Baltimore Complete Streets Recognized Nationally as One of 12 Best Initiatives!

The National Complete Streets Coalition, a program of Smart Growth America, has recognized our new Complete Streets Bill as one of the 12 best Complete Streets initiatives of 2017!

In collaboration with Councilman Ryan Dorsey, the bill we drafted prioritizes the safety of all people using Baltimore’s streets over the speed of moving cars. Complete Streets often have slower speed limits, wide sidewalks and crosswalks, protected bike lanes, bus lanes and shelters, and beautification like trees and plantings. The Baltimore bill also contains several equity-focused provisions intended to address the disparities created by decades of structurally racist and car-oriented road design.

“Passing a comprehensive Complete Streets policy that centers equity is a key component Bikemore’s strategy,” says Bikemore Executive Director Liz Cornish. “Complete Streets is about so much more than bikes, and it’s past time we as a city commit to a policy that improves the health, safety, and mobility of all Baltimore residents. We are honored to have our work recognized by Smart Growth America, even as we recognize that work is just really beginning.”

Smart Growth America recognized Baltimore’s new policy for its focus on equity, implementation and accountability. “After scoring and rating America’s best complete policies for more than five years, we revised our criteria this year to reflect new lessons, particularly the importance of focusing on implementation and equity. We are impressed with the work Councilman Dorsey and Bikemore have done and are happy to feature the Baltimore bill as a leader in these emerging focus areas,” said Emiko Atherton, Director of the National Complete Streets Coalition (a program of Smart Growth America).

Currently, Baltimore City has a Complete Streets resolution, passed in 2010, but that resolution non-binding and is often ignored. Beginning early in 2017, Councilman Dorsey and Bikemore began work building a coalition around Complete Streets, visiting with more than 50 neighborhood groups, and local, state, and national advocacy groups to discuss Complete Streets. The Bill’s first hearing, planned for the Land Use and Transportation Committee hearing on March 21, was cancelled due to snow and has been rescheduled tentatively for April 25 at 5:00PM. The hearing will be televised on Charm TV.

“If we truly wish to improve quality of life for all City residents, we need policies that prioritize disinvested communities and fundamentally change how we engage residents in the transportation planning process,” says Councilman Dorsey. “I’m happy that our work in Baltimore is being recognized. We are proud of it and look forward to working with Mayor Pugh, Council President Young, and my colleagues on the Council to pass and implement Complete Streets. However, legislation is just a start.”

“The real work of getting this bill passed is just beginning. Communities need to have ownership over the legislative process,” Dorsey continued, “for us that means conducting our own outreach with communities that are most directly affected by transportation disparities.”

In addition to being recognized by Smart Growth America, the Baltimore Complete Streets team was selected to present at the National Complete Streets Coalition’s second annual conference, called Intersections: Creating Culturally Complete Streets in Nashville, TN on April 3-4.

And while we've been working on this for over a year, this is really just the start. Over the following months, we're planning to grow and strengthen our coalition, do further outreach with communities that are most directly affected by transportation disparities, and work to get the bill passed. 

But to do this, we need your support. 

Action Alert: Tell Council you support Complete Streets by 3/16!

Now is the time to tell City Council you support Complete Streets! 

The new equity focused Complete Streets Bill prioritizes the safety of all people using streets over the speed of moving cars, and the first hearing for it is on Wednesday, March 21st. 

While we've been working on this legislation for the year with Councilman Ryan Dorsey and community organizations across the city, this is the first public hearing, and therefore the first opportunity for the public to provide comments. 

Now is the time to make your voice heard! Use our form to tell Baltimore City Council that you support Complete Streets, and customize the message to share your personal experience. Submit your thoughts by March 16th, so we can give it to council prior to the hearing. 

This is your chance to speak early in the bill process and ensure your comments are incorporated into amendments and revisions to the bill before passage.

Transit Funding Bill Clears Hurdle

Today the Maryland House of Delegates voted on a metro funding bill that originally provided $150 million in annual funding for the WMATA system in the DC region to begin to fix maintenance issues, improve reliability, and bring sustainability to metro operations.

The Baltimore region's transportation system was not initially included in this bill. 

Along with the WMATA region MetroNow Coalition, Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, and 1000 Friends of Maryland, Bikemore worked behind the scenes to draft amendments including the Maryland Transit Administration, which was facing similar, but less reported challenges, hoping to push for inclusion of increased resources for MTA in this bill. 

That very week, Maryland Transit Administration's very real challenges became clear with the sudden shut down of our metro system due to rail wear.

As a result of our joint advocacy and with support of our Baltimore delegation, our proposed amendments were successfully introduced and passed today. They require:

• A minimum 4.4% increase in MTA operating funds starting July 1, 2019 and continuing for at least the following two years.

• An appropriation beyond current planned capital investments of at least $29.1 million in each of the above three years.

• A maintenance and condition audit of all capital assets (similar to the one undertaken by WMATA that resulted in the $150 allocation in this bill).

• Development of a comprehensive 30 year regional transit plan to replace the 2002 Baltimore Regional Rail Plan and regular updates to that plan.

