Baltimore Bike Share Redux

Yesterday Baltimore Bike Share, a program of the City of Baltimore’s Department of Transportation announced that it will be taking the system offline from September 17-October 15 to address a security retrofit, maintenance backlog, and other enhancements in advance of expansion this fall.

Anyone trying to use bike share these past few months noticed how the system was failing. Empty stations became the norm. Many who had just begun to rely on bike share for their commute were suddenly faced with having to make other arrangements.

Contributing to the challenges of bike share operations was a rash of theft and vandalism that operators first became aware of late spring. As city staff and the bike share operator Bewegen began working on a solution, the system itself chose not to make any external communication regarding the system challenges. It’s a perplexing public relations move in this age of transparency — where information is readily available. For that the City and Baltimore Bike Share deserve criticism.

But in the wake of the formal announcement, we wanted to share with you some of the facts related to the reboot. Our stance on bike share is clear. It can work. Yes, even in Baltimore. When the bikes were available, our system succeeded on metrics related to miles traveled and ridership. Where it has fallen short is it’s inability to rapidly expand — meaning fewer neighborhoods get to experience the convenience of bike share — and not capitalizing on bike share’s greatest asset. It’s really fun!

Why does the marketing and communications about the largest fleet of electric bike share bicycles in the Western Hemisphere feel out of touch and out of date? Like it’s actually a bike share company communicating with us from the year 2005? But there is even good news to share on this topic. Last month, Bewegen hired a new marketing advisor for their U.S. market. Chris King has a lot of experience marketing transportation brands in the mid atlantic. And while Baltimore Bike Share has a long road ahead earning back the trust of its users, we are encouraged Bewegen recognized this shortcoming and took steps to correct course.

So in the spirit of transparency and clear communication here is a quick FAQ we put together based on some of the online chatter we saw in response to the announcement.

When will the bikes go offline?

September 17 to October 15

What sort of maintenance and upgrades will occur during that time?

• All stations will be retrofitted with new locks to prevent theft.

• Address bike maintenance backlog related to theft and vandalism

• Station cleaning

• Map and Kiosk sticker upgrades (new stations means new maps)

• Pedalec technology enhancements including the ability to set your own speed or create system wide governors, like reducing max speed in high pedestrian areas like the inner harbor or in wet weather

• Refurbish bikes (some will be shipped back to headquarters in Canada where they will receive full spa treatment and return shiny and new looking)

Why is Baltimore experiencing so much theft and vandalism? Haven’t other cities figured this out?

Loss is expected in systems like this. It’s planned for by implementing loss prevention techniques like locks and GPS, and insuring the bikes. Much is done to prevent it, but it is never fully avoidable. Other cities experience theft, but at a lower rate and within larger systems where the loss is less noticeable. The challenge with a system like this in Baltimore is that crime is more prevalent here, and it would be naive to ignore that fact.

Very few bikes have been totally lost, but when they are recovered they face extensive repairs—tying up maintenance staff and creating a serious bottleneck, reducing the number of bikes available to rent.

What’s encouraging is that the folks involved in addressing this issue recognize that locks are not enough. So while a technical fix is in place to improve loss prevention, we’ve been encouraged by conversations with Bewegen this week that demonstrate they are exploring ways to creatively prevent and intervene when crimes like this occur. They know that making bike share more accessible and inclusive must be part of the strategy.

Why didn’t we use better locks, or a proven operator?

Despite Bewegen being a newer company, they are not new to bikeshare. The engineers and business leaders were involved in creating and founding the very first bike share systems under the Canadian company Bixi.

The locks on the stations in Baltimore are nearly identical to ones in bike share docks across the country. That said, each company has to develop it’s own proprietary equipment--something typical in a small market.

In the face of this challenge, Bewegen has stepped up and taken responsibility for this shortcoming and is bearing the cost for the research, design, and installation of the new locking system. Additionally Bewegen has provided extra maintenance staff, and is extending the warranty on bikes that were vandalized.

