Action: Harford Rd - accommodate cyclists please


The good news is we are getting bicycle accommodations for most of the project area. But for the section of Harford Rd between Erdman and Chesterfield the community was given options:

Option 1 - Oppose
Title: Median and narrow travel lanes
A nice median (traffic calming??? and being space for green plants and trees) and 4 10 foot travel lanes (2 each way,) with off-peek parking allowed in the outside lanes putting cyclists in the reaming narrow travel lane. Ugh!

Option 2 - Support
Title: No median and wide outside lanes
No median, inner travel lanes 10 feet and outer travel lanes 13.5 feet. This at least gives cyclists some extra width in the outside lane both when there is traffic and when there is parking.

Option 3 - Support
Title: Median, two travel lanes and bike lanes
This option came up during the meeting and I am not sure how viable it is but none the less cool. Remove two travels lanes and on-street parking to accommodate both a median and bike lanes. This will make this section of Harford Rd a two lane road rather then a four lane Rd have a calming effect on traffic.

Please send your support for the option of your choice and voice opposition to option 1. Please send an email to Jessica.Keller [at] baltimorecity.gov; jamie.kendrick [at] baltimorecity.gov; al.foxx [at] baltimorecity.gov; Nate.Evans [at] baltimorecity.gov
Subj: Harford Rd beautification project comment

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Thanks!

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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Baltimore Bicycling Clubimage


Position: Oppose - Option 1, Median and narrow travel lanes


Dear Mr. Uttam Khadka,


On behalf of the Baltimore Bicycling Club, I am providing comments on the Harford Rd beautification project. Our organization has over 1500 members around the Baltimore Metropolitan Area.


Let me point out § 2-602. Public policy. which basically says the needs of cyclists shall be considered in all transportation projects and we are very appreciative of Baltimore City's attention to that detail. It also says that no project can have a negative impact on bicycle access and unfortunately we feel option one with a median and 4 10' travel lanes between Erdman and Chesterfield has a negative impact on bicycle access. By restricting the width of the roadway and leaving no viable option for a motorist to pass a cyclist in a narrow lane with parked cars to the right and a median to the left, the cyclist becomes a living speed bump for the motorists, an uncomfortable situation for all and potentially hazardous for the cyclists. We therefore strongly encourage you to select a design that has space for bicycle travel and/or provides reasonable opportunities for motorists to pass cyclists.  


Thank you for your consideration,

Baltimore Bicycling Club

Well the problem through that area is the bridge after Chesterfield, where there is little room and speeds are very high. It seems like the proposed bike lanes on Harford would unfortunately do what most bike lanes do, which is end abruptly(at chesterfield) and dump you suddenly into the same narrow travel space as autos. I like option 2, the medians are pretty, but they block the view of turning vehicles. Why not a narrow median? No trees. Like maybe two feet wide? Thanks for the info Human Car!
They are going to widen the bridge on this project as well as consider a pedestrian underpass so we can get from one park to the other without crossing a busy road. (Some community opposition to this, when I have more info on this topic I will share.) The problem with adding any sort of median to the narrow section is that ideally an outside lane should be 14' wide and the best they can do here is 13.5' . any median would make that even smaller.
Widen the bridge? Cool! I think if the traffic was calmed a bit, the underpass wouldn't be needed. Whats the opposition, that it will attract unsavory activity? So yeah, forget the median. I drove through there today(boo! hiss!), speeds get crazy, it's 30 mph, but people exceed 50mph. Can't blame people though(alright, you can), it's pretty easy to hit those speeds along that stretch in a car. Most major roads in the city seem to be designed to allow for maximum speed in between redlights(smooth wide lanes), take MLK BLVD for example, it's pretty much a highway with redlights, everyone knows that you try to drive as fast as possible to hit less redlights, the slower you go, the more lights you hit.
I attended a meeting last night at Morgan State University. We discussed, specifically, the proposed tunnel underneath Harford Rd. There is still a lot of resistance to this idea and there are many valid concerns regarding security, night-time closure of the underpass, how will the current bike path cross Herring Run, etc. The city is getting federal $$ to do the tunnel. Their attitude seemed to be we can take this bike/ped underpass now or not.

Background info on the project is here:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/construction/accelerated/if08013/index.cfm

A lot of this is dovetailed into the Herring Run Park master plan effort, which you can find out more about here:
http://www.baltimorecity.gov/government/planning/herringRunPkMasterPlan.php

There was a lot of talk about the bridge itself. They are going to make it wider in order to accomodate safer vehicle lanes and there will be a bike lane on both sides. I brought up the Erdman - Chesterfield corridor and got blank stares from the city. So, the short is that the city is looking at bike/ped access. The flip side is whether their proposed solution is the best one. One person at the meeting proposed a very cool sounding bridge where bike/ped lane is cantilevered off the side of the bridge so bike/ped users would be completely separated from auotmotive traffic. I left the meeting feeling ok-ish but peeved that the city's official position is that we are getting the underpass. Note, this underpass is not the same thing as the the underpass that goes underneath the Harford Rd. bridge.

Omar Davis, the project manager on this project, said budget $$ are very tight next year. His department's budget is non-existant. It also came out that the Argonne Rd. bridge is going to be closed for repairs. They are looking at doing a one-year long total closure because it is cheaper to do the bridge repair that way rather than close one side while the other gets fixed. This project will happen before Harford Rd.

Thanks,
Tom Palermo
owner/frame builder
Palermo Bicycles, LLC
Baltimore, MD 21213
tom(at)palermobicycles.com
http://www.palermobicycles.com
As a resident of the 2600 block of Chesterfield Ave., my family's official position is: Oppose - Option 1, Median and narrow travel lanes.

We are in favor of any option that will:
[vmenu:]
1. improve the usability of Harford Rd for bicycle transit
2. increase bicyclist safety on Harford Rd.
3. decrease automobile rates of speed. The posted speed limit is 30 mph. Motorists routinely drive this corridor at 40+ mph.


Thanks,
Tom Palermo
owner/frame builder
Palermo Bicycles, LLC
tom(at)palermobicycles.com
http://www.palermobicycles.com