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.
The transportation in the Baltimore region must center people rather than cars and place substantially more emphasis on public transportation and bike and pedestrian safety. The first priority must be building the Red Line rail. This will connect people across the City without the need for owning or driving a car. In addition to building the Red Line, we must increase the frequency of MARC service running in both directions throughout the day so that those with commutes further away do not need to drive either. Bus service must be safe, timely, and frequent to ensure that it is a reliable form of transportation. Communities must also be walkable with high-density development around transit hubs and less space allocated to parking spots. Instead of spending money on road expansion, the Baltimore region should add sidewalks, protected bike lanes, dedicated bus lanes (and other transit-friendly street design features), and bus shelters; maintain crosswalk areas so they are visible to drivers; make crosswalk signals long enough for people to actually cross; add dedicated bike signals; and make sure are sidewalks are wider, ADA compliant, and have appropriate curb cuts. It’s important to maintain existing roadways, however roads should no longer be the primary focus of our transportation system and should be moved to a lower priority than public transit, walking and biking to get around communities.
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?
The sad truth is, many people who drive personal vehicles are not choosing to do so over options like walking, biking, or public transit. A lot of times people do not have a real choice and are forced to be dependent on a car. The only solution to this is to actually give people alternatives to driving by investing in public transit, walkable communities, and infrastructure like protected bike lanes so people who want to bike feel safe enough to do so. Likewise, we need to avoid doing things that double down on driving as our main mode of transportation, like expanding highways and adding lanes that just lead to the same congestion problems in the long term. Biking, walking and public transit must be made more convenient and accessible than driving if we want people to use those options.
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 do not support road and highway widening, outside of it being absolutely necessary for road repairs or improvements. I do not believe we should be spending money on road widening as a means to reduce traffic, as it has not been shown adding lanes decreases traffic congestion over the long term. This is especially true for toll lanes (as Governor Hogan has proposed). I understand that jurisdictions may support road widening as a response to frustration around traffic, however I disagree that it is the best solution. We must encourage building non-car centered transportation options like public transit (i.e., build the Red Line, complete the Purple Line, increase the frequency of MARC trains and expand MARC west, build the Southern Maryland Light Rail project, and increase bus service), educate stakeholders on why road widening is not a good investment, and let the results of comprehensive public transit, sidewalks and bike lanes speak for themselves as proof that they actually do reduce traffic successfully.
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 believe Baltimore would benefit substantially from having its own Regional Transportation Authority. Baltimore is one of the largest cities in the country not to have its own RTA for its transit. Giving it its own transit authority would give the region more local control and greater ability to coordinate efforts across jurisdictions. It’s an idea supported by grassroots activists and the business community as well and would specifically give Baltimore City more influence over its transit projects as well as funding and maintenance so they are not powerless if the state neglects the City’s needs, like when Governor Hogan canceled the Red Line rail project. As governor, I will be a partner to Baltimore City and its surrounding local governments to help fund and structure their regional transportation authority. I will appoint a transportation secretary that understands the region’s transportation needs, and I will work with the legislature to pass legislation establishing a Baltimore RTA that will also connect smoothly with the rest of MTA’s systems. I would also ensure through my budget that Baltimore does not lose the cost savings it gets currently with the state running its transportation system.
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?
Highway projects have become central to our transportation spending because we do not have enough perspectives represented in our decision making. Our elected officials largely own cars. Suburban, single-family home neighborhoods where cars are the main form of transportation tend to have the wealthier, salaried residents that can afford to go to hearings on zoning and public works projects, can afford cars, and are generally the loudest voices in decision making. People who need to work multiple jobs or do not have child care do not have the same time available to them to contact legislators and attend hearings. The lack of public transportation may even prevent them from getting to government hearings where they could explain how better public transit infrastructure would help them. Even in terms of ADA infrastructure, disabled Marylanders are shut out of a process that is not designed to accommodate them, so when making decisions we are making them without the perspective of someone who understands why curb cuts are necessary or why MTA Mobility is failing them. Decision-making processes must be designed to be inclusive and we should require racial equity impact statements and climate impact statements alongside traditional fiscal impact statements for all proposed executive agency actions and legislation.
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 my wife and I chose to live where we do in Silver Spring is because we wanted to be able to walk to both downtown Silver Spring and downtown Takoma Park - we also wanted our daughters to have the independence that would bring as teenagers. We regularly walk to restaurants, retail, etc. because of our location and the investment Montgomery County has made in sidewalks. We were thrilled when a four-way stop was added nearby making it much easier for our family to cross a major road safely. Our daughters actually screamed with delight when the four-way stop was added. Before the campaign, my commute required a drive - although COVID shifted the education civil rights organization I lead toward remote work. The organization is continuing with a hybrid schedule. Our family often uses the Metro and/or buses for recreational travel.
