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. 

I will take an all hand on deck approach to improving public transportation in the state. I will restore Baltimore's Red Line to the State of Maryland's Comprehensive Transportation Plan. I will work with the State of Maryland's jurisdictional funding partners to meet WMATA's long-term system preservation needs. I will also work with our jurisdictional partners in Virginia to support the extension of Metrorail services from Prince George's County into Alexandria, via the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. My administration will plan for the future extension of light rail from the Shady Grove Metro Station into Frederick County. And I will expand the State of Maryland's investment in suburban bus connections throughout metropolitan Baltimore. 

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? 

We need more and more frequent public transportation, including rapid bus lanes, so that people can rely on transit to get to work on time without budgeting too much of their day. Frequency and reliability, even at the expense of expansion in the short term, are vital to increasing reliance on trains and buses for work commutes. We need to give buses more of our streets, including dedicated and divided bus lanes, so that they can deliver on fast commutes. The biggest barriers to biking and walking are safety. We need a more robust network of dedicated bike lanes to protect people from traffic and we need to reduce pedestrian deaths throughout Maryland. With respect to bikes in particular, Maryland must expand bike parking options, as bike theft is a massive deterrent to investing in bikes as a mode of transit.

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 support shifting money away from major highway projects towards mass transit projects, which I’ve been consistent about for the last ten years. This is especially true at a time when more people can work from home and shift transportation patterns away from the daily surge of commuting. We need to make sure our roads are in good shape, but we should be heavily investing in public transit over highways. The only way to reduce congestion on our roads is through investment in public transit. Furthermore, in the short term, we need to stand up a vibrant and just statewide infrastructure of electric vehicle charging stations.

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? 

Yes, I support the creation of a Baltimore Regional Transportation Authority to give Baltimore more control of their transportation future and will ensure they have adequate funding. Currently, the decisions about Baltimore's transit are made by bureaucrats who may not be attuned or concerned with the Baltimore area's needs. This must end. Having a BRTA will ensure that local transportation decisions are made by experts who live in and around Baltimore and know its specific demands. Furthermore, transit devolution is not an untested concept (SEPTA in Philadelphia; BART in SF, etc.).

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 main reason it has continued is because wealthier people are more likely to drive and experience traffic whereas the people who use public transportation and bikes tend to be poorer and non-white. The other reason is that because people simply do not believe in induced demand. Politicians can improve conditions for drivers by making public transportation and biking more accessible, but they need to have the willingness to do what's right.

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

I am a bicycling fanatic and have biked in eight countries! Unfortunately I do not feel safe biking to work in D.C. It is a priority to ensure Maryland's roads are safe for our cyclists. That's why my Green Maryland Plan provides for creating a separate modal administration within the Maryland Department of Transportation for the planning, funding and administration of a statewide bicycle network.

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

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

We also need police to prioritize deaths to pedestrians and cyclists and to go after reckless drivers.

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 have privacy concerns about license plate readers, but I do believe in reducing police interactions with commuters. So for example, I support police dash cams that could take a photo of the license plate and then mail you a ticket.

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