Zac Blanchard
Candidate for: City Council, 11th District
blanchardforbaltimore.com
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Describe your vision of a healthy, safe, and equitable transportation system for Baltimore city and what roles walking, biking, and public transportation play in that vision.
People-oriented places are critical for good neighborhoods, and for the city’s financial sustainability. This means that the mid-20th century gutting of Baltimore for extra lanes, highway sized roads, and extra parking needs to be undone.
First and foremost, nice neighborhoods have to have calm traffic, and have to be pedestrian-friendly. Safety for a variety of modes of transportation, especially those walking in their own neighborhoods, should be the top priority. The public transit system needs to be expanded to be a valid alternative to driving, especially considering that roughly one-third of our city’s households do not own a car.
To meet Baltimore City’s adopted climate goals, we must shift at least 10% of current automobile vehicle miles traveled to active transportation and public transit. What is your plan to achieve this goal?
I support the introduction of light and heavy rail in projects like the Red Line and North-South corridor. I support improving the bus lane network to ensure buses aren’t stuck in traffic, even at the cost of parking spaces. I support identifying several key corridors for separated bike lane routes, so that biking will be a safer, more normal option in the city.
What is your plan to continue to reduce the number of injuries and deaths on Baltimore City roadways each year?
First, reduce vehicle speeds: I will advocate for the reduction of lane sizes, traffic calming measures such as curb bumpouts, functional traffic circles, more cobblestone/brick streets, and reduced speed limits.
Second, improve pedestrian and bike safety: I support the removal of right turn on red or adding red arrow turn signals to dangerous intersections, designating car free zones, adding bollards to protect pedestrians in high speed areas, and adding more designated crosswalks, including raised crosswalks.
How often do you walk, bike or use public transit to reach daily destinations? If not often (or at all), what would make you more likely to use non-personal vehicle modes of transportation?
I bike to work 5 days a week, and I bike to coach football at Digital Harbor, where my players tease me for being unable to do a wheelie. I walk to see many of my friends, grab coffee or a drink, and go to church. I use public transit infrequently because I cannot trust the transit app. I drive a car to get groceries because I live in Baltimore, so there’s not a grocery store within a mile and a half of my house.
In 2017, Baltimore City adopted the Separated Bike Lane Network Plan Addendum to the Bike Master Plan. This called for connecting 85% of Baltimore’s neighborhoods to safe, all-ages bike infrastructure by 2022. Less than 20% of this network has been built. What would you do to accelerate implementation?
We need to standardize and streamline the community engagement process for Complete Streets redesigns, and as councilperson, I will ensure that our DOT planners are effectively synced up with neighborhoods in these efforts. Perhaps more importantly, I am a big believer that we should master the art of short-duration pilot programs, using temporary equipment and affordable traffic-monitoring systems, to assess the impact of proposed adjustments on traffic. Oftentimes, Complete Streets changes calm traffic without slowing their commute time (because cars spend less time stopped at a red light or in queue at a stop sign), but it would be a win-win to track this data before and after a temporary change is implemented.
In 2018, Baltimore City received national recognition for passing the first equity driven Complete Streets ordinance in the country. This legislation contains a modal hierarchy prioritizing vulnerable road users and mandates best practices in roadway configuration and design. Are you committed to retaining this ordinance and the current practices and modal hierarchy it mandates?
Yes. I do think a standardized, streamlined community engagement process would increase transparency, and is thus a win-win for DOT, neighborhoods, and for safety/multi-modality in the city. But I am support both the goals and achievements of Complete Streets in Baltimore.
What is your position on The Red Line alternatives?
The Red Line needs to tunnel through Downtown. I don’t think people realize how much a tunneled Red Line will help students get to school, workers get to work, and sick people get to the hospital much more reliably. So of the current options, Light Rail tunneled through Downtown is the clear best-choice.
In general, I admire and trust the way that the Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition is thinking about the Red Line.
What is your position on currently delayed all-ages bike infrastructure projects on Eutaw Place, Madison Avenue, and Sharp Streets? If supportive, how will you move these projects forward?
My wife bikes to work on Sharp Street, so when my opponent lied and said that it is a “national security risk” to put a bike lane on Sharp Street, after my wife testified about how unsafe it is to bike on Sharp Street, I was particularly upset about that. Both the Otterbein and Convention Center legs of the Sharp Street lane needs to be built to connect to the Maryland Avenue cycle track - the only north-south protected lane through Downtown.
