Road Rights: The Right to Disobey Cops

The problem is, if everybody acquiesces to a violation of our rights, do we still have the right? I would argue that unless the right is exercised, it doesn't exist. Therefore, when a law enforcement officer is enforcing laws that don't exist, it is incumbent upon us to stand up for our rights.
- Bob Mionske

Interesting story of a cyclist tazed for riding in the road in Ohio.

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The weekend in pics

[Click picture for more in that series.]

If you are new to road riding for exercise or commuting the BBC Introductory Ride Series is a great place to start and meet others just like you. Record turn out this year, don't miss the remaining classes.
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Baltimore Bike Blast; tall bikes, hiwheel bikes, a kid on a tricycle trying to out race anyone coming around the lake loop till his mother called him back, bike rides, free loner bikes, tons a free info, t-shirts and opportunities to meet key people in Baltimore's Bike Culture. You missed a fun time!!!
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Grassroots Bike Series; fun people, fun fast ride. Don't miss them next month.
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Ride to the Bike Blast

Saturday is the Bike Blast...anyone who may want to bike from somewhere to the Bike Blast please let me know. Maybe we can have a group ride there.

Laurie: I’d be up for a ride associated with Bike Blast on Saturday, if others in South Baltimore are interested.
Penny: Maybe

Any others interested in this start? Any other start locations?
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Bike lockers at West Baltimore MARC

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In cooperation with Baltimore City & Bike Lids, the MTA recently installed 2 Bike Lid lockers at the West Baltimore MARC station - 400 North Smallwood St. Baltimore , Md. 21223.

Please share the information. The more people that use existing bike facilities, the easier it is to justify installing more bike racks.
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Celebrating the Victims of Crime Act

[Baltimore Spokes: Many cyclists have experienced the near equivalent of someone with a baseball bat approaching and saying "We don't like your kind here. " But somehow replace a baseball bat with a car and it no longer becomes a crime, this has to change! Maybe we have an opportunity at this seminar to help make that change. For 2006 Baltimore County had 68 traffic fatalities, 15 of those were pedestrians. 414 pedestrians and 91 cyclists were injured in traffic crashes. Kids are over represented in bike and pedestrian crashes, is this really the kind of environment we want?]

Catonsville Chamber of Commerce Hosts Seminar
This Year’s Subject is “Celebrating the Victims of Crime Act”

Baltimore County, Md. (April 10, 2009) - On Tuesday, April 28, the Greater Catonsville Chamber of Commerce will host a seminar on the Victims of Crime Act. The seminar will also address the problems associated with gangs and related crimes.

The second annual Victim’s Rights Summit will take place at CCBC-Catonsville, in the Q Building Theater beginning at 6 p.m. and ending at 8 p.m. This important event coincides with “National Crime Victims’ Rights Week” which will take place April 26 through May 2, throughout the County and the country.

Local businesses and community groups, educational institutions and the Baltimore County Police Department have collaborated to present this year’s seminar. Law enforcement commanders from neighboring agencies and as many as 300 guests are also expected to attend this summit.

The scheduled speakers for the evening are:

* Madeline Herrington, Administrator for the Office of the Inspector General, Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, as the Keynote Speaker;
* Robin Woolford, Executive Director of the Maryland Criminal Injuries Compensation Board and an advocate for victims’ rights;
* Scott D. Shellenberger, Baltimore County State’s Attorney;
* Captain John Spiroff, commanding officer of Precinct 1/Wilkens, as the moderater of the seminar; and
* Community Outreach Officers Mike Darcey and Bill Rubie will also be available to discuss Gangs and Related Crimes as it affects the community.

Joining the Greater Catonsville Chamber of Commerce in hosting this event will be the Baltimore County Police Department-Precinct 1/Wilkens, CCBC Foundation-Catonsville, CCBC School of Justice, Arbutus Business and Professional Association, Lansdowne Business and Professional Association, St. Agnes Foundation, University of Maryland Baltimore County, and the Wilkens Police and Community Relations Organization.

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U of Maryland Baltimore

The University of Maryland Baltimore's campus (grad schools and the hospital) has put together a bike focus group in order to discuss how to make the campus more bike friendly, and to encourage new people to ride to work/school! If anyone works in this area, or goes to school here and is interested in participating in these efforts, or being someone they can bounce ideas off of, please email Shannon Willett Kelly (Program Coordinator for Campus Center) at skell009"at"umaryland.edu
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Changes for Maryland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (MBPAC)

From the Director of Bicycle and Pedestrian Access to the Assistant Attorney General :

... Upon reviewing the complaint and the relevant provisions of the Open Meetings Act we conclude that the requisite public notice was not provided nor were subcommittee minutes prepared and made available as required by law.

Based on review of our meeting procedures, the provisions of this [Open Meetings] Act, and discussions with our legal counsel we will take the the following actions to bring our meeting procedures in full compliance with the Open Meetings Act:

* We will add notices of MBPAC subcommittee meetings to our listing of committee meetings on the MBPAC section of the Maryland Department of Transportation website. In addition we will attempt to post notice of subcommittee meetings in the Maryland Register if sufficient time permits such posting.

* Minutes of subcommittee minutes will be taken and posted on MDOT's website.

