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The two-hour afternoon event marked the kickoff of Bikemore’s yearlong, “I Bike, I Vote,” campaign, designed to encourage bicyclists not only to vote, but become advocates and help create political support for safe bicycling infrastructure and policy in the city as well.

About a dozen City Council candidates and most of the leading mayoral candidates—state Sen. Catherine Pugh, Councilman Nick Mosby, former mayor Sheila Dixon, and Maryland Attorney General’s Office appointee Elizabeth Embry—attended the meet-and-greet. (In fact, one presidential candidate, 2012 Green Party nominee Jill Stein, who is running again in 2016 and gave the keynote at Baltimore Green Assembly, also Sunday, turned up.) Monument City Brewing Company provided the beer, T-Blocks offered indoor bike parking, Side A Photography placed a photo booth, and Bikemore displayed information on local bicycling projects. Cornish laid out the nonprofit’s 2016 election platform, which includes supporting candidates “who understand a third of Baltimore lacks access to a car, and that improving access to public and active transportation is the only clear path to upward mobility for Baltimore’s poor.”

Recent studies have linked geographic mobility to economic mobility and a lack of transportation access to higher rates of unemployment and lower incomes.

Cornish drew big applause when she said that Bikemore also supports candidates “who will hold public agencies accountable so bicycle infrastructure is built on time and to spec the first time by competent contractors, and is subsequently maintained in a regular maintenance program.”

Recent Baltimore City bicycling infrastructure plans, including the extension of the Jones Falls Trail, Charm City Bikeshare, the Maryland Avenue cycle track, and the Downtown Bicycle Network have been beset by years of delay. In the process, Baltimore has fallen behind cities across the country, in terms of building safe bicycling infrastructure and growing the city’s percentage of bicycle commuters. The entire Bikemore 2016 election platform can be found here.

Mosby, who recently announced his campaign for the city’s highest office, said he has supported Bikemore’s efforts in the past and will continue to do so, adding that improving bicycle infrastructure is needed help the city’s low-income population that can’t afford a car—and attract and keep a growing Millennial Generation workforce. He said the blame for the city’s failure to improve its bicycle infrastructure falls squarely on City Hall leadership that has failed to make it a priority and hold the city’s bureaucracy accountable to timelines.

“In terms of multi-modal infrastructure, we’ve fallen behind,” Mosby said. “We are on either on our third or fourth attempt to launch Charm City Bikeshare.” Mosby also highlighted the modest start-up nature of Baltimore’s bikeshare initiative—just 250 bikes—while Washington, D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare program has grown to more than 3,000 bicycles at 350 stations over the past few years.

Embry, who announced her campaign last week, said she used to bike commute from her Waverly home to City Hall when she was employed in the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. “I have to look into the details [of Bikemore’s positions], but I support the principles of their platform,” Embry said.

Three candidates to replace District 1 City Councilman Jim Kraft—Zeke Cohen, Mark Edelson, and Mark Parker—were all on hand. Traffic and transportation mobility are major issues, in particular, in the historic, southeast neighborhoods of Canton, Fells Point, and Highlandtown where ongoing development in nearby Harbor East, Harbor Point, and Canton Crossing has pushed congestion to new levels of frustration for residents.

“It can be a challenge to build bikeable and walkable streets—these are old neighborhoods—but adding more parking and more cars isn’t sustainable,” Cohen said. “Not from an environmental perspective and not from a traffic and congestion perspective.”

Parker, a pastor who grew up in Otterbein and biking around the city, said he gave up his car two years ago. “I live two blocks from the church and I didn’t need it,” Parker said. “

Every meeting I go to [in Southeast], traffic is what I hear about. There’s no more room for cars in the street and bicycling has to be an option.”

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A former Baltimore City police officer who—with other retired female officers—mentors at-risk teenage girls, for example? Or, maybe an ex-offender and successful baker, who uses his skills and business to train other men with criminal records?

That’s the wager Open Society Institute makes each year, offering $60,000 grants, spread over 18 months, to a cohort of community fellows.