Concerning Eutaw Place and Madison Avenue, we need a good multi-modal option connecting Downtown to Druid Hill Park. I don’t think we need two. My personal sense is that Eutaw Place is the better candidate, though the devil is in the details and I know there are some residents concerned about the impact on parking, the aesthetics of the skinny white flex-posts (the pawn-shaped black ones along Harford Road would be more appropriate for such a gorgeous, historic space like Eutaw Place), and the concern that bike lanes prioritize white residents over black residents. I respect these concerns but am confident they could be effectively addressed through honest community engagement. That said, a bikeable Baltimore really does depend on a safe connection between Downtown and Druid Hill Park.
Do you support the proposed significant road diets on Conway, Light, and Pratt Streets as a part of the HarborPlace redevelopment, including replacing travel lanes with wider shared use paths?
Yes. I am interested in seeing the traffic study, which is expected to be released in mid-March, but my prediction is that the proposed redesign will be a huge win for both multi-modality and placemaking along the harbor, with only a minor impact on car traffic, because many drivers will use other routes (Charles St, I-695, the tunnel, etc.) instead of Conway/Light/Pratt.
What is your position on the MTA’s North/South Corridor alternatives? If a surface route is selected, are you committed to ensuring the route has 100% dedicated right-of-way, even if it may require significant parking removal? Are you committed to a parallel separated bike facility, even if it may require significant parking removal as well?
I would prefer heavy rail connecting to existing metro (alternative 4), but any rail alternative is preferable to bus rapid transit. I would commit to 100% dedicated right of way for the route. I would consider a parallel bike option, but I am not sure if it is preferable to connecting existing bike infrastructure along the north-south corridor.
To be clear, we definitely need a protected bike route on the east side of Downtown and Mount Vernon.
Agree or disagree?Do you support maintaining the city’s micro-mobility program that provides dockless bikes and scooters?
Yes
Would you support creation of a government subsidized bike share system?
Love the idea, worried about the City's idea to effectively operate the program. I think subsidizing options for low-income Baltimoreans is a better move. Would be willing to discuss.
Would you support local legislation to subsidize the purchase of e-bikes and membership for micro-mobility or bike share systems?
Yes
Are you committed to retaining every piece of separated bike infrastructure in the city that’s been built?
Yes
Cars are often longer than a single rowhome is wide. Households with multiple vehicles compete for parking in front of other neighbors’ homes. Do you support scaling residential permit parking fees to either the size of or number of vehicles in a household so those with more vehicles parked on city streets pay their fair share?
Yes. I also think that the new revenue should be earmarked for parking enforcement. Parking enforcement is a hot-button in many of the 11th District’s neighborhoods, but the City has been negligent in enforcing parking laws since at least 2017.
Do you support a citywide speed limit of 25mph on arterials and 20mph on neighborhood streets?
Yes
Do you support banning turns on red at all intersections that permit pedestrian crossing?
Likely yes - I would want to see data on how many crashes involving pedestrians occur in Right-On-Red situations, but from what I’ve read, this seems like an excellent, essentially free way to make our streets much safer to walk on.
Do you support expanding automated enforcement to all roads that have high rates of crashes and speeding, not just near school zones?
Yes, paired with income-based traffic enforcement fine legislation.
Do you support legislation to create income-based traffic enforcement fine reductions or waivers locally?
Yes
Do you support allowing increased density adjacent to high-quality transit, grocery stores, Main Street districts, and in other high-amenity neighborhoods?
Yes
Do you support increasing Transit Oriented Development zoning to include all areas within a quarter mile of high-frequency bus routes and a half-mile of light rail and metro stations?
Would need to know what constitutes high-frequency bus routes, and see a map. I certainly like the idea of allowing more housing near transit, but would need to see the details.
Minimum parking requirements are shown to increase housing costs while limiting potential density and making neighborhoods less walkable. Do you support removing parking minimums from new development?
Not in all cases, but the city has been moving in the right direction on this for about a decade, and I will continue that momentum. Affordable housing units should be 100% exempt from parking minimums (most affordable housing residents in Baltimore do not have a car anyways), and certain zoning codes (like C-2) should have their parking minimums removed.
Do you support removing single family residential zoning categories, so that people can choose to build and live in a variety of housing options citywide?
Yes, but historic building protections should be kept in place to prevent historic homes from being destroyed. As a resident recently told me when I knocked on her door, “too many developers want to make my neighborhood like downtown - they should be trying to make downtown like my neighborhood!”