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The latest news and updates from Bikemore
On Wednesday, February 26, Bikemore in Action hosted our first Mayoral Transportation Forum with five leading mayoral candidates: Sheila Dixon, Mary Miller, Brandon Scott, Thiru Vignarajah, and Mary Washington.
This event would not have been possible without the support of our partners Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition, Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, and the Real News Network.
You can watch the recording of the forum below.
I Bike I Vote launched in 2015 to encourage local candidates to develop policy platforms on transportation. We wanted to educate voters about the ways transportation intersects with other important issues like public safety, schools, and economic development. The Red Line had been cancelled and the city was still reeling from the effects of the death of Freddie Gray. It was a pivotal time, an important election, and we wanted to do our part in making sure folks turned out to vote.
Five years later, Bikemore has grown both in size and influence. We have become a leader in transportation advocacy.
Candidates owe it to the citizens of Baltimore to have a plan to ensure everyone has access to transportation that is safe, affordable, and reliable. Transportation is the foundation that allows people to get to work and school. It means people can access necessities like fresh food and health care. It enables people to explore Baltimore and experience all it has to offer without searching for parking.
Today we released the responses to our questionnaire from candidates running for citywide offices. On Wednesday, we are co-hosting a Mayoral Forum so that citizens can hear the candidates’ positions on transportation in real-time.
In the next few weeks, you can expect the release of more candidate questionnaires, a forum for candidates running for City Council President, and analysis that will see how candidates stack up against our vision for transportation in Baltimore.
Get educated. Get engaged. And stay tuned. We’re just getting started.
In the coming weeks, Bikemore in Action, our 501(c)(4) arm, will roll out #IBikeIVote 2020. Our focus will be the Primary Election on April 28th, 2020, and the candidates running for Mayor, Comptroller, City Council President, and City Council.
Earlier this week, we sent a candidate questionnaire to all announced candidates for the above offices. They are due back on February 10th, and we will be sharing both a summary of responses for each office/district as well as the full questionnaire in the weeks following.
You can check out the questionnaire below. City Council candidates were also sent district specific questions about upcoming projects in their districts.
We will also be hosting Transportation Forums for Mayor and City Council President, which will be recorded and live streamed in front of a live studio audience at the Real News Network. The Mayoral Transportation Forum will be held on February 26th at 6:00pm, and the City Council President forum will be held on a date to be determined in March. The format and questions for these forums will be developed in partnership with Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition, other transportation advocacy organizations, and transit riders and operators.
For the first time, our state delegation has come together to form a transit caucus. We’ve passed a national award winning equity-focused complete streets ordinance. And we have candidates running across the city who understand that access to transportation is critical to escaping poverty and accessing opportunity.
We look forward to sharing the results of the questionnaire in mid-February, and hope to see you at the forums.
The Baltimore Complete Streets ordinance requires Baltimore City Department of Transportation to retrofit improved walking, biking, and transit infrastructure onto streets during routine resurfacing.
President Street began resurfacing prior to the ordinance taking effect, but BCDOT was able to make some last minute changes in the design to add high visibility crosswalks and a flex post buffer to the previous substandard bike lane.
While President Street is still far from a safe, all-ages street, we are thankful for these improvements. We will continue to advocate for BCDOT to extend this separated treatment up Fallsway, creating a more visible and safer Jones Falls Trail while connecting to existing protected bike lanes on Centre and Monument Streets.
Developers play a key role in shaping what our city looks like. We sat down with developer Josh Greenfeld to talk about how transportation influences development, and how development influences transportation.
When we look at potential real estate development projects, we endeavor to create housing, retail and services that neighbors want and need evaluated against the challenging realities of rents, land costs and construction costs in the Baltimore market. As primarily an urban infill developer, we are creative in re-using existing structures and building new projects adapting to modern lifestyles whether it is co-working office space, modular construction or our next project - a tiny home community for those wishing to downsize and live with a smaller environmental footprint. We believe people want to live, work and play in their neighborhoods and providing them opportunities to do so, especially if they can walk or bike to their destination, is an important part of our development process.