Enduring local organizations like Wide Angle Youth Media, which provides young Baltimoreans media education to tell their own stories; Community Law in Action, a legal education and mentoring nonprofit; Bikemore, the city’s nonprofit bicycling advocacy organization; and Baltimore Green Space, which helps preserve community gardens, parks, and open spaces managed by city residents—all benefitted from early OSI grants.

On Monday, OSI-Baltimore announced its 2015 fellows, which include, as highlighted above, Darlene Crider, a 23-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, whose program is called “Sisters-in-Law,” and Gregory Carpenter, whose popular locally made carrot cakes are sold at a dozen and a half Hip Hop Chicken & Fish restaurants in the Baltimore area.

Other 2015 fellows include Brion Gill, a poet whose project, Free Verse, will bring spoken word and poetry to young people in prisons and group homes through workshops and performances, and Chavi Rhodes, a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health graduate who founded the Baltimore Youth Energy Collective (BYKE) in 2014.

For the past year and a half, BYKE has operated twice a week out the Velocipede Bike Project’s space in Station North. By March, Rhodes expects BYKE—aimed at ages 12-17—to move into its own building in the same, centrally located neighborhood. “Youth need more attention, need more guidance,” she says, than other local bike-oriented programs have the resources to provide.

The full profiles of all 10 OSI-Baltimore fellows can be found here.

Profiles of some of OSI-Baltimore’s previous 160 community fellows can be found here.

In announcing the this year’s fellows, Open Society Institute-Baltimore director Diana Morris said that one of the benefits in making the grants for OSI-Baltimore—which focuses on addiction and incarceration issues, and obstacles that impede local youth from succeeding—is listening to the annual influx of fresh solutions from applicants in an ever-changing landscape. It’s something, she noted, the fellows have to do as well, if their projects are to grow.

“We think you can play important roles as change agents,” Morris told the new fellows, adding that the 18-month period should be a time of experimentation. “You have to listen when the community brings ideas to you and change course when necessary.”

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“The State has recommended 20 years in prison, with all but 10 years suspended, and five years of probation,” Rochelle Ritchie, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office director of communications, told Baltimore magazine. “The sentencing date is scheduled for Oct. 27.”

Cook’s trial had originally been set for tomorrow, but was moved up.

The 59-year-old Cook, who was the second-highest ranking bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland when she struck and killed 41-year-old Tom Palmero on Roland Avenue on Dec. 27, initially pled not guilty to all charges and had been free on a $2.5 million bond.

She resigned her position as Bishop Suffragan of Maryland earlier this year.

It’s since been learned that Cook pled guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol in 2010 in Caroline County, receiving supervised probation before judgment. She was also initially charged with possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia as part of that incident, but those charges were later dropped (“nolle prosequi,” according to online court records).

According to a previous statement from the City State’s Attorney’s Office, Cook’s blood-alcohol level was .22 at the time of the Saturday afternoon crash and that Cook veered into the bike lane that Palermo was riding in. At one of then-new Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s first press conferences, prosecutors alleged that Cooke failed to remain at the scene, returning to her apartment before coming back to the scene where she was transported by Baltimore City Police to Central District and given a breathalyzer test.

Palermo, a married father of two children, was a Johns Hopkins Hospital software engineer, part-time bike builder, and well known member of the Baltimore bicycling community.

“I think the sentence is appropriate,” said Penny Troutner, owner of Light Street Cycles and a longtime Baltimore bicycling advocate. “I’m happy she pled guilty. Tom’s family has been through enough already without having this dragged out any further in court. In a way, I feel badly that someone who has accomplished so much is going to jail, but she is going to be able to continue to live her life while those two children are going to grow up without their father. And a wife is going to have to live without her husband. I hope this sends a chill through people who drink and drive, and text and drive—that if this can happen to her—it can happen to them.”

Bikemore, Baltimore’s nonprofit bicycling advocacy organization, posted a long statement on its website after Cook’s plea today that was supportive of Palmero’s family while at the same time making the case that “as a city we must commit to stronger enforcement of negligence while operating a motor vehicle.”

