Blog Baltimore

Just remember fellow bicyclists:

When the driver of a vehicle thinks they own the road and wish to be assholes about it towards you, if you choose to confront them when they get stuck at the next red light, don’t be aggressive or mean. A lot of drivers believe that cyclists are supposed to ride on the sidewalks, not realizing that this is illegal. Even though their ignorance is not justified, they still have a much larger vehicle then we do and it would be hard to sue someone and enjoy it if you are dead.

I think it is about time the city and/or the state run some ads informing drivers that motorcyclists are not the only people that are required to be on the roads.

I’m passing along a survey that was sent to me by Nate Evans. This survey is collecting information about bicycling in the city. Pass it along if you can?

http://www.surveymonkey.com/bikebaltimore

I received an email from Nate Evans, with the City of Baltimore Bike and Pedestrian Planning Committee, regarding a current list of legislature that are currently in committee with the city council right now. He added a link to a petition site supporting these bills.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/853575826

I went over to http://www.baltimorecitycouncil.com and looked through list of legislature and found the bills on the petition as well as additional bills. Some of the bills seem to be fluff where as others are extremely important and require as much support as possible from the bicycling community.

Ordinance 09-0431 is extremely important. Seeing that there are still many grates in the city that are NOT bicycle friendly, the chances of an accident when required to bike on the road are more likely. Multiple places on Pratt Street where there are already designated bike lanes these grates exist. S. Hanover St at Pratt St is an example of an unsafe bike grate. If for some reason I need to shift close to the side walk because a car comes in to the bus/bike lane it could end tragically if the grate is hit. I for one would not be excited about flipping over the handle bars of my bike in the middle of downtown during rush our because of an encroaching car (which I’ve experienced many similar situations.)

Ordinance 09-0430 follows along the same lines of importance. If the city is going to embrace a growing biking community, they need to provide space. This ordinance covers the creation of bike lanes as well as grates that are bike safe.

Ordinance 09-0429 is unique in that many people don’t realize, you still need a safe place to put your bicycle once you get to work. I consider myself lucky because I can bring my bicycle inside and store it safely. For the longest time there was very little space for people to store their bicycles where I work. As of recently I’ve pushed management to provide more bike racks and to secure the bike racks. This is all in hopes that the students take advantage of this and bike, instead of drive, to school.

I’ve listed the rest of the ordinances that were brought up in the petition. All I can hope is that Baltimore takes advantage of its unique layout and embrace cycling as a major form of transportation, as opposed to some hobby or fad.

• 09-0176R – The Cyclists’ Bill of Rights FOR the purpose of reaffirming support for efforts to improve conditions for cyclists and encouraging more widespread awareness of the “Cyclists’ Bill of Rights” .
• 09-0175R – Informational Hearing – Baltimore Police Department – Police and Cyclists FOR the purpose of inviting the Baltimore Police Commissioner to report to the City Council on the Police Department’s procedures for responding to incidents involving cyclists and the Department’s general approach to the bicycling community.
• 09-0431 – City Streets – Bike-Safe Grates FOR the purpose of requiring that all City street paving and repaving contracts require that drainage grates be installed in a bike-safe alignment; requiring anyone undertaking a street paving project to install drainage grates in a bike-safe alignment; and generally relating to bike-safe grates on City streets.
• 09-0430 – Transit and Traffic – Bike Lanes FOR the purpose of allowing the creation of bike lanes; defining certain terms; prohibiting parking or standing in bike lanes; requiring bike-safe grates in bike lanes; imposing certain penalties; and generally relating to bike lanes on City streets.
• 09-0429 – Required Parking for Bicycles FOR the purpose of requiring certain new or expanded structures, premises, and uses to provide bicycle parking that meets certain standards; requiring certain employers to provide their employees with bicycle parking that meets certain standards; defining and redefining certain terms; imposing certain penalties; providing for a special effective date; and generally relating to required parking spaces for bicycles.
• 09-0173R – Informational Hearing – Mountain Biking on City Reservoir Watershed Property FOR the purpose of inviting representatives of the City agencies concerned with mountain biking on City reservoir watershed property and the mountain biking community to discuss how to allow mountain biking on City reservoir watershed property without harming water quality.
• 08-0077R – Baltimore City Green Collar Jobs Creation Coalition FOR the purpose of requesting the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development, the Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Director of the Department of Public Works, the Director of the Department of Transportation, and the CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools to form a coalition to develop a plan to create green collar jobs in Baltimore City.

It’s nice having a bus and bike lane in Baltimore to bike to work in. Recently though, it seems that the cars have started to ignore this fact. Over the past month I’ve started to see drivers disrespect these lanes, pulling out randomly on bikers and other cars alike. Even though there are signs posted every other block and the city has (almost readable) bike lane markings, drivers feel that they should drive in these lanes and speed excessively. Not only are drivers pulling into these lanes without really looking, they are also taking the opportunity to go as fast as possible down the street – as if they have more important things to do than wait for lights, pedestrians, bikers, and buses.

There was a sign posted when the city first designated the far right lane on Pratt Street for buses, bikes, and turning cars. It stated, “Bus lane violation $90 and 1 point.” If the city would like, I would love to start snapping photos of all the violators, including the license plates. I am sure I could save a few jobs from layoffs with the amount of revenue I could generate.

