The Annual Maryland Bicycle & Pedestrian Symposium

The Annual Maryland Bicycle & Pedestrian Symposium
Feb. 6th 8:30 - 4pm President's Conference Room, Miller Senate Office Bldg Annapolis

The symposium brings together planners, advocates, state and local officials working across the state to make Maryland better for biking and walking. This year, awards will be given honoring the most bicycle, pedestrian and transit friendly project, and posters will be on display from these and other noteworthy programs, efforts and organizations.

Advocates will have an opportunity to meet with their elected officials and talk about the programs important to your community. For those with strong opinions on new directions in transportation and land use, this may be just your opportunity to use the bicycle as your trojan horse. As you know, transit, regional planning, equity issues, etc. all carry certain stigmas, however, not that many people are strongly opposed to bicycling (unless we're in front of their SUV).

MDOT Secretary John Porcari will be the key speaker, and is expected to announce some exciting new initiatives. Congressman Jim Oberstar (MN) avid cyclist, who as chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure may be the most important person for transportation policy in the country, MIGHT make an appearance. Great turnout is essential! Please join us to support the cause of safer streets and healthy, bike and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods.

For those who believe in actions over words, each year there is a group that rides form Baltimore to Annapolis via the light rail and B&A Trail.
For more information, and to register: <a href="http://www.onelesscar.org/what_events_bikeped.php">http://www.onelesscar.org/what_events_bikeped.php</a>;
See you in Annapolis.
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Yield to LIfe

We all travel life's roads.
I stand before you to ask for your cooperation
in providing safe space for cyclists.
When you see a cyclist on the road, please, yield to life.

- David Zabriskie, world-class cyclist and founder of Yield to Life

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Traffic-calming program to expand

Balto. Co. officials say revised rules will allow speed bumps, other devices on more roads

By Laura Barnhardt | Sun reporter
December 30, 2007
...
Now county officials are preparing to relax the qualifications for the program that began four years ago.

Fewer vehicles will have to travel roads where residents see a speeding problem to qualify for a speed bump. And under the revised requirements that take effect next month, the drivers won't have to be traveling as fast.

For example, streets can now qualify for a speed bump if at least 100 cars use the road during its peak hour of use and travel at speeds 10 mph above the posted limit.

Under the old rules, 150 vehicles had to travel on the road during the peak hour.
...

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Hazard Elimination Program

Another 10 percent of each State's STP funds is set-aside for the Hazard Elimination and Railway-Highway Crossing programs, which address bicycle and pedestrian safety issues. Each State is required to implement a Hazard Elimination Program to identify and correct locations which may constitute a danger to motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Funds may be used for activities including a survey of hazardous locations and for projects on any publicly owned bicycle or pedestrian pathway or trail, or any safety-related traffic calming measure. Improvements to railway-highway crossings &quot;shall take into account bicycle safety.&quot; 23 USC Section 152

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Bicycle Friendly Community Workshop in Roanoke a Smashing Success

The group then identified critical issues preventing progress in Roanoke and surrounding communities, as well as a series of action items that will overcome those obstacles, which include:

* Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission establishing a Bicycle Committee
* Each local jurisdiction establishing a Bicycle Advisory Committee
* Each local jurisdiction adopting the regional bike plan of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission
* Encouraging local interest groups to include non-motorized transit issues in their platform
* Hosting a candidate forum
* Creating an awards program to recognize government officials or agencies that are instrumental in improving conditions for cycling
* Organizing a community bike ride series
* Organizing a

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Cyclist Challenges Driver Downtown - And Wins

It's an increasingly common slice of life in a city that often seems to be engaged in an ongoing war between riders and drivers. And if you were downtown at Yonge and Bloor Monday afternoon, you witnessed it at full tilt. It was a case of bike rage between a cyclist and a motorist, but unlike many of these cases, the guy on two wheels actually got the best of the man on four.

It happened around 3:45pm, when a motorist tried to make an illegal turn that almost knocked a rider off his bike. The angry cyclist refused to let the driver get away with it, constantly preventing him from making the prohibited turn, and taunting him with remarks about 'playing the game.'

Every time the driver attempted to escape, the biker would simply get in front of him, daring him to hit him. He didn't, and the cat-and-mouse traffic incident went on for a few minutes until passersby intervened and calmed the two-wheeler down. When they did, the driver finally made his turn and tried to get away from the area.

But even then he didn't get far. He was immediately stopped by police and handed a ticket for the illegal turn. And just to add insult to injury, the cops weren't in a cruiser - they were also riding bikes.

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