Narrative Questions
Describe your vision of a healthy, safe, equitable transportation system for the Baltimore Region and the roles walking, biking, and public transportation play in that vision.
Transit equity is not just about transit, but about economic mobility. In the Baltimore region, only 9% of jobs are currently accessible by public transit in an hour or less. Commuters need, and deserve, reliable and affordable transit options to travel to and from work, school and recreation. We can strengthen the city’s reach to have more jobs accessible by public transit by building the east-west Redline, and investing in a north-south transit corridor along York road / Greenmount avenue in the 43rd district.
As Delegate, I will champion smart, green-centered development and growth strategies. Let's lean into "Baltimore as a city of neighborhoods" and transform the city into one where residents can walk, bike, shop and ride within each neighborhood; and ensure that neighborhoods connect.
The fastest and most economical way to address climate change, improve public health, and create equal access to opportunity is to reduce dependence on private automobiles. What are the biggest barriers to getting people to choose walking, biking, and public transit instead of personal vehicles for daily trips, and what would you do to address these impediments?
Baltimore public transit is ineffective and does not meet the needs of most residents. Want to catch the subway to work? Good luck. There is only one line, based mostly in northwest / west Baltimore. Trying to get to an O's game from my neighborhood of Ednor Gardens-Lakeside. Well, you can either transfer twice by catching the bus for an 80 minute wait / ride or drive for 20 minutes. Want to ride your bike from Lake Montebello to Druid Lake? You're risking your life across the fast-paced 28th/29th/33rd streets. Just look at the number of barriers on the Big Jump that have been crashed into.
Maryland and its jurisdictions continue to spend money on road and highway widening despite overwhelming evidence that it actually increases traffic and congestion through induced demand. Justification for widening is often that it will improve road safety, which is also discredited. What is your position on Maryland and its jurisdictions spending money this way, and would you support a moratorium on road and highway widening?
Let's be clear and specific. I oppose the expansion of the Capital Beltway, toll lanes on I-270, widening the American Legion Bridge, and creating a third Chesapeake Bay Bridge (replacing the older span, I would support). We need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels and reduce emissions. I support an aggressive plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2035. Any development that creates car based infrastructure is antithetical to this. No new highway and road construction.
Describe your understanding for the need of a Baltimore Regional Transportation Authority. Do you support creation of a regional authority, and if so, how would you legislate or guide the state’s role in creating and sustaining it?
A regional transit authority is necessary to manage transit for the Baltimore region. Again, Baltimore deserves a comprehensive regional transit strategy that is built for purpose: can withstand climate change, weans us off the addiction to private cars, and enables Baltimoreans to walk, bike, and ride to and from work and play. A regional authority, with more local accountability than the MTA should serve this visioning, strategic and management role.
As Delegate, I will champion the efforts to date of the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Coalition for Smarter Growth, and many others who are part of the Transform Maryland Transportation Coalition to legislate the Baltimore Regional Transit Authority into law. I commit to working with my colleagues from Baltimore City, Baltimore, Howard, Harford and Anne Arundel counties to make the authority a reality.
Since the 1990’s federal surface transportation authorization laws have set the rules and formulas for federal transportation funding flowing to states. Two of the largest categories, the Surface Transportation Block Grant program and the National Highway Performance Program, can be used for many forms of surface transportation including highways, transit, bike, pedestrian, and ADA infrastructure. However, state departments of transportation, MDOT included, have used them almost exclusively for highway projects and much of its new capacity. That has resulted in growth in traffic volumes, travel times, and carbon pollution. In your view, why have those trends continued?
Follow the money. I am proud to run a 100% volunteer, grassroots campaign that does not accept corporate money and money from special interest PACs. We are unbought and unbossed. Unfortunately, the developer class is a major source of campaign funds for other candidates, past and present. This has led to a vicious cycle of developer-led suburban sprawl that demands roads/highways extending farther and farther out from the city center.
Let's elect candidates such as myself, who are not in the pockets of developers.
How do you typically commute to work or run errands? Describe the last trips you made by walking, biking, and public transit.
Luckily, my position has been remote since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that, I would travel to client sites in cities such as Indianapolis and New York via weekly round-trip plane (carbon footprint offset by company credit purchases) or train. When I voluntarily visited our regional corporate headquarters in downtown, Washington, D.C. in February 2022; I caught the MARC train from Penn Station to Union Station and transferred to the DC Metro red line. I normally walk to the Waverly Giant, which is less than 1 mile from my home or drive to the Giant on York Road which is farther away. Most of my in-person campaign activity involves canvassing the neighborhoods of the 43rd district, which are a reasonable walking distance from my home. When conducting major canvasses with volunteers, we carpool to the neighborhoods.
Agree/Disagree Questions
Maryland and its jurisdictions should be required to “fix-it-first,” funding deferred maintenance of bridges and roads and safety retrofits like road diets, sidewalks, ADA compliance, and other infrastructure prioritizing vulnerable road users before spending on new roads and infrastructure.
Agree
Maryland should adopt a funding rubric for all transportation investment that follows a modal hierarchy prioritizing pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders over personal automobile use, and mandates that these investments prioritize racial and economic equity.
Agree
Highway User Revenues continue to decrease as cars become more efficient, and semi-autonomous driving technology is allowing more comfortable long distance commutes. To address this, Maryland should introduce an income-based Vehicle Miles Traveled tax.
Disagree
Not at a time of hyper-inflation as we are currently experiencing.
Maryland should require and fund all-ages-and abilities bicycle infrastructure in retrofits of existing roads and construction of new roads, including fully separated infrastructure or side paths/trails on collector roads, arterial roads, state highways, and interstates.
Agree
There has been a dramatic increase in car crashes that injure and kill people walking and biking, who are then frequently sued by a driver’s insurance. Maryland should move from contributory negligence to a strict liability model for crashes involving vulnerable road users.
Agree
Paired with a requirement for income-based fines, Maryland should authorize jurisdictions to utilize additional types of automated enforcement like bus lane cameras and stop sign cameras, remove geographic restrictions, and allow a reduced threshold for triggering speed cameras.
Agree
Maryland should allow local jurisdictions to lower their own speed limits based on roadway typology instead of based on expensive engineering studies for each road segment, and should set a statewide upper urban speed limit of 25 miles per hour.
Agree
Maryland should require employers provide “Parking Cash Out,” valuing the cost of parking subsidized or paid for by employers and allowing employees the option of taking that benefit as a cash payout in the amount of the parking subsidy instead.
Agree
Maryland should require jurisdictions to eliminate parking minimums and institute parking maximums in new development, as well as require the cost of parking be unbundled from rent, giving individuals the choice to rent without paying for parking.
Agree
It’s widely accepted that single family zoning advances racial and economic segregation. Maryland should ban single family zoning at the state level, allowing both single family and multifamily residences to be built in all zoning areas.
Agree