While H.B. 363 languished in the Maryland Senate, the General Assembly has quietly enacted the only bill on bicycle and pedestrian affairs to be endorsed this year by the Maryland Department of Transportation.
Senate Bill 226 removes a requirement that the Maryland Bicycle and Pedestrian Affairs Committee (MBPAC) meet once a year in Annapolis, from Section 2-606 (h) of the Maryland Transportation Code. The bill was a high legislative priority for Michael Jackson of MDOT, who coordinates the MBPAC. Its sponsor was Senator Roy P Dyson (D-St. Mary's), who represents Jim Swift, the chairman of MBPAC The bill originated in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, where the vehicular homicide has stalled.
The original purpose of the requirement to meet in Annapolis was to increase the interaction between MBPAC members and the annual legislative symposium in Annapolis sponsored by Bike Maryland (then known as One Less Car). For many years, MBPAC's February meetings took place at the Department of Natural Resources building in Annapolis, on the morning of the symposium. A few years ago, Mr. Jackson persuaded MBPAC that this arrangement was not optimal, because it made him miss the first part of the symposium, and relatively few MBPAC members attended it anyway. Since then MBPAC has continued to hold its February meeting in Annapolis, but on another day. Even fewer MBPC members attend the bike symposium, but those who do attend no longer have to miss its first hour.
Meanwhile, Mr. Jackson found scheduling a meeting in Annapolis each year to be administratively burdensome, and argued that MBPAC members regularly forget where the meeting is. The solution, he argued, was to remove the requiremetn to meet in Annapolis, and the Maryland General Assembly agreed.
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