North Avenue Rising: Let's Make it Better!

Baltimore Plans to Improve West North Avenue

This post has been updated to reflect additional information received by Bikemore after publishing.

Earlier this week, Senator Mikulski’s office announced Baltimore’s receipt of a $10,000,000 TIGER Grant for roadway improvements to North Avenue.

The project application, entitled “North Avenue Rising,” was submitted by the Baltimore City Department of Transportation and Maryland Department of Transportation including the Maryland Transit Administration. 

The $10 million in federal funding is being matched by $14.7 million of state funding, $1.6 million in already-committed FHWA funding, and $1 million of Baltimore City funding.

The bulk of the $27.3 million project, $8.9 million, will focus on sidewalk and crosswalk improvements. Investments in transit infrastructure including bus stop shelters, transit signal priority at intersections, investments in the Penn/North Metro Station, and dedicated lanes amount to about $7.5 million. Funding for bicycle infrastructure makes up less than $1 million.

Current Plans Have Flaws

While early in design, the project as currently scoped has major shortcomings. Dedicated bus lanes stop and start through parts of the project, because Baltimore City Department of Transportation does not want to fully prioritize bus service over private automobiles along the corridor. There are bike share stations planned for key intersections, but there are no dedicated bicycle facilities planned for North Avenue in the project. While the dedicated bus lanes will be signed as shared with bikes, other infrastructure is relegated to stretches of parallel facilities that are sometimes several blocks away.

This contradicts the 2015 bicycle master plan, which calls for North Avenue to be a “main route” for bicycles, requiring dedicated, protected bike lanes. It also contradicts a multi-year collaborative community design process undertaken by the Neighborhood Design Center, which culminated in 2015. That plan also calls for protected bicycle facilities along much of West North Avenue.

These improvements alongside dedicated transit lanes would further reduce personal vehicle travel lanes or parking, and Baltimore City Department of Transportation was unwilling at the time of project submission to sacrifice convenience of personal automobile users to accomodate safe, protected lanes for people who bike alongside fully-dedicated transit lanes throughout the corridor.

Through Advocacy, We Can Fix the Flaws

Luckily, it is not too late to improve the North Avenue Rising plan. North Avenue has significant right-of-way, and advocacy for expanded funding of this project and true prioritization of transit and bicycles as required by our complete streets policy, and as outlined in our master plans, could allow for fully-dedicated bus lanes along the corridor adjacent to dedicated bicycle facilities. 

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An offset bus lane street (NACTO)

Additional personal vehicle lane reduction or reduction of some parking along North Avenue would allow for design of an Offset Bus Lane Street with dedicated, parking or flex-post protected bicycle lanes. This treatment is endorsed by the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), of which Baltimore is a founding member.

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A median rapid transit corridor (NACTO)

Additional personal vehicle lane reduction or reduction of some parking along with additional funding would allow for a true dedicated Median Rapid Transit Corridor for the widest portions of North Avenue. This treatment would include protected bicycle facilities and a curb-separated right-of-way for transit operations, improving bus speed and reliability while allowing for a future upgrade to rail transit on the North Avenue corridor.

Additional funding should should be leveraged by this grant award to make it a truly great project for Baltimore. The TIGER grant money should not be used for routine resurfacing, instead it should be used to bolster this project's innovation in biking, walking, and transit design. Governor Hogan can pay for the overdue resurfacing of a state marked highway, like he is doing in every other county in Maryland.

Bikemore wants to see North Avenue rising.

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>33% of households are zero car in pink areas. >66% of households are zero car in red areas.

Neighborhoods along the project corridor have some of the highest rates of households that lack access to a car in Baltimore City. Dedicated transit lanes will make buses faster, more convenient, and more on-time on this critical transportation corridor. Protected bike lanes will allow people to safely use bike share while calming traffic and making the street safer for people who walk. There is no reason to prioritize personal automobile throughput over the safety and convenience of neighbors and people who walk, bike, and take transit on this corridor.

Agencies involved in this project are open to our recommendations, and we look forward to working with them to advance a vision for North Avenue that truly promotes biking, walking, and taking transit. But more advocacy around complete streets is clearly needed, because a project that does not completely consider and include all modes should not be constructed, and we should not accept a political climate unwilling to include adequate design for biking in project submission.

This is a great opportunity to make one of the only wide roads in Baltimore functional for all users, and a mistake in infrastructure here will have to be endured for years to come. We must get to a place where our city prioritizes people over personal cars by default, not as an afterthought.

As this project continues to develop, we will notify you of ways to get involved and ensure we get the best possible design for people who bike, walk, and ride transit. 

