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Posts Tagged ‘Maryland’

Congratulations to all the jurisdictions awarded Maryland Bikeshare Program grants.  Within our immediate area, Montgomery County and UMD/College Park received implementation grant awards, and Prince George’s County/City of Greenbelt received feasibility study grants.

From the MDOT release:

The grant-winning projects include both feasibility studies for several jurisdictions and actual implementation and opening of bikeshare stations for others that are further along in the planning and design process.  The winners are divided into two categories – funding to implement a bikeshare facility and funding for a feasibility study to determine potential bikeshare station locations.  The Bikeshare Grant Program is funded through the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Program and will cover 80 percent of the total project cost.  Local jurisdictions are required to pay a 20 percent match.

The winners of grants to implement bikesharing systems are:  Baltimore City, Montgomery County and joint partners with University of Maryland at College Park and the City of College Park.  The winners of grants for feasibility studies of potential bikeshare stations are:  Frederick City, Howard County and joint partners with Prince George’s County and the City of Greenbelt.

To some, bikes are a hobby, a pastime, a toy. To most of our members, bikes are simply their preferred mode of transportation. And then there’s local blogger, GirlonaBikeDC. For Kate, a passion for  bicycles led her, quite literally, down the path to the most romantic bike love story of her lifetime.  At last year’s BikeFest, Kate was the top bidder for our C&O Canal of Romance package, a plush bike trip including 2 nights in a historic lockhouse along the C&O Canal, plus some other special amenities.

Read GirlonaBikeDC’s bicycle engagement story below. And keep an eye out at this year’s BikeFest for the same package with some new additions, for all the bicycle lovers out there.

 

At last year’s BikeFest, one of the silent auction packages caught my eye. No, not the unicycle lesson, or the 50 States Preview Ride. It was the “Weekend Along the C&O Canal” package. My (then) boyfriend Jimmy was just starting to get into riding bikes with me. We often rode to & from work together, and would take short trips to the Mall & memorials. We were often on the look-out for any cheap weekend trip options; short nearby trips that would make us feel like we were on vacation but wouldn’t break the bank or use up our leave time. This “Weekend” package looked perfect: a 2 night stay at a “cozy” lock house that was within biking distance. I had no idea what a lock house was or what was considered “cozy”, but I didn’t care. I was going to win that auction.

Win I did, however we didn’t have an opportunity to go until September. The package also included a bottle of wine, chocolates & a front rack for a bicycle. How romantic (and useful)!  I researched Lock House 6 and from the limited photos & description, it seemed interesting but I still had no clear idea of what we were getting into.  It had been restored to the 1950′s era (each lock house that is renovated for rental is restored to a different time period in the canal’s history) and had full amenities including running water, heat/air conditioning, electricity & furnishings. We just had to supply the towels/linens & food. When it came time to leave, Jimmy was extremely skeptical about the whole affair. We’d have to pack & bring everything we needed with us…on our bicycles?!  Jimmy thought this was impossible. But he tried it anyway. We packed what we thought we would need (we overpacked, actually) and set off.

 

The weather was perfect for the trip. An early fall day with clear skies & mild temperatures. Riding along the canal towpath felt like an adventure. Wildlife peeked out from everywhere, whether it was a heron at the canal’s edge or a fox watching us ride by. When we reached lock house 6 less than an hour later, it felt like we were in a fairy tale and had found a little cottage in the woods. We had a great time exploring the surrounding trails during the day & relaxing in the rocking chairs on the porch at night. It was a wonderful weekend we would never forget.

We’ve been back three times since, and can’t wait for our next trip. The C&O Canal and the lock houses are magical. Even though it was only a few minutes outside of DC, it felt like we were hundreds of miles away. It has become a very special place for us. In fact, lock house 10 is where Jimmy decided he wanted to ask me to marry him (I said yes, by the way). I can’t think of a better place for us to promise to share our lives with each other. And we have WABA to thank for providing the inspiration for what has become our own romantic ritual. “

National Bike Summit Event Roundup

When this year’s National Bike Summit participants roll into town, DC is going to be a hub for bike-related socializing. WABA encourages you to attend some of the fun (FREE) events surrounding the Summit.

If you haven’t signed up for the Summit yet, don’t worry! There’s still plenty of time. Online registration is closed but you can register on-site at the Grand Hyatt on Tuesday, the 20th at 1:30pm. Click here for more information.

