Bike to Work Day – Baltimore Magazine

Field Notes: Chesapeake Bay Health Improves, Bike to Work Day, and Birdcam Season Soars

Amy Mulvihill — Thu, 11 May 2017 12:43:00 +0000

Bay Watch

Spring has brought with it a flurry of good news about the bay. First, using sonar technology, scientists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center found that the Choptank River has more river herring in it than previously suspected. Then, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources found that reproductively viable female crabs are at their most plentiful since 1990 and that the amount of underwater grass in Maryland’s portion of the bay reached a record high of 59,277 acres in 2016. Furthermore, in late April, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation seeded 3 million baby oysters in the Patapsco River, hoping to return oyster shoals to the urban waterway. All of these rehabilitative milestones indicate that federally overseen pollution control programs are stabilizing the bay after decades of environmental decline. And though it briefly looked like funding for those measures would be threatened by the Trump administration’s proposed EPA budget cuts, Congress decided to maintain program funding for the coming fiscal year.

Following such a streak, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science issued a report this week awarding the bay one of its highest-ever health grades. Though on its face an unimpressive C, the grade represents drastic improvement since the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science began evaluating the bay in 1986 and a 1-point improvement over last year’s score. As with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation scorecard—another important third-party bay evaluation—the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science grades the bay in several categories and then aggregates those scores into an overall mark.

“I really believe we’re at a tipping point,” Nicholas DiPasquale, director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program office in Annapolis, told The Sun. “Once you reach a point where you’ve overcome the inertia of the system, these indicators start building on each other.”

A third regional water quality scorecard, this one measuring the health of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and its tributaries, will be released on Monday by Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore.

On Your Bike

National Bike to Work Day is next Friday, May 19, and the Central Maryland Metropolitan Council has collected a handy list of nearly 40 official events on its website. The events range from bike safety checks to commuting convoys led by experienced cyclers and designed to introduce newbies to the ins and outs of bike commuting. Though Baltimore City is hosting the greatest number of events, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Carroll, and Harford counties are represented, too. Bike to Work Day grew out of National Bike Month, which began in 1956. It promotes the benefits of cycling, which include physical fitness and reduced vehicle emissions and air pollution.

In The Air

Speaking of reduced vehicle emissions, The Sun has a good rundown of where the Baltimore region stands in terms of air quality. In short, the Maryland Clean Air report found that, overall, air quality was better in Baltimore in 2016 than it had been in previous years, but that ozone levels ticked up. Ozone is ground level smog created when particles from vehicle and power plant emissions interact with sunlight. It can be harmful to humans—particularly the very young, very old, and very sick—and is the cause of the Code Orange and Code Red air quality alerts that are sometimes issued.

“We’re making clean air progress with strong partnerships and steady investments, but more is needed regionally and nationally to sustain our pace and protect our health,” Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Ben Grumbles said in a statement. “Marylanders’ hearts, lungs and waterways will benefit from smart actions at home and in upwind states to keep improving our air quality.”

Birdcam Season Soars

And now, as they say, for something completely different. Naturalists from all over the world delight each year in the Chesapeake Bay’s springtime birdcams—and this year is no different. The Chesapeake Conservancy hosts live streams of three of the most popular:

The peregrine falcon cam atop 100 Light Street in Baltimore City, which is capturing the growth of four furry fluffballs.

The great blue heron rookery on the Eastern Shore

And the osprey cam on Kent Island

There is also another osprey cam, this one following a nest with three eggs at Severna Park High School

Follow along as the birds raise their families and the chicks eventually fly the nest. Happy spring and happy birding!

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Bike to Work Day Organizers Hope to Break Record

Ron Cassie — Thu, 19 May 2016 13:36:00 +0000

Statistics collected by the State Highway Administration also reveal that more than 60 percent of bicycle crashes occur between May and September, and 47 percent between the evening rush-hour commute between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

“We’ve got to look out for each other,” said Slater, stressing that both drivers and bicyclists need to follow the rules of the road.

Bike Maryland interim executive director Steve Miller added that texting and talking on the phone while driving has become a dangerous hazard not for only for automobile drivers, but especially for bicyclists who are unprotected.

“Distracted driving has become the new DUI,” Miller said. “And it’s willful and intentional.”

To help encourage more bicycle commuting as well as protect those who ride bicycles in the city as a means of transportation, the City of Baltimore will also be adding additional bike infrastructure in coming months, including the launch of a long-delayed bike-sharing program. That effort, scheduled for the fall, will place 50 stations and 500 bikes around the city for short-term rental and will include 200 electric-pedal assist bikes.

