Dear One Less Car!
I believe wholeheartedly in the mission of your organization. I am a bicycle advocate and rider and feel the biggest need right now is more places to ride safely in the state of MD. Where I live in Towson there aren’t any bike lanes or trails so bike riding around here is a challenge because it doesn't feel safe and many roads simply aren't suitable for bikes b/c of the high speed, the lanes are too narrow, and/or the roads are too busy. The rest of Baltimore County and for that matter, the state of MD, is lacking in bike facilities like these where one can ride safely. There are of course a few notable exceptions such as the Northern Central and the B & A Trails that are great but are too few in number and too far away from where I live. We should have the bicycle infrastructure in place that allows everyone in this state to be able to get on their bike at their home and bike to anywhere they want whether it is to go shopping, to work, to the bank, the post office, to the movie theater, and so on. And they should be able to do so on a safe network of onroad bike lanes and offroad bike trails throughout the state.
The image above is a view of the excellent bike trail around the Amber Lake at Bitterfeld, Germany. We certainly can learn much from the many beautiful bicycle facilities in numerous European countries.
Does your group ever lobby for the state or local jurisdictions to construct more bike lanes and/or bike trails? If yes, please tell me more about this. If no, why not, and do you have any suggestions for how to go about doing so?
Best regards,
Roland Oehme, RLA
Landscape Architect
Green Harmony Design