“We have to commit to having zero tolerance to distracted driving. If the city claims they can’t afford to enforce the laws the state passes, we have to stop accepting that as an acceptable response,” Bikemore said in its statement. “There was a time when driving drunk was more socially acceptable than it is today. There was a time when child seats were scarce, if used at all, and seatbelt laws were just coming into fashion. The argument that getting people to put away phones while we are driving is just too hard doesn’t hold water.”

On New Year’s Day, more than 700 bicyclists gathered in Bishop Square Park, adjacent to the Episcopal Diocese’s Cathedral of the Incarnation on University Avenue, for a memorial ride in Palmero’s honor. Bicycle advocates, per tradition for cyclists killed on the road, placed a memorial “ghost bike” at the scene of tragedy.

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For many, the central image of a bicyclist remains a spandex-clad weekend warrior tackling the rolling hills of one of central Maryland’s counties. Not that there’s anything wrong with that—we love our rural road rides—but the images, interviews, and clips on the Bicyclists of Baltimore’s website reveal and chronicle the many different sides of the urban pedaling community. The profiles include an award-winning bike builder, kids, young African-American women, a college professor, Latino immigrants, everyday bicycle commuters, and people who just would rather explore and traverse the city outside on two wheels than inside an automobile.

Launched initially as a social media effort—Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram—Dahl and O’Guinn are now expanding their project, raising money for a feature-length documentary that will highlight the lives of individual cyclists while also showing how bicycling can assist in addressing social and economic barriers.

Dahl and O’Guinn note that until recently, it was a fairly rare sight to see someone bicycling through the streets of Baltimore. Today, however, city riders are “chomping at the bit” for more bicycling infrastructure as group rides, such as the Baltimore Bike Party and women-only Crank Mavens take hold, and bike advocacy organizations, such as Bikemore and Bike Maryland, continue to grow.

With their film, Dahl and O’Guinn, who are partnering with the nonprofit production company From The Heart, say they want show how bicycles have the potential to change the city and the people that live within it.

“Our city is reaching for social justice, and this film offers a lens into the lives of people from all corners of Baltimore who are connected to their communities through the bicycle,” says O’Guinn.

So far, they’ve raised nearly $5,000 via Indiegogo toward their goal of $19,000, with a little more than three weeks to go in their fundraising campaign.

“The goal of the project is to connect people, and this crowdfunding strategy offers a means to not just raise money, but to uncover new stakeholders,” Dahl says, adding the project has received broad support from other local bicyclists, bike shops, and social advocacy organizations.

About the film, from Indiegogo:

By creating a documentary film we not only celebrate individuals, but also bring them together in a visually compelling narrative that transcends social and economic barriers.

We follow the lives of bicyclists from all corners of Baltimore exploring how the increase in cycling in Baltimore helps to shape the city as a whole, and strengthen our different communities. We examine the ways in which Baltimore, a city with deep socio-economic and racial divides, can become united through the use of a human-powered vehicle.

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There are also other reasons, specific to Baltimore, why it’s good for our state of mind. Pedaling downtown alongside a 15-foot pink poodle and her friends is bound to make anyone smile, for example, and discovering the city’s amazing urban green spaces by bike enables us learn more about our community. Also, the fresh peaches at the Civil War Century are the best thing ever—although you do have to wait ‘til September for those.

So with summer here, consider these seven rides our local favorites this month:

June 14: Tour dem Parks, Hon!—13^th annual ride connects bicyclists with Carroll, Patterson and Herring Run parks as well as some tucked away gems. There are 14, 25 and 35-mile options, with registration offered online until midnight Thursday or in-person Sunday morning—all in support of Baltimore City parks programming. The event starts early at Druid Hill Park. If you hustle, you can finish and still make it to the next ride on this list.

June 14: American Visionary Arts Museum Kinetic Sculpture Race—free, 17^th annual, amphibious art-bike extravaganza kicks off at 11 a.m. and pretty much lasts all day as it hits Federal Hill, Canton and Patterson Park. Join for some or all of the fun. Check the spectator’s guide for details.

