OLC May Newsletter


One Less > Car

ONE LESS CAR (OLC) UPDATE - LEARN ABOUT:

  1. Transportation for Our Communities, Equity & Our Environment (May 14th)
  2. Bike to Work Day (May 15th)
  3. Mini Cycle Across MD/Chesapeake Bay Air Ride & Roll (June 5-7th)
  4. Tour du Port Registration to Open May 15th
  5. New Executive Director
  6. OLC Supports Tour dem Parks
  7. OLC Event Committee Forming
  8. OLC Develops Advocacy Task Force
  9. Bike Clinic
  10. Legislative Update
  11. OLC seeks New Board Members & Volunteers
  12. Job Announcement
  13. OLC Launches New Website
     

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Montreal Inaugurates Continent’s Most Ambitious Bike-Sharing Program


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Montreal spent 15 million Canadian dollars (about $13 million) to develop and start the system, although it is budgeted to ultimately become financially self-sufficient. But Montreal has received seven patents for Bixi and Mr. Lavallée hopes to sell it to other North American cities.

“We developed this product for Montreal,” he said. “But we were very convinced that it’s good for any city.”

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Regional bike routes back up


Our Google map mash up has been down for a bit but we finally fixed it. To see it click "Trails" button below the header. It's the second map so page down and be patient while data loads. Suggestions for more routes are always welcomed.
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BICYCLES: Why can't Johnny ride? (05/12/2009)


BICYCLES: Why can't Johnny ride? (05/12/2009)
Evan Lehmann, E&E reporter

http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2009/05/12/2

Schoolchildren are being reintroduced to an old concept. It is called "active transportation."

Students in a handful of cities involved in this experiment probably don't think much about the carbon emissions they are preventing as they navigate their bicycles toward beeping devices that count their rides to school.

Nor do they likely realize that their playful pedaling has stopped a spark in the family car's combustion car engine; or that their bike rides chip a little piece off the mountain of miles that U.S. school buses travel each year -- 4 billion.

But a growing number of teachers and parents see a variety of benefits from putting kids back on the wheels that earlier generations took for granted. Getting kids to ride now, they say, will build momentum for cycling habits they can carry into adulthood.

"It's all about habit," said Ned Levine, principal of Crest View Elementary School in Boulder, Colo., where about 130 students -- or 25 percent -- ride to school every day.

Kids, it seems, needed only a little push and a tiny blip of help from software.

That is what Robert Nagler discovered a few years ago when he was trying -- unsuccessfully -- to convince his children to mount up for the short ride to Crest View. So he began offering cheap prizes that he bought at the China Trading Co. -- not just to his kids but any that rode over and over again.

"It was pretty exciting," Nagler recalled. "You know, you come to school every Friday with a bag full of prizes. It was like Christmas."

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But cars pay for the road they use... ya, right.


Recently we ran some numbers for a small road project here in Cincinnati that would normally never get any attention or second thought by the voting public.

The project totaled $2.4 million and was a street resurfacing for a small stretch of road - pretty typical. We ran the gas taxes paid by the amount of users based on average traffic counts. In the end this small project would take some 630 years to pay off with usership fees (gas taxes). Similarly we ran the numbers on the much larger "Thru The Valley" project that will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to repair/upgrade I-75 through the heart of Cincinnati. When factoring in traffic counts with trucks counted separately (they pay higher taxes), we figured it never be paid off with a discount rate, 80 years to pay off with traffic growth and 123 years to pay off without traffic growth.

In the time it will take to pay these projects off they will have been repaired and replaced several times over resulting in the same net loss right from the get go. The point is not that roadways shouldn't be maintained and repaired, it's just that when you hold roadway projects to the same standard as transit it seems ridiculous.
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This latest trend is one more straw in breaking the back of the gas tax as a preferred transportation funding method. Although gas taxes are the largest single source of transportation revenue, we have been moving away from them. Even before the recent rise in gas prices, federal and state gas taxes supplied only 35 percent of the $132 billion in federal, state and local highway funds.

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The Asset Value Index is the ratio of the total expected revenues divided by the total expected costs. If the ratio is 0.60, the road will produce revenues to meet 60 percent of its costs; it would be “paid for” only if the ratio were 1.00, when the revenues met 100 percent of costs. Another way of describing this is to do a “tax gap” analysis, which shows how much the state fuel tax would have to be on that given corridor for the ratio for revenues to match costs.

Applying this methodology, revealed that no road pays for itself in gas taxes and fees. For example, in Houston, the 15 miles of SH 99 from I-10 to US 290 will cost $1 billion to build and maintain over its lifetime, while only generating $162 million in gas taxes. That gives a tax gap ratio of .16, which means that the real gas tax rate people would need to pay on this segment of road to completely pay for it would be $2.22 per gallon.

