Action alert: Three foot legislation


As I get older and wiser (hopefully) I realize there is a bit of a contradiction in advocacy. One part is I need to motivate you to write, that generally involves a sense of outrage, the other part is the the letters you write need to be positive in order to be effective. So...

Be outraged enough to be motivated to write or call, what's being said in the halls of Annapolis is enough to make you steaming mad but don't have that come across in your letters. Be positive and supportive of your representative and try to make your appeal palatable to someone who does not bike. Try to be short and to the point and ***please stay on topic, focus on safety and mention that HB 496 only applies to bicyclists that act lawfully.*** Also we have MDOT's support this year on this bill, that is significant! .
The following is a list of Delegates in the Motor Vehicles and Transportation Subcommittee of the House Environmental Matters Committee, some are friends and some are foes but they all need to hear from their constituency on this matter. If you are not sure who your representatives are: <a href="http://mdelect.net/electedofficials/">http://mdelect.net/electedofficials/</a>;
More information on the bill (all CAPS is what's being added): <a href="http://mlis.state.md.us/2009rs/bills/hb/hb0496f.pdf">http://mlis.state.md.us/2009rs/bills/hb/hb0496f.pdf</a>;

Be sure to include:
Sub: Support HB 496 Vehicle Laws - Bicycles, EPAMDs, and Motor Scooters - Rules of the Road
Your full name, address and phone number

JAMES E. MALONE, JR. e-mail: james.malone@house.state.md.us (410) 841-3378, (301) 858-3378
SAQIB ALI e-mail: saqib.ali@house.state.md.us (410) 841-3021, (301) 858-3021
ALFRED CLINTON CARR, JR. e-mail: alfred.carr@house.state.md.us (410) 841-3110, (301) 858-3110
BARBARA A. FRUSH e-mail: barbara.frush@house.state.md.us (410) 841-3114, (301) 858-3114
CHERYL D. GLENN e-mail: cheryl.glenn@house.state.md.us (410) 841-3257, (301) 858-3257
ANNE HEALEY e-mail: anne.healey@house.state.md.us (410) 841-3961, (301) 858-3961
H. WAYNE NORMAN, JR. e-mail: wayne.norman@house.state.md.us (410) 841-3284, (301) 858-3284
ANDREW A. SERAFINI e-mail: andrew.serafini@house.state.md.us (410) 841-3447, (301) 858-3447
DANA M. STEIN e-mail: dana.stein@house.state.md.us (410) 841-3527, (301) 858-3527
PAUL S. STULL e-mail: paul.stull@house.state.md.us (410) 841-3288, (301) 858-3288

Related article: <a href="http://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20090316140750810">http://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20090316140750810</a>;

by B' Spokes

Like most people I live a hectic life and who has the time for much exercise? Thanks to xtracycle now I do. By using my bike for daily activities I can get things done and get an hour plus work out in 15 minutes extra of my time, not a bad deal and beats taking the extra time going to the gym. In case you are still having trouble being motivated; the National Center of Disease Control says that inactivity is the #2 killer in the United States just behind smoking. ( http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/bb_nutrition/ ) Get out there and start living life! I can carry home a full shopping cart of groceries, car pool two kids or just get lost in the great outdoors camping for a week. Well I got go, another outing this weekend.
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So why did it fail THIS time?
There's probably a unique reason for everyone that voted against this bill. Personally I am seeing more non-cyclists gravitating to a position that cyclists need to ride to the right of the travel lane and accommodating cyclists to the right of the travel lane (bike lanes/shoulders) should NOT be done because cyclists don't pay road tax and/or accommodating cyclists is environmentally unfriendly because of the increase in impervious surface. So because we can't get extra width on the roadway and because our safety is not enforced when we ride to the far right as possible, we ride further out in the roadway for our safety and because we "arrogantly" ride in the travel way of cars (and disobey this and other laws???) we are not entitled to any safety considerations because of our own (perceived) unsafe actions. If we road where we are accommodated (like we are supposed to???) then maybe they would think better of us but then we wouldn't need this law and we wouldn't need any more accommodations. No one who is opposing this bill is stopping to think that the reason why they are not seeing a desirable behavior from cyclists is because of the lack of accommodations, after all the State is accommodating cyclists by adding more trail millage every year so why aren't we riding there rather then "playing" in traffic? It is if they are saying "bicycling replacing car trips? Be real, bikes can't do a 5 mile trip as easily (lazily) as a car can so we are not going to support something that no average Marylander is physically capable of doing. (MD is now striving for its forth year running of a significant increase in the obesity rate?)