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.
Baltimore’s future is dependent on 21st Century transportation infrastructure. A well-planned, integrated transit system increases growth, expands opportunity for marginalized communities, and encourages integration. My vision for Baltimore, and the entire state, is a balanced transportation system that reduces Marylanders' reliance on private vehicles and encourages walking, biking, public transit, and smart growth. My plan for ensuring Baltimore has a healthy, safe, equitable, and accessible transportation system includes:
Expediting reapproval and construction of Baltimore’s Red Line, a generational East-West mass transit line.
Tripling MARC ridership in part, by making MARC interoperable with the VRE throughout the greater Baltimore/Washington region, and building marquee commuter rail stations in West Baltimore, Bayview and other historically neglected communities.
Facilitating the development of a Baltimore Regional Transit Authority to ensure Baltimoreans have a voice in designing their transportation infrastructure.
Provide additional support to achieve Vision Zero policies, investing at state level to provide higher match for areas, particularly in minority and rural communities that lack safe, walkable, bikeable neighborhoods.
Increase bus service throughout Baltimore Metropolitan area.
In addition to baseline increases, our administration will leverage increased transit frequency to support and incentivize Baltimore's investment in transit-supportive corridors and smart growth.
Expanding sidewalks to allow safe pedestrian travel to and from public transportation, including park and ride stops.
‘Transitioning intersections with high traffic mortality throughout Baltimore into community spaces.
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 biggest challenge for communities to transition to more sustainable transportation methods in Maryland is lack of options, unreliability, and infrequency. As Governor, I will tip the scales towards sustainable transportation options by investing in more bike lanes, walkable communities, routes, stops, and frequency of buses and trains. In addition to a baseline increase in transit frequency, we will leverage further increases as an incentive for local governments to invest in street design changes and transit supportive development. I will also restore Marylanders trust in public transit by improving the reliability of schedules and providing transparency when there are disruptions or delays.
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 believe it is unnecessary to widen the beltway in order to alleviate traffic congestion; there are alternative methods to accomplish the same goal. My first two votes on my first day as a member of the Montgomery County Council was to support the purple line and oppose the intercounty connector. I did so because I took a careful, data driven review. As Governor, I will take the same evidence-based policymaking approach to future transportations projects. It is crucial that our investments in transportation infrastructure have the desired outcomes of reduced emissions and congestion. My transportation policy will always be guided by the best research and results available.
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?
As your next Governor, I will facilitate the development of a Baltimore Regional Transit Authority to ensure the Baltimore Metropolitan region has a voice in designing their transportation infrastructure. I was pleased to see the Greater Baltimore Transit Governance and Funding Commission legislation make it to the Governor's Desk. I will work closely with the commission to identify the appropriate approach to issues of governance, funding, and land use. I have spent my career bringing people together to get things done and I will use the office of the Governor to bring local government leaders together to make the BRTA a reality. Baltimore City cannot sustainably grow without a transportation plan that integrates rail, car, bike, and pedestrian modes of transportation to ensure Baltimoreans can get where they need to go quickly, efficiently, and safely. This will also ensure that future leadership can no longer deprive Baltimore of necessary transportation projects with the stroke of a pen.
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?
For too long, government leaders have been complacent in our state’s overreliance on private vehicle transportation and unwilling to confront the status quo. As Governor, I am committed to utilizing these crucial federal funds the way they were intended: to provide transportation options for all Marylanders regardless of car ownership. I will blend and braid funding from the local, state, and federal level to ensure that not only are our highways maintained, but also that we have robust public transportation, walking and biking infrastructure, and a comprehensively ADA-compliant system.
How do you typically commute to work or run errands? Describe the last trips you made by walking, biking, and public transit.
I am an avid biker. As part of my run for Governor, I have biked all corners of this state, including Baltimore, to get a better understanding of pedestrian infrastructure, as well as our state’s natural resources. When I served as Secretary of Labor under President Obama, I biked to work and happily avoided rush hour traffic. I frequently bike along the Anacostia Watershed down into the District of Columbia and back up the Capital Crescent trail to my home. The trail along the Anacostia was an amenity included in the community benefits agreement negotiated as part of the construction of the Wilson Bridge. We have an unprecedented amount of infrastructure dollars as a result of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure bill. We haven’t seen an investment of this size since Eisenhower was president. As we implement this bill, we should be mindful of project labor agreements and community benefit agreements to build projects, the middle class, and critical amenities that improve the quality of life.
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.
We need to wean ourselves from fossil fuels. As we transition to a clean energy economy, it will become necessary to identify new sources of funding for highway maintenance. My administration will convene a group to look at what countries around the world and states around the country that are ahead of us on this issue are doing so we can devise a blueprint for action in order to move Maryland forward in this area.
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.
As governor, I will convene a task force of local governments and stakeholders to study the use of parking minimums and maximums in order to provide guidance to local jurisdictions on the best solutions to mitigate overparking.
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.
Transportation and its adjacent land use can only succeed hand in hand with one another. We must increase housing density and further fair housing while respecting the historic commitment to local land use authority. The means the state must use its resources to incentivize progressive local land use policy. As a former local government official, I would convene a task force of state government, local government, and other key stakeholders to chart out a plan forward on how we address this critical issue.