June 17: Bike Through History Series NCR Trail—this is a guided tour offered for six more successive Wednesdays through July on the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail, formerly known as the National Central Railroad trail. Each tour, this one starts in Monkton, is led by a Maryland Park Service volunteer and local history expert and tackles about 10 miles on the trail.

June 20: Bikes & Beer—First-time event in Baltimore features a 15-mile ride, starting from Union Craft Brewing in Woodberry, trekking through the city to Heavy Seas Alehouse in Upper Fells Point. Riders will get a chance to taste two new beers at Heavy Seas—as well as down a full pint—before heading back to Union Craft for live music, food trucks, games and prizes. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Bikemore and Bike Maryland.

June 26: Baltimore Bike Party—the last Friday of every month event is always a recreational ride/costume party on wheels. Generally about 12 miles or so, each month there’s a different theme—June is “Baltimore Boastin’ & Maryland Mania!”—and meet-up begins at 6:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s Park. (Below photo courtesy of O’Doherty Photography.)

June 27: 45th Annual Flatlands Tour—a non-supported (meaning bring plenty of water and spare tubes), but awesome Baltimore Bicycling Club ride that starts in Chesapeake City in Cecil County and explores much of the Delaware River wetlands. Routes vary from 35, 54, 63 and 77 miles to a full century ride. Just $5 for BBC members and $6 for non-members.

June 27: Two Rivers Bike Ride—opportunity to pedal the gentle rolling hills of Maryland’s Eastern Shore while checking out the scenic Corsica and Chester rivers in Queen Anne’s County. Multiple distances offered, with the longest route leading through Tuckahoe State Park. This isn’t far from Baltimore, about 60 miles to the start in Centreville.

*We also want to note that there are a number of informal, but regular Baltimore group rides, including the women-only Crank Mavens Monday Night Riders, the Thursday Night Indeterminately Named Baltimore Social Bike Rides, and Fun On Bikes! Weekend Distance Rides.

*Nearly all local bike shops organize group rides of one sort or another, too. The Biking in B-more meetup.com group is another good place to find rides, especially recreational-paced rides.

Just pedal.

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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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A Johns Hopkins Hospital software engineer and part-time bike builder well known in the bicycling community, Thomas Palermo, 41, was a married father of two children.

A warrant will be issued for Bishop Heather Cook’s arrest, prosecutors said.

Criminal charges filed in District Court today:

• Negligent Manslaughter by vehicle (Max 10 years and/or $5,000 fine)
• Criminal Negligent Manslaughter by vehicle (Max 3 years and/or $5,000 fine)
• Negligently Driving Under the Influence resulting in a Homicide (Max 5 years and/or $5,000 fine)
• Negligent Homicide involving an Auto or Boat while Impaired (Max 3 years and/or $5,000 fine)

Traffic charges also filed:

• Duty of Driver to remain at the scene of an accident resulting in Bodily Injury
• Duty of Driver to remain at an Accident resulting in Death
• Use of a Text Messaging Device while Driving causing an Accident with Death or Serious Bodily Injury
• Driving under the Influence of Alcohol

According to a statement released to the press, Cook’s blood alcohol level was .22 at the time of the Saturday afternoon crash and that Cook veered into the bike lane that Palermo was riding in. Prosecutors allege that Cooke “failed to remain at the scene,” returning to her apartment before coming back to the scene where she was transported by Baltimore City Police to Central District and given a breathalyzer test.

Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton, head of the
Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, emailed clergy members on the same day as the the crash, acknowledging that Cook, 58, the diocese’s second-ranking official, was the driver in the fatal collision. The diocese also released a statement today after Mosby’s announcement of the charges against Cook, thanking prosecutors and police for their “thoroughness and care” in handling the investigation, as well as stating they are “fully cooperating with the Episcopal Church’s internal investigation concerning Cook’s conduct as a clergy leader.”

Sutton also confirmed that Cook “did leave the scene initially,” returning 20 minutes later “to take responsibility for her actions.” Subsequent accounts, reported by the
Baltimore Brew, put the time it took for Cook to return at 40-45 minutes. Also, according to several reports, at least one bicyclist followed Cook’s car as it left the Roland Avenue area, attempting to identify the vehicle.