Multi-modal transportation is at the forefront of our development philosophy. Currently, our work is focused on the Harford Rd Main Street, a street devoted to fast, efficient vehicle transport for the last half century. As a result of prioritizing vehicles over people, the corridor has seen decreased commercial investment as businesses moved north into the suburbs. While we have been successful in bringing increased activity to the corridor, we believe the Main Street will not reach its full potential until people have multi-modal access to amenities and they feel safe and comfortable walking and crossing the street. For our part, we have supported Councilman Ryan Dorsey's Complete Streets legislation and Complete Streets treatment of the Hamilton Business District, we are planning for bikes, scooters, and electric vehicles on all of our projects and we have applied for grants to improve pedestrian safety through art in the right of ways and new traffic calming bump-outs.
Since the Complete Streets re-design of Harford Rd in the Hamilton Business District, at least three new businesses have opened. For our own company, we are looking forward to building two residential projects off Harford Rd, and we are excited that our new residents will live on a safer, more walkable and bikeable street. We also believe increased safety and comfort along Harford Rd. will be a strong selling point to new residents and businesses. We look forward to continuing this street treatment along Harford Rd all the way from downtown to meet the improvements already made in Hamilton.
Healthy commercial corridors are places where people feel safe and comfortable walking, biking, driving or busing to coffee shops, restaurants, grocery stores, doctor's offices, salons, bars and other businesses meeting their wants and needs. Successful commercial corridors tend to have slower vehicle traffic, reliable bus service, inviting storefronts and safe bike and pedestrian access. In the past, Baltimore had dozens of healthy commercial corridors. Unfortunately, too many have been eroded by suburbanization, car culture and lack of investment in street level retail and services. Our firm believes people have a right to live, work and play in their neighborhoods and that is why we have chosen to re-invest in the Baltimore's commercial main streets.
Many people in Baltimore, by necessity or choice, don't own personal vehicles, and research tells us that people who walk or bike to businesses spend more at those businesses. For both social and economic reasons, planning for walkers and cyclists is the right thing to do. While vehicle access and parking remain an important element of commercial leasing, most of the retail and service oriented tenants we see are now looking for bike lanes, bike parking, and safe "complete streets" when considering where to locate their business.
Many areas of Baltimore are already very pedestrian and bike friendly with wide sidewalks, bike lanes and paths, and reliable bus corridors. But for Baltimore to take the next step, we must fill in the gaps while providing new services to those neighborhoods not yet adequately served. For example, both Central and Northeast Baltimore, where our firm mostly works, have areas that are pedestrian and bike friendly, but it is difficult to get from one to the other without a car. Completing the 33rd Street Greenway Trails project connecting Central to Northeast Baltimore as well as finishing the Complete Streets treatment along Harford Rd from Downtown through the Hamilton Business District, among other worthwhile projects city-wide, is how Baltimore takes the next step.
A key part of our role as transportation advocates is coalition building. We bring together people from different sectors to demonstrate the widespread value of improved transportation. With developers, this sometimes this looks like consulting on best practices for bike friendly workplaces, sometimes looks like pushing back again bad development, and sometimes looks like education and relationship building to bring together a strong Complete Streets Coalition.
Developers have widespread impacts on our communities and on what our streets look like. Help us continue to partner, educate, and advocate to ensure that the needs of communities are met, and to advocate for good policy that will provide equitable economic development for Baltimore.
Direct Action donations are our greatest need. They can fund everything we do, including directly lobbying elected officials, running grassroots organizing campaigns, and advocating for or against legislation. They are not tax-deductible.
Charitable donations fund our education, organizing, and programming, and may be tax-deductible.
Our work is wholly supported by our donors. Help us make Baltimore a better place to ride a bicycle.
