FY2027 Baltimore City DOT Capital Improvement Program Testimony

Last week, Bikemore’s Executive Director Jed Weeks testified at the Baltimore City Planning Commission on the FY2027 DOT Capital Improvement Program - which is the capital budget that funds construction and retrofit of our roads and bridges.

“I want to start by saying I see a lot of good things in this year's CIP - critical safety projects that have been long paused now advancing, and a focus on hardening quick build infrastructure into permanent installations - reducing maintenance costs and eyesores. I want to especially thank DOT's planning chief and team for the progress we are seeing here - and I truly think they're the best thing happening at DOT right now. And I know we have a director that knows the stakes and is a believer in designing streets to save lives.

Since the adoption of the Complete Streets Ordinance in 2018, I have testified before this commission concerned about other divisions' seeming inability to follow that ordinance and since 2021, I have pointed to work that goes explicitly against the 2021 Complete Streets Manual guidance. 

My concerns continue today.

Specifically, the agency has been unable to lawfully execute resurfacing and continues to advance expensive, legacy streetscape projects that have no impact on safety and overbuilt bridges that still don't comply with the law. 

I have flagged projects like Belair Road Streetscape to this commission for years - this project directly undermines the goals of MTA's bus prioritization for the corridor and entirely contradicts the recommendations of the ULI study from which the project supposedly originated.

As I shared the past two years, the Sisson Street bridge in this year's CIP is engineered to accommodate double stacked freight - despite CSX lowering the tracks so that is not necessary. It has 15 foot wide lanes for truck traffic for a walmart that doesn't exist, and no shared use path or bicycle facility as required under adopted city plans. 

We are paying millions more than we need to for an outdated design that's not compliant with complete streets, and we will pay even more to later retrofit it into compliance, just like we've had to do with the Harford Road and Wilkens Avenue bridges. 

Have the other bridges in the project pipeline been designed in compliance with ordinance? We don't know, because despite asking this question every year, we've never been given an answer.

Of the 58 TEC Division resurfacing projects scheduled for 2025, 25 required retrofit to include all-ages bicycle infrastructure or shared use walking and biking paths under ordinance. As resurfacing began this past spring, zero of those plan sets were designed, and the city admitted that to achieve their resurfacing goals, they'd have to break the law.

Every single other resurfacing in the city this year broke the law in some way. Just look across the plaza to Lexington, where the city striped illegal travel lane widths and stop bar setbacks. It's literally in view of the agency office and city hall.

DOT needs more money. 

We have and will continue to fight for new revenues for the agency and a larger share of transportation dollars from the state, as we have successfully advocated in prior years alongside members of this commission, other advocates, and city and state elected officials.

But it makes that fight for resources hard when we have seen no meaningful reform of the broken divisions at DOT that are lighting that money on fire. 

DOT has an opportunity to change that - with new leadership and key positions out for hire.

Moving forward, I hope that the Planning Commission can help DOT ensure projects are only funded when they are generated from the agency's planning team, based on a goal of advancing adopted city plans, and demonstrably in compliance with ordinance. 

Thank you, and please let me know if you have any questions.”

A City Built For People: Bikemore Impact Stories

We’re starting 2026 with our final impact story for the winter season about family biking and a brighter future for all. Take a moment out of your day and consider donating to our organization. Help us start the new year with a few extra dollars to help pay our staff and keep Bikemore running for years to come. Happy New Year!

Love and kindness are central to Juan Carlos Puga’s life.

An immigrant, lawyer, and the president of the Bikemore board at just 34, Puga has discovered the secret to life at such an early age. He adores his wife, his friends, and most of all his daughter Isa. Love is a lesson that many in this world deserve and desperately need. It teaches us empathy. It teaches us compassion. It teaches us perspective. Love is your daughter, your mother, a tender touch, your bicycle, your lover, the singing man who dances with a stick at the corner of Broadway and Eastern, a plate of food, a cup of tea.

Without love, Puga may not be the man he is today. 

“I used to bike with my daughter on [the] front tube seat [of my Crust Nor’Easter bicycle]…I loved it, and I always wanted to keep her on the front tube seat because it feels interactive, fun, where you’re [able to talk to] her. Right when she was getting too big for [the front tube seat] we bought the e-bike.”