It’s not ideal, but Bewegen has demonstrated itself to be a company of high integrity, committed to making this work in Baltimore. The City, and most importantly taxpayers are not on the hook for these challenges.

Why didn’t Baltimore Bike Share communicate earlier?

We don’t know. We advocated for it. Strongly. But communication out of DOT has always been a challenge. Transparency is not our City’s strong suit. But other stakeholders are ready to fill the void, and we believe that this was a learning moment for Bewegen and one they have actively addressed by hiring someone local in Baltimore to manage marketing and communications for US markets moving forward.

Is the membership extension only for founding members? Can I get a refund?

While the specific details of compensation haven’t been disclosed from Bewegen, what we have heard presently is that anyone that has ever purchased a month membership will receive a free month. Anyone that purchased an annual membership will be compensated at an extended rate — which we expect to be anywhere from 6 months to a year. They plan on communicating the specifics very shortly, so members should watch their email for specifics.

Does Bikemore think Bike Share can work in Baltimore?

Yes. But in order to get there we need a few things:

The City has to be bike share’s biggest cheerleader. We would love to see Mayor Pugh riding a bike share bike at the October relaunch. Bike share is healthy, fun, and affordable — and should be something the city works hard to expand and get right.

We have to figure out the public/private partnership. Sponsors haven’t been clamoring to get on board. And following this setback, it may prove even more difficult to get corporate sponsors interested. The City needs to evaluate the plan and process for securing sponsors, and perhaps find ways to improve the system and expand through other means. Allow bike share a solid 12 months of success, and it will be much easier to ask someone to attach their brand to the system. Additionally, if bike share is to operate as public transportation the City must explore ways to fund with public dollars. Allowing the private market to solely dictate expansion rates and station locations will only further the inequity. Is there a way to allocate revenue from things like the parking tax or traffic citations to fund transportation improvements city wide? We want to see City Council and the Mayor’s office exploring these options.

Do more to make bike share for everybody. The Downtown Partnership’s subsidized membership program is good, but how is it being communicated? How easy is it to obtain? Getting equity right on bike share is a challenge that every city is confronting. No one has gotten it right yet, but many are headed in the right direction. We have to be one of those cities. We have to be willing to lead and be visionary in this area. Mobility isn’t something to be taken lightly. In no way is bike share a panacea in addressing Baltimore’s transportation inequities. But it most certainly should not exacerbate the inequity.

Shifting Power for Complete Streets

Baltimore’s biggest challenge to adopting a comprehensive transportation vision is a lack of political will. We work to educate citizens about transportation and land use policy because these areas have a huge impact on our quality of life and yet consistently have very few city residents who advocate in these arenas. Everyday critical decisions are being made about what types of housing and business get built in your neighborhood, which bus stops get removed, and which streets get a crosswalk or a bike lane without a diverse cross section Baltimore residents always at the table or in the loop.  When we abdicate responsibility to show up in these spaces and ask for what we want and need, we hand over a lot of power. Advocacy is first and foremost about shifting political power. For Bikemore, that means building power for citizens, organizations, and elected officials that believe that a healthy and safe city is one that prioritizes people over cars.

This summer, through your support, we created a huge shift in power. We advocated successfully on behalf of city residents who believe in a walkable, bikeable neighborhood, and who want to see more high quality all ages facilities being installed throughout all of Baltimore. We saved Potomac Street from a knee jerk removal and instead forced stakeholders back to the negotiating table. The amended design leaves something to be desired — mainly removing space that could used for storm water treatments in future phases by eliminating the buffer. So while imperfect, it retains a two-way all ages facility. Something you asked for us to fight for. Something we were able to win.