* Draft MBPAC meeting minutes will be posted on MDOT's website prior to their approval at subsequent MBPAC meetings so members of the public can get an idea as to what has transpired in a more timely fashion.

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Spin Cyclists

Some thoughts on Baltimore's biking future--from the people who do it everyday

By Bret McCabe - City Paper
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The City of Baltimore's official Bike Blast takes over Druid Hill Park this Saturday, April 25, with a day's worth of activities and information aimed at advocating cycling in the city. The event is the latest in an ongoing, and ever-so-slightly increasing, number of city efforts to make Baltimore a more bike-friendly urban environment, an effort that feels to have begun in earnest when the Bicycle Master Plan was developed by the Department of Planning in 2006. These efforts have been visible--the emergence of designated bike routes, sharrows, signed routes, and floating bike lanes; the addition of bike racks on all city buses; the production of safe-cycling PSAs; and the addition of Nate Evans as the city's Bicycle and Pedestrian Planner. Promoting cycling appears to be an element of the city's sustainability planning. And, just looking around, it looks like the number of Baltimoreans cycling is increasing.

"I think the city's doing a pretty good job of trying to promote biking, not just as a recreational activity but also as a transportation alternative," says Boson Au, a 31-year-cyclist and member of the Velocipede Bike Project, a collective-run, nonprofit bike shop-qua-cycling advocacy effort. Au is joined by six of his fellow collective members inside the Project's Station North Arts District workshop area on a refreshingly pleasant April Friday afternoon, sitting in metal folding chairs with the space's doors open. Almost everybody here pedaled in from some part of the city.

"Biking fits well with the city's green efforts, and to get people out of their houses and exercise," 28-year-old Gabby Vigo notes, alluding to the city's Fit Baltimore campaign.

"You see what's happening in the city because of this push," Au continues. "And a lot of different cities are doing the same thing, talking about transportation issues--I mean, cities are trying to break into the 'Top Biking Cities in the Country' lists. So I think the general national consensus is trying to get something besides cars on the road, and it's trickling down to Baltimore."

It's a sentiment shared by the group gathered, as are the many reasons they spout off when asked about what makes Baltimore a good city for cycling: its compact size, that its few hills aren't intimidating, that for the most part you can do it year round, that it's more expedient for a large part of distances around the city, that, well, the present public transportation system can be frustrating and tedious. But very quickly this conversation starts to run into the many facets of Baltimore that make it less user-friendly, aspects well known to anybody who uses a bike as his or her primary mode of transportation. And it's these aspects, both macro and micro urban issues as a whole, that need to be addressed and discussed to help get more people biking in the city and push Baltimore into a more progressively moving urban environment.

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Pedal Power in City Paper

An interview with Baltimore City's "bike czar"

If you've noticed almost any new bike-friendly improvement around the city recently, from new bike lanes to bike racks, Nate Evans is likely behind it. Almost exactly a year ago, Evans, a former transportation engineer for Timonium's Constellation Design Group, started work as the City of Baltimore's Bike and Pedestrian Planner. Last week, he sat down in his City Hall-adjacent office, adorned with hopeful maps of Baltimore's cycling-friendly future, boxes of cycling promotional brochures, and, yes, two bicycles, to talk about what Baltimore City is doing to become a more friendly place for bikes.

City Paper: I have a number of friends who say they are absolutely terrified of riding bikes in Baltimore. I wonder what you would tell them to reassure them.

Nate Evans: I guess I would have to ask what they're afraid of.

CP: It's everything, from bad streets to angry drivers to being accosted in neighborhoods, having rocks thrown at them.

NE: First of all, I don't blame them for being afraid. Baltimore can be a very tough place to ride a bike. As far as if you're being run off the road or afraid of motorists, it happens. I can't tell you how many times I've been riding my bike around town and people tell me to get on the sidewalk. Well, it's illegal to ride your bike on the sidewalk. I think the best thing to do is to have some common sense about the way you're riding. Yeah, people are going to get upset and yell at you, but you have to keep a cool head. You might be able to out-maneuver a car, but you're probably not going to be able to outrun it.

As far as being accosted by people that are out to steal your bike or whatever, I've been tracking some stats on that, and we had maybe a dozen or so bikes stolen that way [in 2008]. There's a couple of [bad] sections in the West Side and just north of Johns Hopkins [Homewood campus]. This happens, but for the most part you can usually ride your bike faster than someone that's running after you. And if you feel like your safety is being jeopardized by stopping at a stoplight, I'm not going to tell you to stop if you can safely go. We are trying to address these issues. We put out a [public service announcement] about sharing the road, and it's gotten some good publicity and also our web site has share the road tips, and we have [share the road signage] on backs of buses.

One thing that we try and do is designate routes for people. If they feel like they want to ride their bike, if they tell us where they want to ride their bike to, and where they're coming from, we'll offer suggestions on an easy, safe route to take. We're not just going to leave 'em hanging out there. We'll help them.

CP: Someone could just, like, call you?

NE: Yeah, they could e-mail me [nate.evans"at"baltimorecity.gov] or call. If I don't know the answer, there are a ton of cyclists in the city that can give you a decent route no matter what part of town you're coming from.

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