Also in the works is the construction of a dedicated cycle track on Maryland Avenue, running from 29th Street to Pratt Street, as well as six miles of new bike lanes—many connecting to the new cycle track.

In terms of the percentage of people who indicate that bicycling is a part of their commute, the U.S. Census reported a 62 percent increase nationwide from 2000 to 2014. Portland at 7 percent, Minneapolis at 4.6 percent, San Francisco at 4.4 percent, Washington D.C. at 3.9 percent posted some of the highest bike commuter rates in the country, with Baltimore ranked 38th among the 70 largest U.S. cities at .7 percent.

Ultimately, Baltimore City officials would like to see the percentage of bike commuters reach 9 percent over the next 15 years.

Some of the cities experiencing the biggest bike commuting increases over the past several years are Pittsburgh, where rates have more than tripled, and St. Louis, Chicago, Oakland and New Orleans, where rates have doubled.

“Biking is really important for a lot of reasons,” Caitlin Doolin, bicycle and pedestrian planner for Baltimore City, told The Sun. “It’s a huge part of our urban fabric, making transportation more sustainable, more healthy. People who bike tend to have higher attention spans at work, take less sick days, and have better health ratings from their doctors. And also, it’s fun.”

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Friday is Bike to Work Day

Ron Cassie — Tue, 12 May 2015 10:57:00 +0000

National Bike to Work Day, sponsored locally for the 18^th year by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, will be celebrated in Baltimore City and the surrounding area at 33 area destinations, offering coffee, bagels, and in many cases, a little bike schwag to boot.

The best part? You get to rub elbows with fellow bicycle commuters before work.

Most of the “pit stops” around the region, including 14 in Baltimore City, are open from 7-9 a.m.

The full listing of area events, which include pit stops in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Howard and Harford County, can be found here. Online registration is free and recommended, but not required.

On its website, the Baltimore Metropolitan Council lists a bunch of reasons to ride rather drive to work. To avoid traffic jams and parking problems, for example—and to save money, too. Not only does the Baltimore City Parking Authority offer free, secure bike parking downtown near City Hall, AAA estimates that it costs an average of more than $9,000 annually to own and operate a car. The Baltimore Metropolitan Council also notes the personal health benefits—the average bicycle commuter loses 13 pounds their first year—and the public health benefits. (Single-occupancy vehicles contribute to ground level ozone, notably in Baltimore City, where smog levels reach hazardous levels each summer.)

The best reason, though? Bicycling is just more fun than driving. At least that’s the reason we love it.

Of course we bike to places besides work, too, like WTMD’s First Thursday concerts at the Canton Waterfront Park. (Maybe we need some more bike parking there?)

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City Bike Plan Headed for Approval. But Will it Get Funded?

Ron Cassie — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 18:12:00 +0000

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake sent the recently updated Baltimore City Bike Master Plan off to the planning commission for a formal vote Thursday, where it is strongly expected to win approval.

The ambitious plan, unveiled online a couple of weeks ago, calls for the addition of roughly 90 miles of new city bike lanes and trails by 2028, including a protected north-south cycle track on Maryland Avenue and a second protected cycle track running east-west in Midtown on Mount Royal Avenue.

Among the other highlights:

—The creation of West Baltimore “bike boulevards” (roads that emphasis safe bicycle access) on Hollins, W. Lexington, W. Baltimore, Carrollton, and N. Smallwood streets

—Bus/bike lane improvements on Pratt and Lombard streets

—The development of a B’More Bicycle-Friendly Business Program

—Implementation of the Charm City Bikeshare by 2016

Other goals include additional bike parking and racks, promoting bicycle safety at schools, bicycling access to the Inner Harbor’s Waterfront Promenade, and mountain bike routes and pump tracks in city parks.

The bigger question at this point, according to bike commuter advocates, is whether the plan will be fully implemented. By all accounts, Baltimore has fallen behind other major cities around the country in recent years—Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Pittsburgh—in building bicycle infrastructure.

Presenting the plan during a media availability Wednesday, Rawlings-Blake said that creating a more bicycle-friendly city is part of her often-stated goal of attracting 10,000 new families to Baltimore. However, neither Rawlings-Blake nor the Department of Transportation committed to an increase in bicycle infrastructure funding. (For what it’s worth, the mayor would not commit to attending Bike to Work Day this year, either, saying only that she’s “thinking about it.”)

