The unrealized dream of bike paths
Street Films has an excellent video about Minneapolis's bike paths (<a href="http://www.streetfilms.org/minneapolis-midtown-greenway-good-for-biz-good-for-bikes/">http://www.streetfilms.org/minneapolis-midtown-greenway-good-for-biz-good-for-bikes/</a>; ) And I challenge anyone to come away from that and not wanting more bike paths.
No doubt what they have is marvelous and no doubt the trails in Montgomery County better serve the Washington Metro Area better then the trails we have in Baltimore County that serve the Baltimore Metro Area, so wouldn't be nice if we had what they had?
Sure.
But show me the long range plans of 100 miles of trails that crisscross all of Baltimore City like what Minneapolis has.
What? No such plans, no such crisscrossing, no such network.
Shouldn't funding priorities reflect plans? Or should they reflect pipe dreams?
I've ridden in cities with far more bike lanes then greenways and paths and you know what? They have a lot more cyclists then what we have, doesn't that say something to anyone?
See our poll in the right column (results: <a href="http://www.baltimorespokes.org/polls/index.php?pid=2010010614524956&aid=-1">http://www.baltimorespokes.org/polls/index.php?pid=2010010614524956&aid=-1</a>; ) by far we want ALL types of bicycle facilities and not just one kind. This is NOT anti-trail but a pro bike stance, we need to see more of the budget, more of the long range plans devoted to accommodating cyclists. There is nothing wrong with promoting to be more like NYC or Tempe. AZ with lots of bike lanes and some nice greenways.
Does it really make sense to promote the ideals of Minneapolis with funding but not in the plans? If we could get those kind of plans, then ya we should support that but that's my point, we have bike master plans but they have no support, not in funding and not in the long range plans.
Please add your voice in correcting this, see our Alert: Demand more for bike/ped <a href="http://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20110921214018820">http://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20110921214018820</a>;