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
We should not be building newer and bigger roads when we cannot maintain the ones we have and while ignoring the need to bring existing transportation infrastructure into ADA compliance. Deferring maintenance and retrofits is not only dangerous to pedestrians that would benefit from safety upgrades, but dangerous for drivers as well, as roads and bridges in poor repair can cause damage to vehicles and accidents.
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
The cancellation of the Red Line and the diversion of funds for the project to roads in whiter, wealthier suburban areas is the perfect example of the unfairness and inequity of Maryland’s transportation funding. If we had a funding rubric prioritizing transportation methods besides personal automobile use and prioritizing racial and economic equity, the Red Line would have been built already.
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
Gas tax revenue has been insufficient to fund our transportation infrastructure for a long time now, and we have to adapt. We should certainly explore replacing the gas tax with a Vehicle Miles Traveled tax in conjunction with a comprehensive tax fairness initiative. While the growth in fuel-efficient and electric vehicles is overwhelmingly a good thing, cars still cause wear and tear on roads and we still need to fund their maintenance. A flat Vehicle Miles Traveled tax would inevitably be regressive, however an income-based VMT would even out the financial impact and not disproportionately land on lower income drivers. A fixed-interval, income-based VMT would have Montgomery, Howard and Calvert counties contributing the most of the additional revenue generated and are also the counties with some of the highest per-capita incomes in Maryland. Lower per-capita income counties including Somerset, Allegany and Garrett would contribute less.
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
Adding bicycle infrastructure will make it safer and more enjoyable for people to bike and encourage more people to travel by bike. This will decrease car traffic and make our air cleaner to breathe
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 need to move away from contributory negligence.
In an accident between a car and a pedestrian or between a car and a biker, the damages are going to be far worse for the person not in the car. Maryland is one of only 4 states plus DC that uses a contributory negligence model. It makes no sense that if a driver is 99% responsible for hitting a pedestrian and the pedestrian is considered 1% responsible that the pedestrian receives no compensation for what are likely severe injuries.
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
Enforcement mechanisms like red light and speed cameras have been shown to make pedestrians safer, which means they must be part of our strategy to make neighborhoods walkable and safe. However, I believe they must be implemented in a way where cities are not depending on them as a revenue source, as we have seen that sets up incentives to give as many tickets as possible through mechanisms like shortening yellow lights without notifying drivers. It’s important to avoid privatizing traffic enforcement cameras as much as possible, as private companies will not be incentivized to maintain accuracy and fix malfunctioning equipment as long as it generates profits and may not prioritize traffic safety as their main goal. The point of fines is to discourage dangerous behavior, and that must be the perspective we implement them through - the end goal should be to have no ticket revenue because drivers are obeying the law and pedestrians are safe.
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
The National Association of City Transportation Officials recommend that a default citywide speed limit should be 25 mph and that it can improve safety outcomes. They recommend even lower default speeds for non-major streets. The city of Edinburgh in the UK lowered its speed limit to 20 mph on almost every road and saw 371 fewer crashes per year, and data indicates cars become rapidly more deadly at some point between speeds of 20 mph and 30 mph. This makes 25 mph a more than reasonable urban speed limit.
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 workers should not feel obligated to drive if they receive subsidized parking from their employer while options like walking, biking or public transit have no financial incentive. “Parking cash-out” would be fairer to workers who cannot afford - or simply do not want - to commute by a personal vehicle.
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 strongly support getting rid of restrictive parking minimum requirements. Not only does it create spaces that will not necessarily be used, it takes away space that could go to other needs like housing. Parking requirements for things such as grocery stores disincentivize stores from opening in densely-populated areas that are food deserts as it substantially adds to costs. Unbundling parking from rent would not tie up parking space for someone who chooses not to use it and does not want to, allowing more non-parking development.
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
A key part of my housing platform is to dismantle Maryland’s restrictive local zoning laws, which have mostly stemmed from racist redlining policies. Exclusionary zoning that only allows single-family homes is partially responsible for our housing shortages and obstacles to increased density exacerbate our reliance on fossil fuels. Recent statewide zoning reforms in California and Oregon provide powerful models for change in Maryland and were recently highlighted by the Biden White House in a thoughtful piece entitled Alleviating Supply Constraints in the Housing Market.