Baltimore City DOT director William Johnson said that the city will attempt to fulfill the goals of the plan by leveraging other revenue sources, including federal dollars, and by being “more strategic” in the implementation process, looking at ways to add bike lanes during resurfacing projects, for example. Over the past half-dozen years, dedicated funding for bike network infrastructure in the city has essentially remained flat at roughly $350,000 a year.

“The administration and city council just don’t get it—it’s a quality of life issue that cuts across every socioeconomic demographic,” said Light Street Cycles owner Penny Troutner, who served on the plan’s steering committee, referring to the need to fund implementation of the plan. “Bicycle infrastructure also helps small businesses, because people are more likely to shop at their neighborhood stores when they can bike there, and it helps tourism. Right now, more people aren’t biking because they don’t feel safe.”

In a city with a significant percentage of adults who don’t drive, Troutner noted, bicycling is also one of the least expensive ways to travel to work or school.

At a preliminary unveiling of the new bike plan last month at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Greg Hinchliffe, interim director of Bikemore, the city’s nonprofit bicycling advocacy organization, said much the same thing as Troutner.

“I think the stuff on the posters [the planned new bikes lanes and trails] looks great, but you can’t ride on pretty lines on the wall,” said Hinchliffe. “The planning looks great; the bottom line is implementation.”

In related news Wednesday, Rawlings-Blake announced an executive order establishing the Mayor’s Bike Advisory Commission, which is intended to help guide the administration and various city departments in promoting bicycling as a safe and convenient transportation and recreation option.

Jon Laria, a partner at the law firm of Ballard Spahr, LLP, and member of the new advisory commission, and also spoke of the need to ensure implementation and necessary funding for the bike master plan now that it’s been completed.

“It’ll be up to us to hold the administration and the city accountable for implementation,” Laria said, adding that he does not yet know how often the advisory commission will meet, but said the meetings will be open to the public.

In welcome news for the mountain biking community, Rawlings-Blake also announced Wednesday that the city has reached an agreement with the Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts (MORE), the regional International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) chapter, to improve mountain bike access around Loch Raven Reservoir.

Access to the best trails in the reservoir watershed has been an area of contention for years between city officials, who have been concerned about maintaining water quality, and local mountain bikers.

From Bikemore’s website:

“Together, DPW (Department of Public Works) and MORE, the regional IMBA (International Mountain Bicycling Association) chapter, will identify specific trails for improvements while closing or re-routing unsanctioned trails … In addition to trail maintenance, MORE and Bike Maryland will conduct education workshops on sustainable trail design and proper mountain biking techniques to reduce user impacts on the area.”

MORE’s annual Project Clean Stream event, which removes debris from Loch Raven Reservoir, is schedule for April 11 in Cockeysville.

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Do Over: Rained Out Bike to Work Day Returns Friday

Ron Cassie — Thu, 29 May 2014 17:05:00 +0000

First, the weather is supposed to be great tomorrow morning. Low-mid 60s, virtually no chance of rain and maybe even some hopeful sunshine.

Two weeks ago, heavy rains and potential flooding forced the postponement of Bike-to-Work Day, but 28 destinations in the Baltimore region will host re-scheduled events Friday.

Sponsored locally by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, area “pit stops” generally offer coffee, bagels, and often a little bike schwag to boot from about 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Even better, you get to rub elbows with fellow bicycle commuters before work.

More good news: There’s also a Bike to Work Day “after-work” party, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at World of Beer on Whetstone Way in Locust Point. So pedal over there, too.

The full listing of Baltimore area “pit stops”—including 16 around the city—can be found here. Registration is free. See you tomorrow…

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Friday is National Bike to Work Day

Ron Cassie — Mon, 12 May 2014 18:04:00 +0000

The number of people commuting by bicycle has increased by 60 percent over the past decade, according to new data published by the U.S. Census last week, and includes, among others, LeBron James, who says he rides to Miami’s AmericanAirlines Arena regularly for his job. Not that you have to be the world’s greatest athlete to pedal to work.

This Friday—National Bike to Work Day—sponsored locally by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, will be celebrated in Baltimore City and the surrounding area at 28 destinations, offering coffee, bagels, and often a little bike schwag to boot from about 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Even better, you get to rub elbows with fellow bicycle commuters before work.

The full listing of Baltimore area “pit stops”—including 16 around the city—can be found here. Registration is free.

City Councilman Nick Mosby can’t bike to work Friday, but is hosting an bike to work rally (8 a.m. start) this Wednesday at Nancy’s cafe at 131 W. North Ave.