Puga rides with his family on their e-cargo bikes, a Surly Skidloader and Cannondale Cargo Wagon, because of the ultimate joy it provides them. It’s binding, almost entrancing really, how much it reveals the beauty of the city, especially through the eyes of a child.

“[My daughter Isa] talks about bike riding. Not about the bike.”

There’s a misunderstanding about the cost of an e-bike, but the Puga family figured out quite simply what the best option was.

“We did the math, and one year’s worth of car insurance was the equivalent of [an e-bike].”

Puga teaches us another vital lesson to take into the new year: patience. Too many things in this world happen too quickly, without caution, without care, and regardless of the powers that be of which continue to force us to adhere to the status quo, it is up to those like Puga who approach life with unrestricted empathy to create a better city. 

“The reality is we don’t live in a city where it has to be all or nothing. It doesn’t have to be black or white… Life, humans, transportation [are] grey, complex, and [very] different.”

Consider donating to Bikemore to help us in our mission of creating an empathic, fluid, and compassionate city for its people.

Bikemore’s success is only possible thanks to our donors. Individual donations help us pay our staff, organize our events, and advocate for safer streets. Start your new year with a donation to Bikemore so that one day more families like Puga’s can ride through the streets of Baltimore with safety paramount above all.

Call for Submissions for Bikemore's Inaugural Literary Magazine!

art by Mike Thomas

Bikemore is proud to present our limited literary magazine called THANATAPATHY made by our family biking coordinator Cora Karim for her capstone project through the Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps.

Submissions are officially open today, January 15, 2026, and we invite one and all to submit their prose, poetry, and visual art to be a part of this macabre and symbolic project on the theme of "REMEMBER, KIDS. CARS KILL!"

Take the time to review the website by clicking the button below. We look forward to seeing all the art submitted!

Spread the word! Tell your friends, your families, your dogs, and the sewer rats, too! Tell your enemies, your allies, the creature that lurks in your closet, tell them all, spread the word, and remind everyone, everybody, that cars kill!

2025 in Shared Mobility

In Baltimore, 2025 was the best year for our city's shared mobility program to date.

As a city, we took over 3 million rides during the year, reaching over 3.9 million miles covered on shared e-bikes and scooters. This is nearly double the rides Baltimore took in 2024!

Rides were also more equitably distributed, with ride origins from 2024-2025 increasing by 144% in East Baltimore, 163% in Southwest Baltimore, and 133% in Northwest Baltimore.

We saw the introduction of a new model of e-bike across the city, which adds a throttle option, making it easier for riders of all abilities to get around the city. There have also been many painted corrals installed around the city, making parking and placement easier, as well as decluttering our streets and sidewalks, perhaps the biggest problem the public sees with shared micromobility.

Additionally, we’ve had a major uptick in the enrollment and usage of the Access Program discounts, which waive unlock fees and discount the per-minute fees of the rides by 80%. These access programs are available to anyone who is enrolled in any form of government assistance; more information about the programs can be found at bikemore.net/enroll. In my work at Bikemore, I have directly enrolled upwards of 50 individuals into this program while going out into the community to provide information about it.

Finally, Lime and the League of American Bicyclists released a report Building Safer and More Friendly Streets: Lessons from Lime Data on Infrastructure, Safety, and Transit Access. The report looked at 5 million rides across 3 cities: Baltimore, Nashville, and Phoenix. It clearly shows that all-ages, separated infrastructure increases ridership and drives safety. 

In Baltimore, Lime analyzed ridership between 2022-2025 on newly installed separated bike lanes, and the increases in Lime ridership were dramatic. 28th Street saw a 526% increase, Harford Road saw a 423% increase, and Central Avenue saw a 229% increase in ridership. 

One piece of separated infrastructure can bridge divides and dramatically expand access for riders. For example, the map below shows the trip routes riders utilizing the 28th Street separated bike lane took this past year.

Looking forward, we hope for continued expansion of the micromobility program from both providers, especially their equity programs, and for the city to consider directly subsidizing trip costs for all riders.

Public access to anonymized trip data, which we successfully advocated for in Baltimore's permit legislation, makes it easier to tell stories on the impact this program has on transportation access in Baltimore.

We are grateful for both Lime and Spin for their help in our continued efforts to advocate for safer streets that have separated infrastructure to improve access for all Baltimoreans.