With changes in DOT leadership, the future of many of these streets projects is unknown. Planned and funded protected bike lanes on Madison and Monument remain incomplete — leaving residents who are still mourning the loss of the Red Line without any realistic East-West transportation connection. Lanes on Preston and Biddle sit unfinished. This lack of follow through does significant damage to building goodwill toward residents in getting them to support more active transportation projects. With markings unfinished, it creates a confusing mess. Who can support something when the roll out and construction invites this level of chaos?

We’ve had the debate about whether bikes belong in cities. The debate is over. Bikes belong. With a state run public transit agency that is underfunded and thus unreliable, building out a comprehensive biking and walking network is something that is within our locus of control. For the same price as the bridge to Harbor East, we could use those local dollars to leverage state and federal funding to build a protected bike lane network that connects 85% of Baltimore neighbors. Why wouldn’t we invest in something that makes healthy food, high quality schools, jobs and healthcare more accessible? That contributes by improving air quality and public health for all of Baltimore?

I am disappointed with the Boston Street Multimodal Corridor Study. It is time to invest in plans that truly support our communities. pic.twitter.com/3duukft2R8

— Zeke Cohen (@Zeke_Cohen) September 1, 2017

Success in advocacy is sometimes hard to quantify. Sometimes the shift is subtle, and hard to see. But perhaps the biggest metric for me came last week when Councilman Cohen and Councilman Dorsey addressed the failings of the Boston Street Multimodal plan head on in a video. Two years ago city council did not share our views on Complete Streets. Now we are on track to introduce one of the most progressive Complete Streets Bill in the country. That’s a big shift in a short time. We did this together. So feel proud of what we’ve accomplished, and let’s set our sights on future wins for people who walk and bike.

Want to continue to help build a force for biking in Baltimore? Donate today. Your support is essential in providing the resources necessary to advocate for a healthier, safer, more livable bicycling city.

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RELATED NEWS & EVENTS

The Boston Street Study is Out, and It is Bad

Baltimore City Department of Transportation’s latest one-off planning study focuses on Boston Street, attempting to consolidate planning over the past decade and make recommendations for “multimodal transportation” improvements. It is disastrous.

The report highlights that the majority of travel through the corridor is single occupancy vehicles, and the biggest barriers to shifting modes away from single occupancy vehicles are a lack of high frequency, reliable transit, and a lack of low-stress bicycle facilities in the corridor.

Given these barriers, it would make sense for the Boston Street Multimodal Corridor Study to focus on biking, walking, and transit improvements to Boston Street. This would be consistent with city planning documents going back almost a decade.

Planning History

The most significant planning along the Boston Street corridor was for the Baltimore Red Line, which would have provided a significant public transit improvement connecting Baltimore West to East, and would have run along the Boston Street Corridor. The plan for the Red Line contained buffered bike lanes on Boston Street that transitioned to “bike priority” lane markings at station areas where additional street width was needed.

Red Line rendering with buffered bike lanes

Red Line plans with buffered bike lanes

The 2012 Southeast Complete Streets Master Plan called for installation of bicycle facilities and sidewalk widening on Boston Street to support “heavy pedestrian traffic for active commercial districts.” It called for treating Boston Street as a “traffic calming corridor” and installation of urban greening to create a greenway, all to complement the coming Red Line.

Bike Routes 2012 Plan

Traffic Calming 2012 Plan

Urban Greenway 2012 Plan

Red Line 2012 Plan

The 2015 Bike Master Plan follows the lead of these prior documents, retaining Boston Street as a “Main Route” for biking, which calls for “bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, cycle tracks.”

2015 Bike Master Plan planned bike facilities on Boston Street

The 2015 Southeast Transportation Vision produced before cancellation of the Red Line proposes a bike lane on Boston Street. The 2016 update, produced after the Red Line cancellation, maintains this recommendation.

Southeast Strategic Transportation Vision planned bike facilities on Boston Street

In sum, over a decade of planning involving countless residents, city, and state elected officials, appointed bodies, and BCDOT and MTA/MDOT staff advanced multiple planning documents focused on improving biking, walking, and public transit to improve quality of life for Canton residents.

