O'Malley's policy statement:

I see O'Malley's policy statement, but I'm not completely convinced that he's 100% behind it. I've seen infrastructure being created (a good thing), but maintenance of the infrastructure is lacking. Route 40's bike lanes have turned into a garbage pale of glass, trash, and stuff dropped by people going to the landfill. Route 40 maintenance crews have no regard for cyclist needing to use the bike lane. They park very large trucks in them forcing cyclist onto the 55 MPH road surface. The "road diet" bike lanes on the east side of Harford road has holes and frost lifts in it (between Taylor Ave and Putty Hill). I haven't seen a street sweeper in months! There are still traffic lights that do not sense a bicycle waiting to cross an intersection (i.e., Rossville Blvd at Route 40, Campbell Blvd at Honeygo Blvd for examples) and some traffic control lights are too short in duration, barely allowing a single cyclist through (i.e., White Marsh Mall emptying into Perry Hall Blvd, Taylor Ave at Perring Pkwy.) When these things are reported, you get the "run around" with those in charge stating that the responsibility goes to the city or it's the county, but you have to contact so and so; no it's the city, but you have to go through the MDOT or is it MDSHA? Cyclist need a centralized reporting mechanism where requests will be routed to the responsible party efficiently. Is that suppose to be the Mayor's 311? What if the work is needed in Baltimore county or other counties? --- -- iodaniell

Building a bike infrastructure is a multi phase process. And we are starting the second phase where we need the state and city to pay attention to the fact that once they build it they need to maintain it. Under Web Resources (top of this page) I posted a link to

From Eric C on BikeHon list:

I realize this list is geared more toward the City geographically and therefore road type riding however, I feel compelled to respond with some information about some good that has come out of the Ehrlich camp. Over the last two years Ehrlich has made it possible for MORE - Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts www.more-mtb.org to receive two grants totaling $175,000.00 for trail building, trail education for land managers, and planning for new trail systems. He can't be given all the credit, the state legislature was needed to approved it in the budget process. Without him it would not have happened. MORE has published, and continues to publish as responses come in, a voters guide for mountain bikers, you can see the results here http://www.more-mtb.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=56 . Sadly I didn't find a response from O'Malley, but I don't hold that against him, he's still a good egg.

Thanks for the information, Barry. I've added the BMC link to my browser 'Favorites'. The Yahoo map tool was getting very cluttered. I didn't see how anyone could track new issues using it, so I quit adding to it. I'll start using it again. Also, thanks for the information on the Mayor and the Governor. I think this will come in handy in the near future. --- -- iodaniell