Palermo was alive when police arrived and was taken to Sinai Hospital where he later died.

It’s since been learned that Cook pled guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol in 2010 in Caroline County, receiving supervised probation before judgment. She was also initially charged with possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia as part of that incident, but those charges were later dropped (“nolle prosequi,” according to online court records).

On New Year’s Day more than 700 bicyclists gathered in Bishop Square Park, adjacent to the Episcopal Diocese’s Cathedral of the Incarnation on University Avenue, for a memorial ride to the scene of the tragic collision that took Palermo’s life.

Among those speaking briefly at the vigil at the site of the crash at 5700 Roland Ave. were Nate Evans, of
Bike Maryland, Greg Hinchliffe, of Bikemore, and Jeff Hulting, Palermo’s brother-in-law, who talked about Palermo’s passion for cycling.

Hulting said that with two young kids, a full-time job, as well as his small custom bike building business, his brother-in-law hadn’t had been able to ride as much as he’d like in recent years.

“Last Saturday was a beautiful day and Rachel [Palermo’s wife], realizing how busy they had been, suggested to Tom that he do what he loved and and go out for a ride,” Hulting said.

Bikemore and Bike Maryland released a joint statement following Mosby’s announcement of the charges against Cook:

“On the behalf of citizens in Baltimore and across the state, Bike Maryland and Bikemore appreciate the efforts of the Baltimore Police Department and State’s Attorney’s office in pursuing justice for Tom Palermo and his family. The death of a bicyclist in a car collision is a terrible event, but preventable if all road users slowed down and committed their full attention to the operation what can be a deadly weapon when wielded incorrectly.

When drivers choose to drive distracted and impaired, they are completely disregarding the value of the people around them. They choose that the cell phone call, the text message, or the time spent sobering up, is more valuable than the lives of the people they may kill or injure. This is a choice, and our society cannot tolerate it when they choose to drive impaired. Children buckled in the backseat, pedestrians crossing the crosswalk, and bicyclists using the bike lane are in peril when our community allows this to happen. We stand with the State’s Attorney’s office as they make a stand against distracted and negligent drivers.

We would like to remind everyone that when you hit-and-run you are choosing to deny that victim immediate care. Slow down; pay attention; and treat all vulnerable road users like you love them…because someone does.”

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Among those speaking briefly at the vigil at the site of the crash at 5700 Roland Ave. were Nate Evans, of Bike Maryland, Greg Hinchliffe, of Bikemore, and Jeff Hulting, Palermo’s brother-in-law, who talked about Palermo’s passion for cycling.

Hulting said that with two young kids, a full-time job, as well as his small custom bike building business, his brother-in-law hadn’t had been able to ride as much as he’d like in recent years.

“Last Saturday was a beautiful day and Rachel [Palermo’s wife], realizing how busy they had been, suggested to Tom that he do what he loved and and go out for a ride,” Hulting said.

Per tradition in the cycling community, a white-painted “ghost bike” was chained to a pole by a local bicyclist, with flowers and candles placed around the memorial.

“[Hopefully], the awareness caused by this horrible event will ultimately result in the saving of tens, if not hundreds, of cyclists’ lives in the future,” said Hulting.

“For the cycling community, this is kind of part of our grieving process,” said Evans. “It gives us a chance to get out and celebrate a cyclist’s life. In this case, it’s Tom.”

Although police have not yet identified the driver, according to numerous media reports, Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, emailed clergy members Saturday, acknowledging the diocese’s second-ranking official, Bishop Suffragan Heather Elizabeth Cook, as the driver that killed Palermo.

Sutton also confirmed that Cook, who has been placed on administrative leave, “did leave the scene initially,” returning 20 minutes later “to take responsibility for her actions.” Also, according to several reports, at least one bicyclist followed Cook’s car as it left the Roland Avenue area, attempting to identify the vehicle.

