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.
My vision of a healthy, safe, equitable transportation system is to improve Maryland’s public transportation system so that ridership skyrockets and provide infrastructure and incentives so that more people bike and walk. As a result, fewer people will drive cars. Too many Baltimoreans cannot further their careers because of a lack of reliable public transportation. An effective public transportation system will enable all Baltimoreans the ability to get to work and therefore, the opportunity to succeed at work. We must prioritize MTA and Metro funding over road and highway expansion. As a State Delegate, I will advocate for reinstituting plans for the Red Line. I will be a proponent of developing a Baltimore Regional Transportation Authority. Last but not least, I will advocate to make it safe and provide incentives for Marylanders to use bikes as their primary mode of transportation.
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?
Among the barriers to getting people to choose walking, biking and public transit instead of personal vehicles is the absence of a robust and affordable public transportation system, and a lack of safe streets for walking and biking. Residents of Maryland are stuck in a two-tiered system that favors private vehicles, and offers inadequate public transportation to those who can't afford to buy and maintain a vehicle, or choose not to use one. Another barrier to progress on these issues is the political will to shepherd ambitious policy reforms and build community support for them. As a Delegate, I would support and sponsor legislation that addresses climate change, improves public health and creates access to opportunity through environmentally-sustainable transportation methods.
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 have seen firsthand how wide roads cut off people from their communities. Particularly striking are the roads with 6 and 8 lanes each that cut off residents in adjoining neighborhoods from Druid Hill Park. I will advocate for alternatives to road and highway widening. As a Delegate, I will support focusing our resources on public transportation, biking and walking instead of continuing to spend vast sums on road and highway widening. In principle, I support a moratorium on road and highway widening. However, there may be places in Maryland where road widening is necessary to the livelihood of residents. Should that be absolutely necessary, we should mandate that they include bike lanes.
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?
The current state-run transportation system in the Baltimore region is deplorably inadequate. Baltimore is one of the few larger cities without a regional transportation authority. Our transportation service is concentrated in mostly white and affluent neighborhoods. Too many low-income communities of color in east and west Baltimore endure minimal service and residents have nearly double the commute time as residents in other areas of the city. Automobile-centered systems exacerbate the challenges these communities already face, making it harder to access the jobs, health services, and clean air that residents need to live.
As a State Delegate I would support the efforts of and engage District 40 residents in the efforts of Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition, business leaders and other supporters to create a Baltimore Regional Transportation Authority.
For decades, state leaders have prioritized spending money on highways over funding the public transportation systems that the region needs. At the same time, they have consistently underfunded our bus and light rail service and let things fall into dangerous disrepair. Because these leaders don’t have a vested stake in the region, they have failed to make a plan to address the inequities in our current system.
The region needs a system that serves our communities’ needs – one that gives us more say in choosing the transportation projects that work for us and allows us to revive the Red Line! In short, we need a regional governance system through a Baltimore Regional Transportation Authority.
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?
Sadly, our political system heavily favors wealthy individuals (who usually drive cars) and corporations, including the automobile and petrochemical industries. This means that people who rely on public transportation, or who favor bicycling or walking, traditionally have lacked the political clout of wealthier citizens and corporations. What seems to be changing this equation is growing recognition of the disasters—droughts, fires, storms, flooding, etc.—that climate change is inflicting on all our communities, and the role that fossil fuels play in generating climate change. What is promising is the Biden Administration’s federal Infrastructure bill that offers clean energy alternatives to transportation funding. Maryland must maximize the new funding in this bill and make our transportation projects as clean energy as possible.
How do you typically commute to work or run errands? Describe the last trips you made by walking, biking, and public transit.
I am lucky to live in a neighborhood, Wyman Park, with a high walkability score and picked this area in which to live because of it. Most of my errands—to the post office, grocery shopping, and other shopping—are done by foot. My work requires me to drive on some occasions. I make efforts to minimize the use of my car. And I chose a car with efficient gas mileage. I rarely use public transportation in Baltimore because of its limited routes and lack of reliability. When I resided in Washington D.C. for 9 years, I lived for several years without a car and used public transportation to get to work, shop and meet friends for socializing. Also, my husband Jack Boyson, is retired and relies almost totally on his bike to run errands and go to places within Baltimore. I want to note that Jack is a Bikemore member.
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
I strongly support this proposal
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