Maryland Avenue Cycle Track Breaks Ground

Construction on the Maryland Avenue cycle track began this morning.

We've been as weary of delays as you, so when the notice to proceed was issued early last week, we kept our fingers crossed and our lips sealed. But it's happening, right now.

You may not see much at first, because preliminary work will focus on ADA compliant sidewalk ramps, roadway patching, and grate replacement. But crews will be working block by block to install the cycle track from 29th Street to Pratt Street for the rest of the summer. 

The city has chosen a reputable contractor with has a strong record of completing projects on time, so we hope to be able to ride a completed cycle track when bike share launches this fall. 

Construction will then continue on the Madison and Monument Street cycle tracks and the Preston and Biddle Street standard bicycle lanes, all of which are a part of this Downtown Bicycle Network project.

The city will be hosting an open house on the project at the Baltimore School for the Arts in August. We will announce that date as soon as it is available. In addition to this public meeting, DOT will be hosting pop-up events to explain the project over the next month. The first pop-up is next Tuesday, July 26th, from 8:00 to 9:00am in front of the Bikemore offices at 2209 Maryland Avenue.

One of the reasons we’ve developed Bikemore’s advocacy arm is to ensure projects like this, that have sat shovel ready for years, are no longer held up by bureaucracy or a minority of noisy NIMBYs. 

Thank you for your patience and faith in our advocacy, and please continue to give generously so that we see more victories like this one, and that we see them faster.

Statement on Charm City Circulator Cuts

Credit: m01229 on Flickr

Today the Baltimore City Department of Transportation announced proposed changes to the Charm City Circulator, including elimination of the Banner Route, elimination of the Green Route, and elimination of the Purple Route Northern Extension from Penn Station to 33rd Street.

There is insufficient revenue to fund current operations, partially because the Banner Route was continued after its funding source—a grant tied to the Star Spangled 200—ran dry.

The Charm City Circulator is incredibly popular, with ridership in excess of many streetcars in other cities. It is a testament to the fact that Baltimoreans overwhelmingly desire access to high quality, frequent transit services. The challenge is getting our residents and elected officials to understand the costs of running these transit services, and the options to pay those costs.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake proposed in this year’s budget a 4% increase in the parking tax at public garages to fund the Circulator, but the City Council balked at this idea. Instead, some on Council proposed an ill-advised $1 fare for the service, which when factoring in purchase, installation, and operation of fare equipment, would net no profit while likely reducing the ridership of those most desperately in need of this transit service.

Funding mechanisms such as the proposed parking tax increase recognize that parking lots downtown promote car travel to downtown, causing a negative impact to congestion and to quality of life in our city. Paying a fee to fund alternatives to personal car travel is a common mechanism used in cities across the country and world to offset that negative impact.

Instead of scrapping routes that provide important mobility along corridors that are not well served by the MTA and have some of our highest rates of houses unable to afford cars, Baltimore City Department of Transportation should look at how to best improve efficiencies of existing routes while elected officials aggressively work to pass parking tax increases and investigate new parking revenue sources, such as monthly fees for Residential Permit Parking, that could allow us to further expand city funded transit service to other underserved neighborhoods.

As seen by the State’s cancellation of the Red Line, a sustainable funding source for public transit under local Baltimore City control is much needed, and will allow the City to address specific mobility needs as identified by city residents, instead of by political winds in Annapolis.

$ Monthly Parking Costs $

Baltimore's parking rates are already significantly less than neighboring cities. We cannot continue to subsidize the true cost of single occupancy vehicle use at the expense of congestion reduction, improved air quality, and transportation options for our residents. 

We believe the Circulator fills a critical transportation gap, and strategies should be employed to increase and improve service--not eliminate it. That will require all of us and our elected officials to get real about what it truly costs to park cars. The time has come to bring our revenue from downtown parking in line with neighboring cities, and ensure that revenue is used to improve active and public transportation options for all Baltimore residents.

Simply put, we cut transit to keep parking cheap.

You can help support Bikemore's efforts to demand our city put people before cars:

Baltimore's Critical Juncture

It’s frustrating how far behind other cities Baltimore has fallen in building walkable, bikeable, transit friendly neighborhoods. It’s often difficult to believe change is possible, that we can actually expand opportunity for residents while encouraging investment and growth.

But change is possible, and now is the time to act.

This coming fall we will elect a new mayor and majority new city council. We need your support to ensure that they understand that Baltimoreans want a more livable city, and that we will turn up to vote for a livable city agenda. 

We have the opportunity to press these incoming elected officials to appoint visionary leadership and staff at city agencies like DOT and Planning, but we need your support to loudly voice our recommendations.