This would also include the taxi cabs that still refuse to obey the no stopping signs by the ESPN zone.

According to this sign it appears that there will now be enforcement of a $90 and 1 point fine for violation of the bus (bike) lanes in Baltimore. I wonder if I can offer the police my assistance by taking snapshots of offenders license plates! Maybe get a commission!

For all those bicyclists in Baltimore (me being one as well) remember that even though you ride a bike, this doesn’t mean you’re above the law. Many bicyclists tend to forget that we have to abide by the same laws as cars and trucks.

This doesn’t give us the right to zip through red lights. This doesn’t give us the ride to fly across lanes cutting off cars. This also doesn’t give us the right to cut through pedestrians trying to cross the street. Just because we’re not covered by tons of steel doesn’t mean that we have the right to go anywhere and everywhere our bike will take us, including side walks, walkways, and pavilions.

At this time the police are lenient but if these sophomoric acts continue, we’ll start to see a crack down and I for one don’t want to get a ticket for riding on the sidewalk because some asshole decided to ruin it for the rest of us.

If you don’t believe me, you can read about it here.

http://www.sha.state.md.us/OPPEN/acom_bike_laws1.pdf

It’s long, its painfully legalese. You can read a summary of this information here for those who have a hard time with big words.

Ultimately, cars have horns and blinkers. We have our voices and our arms. Make sure to use every means possible to communicate with other bicyclists and vehicles. Don’t assume that they know you’re there. Don’t assume that they’re going in any specific direction. If you’ve got a voice, use it. Otherwise buy a bell damnit.

I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts about the Nexus One and the hype around it. From what I’ve read, there is a whole lot of excitement about what might be a whole lot of nothing. A very simple look over at the Motorola Owner’s Forum shows the Droid isn’t as magical as many thought it would be. Having one to use, I can agree with a lot of the complaints on the site. I understand that Google is trying to drop a bomb shell on to the market, but it might not be as big as most people are speculating. It seems there’s quite a bit of basic functionality that Google just hasn’t hammered out. To make matters worse, it’s near impossible to find someone to express these frustrations to. I’ve been to the development sites and I’ve looked through the web, your only true options are to mix in with the developers of the applications market (which isn’t the right answer) or bitch on the manufacture forums, which means they fall on deaf ears.

I have a feeling a few factors will screw this expansion up for Google unless they get them wrapped up ASAP:

• Fix the lack of support for corporate email tie ins to Exchange active sync.
• Allow for direct Global Address List look ups through corporate mail
• Improve sending signatures through corporate mail
• Fix the disappearing email act when your corporate calendar or email force closes.
• At this time your corporate email or calendar can either suddenly disappear or crash and then come back gone, forcing you to re-input all the information to connect back to the server. This is not as annoying if your users are educated on how to do this, but if they lack the knowledge to activate their phones on their own then it can create issues.

I think there’s expectations that Google’s going to enter the market (which they already have) and suddenly take over. I’ll admit that I’m a hard core Google fan boy, trying to get in to every Google application that I can get my hands on. I don’t see their OS as ready though. I see a lot of potential but what I don’t see is a lot of follow through. If Google is going to do this right, they need to throw more resources into getting the OS ready. Working with the WinMo systems, the Blackberries, and Apple’s iPhone, I’ve never experienced as many applications crashes as I have with the Android OS. There’s not enough support to make the OS as mainstream as everyone thinks it is.

Who knows though, maybe I just got a lemon….

I’ve got a pair of Novara gloves from REI which work great in the 40+ weather for bike riding, unfortunately they’re not cutting it in this cold now. I’m looking for a good alternative to use in the really rough cold that we’ll be experiencing for the next couple of months. If you have suggestions let me know? Also, anyone have any thoughts on a good face guard that doesn’t get too restricting while biking.

More on the story
The Baltimore Sun released an article today on the issue. There’s quite a heated discussion going on within the comments at this time. Much of the comments are for the biking with a few thrown in to troll the conversation. The article really only shows how Baltimore City’s managed to waste even more money on an issue that shouldn’t be critical at this time. The concerns for having bikers at Loch Raven aren’t even fully justified. They contain a few view points that feel that bikers are causing pollution and harming drinking water. If there’s a concern for water quality, the mayor’s office should take a look down at the harbor sometime.

I’ve been hearing reports from bikers and friends that $100 fines are being handed out at the Loch Raven watershed. From what I’ve been able to read from a couple other sites, Baltimorespokes.org and MORE. These fines appear to be related to people that are biking on the fire roads and surrounding trails. MORE, from what I’ve heard from sources, has been playing a part in helping keep these fire roads and trails clear.

From what I can tell from Loch Raven’s website it sounds like a perfect place to go hike and fish. So why are they cracking down on Mountain Biking? From what I can tell from their current plan it looks as though the members of MORE and the general community are doing more work than the officials.

I would think that they would want to encourage people to be out on the trails riding. Not only does this keep an interest in Loch Raven, it also adds additional set of eyes and ears to a very large place that could be awfully expensive to police and patrol.

Maybe it’s time they revise the laws from 1998 as to how and how you can access the Loch Raven watershed?

Ultimately lets hope that with Sheila Dixon being charged with her felony that we won’t see a loss in support for bicyclists in Maryland. It would suck to see Baltimore not take advantage of its perfect layout for alternative transportation like bicycling.