Tuesday

1:00pm Tim Johnson’s Ride on Washington
Join Cyclocross superstar Tim Johnson for the last leg of his bike advocacy fundraising tour. Tim and his group started in Boston, but you can join him in DC.

2:00pm First-Ever National Women’s Cycling Forum
Women across the US bike at much lower rates than men. Come explore the issues and discuss ways to encourage  the ladies in your life to get on bikes (Co-hosted by the Alliance for Biking and Walking and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals).

Wednesday

6:00pm Women’s Cycling Social
Come mingle with the women who are making waves in the active transportation world at BusBoys and Poets (Co-hosted by the Alliance for Biking and Walking and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals).

6:00pm For your Disapproval Ride
Join local shop, BicycleSPACE, for a group ride to the BikeSnobNYC book-signing of his latest, ever-so-cynical gem: The Enlightened Cyclist (Check out the trailer).

Friday

9:30am-11:00am Congressional Bike Ride
Take the morning off,  jump on your bike, and meet up with hundreds of bike advocates throughout the country for the Summit’s final hoorah hosted by WABA. We’ll tour new bike infrastructure and you’ll make some new friends.

Know of anything else going on, organizing a ride or a happy hour? Share your NBS events in the comment feed.  And don’t forget to share your experiences on Twitter using the Summit’s hashtag: #NBS12

Hundreds gathered  at The House of Sweden this past Sunday for WABA’s first  ride of the season. With no sign of precipitation, turnout for the 6th Annual Vasa Ride was high and so was morale. There’s only way to describe it, the day was truly vawesome!

Vawe·Some \vˈȯ-səm\ (adj.)
Definition of Vawesome
1. Relating to formidable and exceptional experiences on WABA’s Vasa Ride.
2. Arousing joy and feelings of camaraderie, after riding your bicycle and ingesting anything infused with blueberries.
Related forms vawe·some·ly, adv.; vawe·some·ness, noun

Examples of proper usage:

• Brandywine Street was vawesome, even though we had to stop and walk our bikes 3 times.
• The PowerAde crew exhibited exceptionally vawesome moves while breakdancing to “Shout.”
• We didn’t know if the blueberry soup would be hot or cold, but we heard it’s vawesome.

Participants selected a 60, 31, or 15-mile route, and many riders ultimately opted for a custom route in between.  After a traditional sendoff from the Swedish Bicycling Ambassador, riders took to the streets. Fueled by blueberry flavored items from KIND healthy snacks and PowerAde and cheered by singing and dancing along the way, we conquered the mighty hills of Maryland, and DC. At the end of the day, we shared stories of bicycling adventures over frosty New Belgium brews at Old Glory.

The day would not have been so vawesome without all of our support. Thanks again to our hosts and co-organizers at the House of Sweden for inviting 400+ colorfully bright, spandex-clad riders into their facilities, and for serving up traditional blueberry soup and Swedish hugs. Our volunteers and ride marshals deserve a big round of applause for their efforts to make the event orderly and safe.  And a special thanks to Ekstroms, KIND Healthy Snacks, and PowerAde for all the blueberry goodness, and to New Belgium Brewing and Old Glory Barbeque for hosting our post-ride happy hour.

Be sure to check out our pending flickr slideshow (so many vawesome shots!), and share any of your photos on our Facebook page.

Rides like this support WABA’s mission to make the greater DC region a better place for bikes. To continue supporting bicycle advocacy in your neighborhood, we encourage you to check out our member benefits and join now. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find up-to-date with our work and our events.

Skol!

BikeFest 2012

Once again we’re hosting the biggest bike-themed party in the DC-metro region – and all the proceeds make their way back to you in the form of stronger advocacy and, ultimately, better bicycling.  We’re planning now to make this year’s BikeFest our most lively and successful fundraiser to date.

In order to celebrate a year as great for biking as 2011 and keep the advocacy strong through 2012 and beyond, we need your support.

Supporting BikeFest 2012

Will you help WABA by connecting us to individuals or groups who may be able and willing to participate in this year’s BikeFest? We are in need of potential venues, sponsors, and in-kind donors.

All it takes is a connection. Here’s how you can help:  if you think your neighborhood baker, sports club, or  favorite bike mechanic is  able to help out, or maybe your company is interested in sponsorship opportunities, let us know.

It only takes a minute. Just send me a quick email at nelle@waba.org or give me a call at 202-518-0524 x202.  And be sure to use the buttons at the bottom of this page to share this with your networks on Facebook or Twitter.

