I also have a lot of suspicion that BRTB and BMC will actually deliver anything here except press releases and political cover for local jurisdictions that don’t want to invest funds (especially Baltimore County), but I’m going to a public meeting tomorrow.
I believe that the *individuals* that work at BRTB are perfectly interested in bike planning. Just that they will also shrug and invest hundreds of millions in highways instead with a shrug and say “well, that’s what member jurisdictions asked for”, as if their plans are meaningless.
What’s even the point of developing these plans and voting on them as an MPO if there’s no accountability or enforcement to work on them? Perhaps they can explain some more at the public meeting as to how this process will result in bike infrastructure getting built.
I attended the open house style meeting at the Enoch Pratt Free Library Central Branch (by the way, such a treasure) and had some good conversation, including with Todd Long, Director of Transportation at BMC. I still think this study will largely tell us what we already knew, but still engaging.
My new goal is to convince BRTB that consensus does not equal unanimity. They should be developing plans that follow well documented best practices and lean forward on vulnerable road user safety, if MDOT or a member jurisdiction wants to vote against it, let them do so on the public record.
