Maryland's MDOT Bicycle Safety Video

[The Human Car]

I am curious what people here think of this video: http://www.onelesscar.org/resources_safe.php (links are on this page.)

[Nick99]

They used a section of Bel Air I ride in all the time. They were describing what to do when you can't turn left in a multi-lane road. EXACTLY what happens there all the time.

Glad to see something specific to MD I can reference when cops hassle me or cars harass me.

They could have covered what to do when motorists harass you. Especially in yuppy Bel Air that happens all the time from entitled motorists who don't know bikes belong on the road not the sidewalk.

Not that it would do much, but I would like to see a video educating motorists. Especially the law about not honking at cyclists.

Overall pretty good, but a little naive to the reality of situations you might encounter as a cyclist.

[DCCommuter]

Did anyone at MDOT actually watch the video? Or did they just write a check and forget about it? I mean, it's pretty run-of-the-mill advocacy these days, but as far as I can tell the MDOT policy toward cyclists is to keep them out of the way of motorists whenever possible. MD is one of only four states with a mandatory shoulder use law, and my recollection is that MDOT was pretty vocal in opposing its repeal within the past year or so. Somehow the video neglected to mention the mandatory shoulder use law.

I generally liked the video, I recognized a lot of the scenery. I could quibble with some of the advice -- the bit about getting off the roadway when a car approaches from behind was a bit much, and the section about riding single file showed footage that wasn't really a good example -- but overall I thought it was a good tutorial. It's pretty much a given in cycling advocacy that no one is going to agree on everything.

I could see the whole population of Cabin John having a collective brain embolism when they found out that their tax dollars went for a video telling cyclists to ride in the middle of the lane on MacArthur Boulevard!

[ChipSeal]

I am curious what people here think of this video.

First the positive:
Good and accurate information. Good demonstration of where in the lane to ride and use of destination positioning.

It could be a lot better though. Bad form in starting with scary statistics! It should have started emphasizing FUN and that bicycle accidents are rare- though mostly preventable. Then present statistics if you must.

Not enough variety in bicycles shown or "rider type". It was almost completely in "roadie" attire. It could have had some of the road demonstrations and interviews with folks in "street clothes". Since the intended audience is the newbie rider, this emphasis could hurt the message.

It seemed to show that the only use of bicycles is recreational. While a commuter problem was demonstrated, the cyclist shown was in recreational mode.

It needed a lot more about cycling being fun and enjoyable.

[maddyfish]

Looks fair enough to me. Must suck not to be able to ride on 55 mph roads. Get that fixed.

[The Human Car]

@ Nick99: Is there anything a cyclists can do when a motorist harasses them in MD? Sometimes you can some sort of response but generally it just gets filed in the not important circular file.

I know several bicycle advocates who are trying to push for more and better cyclists awareness in driver's Ed classes and in the MVA testing but that issue is so buried in the bowls of car-centric MDOT it is really hard to get at. For now we have to settle for having something extra in professional driver training and aggressive driver training.... (are you sitting down?) ... "Cyclists are a hazard." Yep, that's going to help us a lot.

FWIW The rule about not honking at cyclists is a safety advice and not law, In fact the law has this little tidbit: § 21-504. Drivers to exercise due care.
(a) In general.- Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, the driver of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian.
(b) Duty to warn pedestrians.- Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, the driver of a vehicle shall, if necessary, warn any pedestrian by sounding the horn of the vehicle.

Since a lot of people think cyclists are pedestrians it is easy to say that (b) also refers to cyclist, that is of course unless we are talking about (a) which only applies to pedestrians and not cyclists. [Sorry I get a bit cynical of MDOT from time to time.]

Anyway I agree with you on the naive bit but they wanted to keep the time short. So what bugs me is why not advertise and encourage people to learn more like contacting their local bike club and getting the free Safe Bicycling in Maryland Handbook.

[The Human Car]

@ DCCommuter, The video was produced mostly by the Director of Bicycle and Pedestrian Access and some members of MBAC (http://www.mdot.state.md.us/Planning/Bicycle/MBPAC.html). I should apologize for not being able to attend the last of two meetings I was invited to attend but I strongly suspect that I would not have been able to change anything at that point as the video was essentially done at that point.

The video was paid for by Safe Routes To School Money (All Federal Tax Dollars.) And yes MDOT strongly opposes the repeal of our mandatory use law (mostly for some very stupid reasons.) Right now in MD there are three camps over what the term shoulder means for mandatory use; 1) As shown in the video, shoulders for emergency parking (mostly along side high speed roadways) 2) Any marked extra width (curb lane) 3) Any marked extra width 4' or greater (You do carry a ruler with you when you ride right?) So the video gave a hint for definition number 1 so that's cool by us as it is the other two definitions that cause the most trouble. And the video hinted at mandatory bike lane use by "obey all pavement markings."

I am glad to hear someone else does not like the bit about getting off the roadway. Personally I think it's the video editors fault for showing a rider executing a right turn when this script was playing:
When a motorist approaches from behind, move to the far right edge of the lane or off the roadway entirely and motion the motorist to pass you.
That's not the worst advise but showing someone making a beeline off the roadway sends the wrong message IMHO. And I agree, wrong footage for the single file section.

The battle over MacArthur Blvd seems to go on forever. It would have been way cool to shoot the single file footage on MacArthur Blvd while the cyclists were traveling southbound. You could probably hear the skulls exploding for miles. ;)

[The Human Car]

@ ChipSeal, I totally agree with your post, in fact the variety of rider types was one of Baltimore's pre-video recommendations (actually "recommendation" is too week of a word) and I volunteered and pushed to help with casting as I know tons of cool and different types of riders but all I got to get in was the Spanish speaking rider. I really had to laugh at the guy "in street clothes" though.

