The Baltimore City Council on Monday passed legislation changing the city’s fire code to substitute more flexible language governing street clearance for fire apparatus, a change Councilman Ryan Dorsey and others have said will speed up installation of cycling infrastructure and facilitate a handful of development projects.
The bill now sits on the desk of Mayor Catherine Pugh. James Bentley, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, said Tuesday afternoon that “she’s still reviewing the legislation,” and “her only stance is that she wants to ensure citizens are able to reside in those neighborhoods safely.”
The seemingly in-the-weeds issue concerning how much space is comfortable for firetrucks to set up became a public clash this summer between the Baltimore City Fire Department—which has argued bike lanes are shrinking space for apparatus to operate, threatening public safety—and cycling advocates, who are forever pushing for movement on stalled bike lanes and other infrastructure.
Since a spring 2017 kerfuffle over Canton’s Potomac Street Cycle Track, BCFD has vetoed projects at the city Planning Department’s Site Planning Review Committee.
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