BWI Trail and the B-A Trail

11/30/12 47

Today I was fortunate to ride the BWI Trail (Baltimore Airport Trail) and the B-A Trail (Baltimore Annapolis Trail).

Started off outside the airport loop, parked at a Holiday Inn Express. Rode the southwest quarter of the BWI trail, which includes an airplane/airport viewing mini-park.



The BWI Trail is very nice, paved and well marked, very clean.

I saw this signpost at the juncture between the BWI Trail and a connector segment that crosses to the B&A Trail, Holy Multi-Modal Batman! Planes, Trains, Bike Routes. You'd almost think we were car-free.

The B-A Trail, which runs on the right-of-way of the former Baltimore Annapolis Short Line, is another excellent trail: paved, well marked, and well integrated with the roads and in the community's mind. I could see people using this to commute to work.

The B-A Trail has a park ranger patrolling the trail, it's run by local government, they seem to invest a lot of value in it. There's a scale model of the solar system along the B-A Trail, showing the planets in their relative positions, the same concept as I've seen in the Wheeling WV trail but the execution on the B-A Trail was very sophisticated with sculptures.

In Severna Park, in one small spot, a convergence of All Things Necessary: Big Bean Coffee (with trailside seating at the rear entrance), a bakery, and at the far end of the building Pedal Pushers Bike Shop.



At the same location, a mural:



At a few points along the B-A Trail, they use Burma-Shave type signs to reinforce the desired behaviors, I thought this was very effective, showed they understand the riding experience (nobody reads detailed signs), and a bit retro with the Burma-Shave format. (A+)


This was a very pleasant ride on two trails I've wanted to experience for a few years. (47M)