Meeting: Lots of legaleaze stuff about the 3 foot law, criminal negligence manslaughter charges vs JUST manslaughter, crash vs accident, and other legal jargon issues. Important issues but better for those that understand. I did not. Other legal issues were fines for parking in bike lane(like balto city), arrest for leaving the scene of an accident if there is injury(I kinda figured this was a crime??) and 1 or 2 other items.

Stuff I understood

ICC: Jon Morrison is leading the charge to re-instate bike path along new freeway or bike access onto it
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Complete streets: All new roads MUST have bikes and peds in mind when they are built. This is already a law but not followed(ie. ICC)

Bikes(full size) on MARC: Don’t hold your breathe though. I have tried over the years to gain access. Since I ride it and know a little about it I am now “the bike MARC” man;-) I’ll try again

***I think the most important issue was the 50/50 vs 80/20 TE matching funds. It is hard for counties to match 50% of project so a 20% match will get more use of the funds. This is especially true for poorer counties. I believe some of this money goes unused. A lawyer said not to spend too much time on this as there may not be TE funds in the near future due to the new congress. He raised a good point.

Trail access after dark. Interesting because a BF member just got a ticket a week or 2 ago. Someone from parks and rec is looking into this but felt parks will be held responsible so they must supply lighting and security. I think this might be best “don’t ask don’t tell”. The police can monitor the trail but if someone passes with lights, helmets commuter type then let them pass.

Funding for advertising 3 foot rule with billboards and signs to educate public.

It was good to meet some of the bike folks, good people. Unfortunately, I don’t think biking is taken seriously by our elected officials and until we have our folks in position, progress will be slow. Apparently many politicians will hold up bills. Why, just because they can.
Side note: Barry is in New York so he didn’t make the meeting. They were hoping he would call as he understands the issues more than most. They were hoping he would call but the conference call really sucked, people had to shout so phone callers could hear. Eventually they gave up and hung up.