The Abrupt Change

In 2017, something changes. At the same time the Boston Street Multimodal Corridor Study begins, the Protected Bike Lane Network addendum begins. Despite Boston Street being identified as a “high stress” street “requiring a bike facility to comfortably cross” in the Protected Bike Lane Network Addendum, Bikemore is told that the “scope of the plan” prevents Boston Street from being included for “political reasons.”

We assumed that this "political" limitation meant that we should expect a Boston Street Multimodal Corridor Study to eschew over a decade of true multimodal planning for moving people on Boston Street, and instead focusing on moving cars.

We were right.

The first recommendation in the study is to build a major new road connecting Toone Street to Boston Street, while widening Boston Street between Haven and Conkling Streets. This widening does not include all-ages, low-stress bike infrastructure—it is solely focused on speeding up cars. The cost of this widening is listed at $2,000,000, and is part of a larger $50,000,000 idea to continue widening Boston Street even further east.

The next recommendations focus on moving vehicles through the neighborhood at the expense of safety and quality of life. The most egregious:

• Peak hour parking restrictions throughout the corridor are recommended to be expanded, with heightened parking enforcement, to ensure maximum road space allocation to promote speeding cars.
• Peak hour parking restrictions are recommended for Boston @ Fleet Street, creating a second through lane.
• Crosswalk removal is proposed at Boston and Aliceanna Street to speed signal timing for cars trying to turn right onto Boston from two turn lanes on Aliceanna at the expense of safe crossing for pedestrians.
• Lane expansion is also proposed at Boston and Clinton Streets to build 2 turn lanes. Dual turn lanes are commonly proposed in Baltimore but anti-pedestrian and discouraged by our own adopted planning guides.

For walking improvements, the plan audaciously calls for “continuous sidewalks.” It recommends upgrade of sidewalks to include ADA curb cuts, something already required by law. It suggests re-striping faded crosswalks, and it recommends installing pedestrian signals.

For biking improvements, the plan calls for bicycle boulevards on Foster and Hudson Street. These parallel routes have been suggested for almost a decade, and were originally planned to complement Boston Street, not be a substitute for it. The plan suggests the narrow promenade, intended for recreational bicycling during a one year pilot period, could somehow serve as a commuting alternative.

For transit, the plan suggests rerouting one commuter bus, assigning some carpool parking in parking lots, encouraging more private shuttles, and “exploring” expanded/improved water taxi service.

Our View

The Boston Street Multimodal Corridor Study is a plan to spend millions of dollars to dramatically boost the capacity on Boston Street for car commuters at the expense of safe walking, biking and public transit access for residents.

It fails to take into consideration decades of planning for a more walkable, bikeable, livable Canton. It fails to follow planning-commission adopted city planning documents. It fails to meet standards in city’s adopted street design guides.

It is a bad plan.

Share your Comments

Comments on the Draft Final Report can be submitted at the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Boston30

We encourage you to demand a true multi-modal Boston Street, that prioritizes walking, biking, and public transportation access in Canton over county commuters passing through the neighborhood on their way downtown.

Email Comments on Potomac Street

Last night, Baltimore City DOT presented a revised design of the Potomac Street protected bike lane at the Canton Community Association meeting. The majority of the room was in support of a protected lane on Potomac, because people like you showed up and spoke out. So, thank you!

The revised design maintains a two-way, all-ages, high-quality protected bike lane. It addresses any emergency vehicle access concerns. It adds loading zones. It maintains parking. You can view the redesign on the Baltimore City DOT website here.

DOT has launched a 30 day comment period on the revised design, and we are asking you to email comments in support.

DOT will disregard template emails, so make sure to customize the subject and write your own comments in the email body. Please be sure to mention the importance of the lane remaining an all-ages, high-quality, protected design.

