BALTIMORE — A Baltimore community group is planning to build a permanent urban dirt-bike park in hopes of getting young dirt-bikers to ride safely.
The group B-360 will announce on Friday a capital campaign to raise millions to build what they say would be the first such park in the country.
The park would feature an indoor and outdoor riding course, educational space for youth to enroll in STEM programs, and an auto body shop, according to a press release.
The group had been recently setting up a space at the B&O Railroad Museum on weekends for dirt bikers to use. Mayor Brandon Scott and other city leaders are expected to declare Friday "B-360 Day."
Baltimore has spent years trying to address the issue of illegal dirt-bike riding and racing on city streets.
B-360, launched in 2017 after concern about the criminalization of dirt bikes in the city, says it works "to disrupt the prison pipeline associated with dirt bike riding" and "trains young riders in STEM programs and transitions youth and young adult riders in Baltimore out of traffic and into programs that grow transferable skills for career and workforce development."
B-360 "has taught more than 8,000 young riders how to ride safely while equipping them with practical STEM stills to fix and maintain bikes. B360 has been one of the main catalysts to decreasing dirt bike-related arrests in Baltimore (overall down by 81% since 2018) and has helped nearly 50 adults stay out of prison by enrolling them in adult education and workforce development programs," the group said in the press release. "Baltimore is often referred to as America’s dirt-bike capital but ironically has enacted some of the toughest dirt-bike laws in the nation."
