult to believe change is possible, that we can actually expand opportunity for residents while encouraging investment and growth.

But change is possible, and now is the time to act.

This coming fall we will elect a new mayor and majority new city council. We need your support to ensure that they understand that Baltimoreans want a more livable city, and that we will turn up to vote for a livable city agenda. 

We have the opportunity to press these incoming elected officials to appoint visionary leadership and staff at city agencies like DOT and Planning, but we need your support to loudly voice our recommendations.

Right now, City Council is working to pass Transform Baltimore, a much needed update to our antiquated zoning code that will promote walkable, bikeable, mixed use neighborhoods. We need your support to ensure harmful amendments that will set back our neighborhoods don’t make it into the final bill. 

All of these issues are pressing, and all of these issues are political. That’s why Bikemore has formed an advocacy arm that will allow us to engage in direct advocacy and lobbying to promote our livable city agenda. 

Please support Bikemore with a donation significant to you, ensuring that we will be able to act swiftly and effectively to advance our agenda at this critical point in time.

Our New Advocacy Arm

Our #IBikeIVote campaign was a tremendous success this primary season. But our members wanted more. You asked for candidate score cards, endorsements, and direct, critical or complimentary feedback on candidates and their platforms. Our 501(c)(3) status limited our ability to deliver on those requests. Now we can.

Your financial support of Bikemore’s new 501(c)(4) advocacy arm won’t be tax-deductible, but it will allow Bikemore to be more direct in our influence. Our advocacy work will be far more effective, and our victories will be easier to obtain. 

We are moving away from the traditional membership model at Bikemore. Anyone invested in our mission will be considered a stakeholder in our work. Rather than spending staff time and resources tracking down member perks and schwag, we’ll focus on policy and infrastructure wins—which we believe to be the core reason anyone invests in Bikemore’s work. In turn, we’ll need people invested in our work to give, and to give significantly, to ensure we have the resources to deliver those wins.

We’ve analyzed our average donor and their donation size, and have determined that tax-deductibility is likely not a factor to the majority of our donors. Bikemore’s donation page will now default to our non tax-deductible advocacy work—the work most likely to deliver the livable city wins we need right now.

Bikemore will continue to accept charitable donations of any size through its 501(c)(3). There will be an opt-in on the donation page if you wish to receive a receipt for your donation for tax-deductibility purposes, and we will continue to use those donations to fund Bikemore’s research, programming, and educational efforts.

What's to Come

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be launching several campaigns that will amplify our constituents’ voices in asking for and organizing around a more livable, bikeable Baltimore. We’ll be recruiting you to serve on neighborhood associations, asking you to share a campaign to hire a visionary DOT Director, be vocal about #IBikeIVote, and more. We’ll ask you to be physically involved in our work in many ways—and your time and voice will be critical to the success of our movement.

But today, we ask that you financially sign on to Bikemore’s livable city agenda and our new focused direct advocacy push with a gift significant to you.

Better Bike Parking for Baltimore

Secure bike parking encourages bike ridership. Not knowing if there will be a safe place to lock up can mean the difference between riding your bike or choosing some other means of transport. 

This year, thanks to a generous donation from People for Bikes and a partnership with Baltimore City Department of Transportation, we are launching a campaign to install 100 more bike racks in places that need them the most before Fall 2016. 

Baltimore City has been offering free bike racks and installation for a few years, but the request process was clunky, inefficient and frequently led to poor communication and really long wait times. 

Bikemore has created an easy to use, mobile friendly site that will simplify the request process. By taking the lead on submissions, we can also track the time DOT takes to install the racks and create a layer of accountability. 

Our plan is that no one will have to wait more than six weeks to see their rack installed. 

Additionally, we want to make sure that these racks are made available to the places and businesses that would not otherwise be able to afford a rack. Businesses of all types should note that if you purchase your own rack, you can also request the city install it for a small fee. This fee--depending on the surface and demand may even be waived. 

Our Plan: 

• Model an efficient, mobile responsive request system. 
• Launch a summer long marketing campaign to ensure that businesses and schools in neighborhoods underserved by bike parking and DOT outreach have access to the free racks. 
• Educate residents on effective bike racks and locking techniques that deter theft. 
• Advocate for city bike rack requests to be integrated into the 311 system by Fall 2016. 

How can you help? 

Is there a business or school you frequent that you wish had better bike parking? When visiting, direct the owner of the business to the form using your smart phone. (our east to remember URL? bikemore.net/bike-parking) Help them complete the application. It’s important that the point of contact on the request form is the person that has the decision making powers on the property where the rack is requested. 

Share on social media. The more people that know about this process the better! 

Join our bike parking STREET TEAM. We will be scheduling a time later this summer to canvass or call business or schools in need of bike parking and offering to assist them with completing the request form. 

Interested in learning the proper way to lock a bike, and ensuring you selecting the most secure rack to lock to? We love this article from our friends at Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates. Not all bike racks are equal, so educate yourself on which ones are best, and let's get some BETTER BIKE PARKING for Baltimore! 

Bikemore Response to Fatal Crash in West Baltimore

On Wednesday, June 8th at approximately 1:34 pm, a 25 year old male riding a bicycle was struck and killed by a person driving a Honda Odyssey. According to initial reports, the person riding a bicycle was traveling southbound on North Gilmore Street, and the person driving the Honda was traveling Westbound on Edmondson.

Anytime a motor vehicle collision causes a fatality, the CRASH team begins an investigation. They then turn their findings over to the State's Attorney's office at which time it is determined whether or not charges will be filed. 

No further information regarding this tragic incident has been made available. 

While we won't know the exact cause of the crash until further details are released, we do know that reducing vehicle speeds greatly improves the chance of survival for vulnerable road users like people walking and people biking. While many factors may have contributed to the crash, one thing--vehicle speed at impact--caused a tragic loss of life. 

At Bikemore we are working toward policy changes that will fundamentally change how we move in this city. But most importantly we are demanding our streets be made safer for all road users--in all neighborhoods, now. Traffic calming like speed humps or roundabouts, signal timing, narrowing travel lanes by adding additional facilities like protected bike lanes are all methods for reducing vehicle speed. We can build safer streets, we just need the political will to do it. 

Many have asked if we will be leading on memorializing the person who was killed. If Bikemore were to take the lead we would be most comfortable doing so only after we know the identity of the victim and have had a chance to reach out to the family and neighboring community to receive their blessing. We understand and respect the symbolism that ghosts bikes have for the cycling community and obviously wouldn't stand in anyone's way that wanted to act independently to place something in memorial. But as Bikemore, we have a larger objective of building up healthy neighborhoods and peoples positive feelings towards bicycling. Our outreach in this neighborhood has been weak, a product of limited resources and being a relatively new organization--and we don't want our first act to be one that doesn't include the neighborhood in the process. So we are waiting until more information is available to decide what is the best course of action to both honor the victim and continue raise awareness of this very sad event. 

Be vigilant, be safe.