We'll provide a longer update on the meeting at a later date. Thanks, and keep up the #FightForBikes!

The Necessity of Showing Up and Speaking Out

This summer we spent considerable time and resources ensuring that a high quality, all ages bike facility championed by residents was not removed. That was only possible because you—our supporters—were galvanized and took action.

Next Tuesday marks an important next step in ensuring the success of our action. The Department of Transportation will present the revised design to the community at the Canton Community Association meeting. We are asking you to turn out. And most importantly, be vocal during the meeting of your support of the project.

As part of our settlement with the city, we have been instructed to not to share the design in advance of the meeting. The public—including our members—still needs a chance to be involved in the process. What we can say is the new design has taken into consideration the concerns raised by some folks who live in the neighborhood, received the approval from the Fire Department, and has the support of the Mayor’s office and DOT.

During this process, we were discouraged but not surprised by the divisive rhetoric put forward by those who wished to see the lane removed. It’s challenging moving Baltimore forward on issues regarding safety and transportation. When change happens, those opposed resort to a type of fortress mentality, a belief that only they should have input into changes in their community. What this ignores is the many people who are their neighbors that have been supportive of the project since the beginning. They paint Bikemore as some special interest group (their exact words)—as if improving the safety of all road users, and increasing opportunities of mobility is somehow nefarious and does not in fact have well-documented benefits on the community as a whole. Even throughout the legal process we had to constantly remind those on the other side of the table that this argument was not residents versus people who bike—but that the people who bike are in fact also residents who happen to have an opposing point of view. Yes, we organized and formed an advocacy group to champion that point of view—because as evident by how behind we are at achieving progress in multimodal planning—our interests were not well represented.

Opposition will also state that Bikemore engaged in some secret meetings to try and get the new design put forward. What they leave out is that the plaintiffs in the case were not Bikemore, but our members—members who live in Canton and Highlandtown and rely on the Potomac lane frequently. The secrecy? That’s part of the legal process, one Canton residents were a part of. Our settlement was negotiated under the terms that we would allow the City to engage in a public process moving forward. This was a design put forth by DOT. It did not meet all of our demands, but preserved key pieces that allowed us confidence that the City had taken our concerns into consideration. Anything else is conjecture and hyperbole. It’s about power and nothing more.

Next Tuesday it is critical that those who bike and rely on safe infrastructure to do so turn out and demonstrate a commitment to safe streets. We are especially encouraging our members who live in Canton to be represented. We will be following up with many of you individually. That’s how important it is you show up.

When you show up, we ask you to speak. Community meetings are tough. Opposition intentionally organizes to make it vitriolic so that it intimidates reasonable people from attending and expressing their views. But we can’t sit idly by and allow our needs to be shouted down. When the time comes to have input, we need you to raise your hand. Get in line to speak. You don’t need to have an eloquent speech prepared. Simply saying, “I’m a Baltimore resident and I support protected infrastructure on Potomac” is enough.

To rally supporters we will be out in front at 6:30, handing out stickers to demonstrate your support. We love our city. We want it to work for everyone—no matter how you choose to get around. We believe this design does just that. It’s time we demonstrate strongly that we want choice when it comes to how we get around. Simply planning and designing streets only for cars is something that does not work for the future of Baltimore. And neighbors creating a fortress mentality that believe they represent the whole of a neighborhood, or that those that live in the city and may use that street don’t have a say on what happens on the public right of way is wrong, and the least neighborly way to behave.

We can’t begin to express how grateful we are to your action thus far. The donations, the emails, and the phone calls have been what has kept us going. The time is now to demonstrate that we are residents and we believe in a future that provides safe options for all road users.  

Show up. Speak up. Your city leaders need to hear from you.

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FILL THE ROOM: Canton Community Association Meeting
Tuesday, August 8
7 PM - 10 PM
United Evangelical Church
3200 Dillon St, Baltimore, Maryland 21224
→ More info and updates.

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