City aims to make bike travel easier, safer

The philosophy behind an effort to make Annapolis more bicycle-friendly is best summed up by a favorite saying of Jim Urban, a city resident and planner.

"Annapolis has one of the best bicycle transportation systems in the world," Mr. Urban says. "There are just too many cars on it."

Mr. Urban is serving on a committee studying how to make Annapolis more bicycle-friendly. As residents switch from four wheels to two in reaction to traffic congestion and high gas prices, the use of bicycles is more important than ever, committee members said.

The committee is expected to recommend hiring or designating a single individual to focus on the city's bike policies and making changes to the city's infrastructure by adding bike lanes, improving shoulders, and removing grates that catch bike tires.

"It's all part of an overall strategy to decrease automobile dependency," said Steve Carr, a city transportation consultant who serves as chair of the committee. "Most of this stuff doesn't cost a lot. It just takes common sense."

The committee was commissioned last year by Mayor Ellen O. Moyer and consists of Mr. Urban, local bike shop owners, bike-riding residents, the president of the Annapolis Bicycle Club, a city consultant and a frequent critic of the city's transportation policy. It will issue a final report in the fall, Mr. Carr said.

The committee examined data about where bicycle crashes happened in the city, solicited advice and input from experts and members of the Annapolis Bicycle Club, and also took several bike rides in important areas in the city.

An example of Mr. Urban's philosophy at work is asking the city's Department of Public Works to fix an "incredibly dangerous" dip between the road and the curb on Bay Ridge Road, which they are scheduled to do some work on, Mr. Carr said.

The committee also looking to make sure major roadways like Forest Drive, Route 2, and Spa Road are bike-friendly.

However, Paul Foer, a former marketing specialist with the Annapolis Department of Transportation who has become a vocal critic of the city's transportation policies, said hiring or designating someone to deal with bicycle issues for the city is the most important change the city could make.

"We have hundreds and hundreds of city employees and not a single one is dedicated to walking or bicycling," Mr. Foer said. "Nothing will happen without a warm body."

While Annapolis has several employees in various departments who work on bicycle issues part-time, extremely bike-friendly cities like Davis, Calif. or Portland, Ore., have city employees dedicated to biking, who spend their time planning, applying for grants, and educating the public, Mr. Foer said.

But some solutions aren't so simple. National guidelines and standards determine the widths of bike and car lanes on the roads, which can make adding bike lanes difficult, Mr. Urban said. A compromise to add more lanes may involve painting stripes on the road, but designating them as "road share" lanes for both cars and bikes.

And not all improvements can be made by the city. West Street, for example, could be more bike-friendly, but is owned by the state. Forest Drive is owned by the county. Some roads even switch between city and state-ownership.

"It makes for a very, very difficult management mix," Mr. Carr said.

Mr. Urban also noted that improving conditions for bicyclists will make things safer for people using mopeds, Segways, or other non-automobile forms of transportation to get around.

But not all the improvements need to be physical additions to the roads. Education - of both drivers and bicyclists - also is crucial, committee members said.

As more people dust off their bike and head to the roads, Mr. Urban said, they need to understand how to remain safe. First, they should wear a helmet. Second, bicyclists should act the same way cars do when on the roads.

Anne Arundel has a high rate of bicycle crashes involve bicyclists illegally going against traffic - 35 percent, according to Barry Childress, the advocacy chair of the Baltimore Bicycle Club. Anne Arundel's percentage of bicycle injury crashes is higher than the state average, according to State Highway Administration data.

"The education of drivers is very important," said Burnell Vincent, who regularly rides his bike throughout Annapolis and served on the committee. "You can be comfortable sharing the road, you just have to be used to each other."

Mr. Vincent said the behavior of divers can vary widely, from being excessively deferential to excessively aggressive.

Annapolis has a goal of earning a bronze-level designation as a bicycle-friendly city from the League of American Bicyclists by 2011. No city in Maryland currently has the designation, although Washington, D.C. does. The committee also wants Annapolis to earn a silver-level award by 2016.

The League awards the designations based on five criteria: what has been built to promote cycling in the community, the availability of cycling education, the amount a community encourages residents to cycle, how well laws protecting cyclists are enforced, and how well a community evaluates and makes plans about bicycle usage.

Mr. Vincent said the report will do more than gather dust.

"The people that were involved are active enough to make sure this doesn't sit on a shelf," he said.