If LAB ranks Maryland in the top ten, what does below average look like?

B' Spokes: There is no doubt Maryland is putting a lot of energy to a "Strategic Trail Network" but Ohio got my attention (Ranked #37 by LAB) with this:
image

Note how much is already on the ground (green) vs what they need to do to (red). They have trails in urban areas they have trails that connect urban areas .

They have 3000 miles of trails and what do we have, like 500 miles? (I have to look that up) Even if you adjust for population (Ohio has twice the population we do) things still don't add up.
From http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Services/Pages/bike.aspx

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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  • If LAB ranks Maryland in the top ten, what does below average look like?
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I used to live in Columbus, Ohio and now live in Baltimore, MD. Even back in 2000 they had a basic trail system connecting the north-south corridor, something which Baltimore is just now completing this year (i.e. Jones Falls Trail Phase 2). The city, while not tailored to bikes, was easily bikeable with many secondary road options to get around the city. Like most cities, the suburbs were harder to get to. Their trail system has grown tremendously over the years, but their politics are quite conservative and restricted when it comes to bicyclists rights. The bike ratings systems like LAB so heavily favor legislation, policy, and promotion of biking, that they far outstrip having the actual facilities in place. A state with excellent legislation, policy, and promotion but no facilities will win out over a state that has many facilities but no political voice. It's one of those technicalities where whoever came up with this rating system forgot to look at the bigger picture. Ironically, while the big dogs of politics in Ohio are conservative and not vocal about bike rights/promotion, there is a large underground presence with lots of bike programs and promotion. Definitely not worth the F in Programs, and the D in Education/Encouragement that they received.
I'll put my conclusion up front for emphasis: they key to any advocacy is to point out something good and something bad, I mean something that could be improved. This is basic politics 101 but the LAB Grades and ranking really seem to miss this mark and is hard to utilize as a tool for effective advocacy. The problem with the grade A for Maryland policy is as follows: The good news: We have a state law that say bicycles must be accommodated with the best engineering standards in all phases of planing and construction. The bad news: MDOT has a policy of accommodating cyclists only were practical and feasible. So if they forgot to think about cyclists in the planning it is no longer practical or feasible to go back and change the plans. The good news: We finally got procedures in place so all new state road construction will generally consider cyclists. The bad news: This does not apply to resurfacing projects (how most of the country economically includes cycling facilities.) This can be so abhorrent in Maryland SHA can actually remove bicycling accommodations and have no obligation to keep them in place even if it goes against local plans for cycling when they are doing a resurfacing project. The good news: Both Montgomery County and Baltimore City have bicycle policy/plans that include funding source. (Without funding policy/plans are as good as dead.) The bad news: Other counties have not reached that level of implementation. ****************************** So how do you grade all that? Just stop at the first line and call that grade A? If we could at least get a foot note to say we have a cool law but it is too easy to get an exception would really help.
used to live in Columbus, Ohio and now live in Baltimore, MD. Even back in 2000 they had a basic trail system connecting the north-south corridor, something which Baltimore is just now completing this year (i.e. Jones Falls Trail Phase 2). The city, while not tailored to bikes, was easily bikeable with many secondary road options to get around the city. Like most cities, the suburbs were harder to get to. dd1