We’re on the lookout for:

A venue: An approximately 5,000 square feet space to accommodate the event.

Sponsors: Title sponsor and lead sponsors for financial support.

Silent Auction Items: Components of experiential bike-related silent auction packages.

Raffle Items: Desirable items for our raffle contests.

BikeBuild Participants: Four local bike shops to build and auction-off handcrafted bicycles.

Food and Drink: Local restaurants/caterers and liquor distributors to keep us happily satiated.

How and why your support matters

BikeFest is an opportunity to the region’s bicycling community to come together to celebrate the progress we’ve made in making the area more bike-friendly.  It is also an opportunity for WABA to raise funds to be used in areas in which funding is hard to come by.  Those parts of our region with the greatest need for better bicycling facilities and programming also tend to be the areas in which we have the fewest members and the least financial support.  Thus, we need to raise funds at events like BikeFest to fund our overall mission and continue to work in undeserved communities to get our message to those outside our core audience.

We’re already looking forward to BikeFest 2012, and we have some big ideas in mind.  But we need you to help us fill in the details with the types of people and things you want to see.  Love that bike shop?  Ask them to enter the bike build contest.  Favorite restaurant? We’d love to feature their food.  We just need your help to bring the right partners together.

Join staff from WABA and Rails-to-Trail Conservancy for Meet & Greet on February 1st, 2012 at 6:00 pm at the Rails-to-Trails Offices. This event is open to all interested in participating in the Climate Ride NYC-DC, May 19-23, 2012. Past Climate Riders, members of the 2012 Team WABA and Climate Ride staff will provide an introduction to the Climate Ride including tips on fundraiser and advice on training. This is an opportunity to have all of your questions answered. Light food (pizza) and drinks (beer) will be provided!

Event Time: February 1st, 2012 at 6:00 pm

Event Location:
Rails-to-Trail Conservancy
The Duke Ellington Building
2121 Ward Ct., NW, 5th Floor
Washington, DC 20037
See on Google Maps

Please RSVP for the meeting (not mandatory, we just don’t want to run out of pizza)!

Learn more about the 2012 Climate Ride and Team WABA

An Opportunity to Help Motorists and Cyclists: A “Change-Lanes-and-Pass” Rule

My neighborhood has many polite drivers who wait behind me as I ride on two-lane MD-953, which has double yellow (no passing) lines the whole way. I am usually in the center of the 10-ft lane, pulling a trailer with my daughter.  Even when I don’t have the trailer, 95% of the drivers wait until the oncoming lane is clear, change lanes, and pass.  And when I am riding toward the right side of the lane for some reason, the vast majority still change lanes to pass.

Countless drivers have probably done you the same favor on another road. But they are technically breaking the law.

We think Maryland should legalize changing lanes to pass a bike riding in a no-passing zone. Not only are these drivers being safe, they actually enhance safety.

Why would cycling organizations initiate a reform that increases motorists’ rights? Aside from the fact that it probably will make us safer, cyclists probably understand this issue better than motorists. Cyclists have discussed many “rules of the road” that make sense for motor vehicles, but do not enhance safety when applied to bicycles. We would love to see those laws reformed. In some cases we may lack the political power to compel the changes we hope to see. But we probably do have the power to secure the right to change lanes and pass a bike when there is a double yellow line. So I think we should.

But Let’s Not Go Too Far: The “Partly-Cross-the-Line and Pass” Rule

By coincidence, some other Maryland advocates are considering a similar reform, but they would go even farther. Their idea is to allow drivers to cross the double yellow line to pass bikes, without the requirement to fully change lanes. This “partly-cross-the-line and pass” rule seems to be motivated by the observation that some cyclists ride far enough to the right so that a car barely has enough room to squeeze between the bike and the yellow line, and some drivers do. This rule would allow motorists to move only partly into the adjacent lane to pass the cyclist by the required three feet.

We prefer the requirement that the motorist fully change lanes. Motorists frequently report difficulty in gauging the three feet of space they are required to leave when passing, so why not apply the normal requirement that motorists change lanes? It is an existing behavior with clear rules and expectations. There is no need to encourage drivers to pass while occupying parts of two lanes.

Additionally, the requirement to change lanes before passing would discourage the idea of “squeezing” around others—whether the cyclist or a potential oncoming motorist. Finally, the State of Maryland will soon start erecting signs that say “Bicycles May Use Full Lane”. We think that “change lanes and pass” better reinforces the message of those signs, than partly crossing the line and sharing the lane.

