Can't see the trees for the forest

In this report funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation touches on lots of issues relevant to Baltimore area. It compares us to Sacramento, California.

A lot of the states bike/ped issues boils down if you look at the State as a whole you see a lot of cool stuff but if you look at counties with high bike/ped crash rates a completely different picture emerges and this report is one of the clearest picture by an independent third party to date.

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Active Transportation Making the Link from Transportation to Physical Activity and Obesity

During the past four decades, the obesity rate for children ages 6 to 11 has more than quadrupled (from 4.2% to 17%), and it has more than tripled for adolescents ages 12 to 19 (from 4.6% to 17.6%).1, 2 Regular physical activity can reduce the risk for obesity and help people lead longer, healthier lives. Yet studies show that less than half of U.S. children and adolescents meet the recommended guidelines of at least 60 minutes of daily moderateto- vigorous physical activity.3–5 The same studies indicate that less than 10 percent of adults in the U.S. get the recommended 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day.6–8

Walking and bicycling for daily transportation are important sources of physical activity, but they have declined dramatically over the past few decades. Between 1977 and 1995,a the number of all walking trips decreased by 32 percent, and there was a similar decrease in trips made by adults walking to work.9 Adults walk for only 21.2 percent of trips that are one mile or less, and children walk for only 35.9 percent of trips to school that distance.10 Reversing the decline in rates of walking and biking for transportation, especially for short trips, presents a major opportunity for improving health among children, adolescents and adults.

Transportation investments can either support or impede walking and bicycling in neighborhoods and near schools, depending on how they are implemented. Evidence is accumulating about how infrastructure improvements, programs that aim to manage neighborhood road traffic, and efforts to make streets and sidewalks safer for active travel influence travel patterns among both children and adults. This research brief presents an overview of findings demonstrating the potential impact of infrastructure investments and other transportation programs on walking and bicycling for transportation, and on related health outcomes. It focuses on public transit, greenways and trails, school-related infrastructure and programs, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and efforts to manage car traffic.

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We want even more cars on the road

Another Urban Places and Spaces blog article where I really have to wounder if Dr Gridlock wants to see even more gridlock.:

I like Dr. Gridlock, but

Robert Thomson is the commuting-mobility columnist for the Washington Post. Most of his writings are quite good, but he persists in neglecting to put much attention on the fact that driving is subsidized to the tune of many dollars per gallon--the reality is that taxes, tolls, and fees typically pay no more than 50% of the cost of roads, the rest comes from general funds.

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Recognize that we are hardest on those that we love. I am hard on Dr. Gridlock because I like what he does and I have high and ever increasing expectations for the quality of his work. I am hard on the Post generally, and of course, on DC and DC Government specifically. That's the role of a critic...
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His "colleague" Neal Peirce, who writes a column that is distributed by the Washington Post Writers Syndicate, but whose column is never published in the Post proper, wrote about this in 2003. See "GAS TAX HIKES: NEEDED BUT POLITICALLY PERILOUS" (5/11/03).

Dr. Gridlock persists in making the point that transit is subsidized, while neglecting in fairness to mention, ever, that roads are subsidized, for example, at the start of his column feature on the Metro budget, he writes:

Every ride we take on Metro is subsidized by many people who never use the transit system and many more who will never see it. Those people are sending Metro riders a holiday gift that should amount to $300 million for the next year. It will take the form of a federal subsidy with matching funds from the local jurisdictions that support Metro.

Where's the "fairness" and "balance" here?

Every gallon of gas gets a subsidy of close to $5 for road use and military protection of oil supplies, plus other spending on the health and environmental impacts.

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Walk this way to obesity

Excerpt from the Urban Places and Spaces blog article:
...
The Prince Georges Gazette reports, in "Proposal to lessen walking distance to schools could become costly: Senator says students are required to walk too far," that any distance more than 1/4 of a mile is too far to walk to school, according to State Senator Anthony Muse, who has introduced legislation to change school bus transportation requirements in the county. From the article:
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Public health statistics for Prince George's County:

Physical Activity and Obesity
Percent of adults age 18 and over who engage in regular moderate physical activity =45%
Percent of youth age 6-19 who engage in regular moderate physical activity = 56%
Percent of youth age 2-19 who are overweight = 31%
Percent of adults age 18 and over who are overweight, BMI 25-29.9 = 39%
Percent of adults age 18 and over who are obese, BMI > 30 = 23%
...

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Climate Change is Coming to Town

http://www.csrplus.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/santa_bike.jpg
(Photo from the Cooperative Social Responsibility blog.)

Via the Internet, Richard modified it slightly to include walking and transit.

Climate Change is Coming to Town

(To the tune of Santa Claus is Coming to Town)

You better watch out, you better not drive.
You better walk, bike and ride transit I'm telling you why.
Climate change is coming to town.

We're making it hot, we're raising the seas.
Gonna feel life at a hundred degrees.
Climate change is coming to town.

If people keep on driving.
The poles will soon be lakes.
The air will stink like petrol fumes.
Walk, bike, and ride transit for goodness sake.

We're making a list, we're checking it twice.
We're gonna find out who drives and who bikes!
Climate change is coming to town.

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The tale of two crimes

This is a horrible read, driver A is out on $100,000 bail for killing another motorist. And then driver B convected with a $287 fine for killing a cyclist. OK fine alcohol was involved in the first case but still causing a death of another person by negligence yields such a drastic reduction in fines???

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Park and Planning (illegally?) closing commuter routes at dark

Reader Bianchi on the Greater Greater Washington blog wrote in with a report:

My S.O. and I bought a house in Historic Hyattsville this fall. He uses the Northwest Branch bike trail to get to either West Hyattsville metro or Fort Totten. Last night, on his way home between 6 and 6:30 pm (when it was already dark), a PG County cop car came up behind him while he was on the bike trail and pulled him over.

The officer told him the trail was closed when dark because there had been some reports of mugging. S.O. asked the officer (rhetorically) if he thought riding on the street with cars with no bike lane was really safer.

He feels the question of which route is safer to bike should be left to him, the biker. The 'no use at dark' prohibition affects the morning commute too. I guess one solution to street (or bike trail) crime is to just prohibit people from being on the street.
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Please note that most of our trails are built with Transportation Enhancement Funds which clearly states &quot;Bicycle projects must be principally for transportation, rather than recreation, purposes&quot; <a href="http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bikeped/bp-broch.htm">http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bikeped/bp-broch.htm</a>;

M-NCPPC can close recreational facilities so are they saying they are misspending Federal money by treating trails as recreational only?

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Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices update

The highlight is sharrows and the sign "Bikes may use full lane" are in the new edition.
National News
MUTCD Final Rule
The Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUMUTCDTCD) Final Rule was published in the Federal Register December 16, 2009. The MUTCD defines the standards used by road managers nationwide to install and maintain traffic control devices on all public streets, highways, bikeways and private roads open to public traffic. States must adopt the 2009 National MUTCD as their legal State standard for traffic control devices within two years. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published the new edition of the MUTCD at mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov. The MUTCD Web site includes a series of documents detailing changes from the 2003 edition and additional materials are available upon request. 
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Farewell

Please note that I am making plans to leave. I apologize but things just did not workout for me staying.

This site will still be around even though I will not be posting that much in the future so I strongly encourage other to step up to the plate and help keep other cyclists informed.

Wishing you all the best this holiday season and stay involved.
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