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. 

We have to build a world-class transit system that is ADA accessible, connected, and provides fast, frequent and reliable service to the places we need to go. But transit alone isn't enough - we also need a connected network of facilities that serve a variety of modes other than the personal car, from pedestrians, to wheelchair and mobility device users, to bikes and scooters, and covers that last mile. In my first term I was the primary or co-sponsor of legislation to increase MTA funding, study a Baltimore regional transit authority, improve road safety, and improve Baltimore's dedicated bus lane network.

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? 

Too many people see the car as the best or only option for most of their trips, because our policies have made it difficult or untenable to use alternatives. To change that we have to invest more in our transit system and in infrastructure that prioritizes transit, walking, biking, and rolling so that these can be realistic and safe options for more people. We also have to work to make sure that we are spending the time to properly empower people to understand how transportation systems impact their own lives and their community so that they can advocate themselves for the changes they want to see.

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? 

Public transportation spending will always be the first option for me. We need to find ways to fix our current transportation assets or invest in alternatives first.

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? 

This is a conversation that I've been proud to lead in the Maryland General Assembly. This year the MGA passed my HB1336 which establishes a commission to study regional governance for Baltimore's transit system, and I've been working on similar legislation for a number of years. As a former transit professional I understand that better regional coordination would likely help resolve a number of structural issues that MTA faces. While the Governor has vetoed the bill, I am still very focused on the next phase of moving the bill and establishing a RTA.

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? 

We simply need MDOT to better prioritize its spending. More value is created by maintaining existing roads or investing in alternatives like transit and complete streets infrastructure, so we should be shifting more of our federal transportation funding to those kinds of investments.

How do you typically commute to work or run errands? Describe the last trips you made by walking, biking, and public transit. 

My commute depends on my daily activity. I don't live far from Rogers Avenue Metro Station and have used the subway or the light rail depending on where I need to go. I often walk the trails near my home and have done more since the pandemic. My last walking experience took me through my own community, across the bridge on Northern Parkway, behind Sinai Hospital and into Clyburn Arboretum and back...all in the neighborhood.

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.

I don't know enough about the concept to fully agree but would love to learn more about what this looks like in practice.

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. 

I agree with the concept but would need to learn more around implementation, as I've seen the need for bicycle infrastructure and conservation efforts collide in certain instances. We have to be measured in how we implement the concept.

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.

I would need to learn more about how we put this in practice using a racial equity lens, especially when it comes to the fine amounts.

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