Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Pedal Power
Nonprofit Bike Maryland moves into high gear with the start of the General Assembly.
Posted by Ron Cassie and Anissa Elmerraji on Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 4:15 PM
Bike Maryland recently announced several key dates for bicycling enthusiasts and advocates, including its annual Maryland State Bicycle Symposium, a free training workshop for its bike ambassador program, and the organization’s first-ever Pro-Bike Lobby Night.
At the Port Discovery Children's Museum on January 25, Bike Maryland will train fifty-plus new Bike-Minded program ambassadors to promote bicycle safety in Baltimore City and throughout the state. Registration for the afternoon or evening training sessions can be found here. Part of a two-year-old partnership with the Maryland State Highway Administration, the ambassador training develops bicycle “educators” in an effort to increase rider, driver, and walker safety, while reducing crash and fatality rates. Bike ambassadors become qualified to host bicycle training workshops at local schools and various Bike Maryland and community events.
Over the last two years, bicycle commuters within Baltimore City alone have increased by 41 percent, according to a press release by Bike Maryland.
“We thought we might get twenty people to sign up and we already have fifty,” Bike Maryland Executive Director Carol Silldorf told Urbanite last week. “I’m so excited, this is the first time in Baltimore this number of people are being trained to teach bike safety.” Silldorf added that Katie Gore, of Joe’s Bike Shop, and former national mountain biking champion, Marla Streb, will serve as trainers for would-be local bike ambassadors.
This year’s 15th Annual Maryland State Bicycle Symposium in the Miller Senate Building in Annapolis is slated for February 22. Tentatively scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m., the free, day-long symposium brings together state and county government officials and planners, elected leaders, community and transportation activists, and bike enthusiasts of all stripes from the region to discuss ways to improve local and state bikeability. This year’s topics include Bike Maryland's legislative agenda, bike-share initiatives, the Bike-Friendly Maryland Program, the Bike-Minded program, bicycle tourism, and the new Maryland Bikeways program.
“We already have fifteen speakers. We have a fabulous agenda and expect to have four-hundred people,” Silldorf said. She added with a laugh: “Although we have a history of big snow storms [on the day of the symposium] in past years.”
This year’s first-ever Pro-Bike Lobby Night will be held February 6 in the House Office Building in Annapolis. Due to limited space, interested participants must register by contacting Christina Nutile, Silldorf said. Bike Maryland, which has twenty-thousand members statewide, will offer a mini, twenty-minute training session for those who wish meet with their legislators to briefly discuss biking-related issues.
“There’s been such a demand [for a lobby event],” Silldorf said. “People want to learn how to become advocates because bicycling is an issue they care about. They want to be able to meet their legislators to make their voice heard.”
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