Last week, Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh signed an executive order establishing a Bicycling Advisory Commission for the County.
The commission will be chaired by Jon Korin, president of Bicycle Advocates for Annapolis & Anne Arundel County (BikeAAA), a nonprofit that promotes bike safety.
He called the group a stepping-stone to building an interconnected network of routes and signs that will include both trails and on-the-road bike networks. It centers on the 13-mile B&A Trail, which runs from Jonas Green State Park on the Severn River to Glen Burnie and BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport.
The county budgeted more than $400,000 to begin studying the feasibility of a bridge over Ritchie Highway at Anne Arundel Community College.
The B&A Trail is just across the highway from AACC.
There is also $3 million in the budget to invest in bike trails and road improvements that benefit cyclists.
Efforts to extend bike lanes stretch back to 2003, when then-County Executive Janet Owens released a plan to add 215 miles of bike lanes in 15 years.
The issue was addressed again in 2013 with a new set of recommendations, such as hiring a coordinator to facilitate new paths and trails. That position was never funded.
This is good news, but they could also work on changing the mindset of AA law enforcement and prosecutors.
Posted by: SJE | August 14, 2015 at 08:55 PM