Elkridge cyclist, 16, dies after being struck by car early Friday


A 16-year-old Elkridge boy who was hit early Friday while riding a bicycle died Saturday evening, according to a spokeswoman for the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he had been on life support. Benjamin Wortman of Red Barn Way was riding his bike about 12:30 a.m. Friday on Route 108 near Lark Brown Road when he was hit by a Nissan Altima driven by Aaron Jacob Lorsong. Lorsong, 26, of the 13000 block of Rover Mill Road in West Friendship was charged by Howard County police with driving under the influence of alcohol and possession of heroin. Shortly after the accident, the boy's family asked doctors to put him on life support so that his organs could be donated. Police had no information Saturday evening on additional charges. Anyone with information about the incident was urged to call police at 410-313-3700.

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Fundraiser Party this Friday!


Hey Everyone!!!

Our dear friend and collective member Gabby will soon be heading off on a bicycle tour, taking her south and then west across several states. Along the way, she will visit several bicycle co-ops with the goal of gathering new ideas and spreading love. Gabby needs our support to embark on this ambitious project. This Friday, Velocipede will be holding a fundraiser party. There will be music, dancing, and of course, beverages.

The evening's entertainment is provided by:
Abiku
DJ Jonathan
DJ Dubar ( Molly from Ponytail )

suggested donation of $3
$1 boh!

spread the word, come and dance and wish gabby an awesome trip.
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Sykesville physician killed in Route 32 crash


[OK not bike related but we do need some serious attention on making our roads safer. I feel too many don't bike because the roads feel dangerous even when you are in a car, so what hope do you have when you are on a bike?]

A 49-year-old Sykesville physician who had supported a group pushing for safety improvements on Route 32 in Howard County died in a three-vehicle accident on that road Thursday evening, according to police. Dr. Brian Edgar Emery, an ear, nose and throat specialist who lived in the 12000 block of Forest Creek Court, was pronounced dead at the scene after the Acura he was driving was struck from behind by a northbound Chevrolet Express van about 5:30 p.m. as Emery waited to make a left turn onto Amberwoods Way, police said. The crash sent the Acura into the southbound lanes, where it hit a Dodge pickup, according to police. The driver of the van, Thomas Donald Cory, 55, of the 1500 block of Henryton Road in Marriottsville, was not injured. The driver of the pickup, Robert Lewis Wyscarver, 40, of the 9300 block of Millbrook Road in Ellicott City, was taken to Howard County General Hospital with minor injuries, according to police. Police were investigating the crash. Emery had supported the group Make Route 32 Safe, which sought safety measures on Route 32 after a woman and her 13-year-old son were killed in a crash in Jun

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Gwynns Falls trail & Edmonson Avenue


FYI:
Two cyclists were assaulted with rocks underneath the Edmonson Avenue overpass on the Gwynns Falls trail yesterday (9/13) around 16:45. There were two boys about 8 years old on the overpass dropping them on unsuspecting riders below. They missed one cyclists but the other was hit in the shoulder by a plum-sized rock that left her bleeding.
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Family defies no-bike policy at Maple Avenue Middle School


...
Marino and his mother, Janette Kaddo Marino, left for school by bicycle on Wednesday morning, as they often do in good weather, despite a phone call placed to students’ homes by school officials, asking parents not to allow students to walk or ride bikes to school.

After a cold reception on Wednesday, local transportation advocates are rallying around the family, and plan to accompany the pair to school today in a bid to bolster calls for a policy change.
...
“The policy, when originally put in place, was put in place because of the location of the building,” White said. “The rights of individuals to ride their bikes on Route 9 is their decision.”

Route 9 is designated by the New York State Department of Transportation as a bike route.
...

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Chicago Police Say It Loud: Bikes Belong


Traffic Enforcement for Bicyclist Safety from Chicago Bicycle Program on Vimeo.

A training video for Chicago Police Officers created in partnership between the Chicago Police Department & The Chicago Department of Transportation. Funded with a grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation Division of Traffic Safety.

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Baltimore Book Festival


Mark your calendar for the 14th annual Baltimore Book Festival on September 25-27, 2009. This year's authors include Buzz Aldrin, Gwen Ifill, Ralph Nader, Chris Gardner, Amiri Baraka, Ingrid Hoffmann, Farai Chideya, Maureen McCormick, Dale DeGroff, Lourdes Castro, Adam Ried, Mordicai Gerstein and James Warhola.

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Ride your bike and park in our new bike parking zone - 600 block of Charles Street, east side of the street.
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NEW FOR 09! If you live or work downtown - the festival is opening at noon on Friday. Spend your lunch hour with us: browsing for books, enjoying author presentations and sampling the menus of our tasty food vendors. JUST ANNOUNCED for lunchtime Friday - GMA's workplace guru Tory Johnson will be sharing invaluable career advice from her new book, Fired to Hired.

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Safe Campus, Unsafe Streets


An excellent op-ed from a senior at Yale University about traffic safety issues on the Ivy League campus.

Timothy Ellison's article focuses in part on the elimination of right turns on red (RTORs), a concept many other pedestrian-rich cities throughout the United States have adopted. Eliminating RTORs was a key recommendation in this year's Nelson/Nygaard gap analysis study of Downtown New Haven.

Among the comments that follow Ellison's op-ed:

- Yale students are constantly telling anyone who will listen how threatened they feel by reckless drivers, and yet nothing is ever done. Yale and New Haven, this is a life and death issue. Please take it more seriously!

- But I also agree that drivers in the city have gotten increasingly willing to drive through red lights, and when on a bike I am also aware of how crazy traffic and drivers have gotten. So its a complex problem. Traffic calming and more pedestrian friendly routes are for sure needed.

- On several occasions I've witnessed that a police officer ignoring red light violations, in particular when drivers ignore do-not-turn signs. Of course, drivers have every incentive to violate traffic laws when they don't have to fear the consequences.

- The situation on the streets around the campus, which were designed in the 1950s for high-volume auto traffic and never converted back into pedestrian-friendly streets, is completely unacceptable. Numerous students and Yale affiliates are injured or killed every year. Yale already pays tens of millions a year for security - they've done a great job increasing the feeling of security on campus late at night, and in terms of street crime, the campus is now the safest urban university in the United States. Next, Yale needs to immediately 1) step up the traffic enforcement, 2) following the model of Cambridge, MA or any number of other cities, step up and commit to financing the reconstruction of safe crosswalks throughout the campus, as they have in the past in areas where students have been killed, and 3) publish and implement a bicycle and pedestrian master plan that makes the campus accessible for everyone, not just drivers.

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