Bicycles & the Proposed Red Line - Take Action for Bicycling
Your comments needed – Deadline Jan 5th
The proposed east-west Red Line is arguably the biggest opportunity in a generation to improve Baltimore’s transportation network, but we need input from Bicyclists!
With any project, from a simple resurfacing to the $1.6 billion Red Line transit proposal, it is important for bicyclists to have a voice in the process. When bicyclists are not at the table, details are overlooked. To those ends, your Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee has poured over the (400 page) Red Line Draft Environmental Impact Statement and consulted with red line ‘insiders’ to review the proposal from a bicyclist perspective. The comments adopted by the MBAC are included below.
12 options are being studied for the Red Line, the task now is to find consensus on a “locally preferred alternative,” then move forward toward funding (or not funding) the project. Details on the project and the options under consideration are available online, links are below.
Please take a moment to comment formally on the red line! Your comments can be as simple as two sentences 'for the record':
- I support construction of the Red Line as part of a high quality transit system.
- The Red Line should be designed to accommodate bicycling.
Please do this today!
Comments MUST include your full name and address or they will not be considered.
Send comments to:
redline@mtamaryland.com with “DEIS Comment” as the subject line
by using the online comment form
or by mail to: Red Line, c/o MTA Office of Planning, 6 St. Paul St. 9th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202
Formal comments are an important part of the DEIS process. Public comments will be accepted until January 5th.
- Red Line Information & Community Compact: <a href="http://www.gobaltimoreredline.com">www.gobaltimoreredline.com</a>;
- Red Line Study information, including the DEIS, maps, alignments: <a href="http://www.baltimoreredline.com/">www.baltimoreredline.com/</a>;
- Red Line DEIS exec. summary: <a href="http://www.baltimoreredline.com/images/stories/redline_documents/deis/02_redlinedeis_exec_summary.pdf">http://www.baltimoreredline.com/images/stories/redline_documents/deis/02_redlinedeis_exec_summary.pdf</a>;
- “Not Building Red Line Would Continue Sad Status Quo,” Baltimore Sun Column by Michael Dresser
<a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.dresser15dec15,0,3888528.column">http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.dresser15dec15,0,3888528.column</a>;
Below is a draft of the letter from the MBAC. Please borrow it verbatim:
Thanks & happy New Year,
Mark Counselman
+++++++
The Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee, a signatory to the Red Line Community Compact, offers the following comments to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).
The committee strongly supports the construction of the Red Line. Transit and bicycling are each desirable and sustainable modes of transport, which, properly integrated, can provide a synergy which improves the efficacy of both. Our comments can be grouped into three topics, stated below and expanded in the following appendices.
Accommodate cyclists on the transit line. Vehicle design and MTA policy must maximize the possibility of bikes on board. Station design must facilitate bicycle access and parking.
Maximize Trail-by-Rail. The Security Mall to I-70 Park-and-Ride and Boston Street to Bayview sections offer the possibility of “Trail-by-Rail”, which would provide functional green space and strengthen the regional trail network.
Share the Road. While tunneling may be the best option in some locations, we believe the safest, most vibrant urban streets are those designed to be shared by transit, automobiles, bicycles and pedestrians. In all the alternatives, including the apparent local favorite, 4c, a portion of the Red Line will be on streets which are currently used by cyclists and included in the network outlined by Baltimore City’s Bicycle Master Plan. Design of these segments must accommodate on-road cycling.
These topics are not new ideas; they are addressed in the Red Line Community Compact and have proven successful on transit projects elsewhere. By designing the Red Line to enhance its coexistence with bicycling, the success of both modes can be maximized. The Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee strongly supports the Red Line and looks forward to working with the MTA in further design.
Appendix 1:
Accommodate cyclists on the transit line.
Bikes on transit: MTA’s policy to allow bicycles on the Central Light Rail Line should extend to the Red Line as well. Low-floor vehicle design should make boarding with a bicycle easier. We understand the goal of using smaller transit vehicles, and hope that these vehicles are designed with space to safely and comfortably accommodate bicycles.
Bike Parking at Stations: To encourage biking to transit, safe and convenient bicycle access and parking should be central criteria for station design; we hope this will lead to stations that are connected to the surrounding neighborhoods. Special care should be taken with stations which are near trails or other green space to ensure safe, direct, and intuitive connection.
