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. 

At present, we are incredibly restricted by car culture here in Maryland. The result is rising pollution, constant complaints about parking, and endless traffic. My vision for the future is a Baltimore (and Maryland at large) that can be easily navigated without a car, and really committing to the Complete Streets recommendations for speed limits, road design, and more. This means safe and maintained separated bike lanes and sidewalks, a true regional rail system, and bus lines that are efficient and reliable.

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? 

Currently, the biggest barriers to encouraging walking, biking, and the use of public transportation are safety and reliability. Cyclists and pedestrians often feel unsafe, as there are massive parts of the city without bus lanes, navigable sidewalks, or reasonable speed limits. I've biked and walked these parts of Baltimore myself, and feel much less safe than I did as a cyclist and pedestrian in DC. And this isn't just a Baltimore problem - there are entire neighborhoods in the Harford County suburb where I grew up that do not have sidewalks at all. I also support giving local jurisdictions like Baltimore the ability to set their own speed limits.

The other barrier to increased public transit ridership is reliability. Here in Baltimore, buses often are delayed or do not arrive at all, and when they do, the routes are circuitous and it can take hours to get across town. The options for getting in and out of Baltimore from other parts of Baltimore are often equally arduous.

As a state delegate, I will fight to bring a regional rail system to Baltimore, and to establish a Baltimore Regional Transit Authority to oversee bus routes and reliability. I will also prioritize expanding bike routes across the city, as well as making sure Baltimore complies with the ADA for sidewalk renovations. In my district specifically, I am committed to connecting all of South Baltimore, as Greater Baybrook, Cherry Hill, Lakeland, and Westport are cut off from the rest of South Baltimore and perfectly positioned for expanding bike access.

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? 

Funding needs to be diverted from traditional and outdated highway widening plans and into fast and reliable public transportation across the state. If we are really going to tackle issues like traffic, congestion, and climate change here in Maryland, we need to get serious about reducing personal vehicle use and offering viable bus, rail, bike, and pedestrian options across the entire state.

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? 

Baltimore is one of the only major metropolitan areas in the country that does not have it own regional transportation authority, and as such is completely dependent on the state for all transportation funding and planning. This can be burdensome and frustratingly slow in the best of circumstances, and completely disastrous if the governor is resistant or openly hostile to the expansion of public transit in Baltimore. I absolutely support the creation of a Baltimore Regional Transportation Authority to tackle the area's public transportation needs. I support the legislation introduced by Del. Tony Bridges to establish a transit governance and funding commission for the Baltimore region in the style of the Kirwan Commission, and would work with the city, state, and federal government to establish a permanent transit authority for our state's only major city.

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? 

The trend of exclusively using federal transportation grants for highways has persisted in part due to a lack of imagination for the future of transportation, and because of well-resourced car, petroleum, and construction lobbies that encourage this single-minded approach to transportation funding. I am hopeful that the recommendations and funding coming from the new administration's Department of Transportation will help jolt us out of this status quo so we can finally build the 21st century public transportation we need.

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

I am fortunate enough to work from home, but I walk or bike as often as I can for meetings and errands. Most recently, I biked over to canvass in Locust Point from my home in Federal Hill. I also frequently take the MARC train to attend events in DC and to visit my friends and family in Harford County. When my husband and I moved to Baltimore, we had to purchase a second car because of the limited public transportation and bike infrastructure. This is part of what drives my passion for expanding efficient and reliable rail systems across the entire state.

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.

Agree

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

The contributory negligence system is inadequate when it comes to protecting pedestrians and cyclists. We need to move to a strict liability model wherein drivers who hit a pedestrian or cyclist with their car are at fault, regardless of blame. At the very least, we should move to quickly adopt a comparative negligence structure so those injured or killed by negligent drivers can recover damages accordingly.

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

I would like to see this change made in concert with investments in public transportation. I am fully in favor of this model, but recognize that we also have to offer people viable alternatives to personal vehicle use, which we simply do not have at this time.

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