OnFootBlog.com

I’m going to stop posting on here for a long while. Possibly forever.

When I first started this site, my employer was the Annapolis Capital, a wonderful paper that (at the time) had no running or transportation blogs. Now, however, I work for the Baltimore Sun, which within the last year has launched both a wonderful transportation blog and, more recently, a very nice running section. Since these vastly outdo my blog in terms of quality and quantity, I’m happy to say that it’s now quite redundant.

That said, I’d still love to see you at a Friday meetup, as those will continue.

With Washington adding another circulator route, the fine people at Greater Greater Washington have posted a composite that adds selected bus lines to the well-known metro map.

An added side benefit of this is that it will likely get more people to MARC stations — meaning more constituents putting pressure on lawmakers for weekend rail service between Baltimore and Washington. I’m not holding my breath, but it’s always a nice thought.

Baltimore City Paper’s Michael Byrne this week highlights the status of the ICC as one of America’s seven “highways to nowhere,” as recognized by Infrastructuralist. Byrne makes note of the project’s budgetary impact. From the article:

A key piece of evidence is a report released by the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which examined five alternatives to the ICC, ranging from completing the proposed Purple Line and adding bus service along the corridor to adding express-bus services and creating High Occupancy Toll lanes on highways. Three of those options were found to reduce traffic on existing arterial roads in the corridor and cost less money.

( Read full article >> )

I have to wonder whether the studies took contractual obligations into account. Closing a project after a massive construction project starts (as some advocate for the ICC)  is rarely cheap, assuming failsafes were correctly put into place.

Here are some choices for this week:

What I’ll be doing: Nothing too active. I did something stupid this week, and now my foot is recovering.

Other options: The Baltimore Bicycling Club is holding rides for four different ability levels on Saturday, with another four on Sunday. It looks from the site like the Saturday session might be the more beginner-friendly of the two. In addition, there’s a slew of footraces and walks from 5K to 30K in length.

In the future: Another dozen, including the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile & 5K.

As always, you can see a full list of upcoming road races, transit events, training rides, walks, and runs via the on-foot calendar of events.

Here are some choices for this week:

What I’ll be doing: Perhaps cheering people on at the Suntrust National Marathon. That sort of depends on whether anyone I know is running in it.

Other options: Races in Walkersville and Hampstead, among other places.

In the future: Another chance to race on the NCR trail.

As always, you can see a full list of upcoming road races, transit events, training rides, walks, and runs via the on-foot calendar of events.

Here are some choices for this week:

What I’ll be doing: Too early to say yet, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to resist a run that promises pi. Mmm … pi*.

Other options: There are at least five 5K races in the area this weekend, which means we must be getting into spring. Those include the KELLY Shamrock 5K here in Baltimore. I’m sure a lot of people will be making a day of it by swerving their way in and out of Fell’s Point bars afterward.

In the future: National marathon? Yeah, we have one of those.

As always, you can see a full list of upcoming road races, transit events, training rides, walks, and runs via the on-foot calendar of events. Quick reminder: We really do have bike events on our calendar as well, despite the relative lack of them in recent weeks. I encourage you to e-mail me any upcoming events that I may have missed. We’ll usually be happy to link to them.

—

*I know I’m probably the 8,000th person to make that joke this year. I don’t regret it in the slightest. The world can always use more middle school math puns.

The Obama stimulus package is due to give the MARC system more than $10 million for improvements, the Baltimore Sun reported today. From the article:

The projects, to be announced today by 2nd District Democratic Rep. C A. Dutch Ruppersberger, include $3 million to improve elevators and the heating and cooling system at the station at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The congressman also is expected to outline plans to spend $4 million for new canopies and windows at Penn Station and $400,000 for work at the MARC storage facility at Martin State Airport … More >>

Not all is happy this week in Charm City Transitland, however.

A blog posting at Baltimore Inner Space highlights the recent choice of the Baltimore Development Corporation to build a development in East Baltimore that, in the words of the blogger, makes no effort to exploit the potential for a transit station.

Well, that was a relief. Despite the Washington Metro’s Red Line mishap, everything seems to have turned out ok.

Now our Baltimore MARC schedule (and prices!*) can go back to normal.

—

* See this old story if that comment about MARC prices makes no sense.

Montgomery County has come out in favor of light rail rather than RTB service for their long-debated Washington-area, suburb-to-suburb connector.

This is a big step toward getting light rail service between Bethesda and New Carrolton, and bloggers have wasted no time speaking up. DCmud and The City Fix have already weighed in.

While it’s not heavy rail like the Dulles extension, it’s at least a start.

Right about now, Barack Obama is scheduled to have finished his speech across from Baltimore’s city hall.

I wasn’t there.

There are a few reasons for that. First, I work tomorrow, so I’m trying to stay relatively rested for the early shift — as well as the blisteringly cold drive beforehand. After a day of pipe-thawing adventures, I’m looking forward to a long winter’s nap.

Second, I’ve heard most of what Obama has to say. That’s not meant to convey any disrespect: I simply get a larger-than-average dose of CNN at work.

Third, I plan to be at the inauguration on Tuesday. And I’m lazy.

That said, there’s no shortage of talented journalists covering the event, along with its parent “meta event,” Obama’s train journey to Washington. One of the more interesing takes that I saw was from Fred Rasmussen, who had a thing or two to say about trains in an article called “Obama’s hardly first U.S. president to favor train travel.”  An excerpt:

The first president-elect to ride a passenger train to an inauguration was William Henry Harrison, eight years [after 1833]. Harrison holds several other firsts. He was the first presidential candidate to campaign by train. He is also noted for having presided over the shortest presidency, delivering the longest inaugural address at 8,444 words, and being the first chief executive to die in office.

Rasmussen mentions several other inaugural trains in the article, but I am sad to say that his most recent cited case (until now) is from 1953. Here’s hoping that having a loyal Amtrak rider in the vice president’s chair will help bring our national rail system up to first-world standards., making another inaugural rail trip substantially more likely.