This is just one example, but there is not one road in Texas that pays for itself based on the tax system of today. Some roads pay for about half their true cost, but most roads we have analyzed pay for considerably less.

To conclude, in the SH 99 example, since the traffic volume for that road doesn't generate enough fuel tax revenue to pay for it, revenues from other parts of the state must be used to build and maintain this corridor segment. The same is true across the state, meaning that, as revealed by the tax gap analysis, overall revenues are not sufficient to meet the state’s transportation needs.

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National Trails Day 09


Events on the Gwynns Falls Trail: <a href="http://www.gwynnsfallstrail.org/news.cfm">http://www.gwynnsfallstrail.org/news.cfm</a>;

The Woodrow Wilson Bike/Pedestrian Path opens over the Potomac connecting MD trails with VA &amp; Mt. Vernon Trails at 1 p.m.: <a href="http://www.thewashcycle.com/wilson_bridge/">http://www.thewashcycle.com/wilson_bridge/</a>;

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MTA To Introduce Smart Cards In Baltimore Region


BALTIMORE -- The Maryland Transit Administration is aiming to introduce an automated fare card system by October.

But MTA will wait on its goal of making the service interchangeable with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's SmarTrip cards.

MTA spokeswoman Jawauna Greene said the two agencies weren't able to negotiate a revenue sharing agreement. She said the cards for Baltimore-area transit are compatible with the Washington cards and could be integrated in the future.

The cards store credits for fares on an embedded microchip. They will be accepted on MTA's core services: buses, light rail and the Metro subway, but not on MARC trains or commuter buses.

MTA customers would pay an upfront charge for a card and would add value to it by depositing cash at MTA machines around the region.

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Wheeling in Employees: How to Keep Cyclists Happy at the Office


EPA bike room
YOU'VE DECIDED TO BECOME a bike commuter. Kudos. But how successfully you stick with that resolution depends on whether your office goes the distance.

As cycling gains ground in the D.C. area, some businesses have been bona fide trailblazers. Toole Design — a Hyattsville-based transportation consulting firm — and the World Bank's D.C. office have even been recognized by the League of American Bicyclists as two of the nation's most bicycle-friendly workplaces.

Want to know how your employer can follow their lead? Keep reading.

Be Accessible
Most folks aren't going to want to hop on I-66 to wheel their way in. So, companies in neighborhoods near multi-use jogging and cycling trials — like Bethesda, which is close to the Capital Crescent — are more likely to lure two-wheelers. Second best are offices near roads with bike lanes (or little traffic).

Employees also have the option of pedaling to the closest Metro station, locking up their Schwinns and riding the rails the rest of the way. For those who want to haul a bike on the train — they're prohibited during peak riding hours — Toole Design planning director R.J. Eldridge suggests a small, foldable model. "You can take it on the Metro anytime," he says.
NIH Bicycle Commuter Club

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Bike Baltimore , Vol. 1, Issue 1


Thank you for subscribing to the BIKE BALTIMORE e-newsletter distributed by the Baltimore City , Department of Transportation.  Here you will find the latest information regarding the city’s efforts to make Baltimore a safer and more enjoyable place to bike.

 

SUPPORT!

 

Contact your congressional representatives and ask them to support new active transportation projects for the Baltimore area!  The City of Baltimore has 4 projects that will need federal funding – Herring Run Trail extension, Baltimore & Annapolis Trail extension, Bike Station improvements and reconstructing the Middle Branch Bridge for cyclists and pedestrians!  A brief description of these projects can be found at www.baltimorecity.gov/bike

 

BIKE INFRASTRUCTURE

 

New Bike Lanes – The first bike lanes of the 2009 construction season are installed on Wabash Avenue between Bareva Rd and Hilton Rd.   These bike lanes are along the left side of the road to improve access for the residents in this area.  The lanes will further extend to the Cold Spring Metro Station and West Cold Spring Lane .

 

New Bike Parking – Baltimore has 2 new bike parking facilities:  The on-street bike parking in Charles Village and new bike lids at the West Baltimore MARC Station.  The on-street facility in Charles Village converts a vehicular space and provides parking for 10-12 bicycles.  The bike lids provide longer term parking to commuters at the MARC Station.  The lids effectively cover the bike protecting it from vandals and weather.

 

 

BIKE EVENTS

 

The Bike Blast on April 25th and the Bike Summit on May 1st were both a huge success!  The Bike Summit laid out a vision of what biking in Baltimore will look like in 10-15 years.  Cycling advocates, city and state officials came together to share ideas and resources to improve biking in Baltimore . Results from the Bike Summit will be posted online when available.

 

Bike To Work Day is Friday, May 15th, 2009.  The annual downtown rally at War Memorial Plaza is one of many rallies taking place in Baltimore .  Register online here.

 

Tour Dem Parks, Hon is Sunday, June 14th!

 

All these events and more can be found on the Bike Baltimore website at www.baltimorecity.gov/bike

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