Anti fuel efficient vehicle bill alert

State Law will change the roads motor scooters are allowed on from 50mph or less down to 30mph or less.

[Gee whiz, if any speed differential is such a hazard we seriously need to drop our residential, business district and school zone speed limits down to 4mph. Seriously, lets do something about drivers going 15+mph over the speed limit first before cracking down on the slower vehicles.] <a href="http://mlis.state.md.us/2009rs/billfile/sb0018.htm">http://mlis.state.md.us/2009rs/billfile/sb0018.htm</a>;

by B' Spokes

Like most people I live a hectic life and who has the time for much exercise? Thanks to xtracycle now I do. By using my bike for daily activities I can get things done and get an hour plus work out in 15 minutes extra of my time, not a bad deal and beats taking the extra time going to the gym. In case you are still having trouble being motivated; the National Center of Disease Control says that inactivity is the #2 killer in the United States just behind smoking. ( http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/bb_nutrition/ ) Get out there and start living life! I can carry home a full shopping cart of groceries, car pool two kids or just get lost in the great outdoors camping for a week. Well I got go, another outing this weekend.
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[Tentative response draft]
Baltimore Bicycling Club has been involved for decades in trying to make the streets safer and more comfortable to bicycle on which incidentally would also give motor scooters a place to travel with little to no inconvenience to faster motorized travel.

We feel it is important that you understand the history behind our roads and our work to make public roads usable by all members of the public and why that has failed and in particular the devastating impact that has had in Baltimore County.

Over 30 years ago in 1977 a law was passed to encourage MDOT to build more roads with usable space for cyclists (and scooters,) we agreed that if MDOT would build bike lanes and shoulders (usable as emergency parking) we would ride in them. We are still waiting for those roads 30 years later as this bill can testify to.

In the 1990's MDOT made it a policy that it will NOT spend Federal Transportation Enhancement money on any on-road bike facility (usable by scooters) unless part of a off-road trail network (not usable by scooters.) This policy went squarely against Federal Policy and guidelines.[1]

In 2000 we got § 2-602. Public policy. "The General Assembly finds that it is in the public interest for the State to include enhanced transportation facilities for pedestrians and bicycle riders as an essential component of the State's transportation system..." and we got a 20 Year Bicycle Assess Plan to make that a reality. So MDOT agreed to make a 3% improvement in the State Highway network for us over the next 20 years. And according to the last Attainment Report the State has fulfilled its obligation in including enhanced transportation facilities for bicyclists on all State Roads. Which should imply that scooters should be a non issue on all State Roads. If they are an issue there is a bigger problem going on here then just scooters.

In 2005 the Secretary of Transportation (Flanagan) testified on the GARVEE bond issue and in order to demonstrate financial "competence" [sic] stated that MDOT came under budget two years in a row with an excess $40M for each year. To put that in a bike lane perspective that's ~240 additional miles of bike lanes that could have been on the ground by 2005.

Also in 2005 we have Baltimore County's Eastern County Pedestrian and Bicycle Access Plan, a plan that is currently gathering dust. A plan that if implemented would mean scooters would be a non issue in the eastern section of the county. A similar plan for the western half of the county has been put on hold indefinitely. The feasibility of accommodations has been proven, Federal Money was available but there was a road block between the plan and the money, that road block needs to be removed not scooters.

Bicycle Advocates across the nation have worked hard to get Federal Aid for on-road bike facilities into the states via SAFETEA-LU and preceding legislation. It is not scooter operators fault that through political double speak and/or malfeasance in this state that our current public road network remains hostile to the general public and scooters in particular. We have had money to fix this and most likely we will continue to get money to fix this but current policy and procedures in MDOT derail that money and that is not right.

Sincerely,

Advocacy Chairperson
Baltimore Bicycling Club


[1] Per FHWA:
Bicycle and pedestrian projects may be on- or off-road facilities...facilities that serve a transportation function...
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bikeped/inter.htm
Per MDOT:
Facilities may include offroad trails; trailheads; bike parking; bike lane striping that is part of an offroad system; bike and pedestrian bridges; and underpasses.
http://www.sha.state.md.us/ImprovingOurCommunity/oppe/tep/tep_chap2.pdf