Advocacy & Safety - Baltimore City Bicycle Master Plan

Baltimore City has just published it's Bicycle Master Plan draft. Here is a like with a link to the draft, the maps and so forth.

http://www.baltimorecity.gov/government/planning/bikeplan.html

If you feel like wading through it all and commenting be my guest! From my cursory review, it would seem that the plan is just your garden variety marginalizing of cyclists. The bike lanes also are located..... you guest it...right beside parked vehicles! BRILIANT!

I guess the pathways links might work except the will soon enough be strewn with broken glass and the flotsam and jetsam of urban life....and the next administration will forget to maintain them...

Do I sound pessimistic???

Go O'Malley!!!

I guess it is better than nothing?

I visited Baltimore over the winter holidays and talked to a relative of mine about her commuting to John Hopkins by bike (3 miles maybe). She described it as pretty insane to even try and once we drove the route it was obvious that it wasn't meant to be ridden. Baltimore had the fewest number of cyclists of any major city that I've ever seen.

I visited Baltimore over the winter holidays and talked to a relative of mine about her commuting to John Hopkins by bike (3 miles maybe). She described it as pretty insane to even try and once we drove the route it was obvious that it wasn't meant to be ridden. Baltimore had the fewest number of cyclists of any major city that I've ever seen.

Maybe you aren't looking in the right place.

Insanity is subjective. My LOC (Level of Comfort) and the LOC of other cyclists I know is usually a lot higher than those who cycle on a whim.

Insane? No not really. You just have to know what you are doing. Bike lanes will be nice if they ever show up.

Because my city (Durham, NC) is just starting its process of developing a Master Bicycle Plan, I decided to look at Baltimore's. Did anyone else look at the survey results? Here are the first two questions and the responses:

Based on your experience which Baltimore streets are best for bicycling?
1. Falls Rd
2. Pratt AND Charles
3. Roland AND Guilford

Which Baltimore streets are worst for bicycling?
1. Charles
2. Pratt
3. St. Paul

Unless they're talking about different streets with the same name, the people polled listed the same two streets as being the second-best AND the two worst! Huh?

All are arterial roads. Pratt may be considered the best as it cuts strait through the city west-to-east (one way). But, being 4 or more lanes wide and heavily traveled, in may also be the worst as far as congestion and aggressive motor vehicles are concerned.

Because my city (Durham, NC) is just starting its process of developing a Master Bicycle Plan, I decided to look at Baltimore's. Did anyone else look at the survey results? Here are the first two questions and the responses:

Based on your experience which Baltimore streets are best for bicycling?
1. Falls Rd
2. Pratt AND Charles
3. Roland AND Guilford

Which Baltimore streets are worst for bicycling?
1. Charles
2. Pratt
3. St. Paul

Unless they're talking about different streets with the same name, the people polled listed the same two streets as being the second-best AND the two worst! Huh?

I wonder who was polled because I don't agree with either the best or worst list, but can understand why they made the cut.

it's kind of unrealistic to expect bike lanes to be placed anywhere except next to parked cars in built up urban areas. Hopefully with a little bit of a buffer.

What do you want, elevated bike pathways?

I visited Baltimore over the winter holidays and talked to a relative of mine about her commuting to John Hopkins by bike (3 miles maybe). She described it as pretty insane to even try and once we drove the route it was obvious that it wasn't meant to be ridden. Baltimore had the fewest number of cyclists of any major city that I've ever seen.


Not insane at all, I commuted by bike from Baltimore to Towson for school for four years. It was roughly ten miles each way depending upon where in the city I was. What made you think that it wasn't meant to be ridden? Some routes are obviously better than others, but as a whole if you picked the rights streets you could generally have a pretty mellow commute.

it's kind of unrealistic to expect bike lanes to be placed anywhere except next to parked cars in built up urban areas. Hopefully with a little bit of a buffer.

What do you want, elevated bike pathways?

What I want is simple and adequate:

1) Education of motorists and cyclists
2) Lower speed limits on congested urban roadways
3) Enforcement of the laws
4) A decent run of paving on which to ride reasonably free of potholes, old mufflers, drain grates and debris
5) If allowed by available right-of-way width, a 13-14' wide curb lane
6) Signage

Bike lanes are dumb and in most cases cause more danger than they alleviate. Separate bike paths are unrealistic in most rust-belt cities and unnecessary for commuting

I think that overall things are pretty good for cyclists in Baltimore. It is not too hard to get from anywhere to anywhere. If one is willing to ride in traffic most places are okay, although rush hour is no fun.

There are some problem areas...

* Vetran's Bridge (Hanover Street)-- would be nice if it could have a bike lane: traffic too fast, scary metal grates, sidewalk has periodic steps.

* I typically avoid inner harbor anyways, but the Pratt street lane where the horse-buggies go is probably one of the most dangerous places to ride in town-- yet it still attracts novice cyclists who are lulled into thinking it is safe because it is somewhat divided from Pratt street. Cabbies, horses, pedestrians, delivery trucks make it very dangerous.

* Dirty streets-- but that's not going away anytime soon.

I cycle to work every day in Baltimore. I actually think of Baltimore as a fairly bike-tolerant place. Of course, about 5% of motorists cannot handle sharing/waiting, but those same people do all sorts of unsafe passing to other cars as well. NoRacer has a point about LOC - mine is much better for regular practice. I still avoid route 40 though, at least for now.
Best trafic calmer I've found: travel armed and visible.

Baltimore City has just published it's Bicycle Master Plan draft. Here is a like with a link to the draft, the maps and so forth.

http://www.baltimorecity.gov/government/planning/bikeplan.html

If you feel like wading through it all and commenting be my guest! From my cursory review, it would seem that the plan is just your garden variety marginalizing of cyclists. The bike lanes also are located..... you guest it...right beside parked vehicles! BRILIANT!

I guess the pathways links might work except the will soon enough be strewn with broken glass and the flotsam and jetsam of urban life....and the next administration will forget to maintain them...

Do I sound pessimistic???

No, you sound like someone who has seen this sort of thing before and knows better. In Cambridge MA, (Home of the beautiful people) They've got some bike lanes that direct cyclists to ride the wrong way on narrow, one-way streets. Needless to say, no one will take responsibility for this.