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.
Historically, the Baltimore region has been the economic and cultural engine of our state. Home to the closest East Coast port to the Midwest, our city was an early and important logistical, freight, and manufacturing hub for the entire United States. Unfortunately, over the last several decades, our region has been suffering from a systemic cycle of disinvestment, a rapidly changing economy less focused on manufacturing, and continued and consistent population decline. We must do more, collectively, to build a more connected, equitable, and sustainable Baltimore City that provides accessible opportunities for prosperity for both residents and businesses alike.
I strongly believe that a healthy, safe, and equitable transportation system is the missing ingredient to sparking a renaissance in our region. Since the election of Governor Hogan, our region has been used as a punching bag as we have watched our state's limited transportation dollars be redistributed to other parts of the state that have provided political support to our current Governor. This unfortunate reality has hammered the average Baltimorean - many of whom are forced to utilize an unreliable BaltimoreLink bus system that fails to adequately connect residents to employment centers - and held back the economic potential of our entire state and region.
My vision for a healthy, safe, equitable transportation system is one that is fully integrated, multi-modal, and high functioning. This includes big picture aspects like a water taxi station at the Middle Branch Marina connecting our neighbors south of the Hanover Street Bridge, a MARC station on the east side (at or around Johns Hopkins Bayview campus), a real east-west connection through the heart of the City, and fully investing in the Baltimore Greenway Trail Network. It also means investing in accessibility such as improving access at our bus stops and improving pedestrian and bicycle networks throughout the city. It also means these options must connect to our existing transit infrastructure in a seamless and reliable fashion. Finally, all of these various modes must connect and be usable via a single payment system and accessible for all Baltimoreans with first and last mile options.
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?
When discussing transit with community members, a few common barriers that stop people from choosing walking, biking, and public transit come up in conversation. Firstly, safety is a major concern for residents. People have expressed concern about walking alone in our city or taking public transit, especially at night, due to the possibility of violent crime. Additionally, discussions on walking and biking nearly always result in concerns over traffic safety. Our city has so many cars and drivers and there is genuine fear of getting hit among those that opt to skip the use of a private vehicle.
Secondly, physical location presents a huge barrier to some. Both the starting location and the destination play a role here. If buses and bike lanes don’t connect major residential and commercial areas, then there isn’t a real connection between home and work for many Baltimoreans. On that note, the reliability of our public transit system needs to be improved. Many of our community members, fortunately, do have a solid connection between work and home and would prefer to use public transit to commute to and from their jobs, but they know that the bus won’t get them there on time.
Ultimately we will need a cultural shift in Baltimore to move people away from single occupant vehicles and towards mass transit. Density is a big initial step here. Certain parts of the city (District 46 in particular) are becoming more dense and this will move the conversation towards transit as people grow more frustrated with a lack of parking and increased traffic. However, it will require intentional and thoughtful steps to move this transition forward. First we need to expand the protected bike lane coverage in our neighborhoods. We fought together to prevent the demolition of the Potomac Street Bike Lane back in 2017. As Delegate, I will be fighting to increase funding for transit projects in order to address the significant shortfall in the City’s bike master plan. We are woefully behind on achieving our goals for protected bike lane miles each year. I believe that fully funding the Baltimore Greenway Trail Network will be a big step towards reversing this trend. I also believe that the connections it will create, to commercial corridors and green spaces throughout the city, will be a step towards the cultural shift that is necessary.
We also need to increase lighting and clearly marked and protected bike lanes so that riders of all ages and intensity levels feel safe. We also need education for drivers (how to share the road), and bike lanes that connect to each other; a bike lane is only valuable if it goes somewhere.
In general, we also need mass transit to be more inviting, more reliable, cleaner, and safer. This will require significant investments in BaltimoreLink in particular but in all of our other transit arteries as well.
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?
I am opposed to all of the “road-widening” proposals currently being considered by the state of Maryland, including potential widening of I-495 and I-270. As you correctly stated, these projects, while exorbitantly expensive, do not actually decrease congestion or increase safety. I would not support any projects that increase highway capacity without corresponding investments in transit or right-of-way reserved for future transit projects.
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?
I strongly support efforts to create a regional transportation authority. I am innately familiar with this proposal and was active in both the 2021 and 2022 Maryland General Assembly advocacy efforts around this idea. Quite frankly, our region cannot be at the mercy of the state of Maryland to make transportation decisions that are in our best interest. We have already seen the downfalls of a state investment system dependent on favorable politicians in the Governor’s mansion to move our transit projects forward.
I am neutral on legislating the preferred structure or funding ability for the authority. The main priority is a proposal that is widely supported by Baltimore region stakeholders like the surrounding counties, the city of Baltimore, BCDOT, MDOT-MTA, BRTB and others. However, if I had a preference, I would legislate to create a regional authority with taxing authority and governed by a public board of directors appointed by the service counties, the MPO, and the state of Maryland.
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?
They have continued as a result of bad transportation planning that focuses on increasing the capacity of rural roads and highways for single occupant vehicles rather than expanding and improving upon mass transit options which benefit the environment, pedestrians, small businesses, and urban environments. However, the good news is that with the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the recent FHWA memo issued by the Biden Administration, we have a strong signal from the federal government that this myopic way of thinking will no longer be rewarded. Instead, active transportation systems, state-of-good-repair, and accessibility are being strongly preferred by the federal government. Of course, states will maintain flexibility in formulas, but I do believe a paradigm shift is occurring.
With that being said, I believe these trends have continued because state DOTs get stuck in their ways. Additionally, transit, rail, and active transportation departments and employees are often much further down the hierarchy chain than their road way counterparts. We need to shift the culture at state DOTs to broaden the usage of these important formula funds. Further, I believe the current political structure of the US Congress, that is tilted towards rural states, contributes to these attitudes at state DOTs and funding formula structures.
How do you typically commute to work or run errands? Describe the last trips you made by walking, biking, and public transit.
One of the reasons I love living in southeast Baltimore is because I have so many options at my fingertips. My wife and I will often walk to do errands, such as going to the grocery store, picking up prescriptions, or going to the gym. We also bought her a new bike during the pandemic so that we can ride our bikes together throughout the city (although she still feels pretty uncomfortable when we aren’t on a protected bike lane). In terms of work, I am also fortunate that I live 2 blocks from the Navy line that runs through southeast and so I will alternate between taking the bus on days when I do not have hearings or client meetings around the state that require driving. I also occasionally have hearings in the Superior Court in DC to which I will use the Penn line MARC train.
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
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