On Friday, City Councilman Bill Cole will be biking to work, meeting other riders at Sharp and Henrietta streets in Otterbein/Federal Hill for a cruise over to City Hall where Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will be speaking at 9 a.m.

In League of American Bicyclists’ “bicycle-friendly” cities—meaning those places like Baltimore that have demonstrated a commitment to improving bike infrastructure and encouraging bicycle commuting—bike rider rates have increased by 80 percent. Overall, Portland ranks first in the percentage people bicycling to work at 6.1 percent, followed by Madison (5.1 percent), Minneapolis (4.1 percent), Boise (3.7 percent), Seattle (3.4 percent), San Francisco (3.4 percent), and Washington, D.C. (3.1 percent.) In Baltimore, the percentage of bicycle commuters jumped from .3 percent in the 2000 census to .8 percent in the 2012 census.

The Baltimore Metropolitan Council promotes Bike to Work Day as part of its “Clean Commute” initiative, noting on its website that “emissions from single occupancy vehicles contribute significantly to our region’s dangerous ozone levels.”

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May is Bike Month. So Ride.

Ron Cassie — Fri, 02 May 2014 20:10:00 +0000

There’s no shortage of bike events this month. Some are free, some are recurring rides, some require a fee and/or charity fundraising. Check the links for more info. Pedal on.

May 3 – 16^th Annual Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race: Opening ceremonies and LeMans start at the American Visionary Arts Museum from 9:30 – 10 a.m. There’s even a handy spectator’s guide.

May 4 – Monument to Monument: Informal 97-mile round trip from Baltimore’s Washington Monument to Washington’s Washington Monument on lightly trafficked roads. Slow and steady pace, “enjoying the company of fellow riders and the excitement of arriving in another city by bike.”

May 7 – B’more Green Ride to Loch Raven Falls: Casual, zero-emissions weekly, Wednesday morning ride leaving from Bonjour at 6070 Falls Road for eventual mountain biking jaunt. More info on the Bikemore calendar.

May 11 – Union Bridge Pancake Ride: Baltimore Bicycle Club’s final “pancake ride” of the season until October. Leaves from South Carroll High School at 9 a.m. with 36 and 42-mile routes available. Bring a few bucks for breakfast.

May 16 – 17^th Annual Bike to Work Day: Sponsored by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, more than 20 bicycle commuter events are scheduled around the area, including 13 in Baltimore City, four in Baltimore County, and three in Annapolis.

May 17 – Chesapeake Bay Tour de Cure: Easton charity ride with 10, 31, 62 and 100-mile routes from the Talbot County Community Center. Sponsored by the American Diabetes Association. All cyclists must meet the $200 fundraising minimum in addition to the registration fee.

May 18 – Bike Jam 14: Patterson Park. Kelly Cup racing for all ages and abilities, family activities, plus The Gathering food truck festival and live music from June Star.

May 18 – Bike Maryland Rec Ride: Patterson Park, 8 a.m. Two routes,12 and 30 miles, for rides through Charm City. Both routes provide a tour for all levels of bicyclists. Registration and fee required.

May 21– Baltimore’s Ride of Silence: Leaving City Hall at 7 p.m. to raise awareness and honor all cyclists that have been injured or killed by motorists.

May 23-26 – 32^nd Annual Kent County Spring Fling. Baltimore Bicycling Club event, offering four days of cycling the lightly traveled roads of the Eastern Shore. Registration and fee required.

May 30 – Baltimore Bike Party: Last Friday of every month awesome, costumed-themed celebration of bicycling, including fun-paced trek through city neighborhoods and after-party.

May 31-June 1 – Bike MS Chesapeake Challenge. Easton charity ride, offering 34, 68 and 100-mile routes on Saturday; 30 and 50 miles on Sunday. Rides from Talbot County Community Center and take cyclists through waterfront communities of Tilghman Island, Oxford, St. Michaels and Trappe. Sponsored by the National MS Society, Maryland Chapter. Registration fee and fundraising required.

Source

Bike to Work Day – Baltimore Magazine

Field Notes: Chesapeake Bay Health Improves, Bike to Work Day, and Birdcam Season Soars

Bay Watch

On Your Bike

In The Air

Birdcam Season Soars

​Bike to Work Day Organizers Hope to Break Record

Friday is Bike to Work Day

City Bike Plan Headed for Approval. But Will it Get Funded?

Do Over: Rained Out Bike to Work Day Returns Friday

Friday is National Bike to Work Day

May is Bike Month. So Ride.

Bike to Work Day Organizers Hope to Break Record