Parking should be provided for repeat riders with lockers or “bikelids”; less frequent riders should be accommodated with well designed and placed racks. The Baltimore City Bicycle Master Plan contains information regarding proper bike rack design and placement.
Accommodating cyclists on the Red Line is a highly desirable facet of the transit line and is addressed in the Red Line Community Compact.
Appendix 2:
Maximize Trail by Rail.
A subset of the extremely successful and popular “Rails to Trails” movement is the “Rails with Trails” concept in which trails are built alongside existing railroads rather than on the roadbed of an abandoned line. The rail lines along which trails have been built range from once-a-week low-speed freight spurs to high-speed, high-volume freight, passenger, and transit lines. Safety is ensured with appropriate levels of separation and/or barriers.
Although many of the railside trails are the result of downsized rail operations or extensive right of way acquisition that subsequently proved unnecessary, there are many examples in the US and other countries where trails were developed as part of the design and construction of new rail lines, usually transit. The development of the Atlanta Belt Line is a particularly good example.
A parallel trail can enhance a transit line by providing greater rider potential, right-of-way visibility and management (therefore security), and maintenance/inspection/law enforcement access for the operating agency.
The sections of the proposed Red Line which lend the possibility of Trail-by-Rail are at either end. On the eastern end, the segment from Boston Street to Bayview makes use of a right-of-way that once accommodated four tracks, leaving plenty of room for a parallel trail, which would connect directly to the Waterfront Promenade Park at Boston Street, and potentially to the Herring Run Trail system at Pulaski Highway.
Toward the western end, the segment from Security Square Mall to the I-70 Park-and-Ride Station also provides the opportunity for a parallel trail. This would connect to the Gwynns Falls Trail at the Park-and-Ride and potentially to Patapsco State Park from the mall. A bicycle/pedestrian crossing of the beltway would be particularly valuable.
These additions to the trail systems and green spaces of the city and county would considerably enhance the value of the Red Line to the community. This subject is also addressed in the Red Line Community Compact. The Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee and the Rails to Trails Conservancy can provide photographs and other details of other trails along rail lines.
Appendix 3
Share the Road.
Several sections of the Red Line will make use of surface streets, either in a separated right-of-way or in shared traffic lanes. Bicycling is an existing use of these roads, and many are designated as bikeways in the Baltimore City Bicycle Master Plan adopted in 2006. Bicycles are typically accommodated along the parked cars or curb in either wide outside lane, a shoulder or a bike lane. These may have pavement markings (“sharrows”) as part of the accommodation. Adding two lanes of transit to the existing street width can severely degrade the bicycle accommodation. Since bicyclists will use, and need access to destinations along the Red Line right of way, all roadways should be designed to be as safe as possible for cycling. Where space limitation leave less then ideal accommodation for cyclists, alternate parallel routes should be established and designated for cycling.
The 2600 through 3600 blocks of Boston Street shown in alternative 4c includes two ten-foot motor vehicle lanes and a reserved transit lane in each direction separated by a fourteen-foot landscaped median. This configuration does not provide for adequate bicycle accommodation. A narrowed median would still allow for attractive landscaping, but provide safer bicycle access via bike lanes or a wider outer lane with “sharrow” pavement markings.
On the 2500 block of Franklin Street, a parallel bike route can be established to the north on Edmondson Avenue and similar parallel routes may be possible through the neighborhoods of Rognel Heights and Hunting Ridge.
The bridge which carries Edmondson Avenue over the Gwynns Falls and the CSX Railroad tracks is the only route in this corridor. The existing bridge does not allow sufficient width for the safe, shared use among transit, motor vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians. We hope that upgrades to this bridge will include adequate facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Baltimore’s Bicycle Master Plan calls for a soon to be constructed shared use sidewalk/bike trail along Martin Luther King Blvd. We hope that the right of way shown in option 4C can be designed to show adequate width for this shared use path on the east side of MLK.
Bicycling is an existing and desired use of the surface streets on which the Red Line may be constructed. If the transit line is added, some accommodation or mitigation must be made for continued use by bicyclists.