Beginning this morning, 3,000 pairs of shoes will be affixed to the fence around Johns Hopkins-owned property at the corner of St. Paul and 33rd Streets by members of the JHU community. The project, conceived earlier this spring, is designed to highlight safety issues faced by pedestrians and bicyclists.

Specifically, the 3,000 pairs of shoes represent the number of pedestrians and cyclists involved in motor vehicle crashes in the state of Maryland every year, according to Hopkins’ Office of Alumni Relations, which notes that more than 100 people die in the state each from such crashes.

The St. Paul Street location is particularly poignant because it’s an intersection that has been the site of recent pedestrian and bicyclist tragedies.

In 2009, Miriam Frankl, a 20-year-old Johns Hopkins student, was struck and killed on St. Paul Street by a hit-and-run driver. Hopkins student Nathan Krasnopoler, also 20, was struck by a car while bicycling on nearby University Parkway last year and died from his injuries.

Shoes painted white and affixed to the fence are meant to symbolize those who lost their lives in fatal collisions.

The Johns Hopkins Office of Alumni Relations sent out an email yesterday that said volunteers will be needed between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Friday, with more possibly needed on Saturday.

More information about the project can be found here.

The Baltimore Bike Party—a casual last Friday of every month group ride—has grown dramatically in just a few months and expectations are the August ride Friday evening will attract the biggest crowd to date.

The burgeoning Bike Party, which gathers at the Washington Monument in Mt. Vernon between 7-7:30 p.m. for an easy two-hour trek around the city, combines this month with the annual Bob Moore Memorial Moonlight Madness Ride. As of Wednesday morning, more than 420 bicyclists have indicated that they’re “going” on the Moonlight Madness Bike Party’s Facebook page. Another 130 bicyclists have indicated “maybe” they’ll attend. Moore, a beloved, past president of the Baltimore Bicycling Club and longtime city bicycling advocate, passed away at 73 in 2008 from pancreatic cancer.

A map of the August ride can be found here.

Baltimore City Department of Transportation bike and pedestrian planner Nate Evans noted in a Baltimore Brew story two years ago that Moore originally created the Moonlight Ride. Moore, Evans said, was “instrumental in getting the initial political attention on cycling around Baltimore,” including starting the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee and getting the Bicycle Master Plan adopted. Penny Troutner, owner of Light Street Cycles, said in the same story that she became friends with Moore in 1991, the year she opened her shop. Both later became instrumental in creating the popular, annual Tour dem Parks, Hon! ride. Good-natured and outgoing, Moore was ubiquitous at Baltimore bicycling events and also served on the Gwynns Falls Trail Council.

The Baltimore Bike Party, which has evolved from the old Critical Mass rides into something safer and traffic-law friendly, has a different theme each month. July’s theme was a beach party, for example, and June’s was an 80’s party. The August theme is lights: ”Lights on yourself, on your bike, all over,” according to the Bike Party’s Facebook page. “We want to light up the night as we ride around town under the full moon! Bike lights, headlamps, flashlights and duct tape, LED strips, whatever you have bring it!”

No doubt Bob Moore would be thrilled with a large turnout—not because his name is attached to the ride—but because Baltimore is making genuine strides as a bicycle-friendly city.

Of course, Lance Armstrong said it ain’t so many times. Hundreds of times. Vehemently. Indignantly. As vigorously as the American cycling icon climbed the Alps and Pyrenees on his way to an unprecedented seven Tour de France titles, he denied charges that he blood doped, using the banned performance-enhancing substance known as EPO. There were also accusations of steroid use.

Thursday night, Armstrong quit fighting. Which is not to say he's no longer in denial.

Facing public arbitration with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Armstrong “declined” to participate in an upcoming hearing. Almost immediately he was stripped of his Tour de France titles, his bronze Olympic medal, and handed a lifetime ban from cycling.

In a statement released to the media, the 40-year-old said, “Enough is enough,” mentioning the “the toll this taken on my family.”

The problem for Armstrong, as those who have been following his case know, wasn’t test results — although the USADA claims to have two bad tests from 2009 and 2010 when Armstrong attempted his comeback — it was the testimony of his own racing team and former teammates, Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton and Frankie Andreu.

Bicycling magazine editor in chief Peter Flax said on CBS This Morning Friday that he thinks Armstrong is "choosing the least worst option...it's a damage control move.” Flax added that he’s “absolutely convinced” that Armstrong cheated. However, Flax also noted that there’s tremendous support for Armstrong on the magazine’s online forums, "95 percent of them are pro-Lance people, communicating their support for him," he said. "He is guilty but in a lot of people's eyes, he's still an inspiration."

Someone I heard on television this morning compared Armstrong’s downfall to Pete Rose’s fall from grace. It’s a good analogy in one respect. Charlie Hustle was beloved for his competitive fire and take-no-prisoner’s approach to sport. Rose also vehemently professed his innocence (of gambling on his own team), numerous times in interviews and television, for years, despite damning evidence. In both cases, looking back, their incredible competitive spirit — and ego defense mechanisms — look more like pathological character flaws.

A cycling friend early this morning sent me a text, wondering if we will ever know the truth. Then she clarified. She meant she wondered if Armstrong would ever tell whole truth. You know, come clean.

Armstrong'a entire statement can be found here.