Category: Biking in Baltimore

Be careful out there the days before Thanksgiving have some of the highest rates of aggressive driver violations especially the day before Thanksgiving. The evenings are especially bad so consider alternate routes or mass transit for the way home from work.
Continue reading “Tis the season for aggressive drivers”

Senator Gladden thanks you for your concern regarding the need for bike racks on buses. The Senator agrees that there is a need for bike racks. She asked me to investigate the matter and respond to you on her behalf.

Attached to the e-mail you sent to Senator Gladden, was the response of Paul Widefeld, MTA Administrator. Mr. Widefeld explained that MTA is ordering buses with bike racks but needs more funding to retrofit existing buses.

During the special session, the legislators approved $400 million a year for transportation. Much of that money is earmarked for specific projects. However, a representative of Mr. Widefeld’s office assured me that $1 million will be used for bike racks. It should be a year before this project is completed.

Senator Gladden thanks you for taking the time to share your concerns with her.

Sincerely,

Jacqueline M. Greenfield
Constituent Liaison
Senator Lisa A. Gladden

There are a few things you need to know to protect your legal rights in a bike crash. If you are in a crash with a car, do not leave the scene without:
* The tag number of the car
* The names and phone numbers of any witnesses
* Driver name and contact information
* Police officer name and badge number

Even in cases where cyclists are badly hurt, the police have not always identified the vehicles or driver involved. The ambulance personnel will not include this information in their report

Generally there is not a lot of interest locally in our Bike Elsewhere topic but occasionally I like to take stats mentioned in an article from somewhere else and contrast them with Baltimore City stats. And this one is a real shocker!

There has been a lot of buzz in Portland, OR about police bias in reporting bicycle and motor vehicle accidents. This article makes a point that motorists, not cyclists are found more at fault in the Portland Metro area. So how do their ratios hold up to ours?
Continue reading “Special Report: Who’s to blame – drivers or cyclists?”

[Senator Gladden’s response]

Q: What part of a bus is allowed to be broken and go without repair, adversely affecting a segment of the ridership population?

A: The bike rack.

All 180 bike racks have been destroyed by MTA drivers and there have been ZERO effort for repair or replacement. MTA drivers have been destroying bus bike racks at a rate close to one a week and no one in MTA thought this is a problem to be dealt with by repair or replacement. It really gets my goat when we fight for a bike facility then it gets taken away, there really should be a law against this
Continue reading “Alert – MTA violates state law”

It

From greaterbrown:

My Bianchi one-speed is no more..
Locked it up for jury duty downtown at Fayette and St. Paul and when I came out for lunch she was gone.

If you hear/see any sign of an ’07 Bianchi San Jose, please give a yell.
Some bike details: Set up as single speed freewheel with threading on the opposite side for fixed. Also may still have my beloved Nitto M-12 front rack bolted directly to the canti bosses. Pedals have clips and straps.
Continue reading “Bianchi one-speed stolen”

[Senator Gladden’s response: https://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20071121162452981]
Please help us get all Baltimore City busses outfitted with bike racks.
A fact sheet provided by Richard Chambers of One Less Car. https://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=2007110114263080

I have included the email and some snail mail addresses of the officials we need to influence.

Please, address the letter (or email) to your State representatives and, if applicable, to your City council representative, then copy the other officials.
Continue reading “Alert – Help get bike racks on buses”

We will be performing some equipment moves. Baltimore Spokes will be offline for 24 hours. Sorry for the short notice. We will be back online by 8pm 10/24/07 at the latest.

Some of the movers and shakers trying to make Baltimore more bicycle friendly

Back row	Barry Childress	Eva Khoury	Greg Hinchliffe
	Baltimore Spokes	Baltimore Bike/Ped Coordinator	MBAC Chair
Front row	Richard Chambers	Bob Moore	Gary Letteron
	One Less Car	Baltimore Bicycling Club	Baltimore Planning

Behind the camera: Mark Counselman
And there are other members who were not in attendance that night.