Over the next few weeks, advocates in Maryland will be deciding which approach to take. While WABA took a major role last year in the promotion and passage of the Maryland vehicular homicide law, this year WABA intends to play a supporting role to Bike Maryland, which frequently leads statewide efforts to enhance cyclists’ rights through state legislation.

(Jim Titus is a member of WABA’s Board of Directors from Prince George’s County)

For decades, cyclists have cherished their beautiful morning commutes and family bike rides through Rock Creek Park. Both the road and trail through the park provide two options for different types of cyclists.  Children and adults, less experienced riders, and those looking for a gentle and slow ride, all enjoy the multi-use path (which is in need of much improvement: read more here).  The roadway provides a space for bicyclists to travel faster (above 15 mph) to achieve a solid workout or arrive at their destination more quickly.  If the Senate passes the current draft transportation authorization bill in its current form, all bicyclists will be REQUIRED to use the Rock Creek Trail and all other sidepaths (within 100 yards) on Federal land roads with speed limits over 30 mph.

This is bad policy! Sign the petition, make your voice heard.

From the League of American Bicyclists:

“The draft of the Senate’s transportation authorization bill, S. 1813 Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, includes language that would introduce a mandatory sidepath law on roads in our National Parks and other Federal lands. It requires cyclists on Federal lands to use a path or trail, instead of roads, if the speed limit is over 30 MPH and a trail exists within 100 yards, regardless of its condition or utility of the path. The provision sets a terrible precedent. Passing it would send the wrong message to transportation agencies that these policies are acceptable. Laws like this have been taken off the books in states over the past 30 years. This takes us in the wrong direction.”

Take a minute and sign the petition now to tell the Senate to remove the provision requiring bikes to use sidepaths!

District of Columbia Residents: Please note this petition is targeted at the entire Senate and not Senator specific.  Please sign!

For those of us working on the new Capital Crescent Trail and the Purple Line, it was a surprise to learn recently that the Maryland Transit Administration believes that in order to achieve the original objective to have the trail travel through the Wisconsin Avenue tunnel, it will cost an additional $40 million – 43 % of the total coast of constructing the entire trail.  As a result the MTA is now asking the County to provide guidance on this and other issues related to the design of the Trail.  The State will design and build the Trail, and the State expects the County to pay the cost of the Trail.

I want to make sure that we have looked at all the options carefully before we make this important decision.  The Montgomery County Planning Board will consider this issue on November 17^th and I look forward to receiving the benefit of their work.  We want to ensure that we are capturing a long-term vision, and not a short-sighted solution.  We need to look at all the alternatives and be sure we understand the implications from a community point of view while being fiscally responsible.

I will be meeting with WABA’s Executive Director and other stake holders to work to find the best solution.  In any case, I remain committed to the Capital Crescent Trail’s future viability.

The author is Chair of the Montgomery County Council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy, and Environment Committee.

Last week, at its regional summit on bicycling advocacy, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) previewed its Regional Call to Action for better bicycling in the area. The Call to Action focuses on making bicycling a viable form of transportation for a much broader segment of the population.

Currently, approximately 3% of DC residents bike to work according to the most recent American Community Survey. WABA’s goal is to continue to improve cycling conditions for those who already bike, but to make improvements in a way that will induce the 60% of people who say that they are interested in biking, but concerned about some element, to give cycling a try.

“We need to think bigger and think broader about making bicycling appealing to the average person who simply wants to get where he or she is going in a convenient, economical way,” says WABA Executive Director Shane Farthing. “For bicycling to become and remain a viable transportation option for the average person, it needs to be usable, connected, safe, and protected. While biking is great fun and great sport, it is also–in many parts of our region–the fastest and easiest and cheapest way to simply run an errand or make a short trip. In those parts of our region that lag behind, where conditions are not what they need to be for the average person to bike comfortably, we must accept the challenge and bring about improvements.”

WABA’s last Call to Action, in 2000, was directed to the District of Columbia government, and focused energy on the improvement of District bicycling facilities. In that 11 year period, the number of miles of bike lanes has jumped from less than three to more than fifty, the District Department of Transportation has built a reputable bike program, and bicycle mode share in DC has tripled.

This 2011 Regional Call to Action is directed to the bicycling community, encouraging every cyclist to get involved in the growth of cycling.

The full Regional Call to Action document is available for download at: http://www.waba.org/advocacy/documents/2011_call_to_action.pdf