Alert: Fix severed bike route NOW!
Update: Meeting planned for mid to late november thanks to Rikki Spector's help.
[B' Spokes: I go away for a few years and look what they did to my bike route. :(
I personally find it repulsive that in this day and age when they "upgrade" an intersection not only did they not include any consideration for pedestrians they made it even more dangerous for pedestrians to cross. And basically once you accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists can easily be accommodated as well. To state the obvious, if you accommodate motorist to turn left then cyclists can turn left as well.]
Google maps
Note the double right turn only and no crosswalks. (Looking north.)
LAW: TR ยง 2-602.(3) As to any new transportation project or improvement to an existing transportation facility, the Department shall work to ensure that transportation options for pedestrians and bicycle riders will be enhanced and that pedestrian and bicycle access to transportation facilities will not be NEGATIVELY impacted by the project or improvement;
COUNCIL BILL 09-0176R
5. Cyclists have the right to routine accommodations in all roadway projects and improvements.
6. Cyclists have the right to urban and roadway planning, development, and design that enable and support safe cycling.
7. Cyclists have the right to traffic signals, signage, and maintenance standards that enable and support safe cycling.
Need
- Maryland has the 7th highest pedestrain fatality rate.
(Alternate link States | Pesestrains) - 32% of all pedestrain involved crashes happen in Baltimore City.
- 24.3% of all cyclists involved crashes happen in Baltimore City.
- Baltimore City has the highest representation in the state of bike/ped crashes.
- This area is constrained by I-83 to the east and the Metro line to the west, there are not a lot of viable options getting past these barriers to other bike friendly north/south streets.
If there was an award for the most inappropriate transportation "improvement" this has to be a contender for first place, as it symbolizes all that is wrong with old school transportation planning. We need to end transportation planning that has the ideals that the mode that travels the fastest and furthest with ease needs to travel even faster (typically measured in seconds) and needs the most direct routes. While the modes that are slower and have limited distance range would not mind going out of their way and going much slower (typically measured by half hour increases.)
W54-Special (California) - Freeway Pedestrian -
gif (yellow)
via http://www.trafficsign.us/
Maybe we should install some of these signs, not for the motorists but for the pedestrians to show how they need to cross 6 lanes of traffic. Of course I am being facetious but my point is just because a mode is not accommodated does not mean they go away. You can see by Google satellite imagery there is a "goat path" along the northern side of Northern Parkway, that is till the guard rail gets in the way just before the intersection. I'm so flabbergasted that rather than improving the situation here for pedestrians they actually made it worse by removing the stop phase for westbound Northern Parkway traffic on a blind curve no less. Seriously, no thought for even a crosswalk here and you call that an improvement? We had engineers looking at this intersection and this is the best they could come up with?
The case for cyclists is easier, the route was master planned and usable for years and now it's not legal or safe and it was made that way in violation of law. But for even more support this connects the northern portion of the Jones Falls trail to my neighborhood and no it's not cool just to wait for when the trail is finally built even further east to cross Northern Parkway. 1) there is the time waiting and 2) it will not be near this intersection (see my first point about increasing distance for slower modes.) Pedestrians need to be accommodated here and if pedestrians are accommodated then cyclists can be easily added as well.
Action
- If you are tired of too many intersection dialed up to only accommodate motorists with no thought of cyclists and pedestrians.
- If you are tired of the city erasing bike lanes within a week of installation for unstated safety reasons but when our safety and right to travel has been curtailed the city drags its feet.
- Making slow and steady progress in accommodating cyclists is dependent on not losing any ground, yet metrics like the Bicycle Level of Service has remained unchanged over the years because we are losing ground as fast as we are gaining.
- Service request 13-00749905 has been entered and a due date of 3/23/2014 is unacceptable.
While efforts to improve conditions for bicycling in the region have been robust in the time since the 1999 analysis, the 2004 [the most recent data] value distribution is statistically identical.
http://www.baltometro.org/reports/BikePedLOS.pdf
Write:
mayor@baltimorecity.gov
transportation@baltimorecity.gov
Your city council rep (look up)
Your state senator and delegates (Look up) as they should know when local goverments activly engaged in making the streets unsafe for pedestrains and cyclists.
(Be sure to include your full name, address and phone number.)
Side notes:
There is probably some thinking along the lines "but you are a brave and fearless rider just rider just take Northern Parkway"
I'm concerned about my kids and other neighbors getting to and from the trail, they are not so fearless. And there are reasons to have trepidation.
- Safe cycling on the road needs good sight lines not a blind curve with thick vegetation growing right next to the road.
- Most accidents happen between areas of congestion, like between the freeway and the more congested areas just west of here
- Too many vehicles travel well above the speed limit here. (Because of just coming off the highway???)
- This is a bit of an uphill so cycling speeds are slower than normal.