[The Human Car]

Looks fair enough to me. Must suck not to be able to ride on 55 mph roads. Get that fixed.

Well lucky for us most of MD does not not call going 15mph over the speed limit speeding so we do get to ride in 65-70mph traffic, which is lots of fun, so we are not too deprived. :p

[John E]

Looks fair enough to me. Must suck not to be able to ride on 55 mph roads. Get that fixed.

In San Diego County there are several posted 55mph (an even one 65mph) roads without reasonable slower alternate routes -- Del Dios Highway, Kearney Villa Rd., Palomar Airport Road, etc. All of these have bike lanes and are popular with cyclists. Does every 55mph road in Maryland have a reasonable bypass, or does the use restriction impair cyclist freedom of mobility as much there as it would here?

[dogsridewith]

? so, in Maryland, 7 foot wide Amish buggies can use 55 MPH roads but bicycles can not? 14 foot wide combines with a safety triangle can use 55 MPH roads but bicycles can not? If a 55 mph road has a shoulder everywhere but one old bridge, the cyclist cannot ride over the bridge? Can he dismount and walk? Can pedestrians use 55 MPH roads that fully consume the width of the rights-of-way the roads are on? (do you take off your shoes and roll up your pants and ford when you come to an old bridge in Maryland?)

[derath]

Looks fair enough to me. Must suck not to be able to ride on 55 mph roads. Get that fixed.

It's actually not bad. On the east coast speed limits are generally slower than midwest-west coast. For the most part the majority of roads 55MPH and above are limited access highways, which are forbidden anyhow.

I have no trouble finding safe to bike routes pretty much anywhere in the state as almost all secondary roads top out at 50MPH.

-D

[The Human Car]

@ John E, MD does a decent job of lowering the speed limit to 50mph on desirable routes with no shoulder so the 55mph prohibition is not really an issue here. We do have objections to having a 50mph road with no extra width as the only east west route in downtown Frederick. The Eastern shore has some high speed roads with no shoulder and no reasonable bypass issues that impedes mobility and slowly those are getting fixed (a portion of US 301 was recently opened up to cyclists.)

What is one barrier to cycling is the prohibition of cyclists on toll bridges (we can ride toll roads but not any of the bridges. See SB492 for the purposed fix.) This is a major issue on US40 and the Susquehanna River crossing, currently we have to do a 20 mile detour to use a bridge that is not as comfortable/safe as the 1 mile US40 bridge which is only a toll bridge because I-95 is a toll bridge and they don't want people using the local roads just to skip the toll.

Related is the prohibition on interstates, that is bugging a few of us as all these roads have deliciously wide shoulders and the surrounding roads have no extra width for cyclists. What would I rather ride I-83 or York Rd during rush hour? I-83 for sure. There are also some cases where a on and off ramp set (i.e. no crossing of ramp traffic needed) of an interchange provides a desirable route as well.

[The Human Car]

? so, in Maryland, 7 foot wide Amish buggies can use 55 MPH roads but bicycles can not? 14 foot wide combines with a safety triangle can use 55 MPH roads but bicycles can not? If a 55 mph road has a shoulder everywhere but one old bridge, the cyclist cannot ride over the bridge? Can he dismount and walk? Can pedestrians use 55 MPH roads that fully consume the width of the rights-of-way the roads are on? (do you take off your shoes and roll up your pants and ford when you come to an old bridge in Maryland?)

In MD cyclists have more route options then an Amish buggy. Pedestrians are prohibited in the same places as cyclists so getting off and walking is not an option. There has been some talk about providing a ferry boat at some bridge crossings. For the most part cyclists take the detour, hire a transport, hitchhike or just don't bike. The only times I have ridden the eastern shore was when I hired a transport to get over the bridge (@ $30 + state subsidies :mad:)

[NoRacer]

Cyclist -can- and -do- use 55 mph roads in Maryland as long as they use the shoulder and stay off the road surface. Examples are Route 40, Route 24, and US 50 between Queenstown and Ocean City.

MD cyclists are prohibited from riding on a prescribed list of roads of which many are Interstate highways (i.e., I-95, I-695, I-83).

[dogsridewith]

(I mean little bitty bridges and culverts on rural 55mph roads where there is shoulder everywhere but they didn't feel like making the old bridges wider.)

(I'm from PA where 55 is the speed limit many places on many two lane roads.)

(glad to hear you've got some good advocacy there...like dropping speed limit to 50 so cyclists can use)

[rando]

couldn't get the video. I got this:

The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.
The script had an error or it did not produce any output. If there was an error, you should be able to see it in the error log.

[NoRacer]

What is one barrier to cycling is the prohibition of cyclists on toll bridges (we can ride toll roads but not any of the bridges. See SB492 for the purposed fix.) This is a major issue on US40 and the Susquehanna River crossing, currently we have to do a 20 mile detour to use a bridge that is not as comfortable/safe as the 1 mile US40 bridge which is only a toll bridge because I-95 is a toll bridge and they don't want people using the local roads just to skip the toll.


+1, I had to take the 20 mile detour, last year, during my ride from Essex to Ocean City.

The toll on US40 is ridiculously high, too--$4.50 per car.

[RTC_Kartik]

Got the same error message as rando. Anyone have a correct link?

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