Cook pled guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol in 2010 in Caroline County, receiving supervised probation before judgment. She was also initially charged with possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia as part of that incident, but those charges were later dropped (“nolle prosequi,” according to online court records).

The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland subsequently posted a statement on its search process that led to Cook’s appointment, saying that it was aware of her 2010 DUI, determining that “this one mistake should not bar her for consideration as a leader” and citing “forgiveness” as core Christian value.

Palermo was alive when police arrived and was taken to Sinai Hospital where he later died. No charges have been filed at this time and friends of Palermo’s have created a Facebook page seeking criminal charges for Cook.

A memorial mass for Palermo will be celebrated at Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church in Towson Saturday at 10 a.m. His family will receive friends at the Ruck Towson Funeral Home today from 4 p.m. to to 7 p.m.

Extended family of Palermo’s have set up an educational trust fund for his 4 and 6-year-old children.

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Although police have not yet identified the driver, according to numerous media reports, Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, emailed clergy members Saturday, acknowledging the diocese’s second-ranking official, Bishop Suffragan Heather Elizabeth Cook, as the driver in the fatal collision that killed 41-year-old Tom Palermo.

The memorial ride and vigil will begin Thursday, Jan. 1, at 3:30 p.m. at Bishop Square Park on the northwest corner of the intersection of N. Charles St. and University Parkway, adjacent from the Cathedral of the Incarnation, the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. According to Bikemore, a Baltimore bicycle advocacy organization, following a moment of silence, the ride will leave for the scene of the crash at 5700 Roland Ave. to place a white memorial bicycle in remembrance of Palermo, a former bicycle builder and web developer. Those wishing to attend who are not riding bicycles are welcome to meet the bicyclists at the Roland Avenue location. Also according to Bikemore, the Episcopal Diocese will open the Cathedral of the Incarnation for parking, restrooms, prayer, and meditation beginning at 2:30 p.m.

A memorial mass for Palermo will be celebrated at Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church in Towson Saturday at 10 a.m. His family will receive friends at the Ruck Towson Funeral Home on Friday from 4 p.m. to to 7 p.m.

Extended family of Palermo’s have set up an educational trust fund for his 4 and 6-year-old children.

Sutton also confirmed that Cook, who has been placed on administrative leave, “did leave the scene initially,” returning 20 minutes later “to take responsibility for her actions.” Also, according to several reports, at least one bicyclist followed Cook’s car as it left the Roland Avenue area, attempting to identify the vehicle.

Cook pled guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol in 2010 in Caroline County, receiving supervised probation before judgment. She was also initially charged with possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia as part of that incident, but those charges were later dropped (“nolle prosequi,” according to online court records).

The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland also posted a statement on its search process that led to Cook’s appointment, saying that it was aware of her 2010 DUI, determining that “this one mistake should not bar her for consideration as a leader” and citing “forgiveness” as core Christian value.

Palermo was alive when police arrived and was taken to Sinai Hospital where he later died. No charges have been filed at this time and friends of Palermo’s have created a Facebook page seeking criminal charges for Cook.

An informal ride in Palmero’s memory was held Monday evening, with bicyclists placing candles at the scene of the crash.

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Sponsored by the Baltimore Bicycling Club, Heavy Seas, Zipcar, Seawall Development Co., Evergreen Health, and Johns Hopkins University, proceeds from the festival benefit Bikemore, Baltimore’s nonprofit bicycling advocacy organization.

This year’s event—running from 4-9 p.m.—features free live performances from Rye Rye, Labtekwon, and Chester Endersby Gwazda, plus food trucks and recreational bicycling through the park. 

Chris Merriam, Bikemore’s executive director, told the Baltimore Sun that last year’s event drew about 1,500 people. Turnout should get a boost this year with Rye Rye, Baltimore’s nationally acclaimed female hip hop artist, on board.

We also need to note that Music To Your Gears coincides with Charm City Cyclocross, the Mid-Atlantic’s premier two-day cyclocross race, this weekend at Druid Hill Park. This is the sixth year that Charm City Cyclocross, which features international pros and top regional cyclists, has been a UCI-sanctioned event. Men’s and women’s races are held both Saturday and Sunday.