The legislation is now heading to the Senate, where these same amendments will be introduced by the Baltimore delegation. We will press for passage of the bill including these amendments on the Senate side, so we can send this bill to the governor's desk for signature.

Fire Access issue still delaying the Downtown Bike Network

This morning the city's Board of Estimates voted to approve a 318 day delay for work for the contractor hired to construct the Downtown Bike Network — again citing the fire access issue as the cause for delay. This means that the city now has until October 31, 2018 to complete work that was originally set to be completed by January 2017.

Beginning in May of 2017, there were complaints about the width of the Potomac Street bike lane which was then under construction, citing a portion of the Baltimore City adopted International Fire Code addressing the required width of streets. This code is now being applied only to streets with bike lanes, delaying construction of bike lanes that are already fully designed and funded. You can check out full story for more background on this ongoing issue. 

If less than 20 feet of clearance is truly a safety threat, the city should be applying the code to all projects, said Bikemore executive director Liz Cornish — not just those with bike lanes. “They’re not applying this interpretation of the fire code equitably for streets across the city,” Cornish said. “If it is, in fact, a safety issue, it is a safety issue on all streets.”
— Baltimore bike lane construction delayed again, amid fire code concerns, Baltimore Sun

“It’s disappointing to us that this project, which has already been subject to one extension, is already a year behind, and is now potentially behind for another year because of the fire clearance issue,” said Jed Weeks, policy director for local cycling nonprofit Bikemore.
— City Officials Again Delay Downtown Bike Network’s Installation, Baltimore Fishbowl

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Want to support us in our ongoing #FightforBikes?

Q&A: Relationships post Potomac, current advocacy strategies & more

Our Q&As are our way of sharing with you questions that we've heard recently. If one person asks it, we know more of you must be curious. These questions came from our Members' Meeting held on January 10th.

It was standing room only at our Members' Meeting!

 

What's going on with the Jones Falls extension?

The Jones Falls Trail extension from Cylburn Arboretum to Mount Washington is currently under construction. It includes a bike and pedestrian bridge across Northern Parkway.

What about targeting your 501c4 work to getting good people elected to the Central committee?

Yes, we're constantly working at many levels of government, but there are definitely other folks working more targeted there.

When does the funding for the Downtown Bike Network expire?

We're working to get clarity around this. 

What is Bikemore's relationship with the City like post Potomac? Were we "iced out" because of it?

We're still in City Hall most days of the week and are definitely still invited to conversations. We did everything we could behind the scenes through collaborative methods before taking the City to court, and they seem to understand that.

Do you have any early ideas for targeted advocacy we should take for the Complete Streets Bill?

We've been working on building a broad based coalition for Complete Streets since the start, with many council members already on board. So while along with Councilman Ryan Dorsey we're leading the effort on this, we already have many diverse champions and are in a good position.

Do police have any data on the bike crime?

No, the police department doesn't categorize if bikes are involved in crime or even crashes. BPD was cooperative and supportive when we were working with them on the assault issue, but advocating for better stats, while very helpful, doesn't seem like a likely win so we're not focusing energy on it at this point. 

What about taking the Mayor on a bike ride?

We've offered before, more than happy to!

Is something going to happen with all those potholes on Druid Park Lake Drive with the Big Jump project?

Yes, if the road is reconfigured that will include repaving. We're concurrently working on a short-term pop up type project here, as well as longer term full redesign effort. 

What's strategies are currently working best to advocate in your neighborhood?

Personal notes to senior staffers that work around the mayor, like Jim Smith or Pete Hammen, seem to be particularly effective right now, and individuals that write heartfelt, personal correspondence to these individuals get responses and dialogue.

Communications and transparency from Bike Share doesn't seem to be improving since the relaunch, as promised. What gives?

Just to clarify, Bikemore does not run Bike Share. We try to support them and share our ideas with them, but we don't run it. It's our understanding and hope that this is simply a staffing issue. It's really the city's responsibility to deal with the communications side, not the operator, and there currently isn't DOT staff devoted to bike programming. It's our hope that with the hiring of a Bike Share Coordinator, the communications will be improved. We're also potentially looking into modeling the Bike Ambassador program that Philadelphia Bike Share system has in place, to employ community members to teach others about bike share. 

The Bike Share electric bikes aren't working. What's going on?

We've heard that the batteries on the electric bikes don't hold charge well with extreme cold temperatures. If they're not back up to speed after this crazy extreme cold front, we'll get back to it. We're also hopeful that with the announcement of a new major sponsor in February, there will be more accountability and solutions to issues like this.

Is dockless bike share interested in coming to Baltimore?

Yes, we think these companies are interested but understand the current state of Baltimore. Bikemore staff and board members went to DC last month to learn from their DOT staffers that worked on their current pilot program, and to talk with dockless operators. We're working on getting BCDOT to adopt a policy ahead of companies coming here so that we can ensure things like safety standards and equity are requirements at the start, as other cities have done. 

What's going on with the Bike Share station at Penn Station?

There's always a challenge when placing Bike Share on Amtrak property, because of the complicated bureaucratic nature of Amtrak. But it's been done in tons of other cities and we're hopeful it will be resolved here as well.