I am going to be cleaning up the member database. I am going to remove anyone who has registered on the site but never logged in. This is to clean up fake accounts that were created in an attempt to post spam messages to the site. So If you are getting the email updates but have never logged into the site I recommend doing it before April 15th.
I was reading a post on FAAB about bikes racks. The links I found most interesting were for DC DOT that describes acceptable bike rack and Placement Guidelines which came from the DC Bike Program Page
FAAB says that you can get an Cycle Safe inverted U Rack for about $170 plus installation.
I wondered if Baltimore City has anything similar since I have seen a number of bikes racks that fall into the unacceptable designs round the inner harbor. I did find something similar in the Bicycling Toolkit and Guide but is still marked as draft, so I guess the city is still looking for new Bike Coordinator before those are finished an published.
WashCycle has a post about DC squandering it's lead to institute a computerized bicycle rental plan.
One of my pet hates about living in Baltimore is the lack of coordination between mass transit systems. Northern VA has the right idea they run a hub and spoke architecture, where the metro stations are the major hubs and the buses feed out into the neighborhoods.
Since MTA doesn't seem to be able to set up a hub and spoke system for Baltimore maybe the city could bypass MTA and drop in a computerized bicycle rental program at key locations hooked up to the swipe cards used on the MTA buses.
This would allow you to jump on the MARC stop at Camden Yards, swipe your Smart Trip Card to get a bike, bike to the ESPN Zone/Fells Point/Canton, lock up the bike, then repeat it all again on the way home. No need to worry about taking a bike on the train during rush hour.
Sam Fitzsimmons, an antique bicycle dealer, will be at Velocipede tomorrow night (Tuesday, march 13th) from 7-9 to talk about the invention of the bicycle and the impact it had on society especially during the Industrial Revolution.
The WashCycle is running a piece on Maryland States plan to expand the Baltimore Washington Parkway from 4 lanes to 6 lanes.
If any one is interested in having some
You might have noticed the Geeklog logo in the top left hand corner and wondered what it is all about? Geeklog is the software we use for running the site and the logo is default logo that comes with it. I am not a graphics artist and have almost zero drawing skills so I am putting the call out to our readers to come up with a logo for the site. Send submissions into info at baltimorespokes.org
A question came in to our mailbox from Elizabeth asking for help figuring out who in the city can help get a bike rack installed. She was looking for a bike rack to be installed on the sidewalk outside the new developments on teh east side of the 3200 block of Saint Paul Street. If that is not possible then on the west side of the street by the new condos that are being built.
Great news the city is on track in trying to implement the newly adopted Bike Master Plan and is currently looking for qualified candidates:
Just to let everyone know I had a very serious near miss with MTA Mobility car while riding my bike and I just wrote the manager of MTA Customer Service a fairly strong letter. I am also curious what others think about MTA drivers and their curtsey around cyclists.