Annapolis Capital Punishment

More band-aids for a broken system...Annapolis, the crowded, congested, historic state capital where our globetrotting Mayor and asleep-at-the-wheel Transportation Department have again come up with another scheme to supposedly lure folks out of their cars which involves incentives including buying powered scooters. Read about it in the Baltimore Sun at : http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/annearundel/bal-ar.bike01aug01,0,943081.story
Here is what CP wrote about this when contacted by Sun reporter Nia Henderson before the story. CP is quoted in the article:

“To the extent that this encourages bicycling, and use of our bus system, it's a positive step, but does it help the many walkers, regular bus customers or bicyclists? We do not need coffee discounts--we need lanes and safe roads on which to ride. We need respect from drivers and assistance from our police department. We need leadership that says we belong here.
And why scooters? Scooters are only slightly better than cars for a variety of reasons and what we really need to do is get people out of their cars. Scooters will end up being driven and parked on sidewalks and endangering walkers and cyclists. I suspect scooters are involved because the Transportation Director, who drives a pickup truck one mile to work and loves scooters thought this would be a good idea. I like the idea that having my bike with me gets me half-price fare on our buses. But, is this only for new purchases? How will the long-term bike riders such as myself reap these rewards? What are we doing to encourage walking? Every bus customer is a walker. Every bus trip is basically a walking trip interrupted by a vehicle trip. Are we rewarding those regular customers, even those that cannot afford or ride a bike?
At the same time we do this, the City allows residents to park their cars for free in downtown garages, which is ridiculous. Will Segways get on board next? While I was riding my bike on city streets today, one of these monstrously die, heavy and powerful contraptions was barreling down a sidewalk near a school. While they are legal on sidewalks due to a bizarre and obscure state law, our police officers are not even certain whether bicycles are or are not permitted.
What this does not do is improve our ailing bus system. This does not improve management, maintenance or service. In essence, it is similar to the silly bike loaner program they started which is an easy way to say they did something. The problem is really about accessibility to roads, lanes and destinations, and not about the vehicle themselves. However, to make bike lanes work, to make it possible for people to really ride bikes safely, takes effort, money and leadership. This is the issue. Whatever one may do to get me to take a train, you still need stations and rails. Same with flying--you still need airports. With bikes and walking it is no different.
Walkers and bicyclists are second-class citizens. We are up against a host of offenses on a daily basis, whether it's being honked at, pushed off the road, being hit or subjected to obscenities, we do not have a bike or walking culture here, and we are so far behind in terms of real places to bike safely. Even our few lanes are inadequate as they end abruptly. Down the street from my home, one sidewalk ends and another begins three feet away and that one abruptly ends at a wall. Our sidewalks are used as dumping grounds for everything from utilities to trash and our police do not even enforce against motorists parking on them unless they are called to the scene.
In short, while this idea is not bad, it's just not that good and it avoids the real issue. We cannot even get the Mayor to take the lead in encouraging city employees, many of whom live in the city, of getting out of their cars. She will not even ride a bike on the annual Bike to Work Day and she has told me she hates buses (but she is pictures at the helm of a racing boat and she took a ship to Europe). We do not even have adequate bike racks. The one rack near the Market House is pejoratively referred to as a "tire killer." Some rusted bikes stay there for months. On weekends, the place is jammed up with bikes. The issue is about providing leadership to create a bike and walking culture. What does it say to the masses when we take the finest real estate in Anne Arundel County and pave it over for cars to create a traffic jam? I am speaking of our popular City Dock. Now, if we really wanted to lessen cars, we would take real steps:
1. Make our bus system free--all the time--or make it so attractive and compelling that it will pay for itself, freeing up city dollars for other projects.
2. Drastically raise parking fees.
3. Consider congestion pricing downtown.
4. Set aside more and more days for car-free downtown.
5. Create disincentives for residents and city employees to park or drive downtown and incentives for them to walk, ride a bike, take a bus.
6. Improve our bus system, make the director earn her $105k salary while she takes lengthier vacations each.
7. Make the director and staff of Annapolis Transit ride the bus on a regular basis and talk to customers.
STOP PLANNING AND PLANNING AND PLANNING AND MEETING....JUST provide real visionary leadership that recognizes the transportation imperative...cars and Annapolis do not mix.
Of course it's an initiative started by the Mayor....she always gets a bug in her butt about something and runs off...she tried it wrong-headedly with water taxis too. there are many cities that are forging ahead with real transportation solutions but I am afraid that we are just popping on "band aids" and just tweaking a broken system. The whole system needs an overhaul-even the Transportation Dep't, and this was called for in a Mayoral transition report in 1998. We simply plan and build as if the only future is widening roads. we do not even have a bike/pedestrian coordinator on city staff, so how fare can we expect to go?
When the Mayor leads a bike ride of five hundred people and that stops car traffic, I'll be more inclined to listen.
And what about the Take A Step map I created? This resource has not been updated for years? Why not? This was the only time a map and guide was created to help people walk, bike and take a bus. When will the Transportation folks do a new one?