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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.

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That was the message from bicycle
advocates at a public meeting Thursday evening at the Midtown Academy
near the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).

It won’t be
completed overnight, but the Baltimore City Department of Transportation
presented the next step in a suddenly expanding downtown bicycle
network—the Mount Royal Avenue cycle track.

The dedicated,
two-lane bicycle route (cycle tracks physically separate bicycles from
auto traffic) will run on the north side of Mount Royal Avenue from
McMechen Street, near North Avenue, down to Charles Street.

The
design, which is 65 percent complete, officials said, will be finished
this fall. Construction is scheduled to begin next spring, with the
cycle track opening some time in late 2016. When completed, it will
particularly help bicycle commuters in the MICA, University of Baltimore,
and midtown corridor link with Penn Station, for example, and the
forthcoming Maryland Avenue cycle track project. About 45-50 parking
spaces will be removed along Mount Royal Avenue to make room for the
bicycle track.

At a standing room-only public meeting at the Pratt Library two weeks ago, BDOT
representatives presented plans for
a dedicated, two-way cycle track that will run north and south on
Maryland Avenue from 29th Street to Pratt Street. That project, expected
to be implemented this fall, also includes several new east-west
painted bike lanes.

The Mount Royal Avenue cycle track is part of a
broader, $6 to $7 million infrastructure upgrade to Mount Royal Avenue
that will include dedicated electrical conduits intended to assist Artscape, water main improvements, street and landscaping, new traffic signals, and enhanced handicap accessibility.

Currently,
the only cycle track in the city is the short, north-south Fallsway
bike lane east of Charles Street, which starts near the Inner Harbor and
links to the Guilford Avenue bike route. Light Street Cycles bike shop owner Penny Troutner and Chris Merriam, executive director of Bikemore,
a Baltimore nonprofit bicycling advocacy organization, as well as
others in attendance—while pleased to hear the city is building
additional cycle track for bike commuters—also strenuously requested
that city officials extend the Mount Royal cycle track three blocks more
to Guilford Avenue.

According to the current plan, bicyclists are
supposed to use the eight-foot sidewalk between Charles Street and
Guilford Avenue when either heading north on Guilford or south on the
Fallsway cycle track, which is also part of the larger Jones Falls
Trail. But an increase in pedestrian traffic and the speed of cars
coming off I-83 in that area will remain a hazard without the extension
of a dedicated cycle track, Troutner and Merriam said. They also
stressed the benefits of a fully connected bicycle-friendly route that
sweeps across a large swath of the downtown commercial area.

“This
is such a short distance to go [to extend the cycle track to Guilford
Avenue],” Troutner said. “We need to complete the thought.”

“I
strongly recommend continuing the cycle track down to Guilford Avenue,”
Merriam said, noting that the bike path in front of the Inner Harbor,
which isn’t physically separated from pedestrians, hasn’t worked for
bicyclists because of the heavy foot traffic there.

Still, despite
the desire to extend the Mount Royal cycle track by several blocks, as
well as concerns about crossing North Avenue and turning onto Charles
Street—the planned project, though not yet completely designed—was
generally well received.

“I think this is great,” Troutner said. “The more cycle track, the better.”

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At
a standing room only public meeting at the downtown Pratt Library
earlier this week, representatives from the Baltimore Department of
Transportation presented plans for a dedicated, two-way cycle track that
will run north and south on Maryland Avenue from 29th Street to Pratt
Street. The cycle track (see above image for an idea what part of the
track will look like) is designed to separate bicyclists and cars, in
some areas by parked cars, in other areas by flexible posts, as well as
painted striped lines, particularly at interesections.

Also
included in the plan are several new east-west midtown bike lanes
(unlike cycle tracks, bike lanes only include painted lines and symbols
on the street without physical barriers to traffic).

The DOT
expects the Maryland Avenue cycle track to be completed by fall at the
latest, said Frank Murphy, deputy director of the Baltimore DOT.”This
is going to be important because this is going to be the backbone of
what we are working toward — a citywide, world-class system of protected
bike lanes,” said Chris Merriam, executive director of Bikemore,
a nonprofit bicycle advocacy organization in Baltimore. “This is not
going after one of those things that is just low-hanging fruit.”

