The adult “footie” pajama business is apparently alive and well. At least in Charm City.

Hundreds of bicyclists took to the streets Friday night in their best — and funniest — pajamas for the Baltimore Bike Party’s November ride. There were couples in matching snow leopard print footies, grown men in dinosaur footies, female bicyclists in full-on bunny footies with ears and cotton tails, a pajama Tony the Tiger look-a-like, and one clown with an airhorn in bright, polka dot footies. (I mean, appeared to be a clown.)

Or maybe that was just his regular nightime wardrobe?

One guy wore a velvet Playboy robe, ala Hugh Heffner, over his animal print PJ’s. Another had Batman PJ’s, complete with cape.

Several parents brought their kids along for the ride. Some rode in PJ’s on their own bikes; the younger ones took in the scene in bike trailers. One bicyclist brought a terrier along in a basket on his bike.

Launched in April with a different theme each month, there's more music it seems at every new Bike Party, too. Depending if you’re upfront, in the pack or pulling up the rear — you might have heard anything from “Folsom Prison Gangstaz,” a remix of Johnny Cash with Easy E, Scissor Sister’s “Take Your Mama,” to Notorius B.I.G., Michael Jackson, Christina Aguilera and even, Huey Lewis and the News.

There were also a couple of bicycle drummers, literally building a small kit atop their handlebars. (Not recommended for everyone.)

This month’s ride went through neighborhoods above Patterson Park and east through Pigtown before wrapping up at the Pratt Street Ale House.

As usual, residents along the route came out to shoot videos, take photos, high-five and occasionally, ask exactly why hundreds of people were making noise and riding down their street at 9 p.m.

“What is this, why ya’ll riding?,” one man asked, leaning out of his SUV while stopped at a traffic light as hundreds of bicyclists hooted and hollered by.

“It’s Baltimore Bike Party!,” came the enthusiastic response from several riders pedaling past.

“Oh, it’s a bike party,” the driver repeated with a smile. And then he turned, and explained — like it should've been perfectly obvious — what was happening to his passenger. “It’s a bike party."

This past weekend I rode the York County Heritage Trail from New Freedom, Pa., just over the state line, directly up to the town of York, maybe 40 miles round trip. I'd rented a nice mountain bike for the trek from my friend Penny Troutner at Light Street Cycles and it proved a good workout — but with a hybrid the flat cruise would be a breeze for most recreational cyclists.

With the weather looking clear and dry over Thanksgiving weekend, this is a plug for bicycling the North Central Railroad (NCR) and York County Heritage Trails (YCH) in the next few days. Not to burn off any calories, just for fun.

I'd biked the lower half of the NCR trail previously, starting outside Cockeysville, but had never traveled above the Mason-Dixon line. I actually enjoyed the ride a lot more in Pennsylvania — lots of farms, babbling brooks, old trees, country houses and places to stop.

The NCR Trail, which I do really like, too, seems denser than the York County portion of the trail, which officially changes names at the state line. I found more small surprises — and some big (see above photo) — along the York County route.

Together, the North Central Railroad and York County Heritage Trail combine for a 41-mile stretch of rural terrain, much of it following the Gunpowder Falls River. From the Ashland entrance outside Cockeysville, it's a 20-mile trip to the Mason-Dixon Line, from there it's another 21 miles to York.

Last weekend, with a friend, we basically rode straight up from New Freedom to York and then back. Next time, I'd like to take a look around the small Pa. towns of Glen Rock and Hanover Junction and maybe — instead of just snacking on protein bars — grab coffee and some lunch in York before turning back.

Happy Thanksgiving.

More than 40 people, including staff from the Maryland Department of Transportation, the State Highway Administration and Motor Vehicle Administration — as well as planners and citizen bicycle advocates from a number of Maryland counties — turned out for a bike community meeting Tuesday night at MDOT headquarters in Hanover.

One reason for the meeting was an opportunity to introduce Darrell B. Mobley, MDOT’s still-new acting secretary, to the transportation, bicycle and pedestrian community.

A potentially good piece of news for bicyclists is that Mobley, as well as State Highway administrator Melinda Peters and Motor Vehicle administrator John Kuo, all of whom made brief presentations, described themselves as recreational bicyclists. Mobley spoke of tackling the Great Allegheny Passage this summer; Kuo mentioned that he was a weekend C & O Canal rider in Montgomery County; and Peters added that she was a dedicated cyclist, training for an Ironman triathlon and regularly taking long rides in Carroll County.

Peters noted that the over the summer the state had put a Complete Streets policy into effect for all projects, focusing on enhancing designs for bicyclists and pedestrians, particularly in urban areas.

Perhaps most noteworthy, State Highway officials also said they are preparing to update Maryland’s 20-year Bicycle and Pedestrian Access Master Plan. The updated plan will be completed on the same schedule as the overall 2035 Maryland Transportation Plan, as now required by state law, according to an MDOT handout last night.

An MDOT website with information on the update plan and project is scheduled to be launched by Nov. 30, 2012. MDOT plans to announce public engagement opportunities at that time as well. Over the next few years, MDOT will assess current conditions, goals, trends, needs and financial resources — and develop investment and implementation strategies.

Kuo said that the MVA has begun coordinating with the SHA, in particular, on safety and education issues, emphasizing work on reducing distracted driving — and promoting the state’s “3-foot” law,” designed to protect cyclists. Kuo pointed to the MVA’s recent public service announcement about safe driving and bicycling, as well as MVA driver renewal envelopes sent out this fall that highlight the 3-foot law.

Carol Silldorf, executive director of Bike Maryland, responded, however — after praising MVA’s efforts — that the agency still needs to expand its education efforts, suggesting 3-foot law educational messages could also be placed on emissions testing envelopes and other public communications. And not just over the course of one month, “but six months or a year,” she said.