A City Built For People: Bikemore Impact Stories

There are so many stories in Baltimore, and we’re happy to share with you our fourth following our series for Giving Tuesday. Please consider making an end-of-year donation. Your support is critical to funding our operations and paying our staff.

TW: Some content in this story may be difficult for some to read (talks of traffic violence, car crashes, vehicular manslaughter)

Mike Thomas, 35, is a bike messenger and artist here in Baltimore City. When folks hear of a bike messenger, they may think of the NOS-fueled fixed gears riding through a cityscape collecting packages for delivery, an e-bike savant pushing the throttle with a hefty bag of food on their back, or a cyclist who’s simply trying to make a few bucks to get by. 

Thomas puts it simply.

“It’s like the arcade game Crazy Taxi.”

While others ride their bicycle as a form of commute, exercise, or enjoyment, Thomas rides his bike for work. His steel Bianchi Pista is an extension of himself, a form of living, of work, of existence. Without a bike, Thomas would literally be unable to work. He could go back to his job as a server or bartender, but to Thomas that isn’t a method of happiness. 

“Cutting off modes of transportation is not going to help people get out of economic strain.”

Thomas can’t afford a car, not that he should desire to. A city should present reliable, feasible alternative modes of transportation that are safe and accessible for all folks. Presenting one single, expensive, decaying option, such as a car, is ethically and emotionally fatal to some. Giving cars priority in the city is fatal to all.

“Out of towners can be pretty apathetic to [Baltimore]. I’ve also seen people who live in the city have that same type of disdain [towards pedestrians and cyclists].
”

There is a morbid normalization in this city, it seems, of a manslaughter by car being as easy as breathing air. 

Wayne Richardson was killed by a driver in 2019 on his way to feed his disabled son. Avery Cheley was killed by a driver running a red light. Those drivers were never found, and families lost fathers. Edgar Draper was killed in 2022 by a driver while on his way to surprise his partner Gloria with a gift from his trip to the retail store. Instead, she saw a far darker, more permanent horror. And David Herman, a beloved artist and vibrant life in Baltimore, was killed by a driver on a street that has been promised protected bike infrastructure for too long with little recompense.

One’s first question may be, “Was it the cyclist’s fault?” We are taught to create a perfect victim, one that must adhere to every standard and every law without a single degree of fault to ascribe such a title of “victim” to finally persecute the one committing the murder: the driver of a car. Their appeal is followed after their life is lost, never before, never to prohibit another from happening again. 

“I’ve grown numb to car [crashes] because I see one or two a week.”

For the sake of transparency, no, these cyclists were not at fault for being killed by giant automations capable of mowing down groups of people. There are many more, still, in Baltimore, unnamed, forgotten, their deaths statistics, numbers, echoes of a life once lived. The aforementioned were simply, in a way, perfect.

“No car [crash] death is justified.
”

Thomas is another soul moving through the city on two wheels. He pushes his own pedals, spins downhill on his fixed gear, and he loves it. You shouldn’t have to fear moving. You shouldn’t be forced to stay still. We are heated beings full of hot energy, each atom and joule within our carbon-based bodies itching to dance, ride, sing, scream, laugh. 

There is a growing case of apathy towards those we are being forced to forget. Remember their names, both living and lost, and remind yourself who permits such deaths.

On January 15, 2026, Bikemore will be calling for submissions for a limited literary magazine named Thanatapathy our family biking coordinator Cora Karim’s Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps capstone project for the year. Thomas himself is involved in the project, having worked on the art presented on the site. 

“In a world that’s getting more commodified and corporatized, some people aren’t getting heard. It could be bikes, it could be something else…It’s good for people to have an outlet…to voice their concerns and express themselves [whether it be for] cycling or alternate forms of transportation.
”

Save the date, ride your bike, wear a helmet, make real, human connections, and remember, everyone…cars kill.

Consider donating today for more impact stories. Bikemore actively works to advocate for a better city, a city that isn’t covered in the smog of an exhaust pipe or the rolling coal of a compensating truck driver. Our work at Bikemore isn’t just about pushing policies that ensure the safety of people walking, biking, and rolling: we ultimately want a city that’s connected and fluid for all residents, regardless of your mode of transport.