Brief Overview/Synopsis-Bike/Ped Symposium

This Summary was compiled by Bill Kelly 2-1-07

Hi Bike/Ped Folks, We just finished our 10th Annual Successful Bike/Ped Symposium in Annapolis on Friday Feb 9, 2007. Many of you attended and many more were unable to attend so we would like you know what you missed. This Symposium is untaken with great efforts from/by Jim and Jane Hudnall, Oxon Hill Bicycle &Trail Club and OLC. For the past nine years the Symposium was always held on the first Wednesday in February, many asked why we changed to Friday and this year at the request of the Bicycle Advisory Committee it was changed to Friday to accommodate their Annual Annapolis Meeting, but to our frustration they did not meet at the Symposium, but across town. Several MBPAC members did show up in the afternoon-Richard Cushwa-Jim Titus-David Whitaker-Sgt. Janet Harrison-Jim Swift-Dave Dionne(6 out of 21) Many of the attendees and elected officials were asking about the MBPAC. Sec. John Porcari(Newly Appointed Sec. of Trans-MDOT) was there early about 8:00AM and spent over an hour talking with and answering questions about Bike/Ped Travel in Md. All were very excited about John returning to MDOT and carrying on the great Bike/Ped Policies from the Gov. Glendening Administration. There were over 20 Displayers from around the State with many great handouts and info on local projects. St. Mary's Co. was displaying their Three Notch Trail., Frank Stevens from Bowie(The Best Bicycle City) had an outstanding displays of the Bowie's very progressive Bike/Ped Advancements. Barbara Kliefort from WABA /Met Branch Trail,,Adam Schwartz UofM/ Cooperative Bike Extension, Fred Shaffer MNCPPC had a very nice update on Prince George's Co. Inventory of past Bike/Ped Completions and Plans in works. Glen Harrison from WABA was there with the Washington DC Regions Plans/Displays and accomplishments and Eric Gilliland from WABA was answering questions and working with Andy Clarke from LAB on a joint Panel on Bicycle Friendly Communities & Complete Streets. Baltimore Bicycling Club-BBC, Oxon Hill Bicycle & Trail Club-OHBTC, College Park Area Bicycle Coalition-CPABC and many more groups had very informative displays. You didn't have time to see all of them. Too much good conversation.

About Mid-Morning a Legislative Award Program started with awards going to newly elected Sen. Jim Rosapepe((A long Time Bike/Ped Legislator) and Del.Maggie McIntosh, Chair of the Environmental Maters Committee. Next came a wonderful talk by Doug Simmons Assistant Administrator of SHA on the ongoing accomplish- ments of SHA on Bike/Ped Projects. Doug talked about the new State of Md. Bike Map and the mark-up copy that Harvey Muller had brought along to display and asked for comments. The best part of the map was the On-Road-Signed Bikeways(In Kelly Green to Go) on the map that started out to be 100 miles and when all calculated came close to 500 miles. About five years ago there were only 8 miles of Signed-Marked Bikeways in Md. Doug Simmons and SHA received a large round of applause for this monumental achievement. Doug reconfirmed SHA's commitment to make all new roads and reconstructed roads Bike/Ped/ADA Compliant. He stated how important it was that STATE LAW was changed by the advocacy groups to allow State Highways Funds be used in Non Motorized Travel. Doug talk was most refreshing as he talked on about mass transportation, connecting Bike Route/Trails to stations/schools/workcenters.-Safe Route to Schools and using Fed Funds and TEALOU Funds along with Trans Funds to make Md. More Bike/Ped Friendly. He introduced Felicia Baker the new Bike/Ped Person at SHA Dist. #3 which handles all of Prince George's and Montgomery Counties. So far Dist. #3 is the only SHA District with a Bike/Ped Person on board. We are hoping that all seven SHA Dist. Will get a Bike/Ped Person to assist Harvey Muller. Doug Simmons stayed on for over an hour after his talk to talk with and answer questions from the audience. There were so many talks and conversations/Displays going on that folks had to move between groups to keep up. During this time many left the Symposium Room to talk with their Senators/Delegates from their Home Districts. While Jim Hudnall and I were walking the halls of the Miller Senate Office Bldg. we encountered Neil Pedersen, Administrator of SHA and had a nice chat. He asked us how the Symposium was going and said he would try to stop by to visit. We told him about Doug Simmons talk and he reconfirmed SHA Commitment to make Md. More Bike Friendly. We thanked for his good Bike/Ped work at SHA and left him with a Kelly Green Bicycle on his lapel. OLC supplied pizza for lunch so we didn't have to go out to eat and miss valuable time at the Symposium and it was gone in a flash. The Md. Legilative Bike/Ped Caucus under the able leadership of Chair Del. Jon Cardin met in the hallway during this time with 6 to 8 Caucus members to discuss the impending Bike/Ped Bills. We found out that the word "CAUCUS" is an Algonquian Indian word that means when the"Big Chiefs Meet to Discuss Important Matters". This terminology certainly extends to our Legislative Bike/Ped Caucus. We believe there are very few if any Bike/Ped Caucus across the county and our Md one is great. The Caucus discussed HB 173Bike Safety Bill and were in support of the concept.

Later on in the afternoon Dave Dionne-Anne Arundel Co. Greenways introduced Terry Maxwell from the RecTrails Program and Mary Keller Transportaion Enhancement Program at SHA. Terry Maxwell talked about the $1 Million Dollars which is available each from SHA to do small trails enhancement $15,00- to $30,000 per project to improve safety and access to mostly non-auto travel. We talked about using Rec Trails Fund to do our CPABC Mid Md. Bike Map Printing costs. Mary Keller talked about enhancement funds of larger dollar worth of the $800,000 to $1 Million range for bigger projects from SHA sharing Fed Funds. The overall idea was that there was funds available to do many non-auto transportation out there and once again to make Md. More Bike/Ped Friendly. Shortly after these talks the crowd starting tinning out as it was Friday afternoon and it was Friday get-away. Everyone was very pleased with the whole Symposium and were only disappointed that they could not talk with everyone there because there were too many people to see and not enough time to not to visit with everyone. Jim Hudnall,s "Yellow Books' with 194 Bike/Ped Contacts Folks listed there-in disappeared from the welcoming table(Thank you Monica) by the end of the day. If you didn''t get one of these very important "Yellow Book"" you missed out, check the OHBTC/CPABC Web_site and click Directory.You will find this "Yellow Book'listed there.. We want to thank everyone who worked so hard to make this 10th Annual Bike/Ped Symposium the best we have had. Jim & Jane Hudnall deserve the biggest thanks because they do so much more than anyone else. Hope to see you in February 2008