Originally Posted by
Bekologist
.....prevailing wisdom recognizes a LACK of dedicated space for bike traffic encourages close passing AND stunts ridership to boot.
Baltimore has about a one percent ridershare - paltry. I think Baltimore citizens need all the help they can get.
from an article with Baltimore's 'bicycle czar'.....
"Baltimore can be a very tough place to ride a bike. As far as if you're being run off the road or afraid of motorists, it happens."
maybe more space for safe passing is a good thing, eh?
No argument that building high-quality bike lanes and bike paths is a good thing and can, at least temporarily, lead to measurable increases in bike use. However, it is much cheaper and would likely have a much higher return on investment to simply start enforcing the law. Baltimore is rather notorious for their failed police department. After all, what good is a bike lane if the motorists just drive/park in it? They're going to need the enforcement leg of this stool in order to succeed in the long run. If one in six motorists are violating the passing distance law then it should be pretty easy to catch as many as the cops want. Obviously, they don't want to catch any at this time.
By the way, if Baltimore is anywhere near one percent for bike use, it has come a long way since my last trip there in '86. I rode in and spent a couple weeks with the future-dean of the school of public health and I saw about two bikes the whole time.