It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Dateline Friday June 12th; Maryland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (MBPAC.)Martin Harris MDOT's Legislative Officer gave an excellent overview of "Maryland’s Legislative Process" and presented a very optimistic view of MDOT supporting bicycling and addressing advocates issues at least in terms of general principles but cautioned that in some details we may not see exactly eye to eye. But overall there has been tremendous improvement from MDOT at least in not opposing everything we but forth and we are improving our working relationship thanks to the efforts of One Less Car.
But we do have a major problem from the Chair of the Environmental Matters Motor Vehicles & Transportation Subcommittee (just to note I am filling in a blank here, this paragraph was not part of MH's overview.) We have cyclists in his district working on this, whether there is hope he is his getting closer to our position or if he will continue his one man crusade against bicyclists is hard to say at this time. His district houses one of the few hardly any one bikes university campuses in the nation and a hot bed of bike/ped crashes (not at the campus obviously,) improving conditions for cycling is important issue for his constituents and all of Maryland. When we have word on which way the wind is blowing on this we will post in the Politics topic, in the mean time try to keep an open mind and if you approach him be positive.
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Another topic under discussion was the use of culverts to connect a trail so it could go "through" the DC beltway. So far the answer just has been "no" with no explanation. Is it simply because someone thinks there is no money for an Environmental Impact Study (so they should say not now, maybe later) or are they making up a "safety and liability" issues or is there some reasonable explanation? We need to know the details on what is and is not allowed to plan for future trails, hopefully MBPAC will pursue this.
The next issue that came up was how is the Secretary of Transportation informed of MBPAC resolutions, short answer he is given a copy of the minutes which he does (now since he has left: did) read and the new acting Secretary of Transportation most likely will continue that practice. So there was some discussion on how to tweak the process to highlight issues we want the Secretary to notice and take action on. Staff to MBPAC said they would be happy to revise the presentation of the minutes in a manner the Committee felt best. So stay tuned if this process gets "improved."
After the meeting 4 of us toured the BWI trail (the only trail in the State that MDOT has control over) with an eye toward making this an exemplary trail. The tour included many nice things about the trail, like art work and did you know there is an ostrich that hangs out behind a fence near the trail? And not to mention some almost comical things done not as well as they could be, like; they have a very nicely done signs with a cool distinctive logo for wayfaring on a rarely used spur to the airport terminal that lack arrows (good luck figuring out the correct path on your own.)
And just in time for this meeting, MDOT finally got around to revising MBPAC web site so minutes (even in draft form!) are on line and up to date as well as the agenda for the meeting! This goes above and beyond the call of the Open Meetings Act, thanks for the positive response MDOT!
<a href="http://www.mdot.state.md.us/Planning/Bicycle/MBPAC.html">http://www.mdot.state.md.us/Planning/Bicycle/MBPAC.html</a>;
Anyway through all this a little sub issue emerged, MBPAC was concerned with the lack of feedback from the Secretary of Transportation and if indeed there is a working relationship going on, One Less Car was pushing for a working relationship with MBPAC and MDOT, with the culverts a better working relationship is needed, Baltimore Spokes pushed for changes to improve communications to the public and to have a better working relationship with the general public. So as the Director of Bicycle and Pedestrian Access was taking pictures along the trail I commented that it would be nice to share some of these with the public and let them know some of your thoughts and visions for the trail, you know do a little advertising about the good work you are doing, the response was he did not have time. While this may be understandable during the current economic crunch, it still reminds me of a business trying to save money by not advertising, in the long run this is not good at all.
Anyway I hope you appreciate me cutting my bike riding short today to bring you all this.
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