Right now, City Council is working to pass Transform Baltimore, a much needed update to our antiquated zoning code that will promote walkable, bikeable, mixed use neighborhoods. We need your support to ensure harmful amendments that will set back our neighborhoods don’t make it into the final bill. 

All of these issues are pressing, and all of these issues are political. That’s why Bikemore has formed an advocacy arm that will allow us to engage in direct advocacy and lobbying to promote our livable city agenda. 

Please support Bikemore with a donation significant to you, ensuring that we will be able to act swiftly and effectively to advance our agenda at this critical point in time.

Our New Advocacy Arm

Our #IBikeIVote campaign was a tremendous success this primary season. But our members wanted more. You asked for candidate score cards, endorsements, and direct, critical or complimentary feedback on candidates and their platforms. Our 501(c)(3) status limited our ability to deliver on those requests. Now we can.

Your financial support of Bikemore’s new 501(c)(4) advocacy arm won’t be tax-deductible, but it will allow Bikemore to be more direct in our influence. Our advocacy work will be far more effective, and our victories will be easier to obtain. 

We are moving away from the traditional membership model at Bikemore. Anyone invested in our mission will be considered a stakeholder in our work. Rather than spending staff time and resources tracking down member perks and schwag, we’ll focus on policy and infrastructure wins—which we believe to be the core reason anyone invests in Bikemore’s work. In turn, we’ll need people invested in our work to give, and to give significantly, to ensure we have the resources to deliver those wins.

We’ve analyzed our average donor and their donation size, and have determined that tax-deductibility is likely not a factor to the majority of our donors. Bikemore’s donation page will now default to our non tax-deductible advocacy work—the work most likely to deliver the livable city wins we need right now.

Bikemore will continue to accept charitable donations of any size through its 501(c)(3). There will be an opt-in on the donation page if you wish to receive a receipt for your donation for tax-deductibility purposes, and we will continue to use those donations to fund Bikemore’s research, programming, and educational efforts.

What's to Come

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be launching several campaigns that will amplify our constituents’ voices in asking for and organizing around a more livable, bikeable Baltimore. We’ll be recruiting you to serve on neighborhood associations, asking you to share a campaign to hire a visionary DOT Director, be vocal about #IBikeIVote, and more. We’ll ask you to be physically involved in our work in many ways—and your time and voice will be critical to the success of our movement.

But today, we ask that you financially sign on to Bikemore’s livable city agenda and our new focused direct advocacy push with a gift significant to you.

Better Bike Parking for Baltimore

Secure bike parking encourages bike ridership. Not knowing if there will be a safe place to lock up can mean the difference between riding your bike or choosing some other means of transport. 

This year, thanks to a generous donation from People for Bikes and a partnership with Baltimore City Department of Transportation, we are launching a campaign to install 100 more bike racks in places that need them the most before Fall 2016. 

Baltimore City has been offering free bike racks and installation for a few years, but the request process was clunky, inefficient and frequently led to poor communication and really long wait times. 

Bikemore has created an easy to use, mobile friendly site that will simplify the request process. By taking the lead on submissions, we can also track the time DOT takes to install the racks and create a layer of accountability. 

Our plan is that no one will have to wait more than six weeks to see their rack installed. 

Additionally, we want to make sure that these racks are made available to the places and businesses that would not otherwise be able to afford a rack. Businesses of all types should note that if you purchase your own rack, you can also request the city install it for a small fee. This fee--depending on the surface and demand may even be waived. 

Our Plan: 

• Model an efficient, mobile responsive request system. 
• Launch a summer long marketing campaign to ensure that businesses and schools in neighborhoods underserved by bike parking and DOT outreach have access to the free racks. 
• Educate residents on effective bike racks and locking techniques that deter theft. 
• Advocate for city bike rack requests to be integrated into the 311 system by Fall 2016. 

How can you help? 

Is there a business or school you frequent that you wish had better bike parking? When visiting, direct the owner of the business to the form using your smart phone. (our east to remember URL? bikemore.net/bike-parking) Help them complete the application. It’s important that the point of contact on the request form is the person that has the decision making powers on the property where the rack is requested. 

Share on social media. The more people that know about this process the better! 

Join our bike parking STREET TEAM. We will be scheduling a time later this summer to canvass or call business or schools in need of bike parking and offering to assist them with completing the request form. 

Interested in learning the proper way to lock a bike, and ensuring you selecting the most secure rack to lock to? We love this article from our friends at Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates. Not all bike racks are equal, so educate yourself on which ones are best, and let's get some BETTER BIKE PARKING for Baltimore!