Currently,
the only cycle track in the city is the short, north-south Fallsway
stretch on the east side of Charles Street, which then links to the
Guilford Avenue bike route. The new Maryland cycle track will give
bicycle commuters a north-south option in a busier, commercial side of
town, with the expectation that it will also encourage more bicycle
commuting, said city bike planner Caitlin Doolin. She noted that bicycle
volume on 15th St. NW in Washington, DC, increased more than 200
percent — and is still increasing — after the implementation of a cycle
track there.

Doolin said that the implementation of the cycle
track, the first in the city on a high-volume downtown street, will
minimally affect the number of current parking spaces on the street.
Approximately 10-20 spaces will be removed, she said, or about one for
every 100 on the Maryland Avenue corridor. Doolin added, however, DOT
does expect the cycle track infrastructure will slow down traffic
exiting south from I-83 during peak hours. “Think of it as a piece of
world-class infrastructure in exchange for a couple of seconds of
delay,” Doolin said.

Murphy and Doolin also talked briefly about
the city’s planned bicycle sharing system, which will include 25 bike
stations around downtown and 250 bikes. The current effort to bring
bike-sharing to Baltimore, in partnership with Alta, a Portland-based
company which will operate the program, which was to launch this
spring, is being delayed, in part, because of financial problems with the Bixi, the supplier of the bicycles.

Capital
funding for Charm City Bikeshare infrastructure and implementation
remains in place, however, while city officials and Alta search for a
new bike supplier. Baltimore City is also looking for a lead sponsor to
support the operation of the system.

Murphy said he expects decisions on the locations of bike stations to be finalized by July.

Merriam
said he believes the city is doing its due diligence, in terms of
putting together a successful Charm City Bikeshare launch and utllizing
its state grant money for the program wisely.

“The mayor
[Stephanie Rawlings-Blake] has seen bike-share’s effectiveness in other
cities,” Merriam said. “This is what forward, progressive looking cities
are doing.”

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Here’s a short list
of 10 upcoming events in the next couple of weeks. Maybe they’ll serve
as motivation to get back in the saddle now that the days are getting
longer, too. The Bikemore calendar, Baltimore Bicycle Club website, and Biking in B’more Meetup page are good ongoing resources, especially for local group rides.

Jan. 18: Jones Falls Trail Family Bike Party: Meets at 9:30 a.m. at Baltimore Bicycle Works on Falls Road.

Jan. 20: Crank Mavens Ladies’ Night Ride: All women ride through Baltimore, starts at 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 22: Winter Bike Sweats:
The antidote for spin class boredom. Ongoing Wednesday night 7:30 p.m.
rides, either sprints around Lake Montebello or climbs up Roland Park
hill.

Jan. 31: Baltimore Bike Party:
Ongoing last Friday of every month recreational urban trek and
after-party. This month’s theme: Hipsters vs. Lumberjacks. Meets at 7
p.m. at St. Mary’s Park.

Feb. 2: Pancake Ride:
First Sundays through April, leaving from South Carroll High School for
26 or 42 mile ride—with flapjack breakfast stop along the way.

Feb. 3 Six-Week Bike Maintenance Class:
Baltimore Bicycle Works mechanics teach the ins and outs of maintenance
and repair on Monday nights at 6 p.m. (There is a fee for the classes.)

Feb. 4: Downtown Baltimore Bicycle Network Public Meeting: 5 p.m. at the Enoch Pratt Free Library to discuss plans for the downtown bicycle network.

Feb. 7 & 8: Canton Club’s 24-Hour Pedal for Patterson Park: 6th Annual indoor cycle-thon to benefit Patterson Park.

Feb. 9: 17^th Annual Bicycle Stop, Swap, and Save: Carroll County Agricultural Center.

Feb. 11: The 17^th Annual Maryland Bicycle Symposium: Presented by Bike Maryland at the Miller Senate Office Building in Annapolis.

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