In 2017, the Baltimore City Planning Commission adopted the Separated Lane Network Plan, a five year implementation strategy to construct 77 miles of separated and supporting bike facilities that would connect over 80% of Baltimore’s neighborhoods to all ages and abilities infrastructure, a term for streets on which anyone from ages 8 to 80 would feel comfortable riding.
Five years and a mayoral scandal including outright and illegal hostility to bikes later, we do not have much to show for this plan. Of the 77 miles of separated and supporting bike facilities proposed to be built by the end of 2022 in the plan, only about 2 miles of substandard supporting facilities have been constructed, and about 2 miles of existing separated facilities have been removed.
This map from the Separated Bike Network Plan shows all facilities that were supposed to be installed by the end of 2022. Only the projects circled in green have been completed, and the project circled in red removed.
At first glance this year’s Capital Improvement Program, the city’s capital budget, includes some major investments in biking. Separated, all-ages facilities will come to Eutaw Place and Bush Street, making major connections between Druid Hill Park, The Big Jump, and the Downtown Bicycle Network with the former and the Middle Branch Trail, Casino Entertainment District, and Carroll Park with the latter. Other projects to be constructed this year include separated, all-ages lanes on Central Avenue, and multiple smaller projects designed to fill gaps in the network such as extending the Mount Royal separated lanes to North Avenue and Guilford Avenue.
But digging into these reveals a harsh reality:
The Eutaw Place separated lanes were supposed to be installed in the first year of the Separated Lane Network Plan implementation, five years ago in 2018.
Bush Street and the Rapid Enhancement Program–the multiple smaller projects referenced above–were due to be installed in 2020 and 2021.
Large retrofits like Central Avenue shouldn’t have had to be retrofits at all, but designs that included all-ages bike facilities from the start.
Other projects listed in this year’s Capital Improvement Plan, such as the Wolfe/Washington separated lane, are forecasted for construction in 2025, nearly a decade later than the Separated Lane Network Plan prioritization.
The bike program itself is funded at $500,000 this year, half of the plan’s recommendation.
At this point, the Separated Lane Network Plan is old enough that Baltimore City Department of Transportation is undertaking an update. But plans don’t matter if the city budget completely ignores them. In the year we are supposed to be approaching our 77th mile of construction, net zero miles of infrastructure from the plan is an abject failure of city government.
We applaud leadership at Baltimore City Department of Transportation for beginning to turn this program around, to make good on projects promised five or more years ago. But we are too far behind our peer cities, too far behind nearly everywhere else in North America, let alone across the globe. In this same period of time, Memphis built over 70 miles of bike infrastructure. New Orleans is on track to achieve 75 miles in less than 3 years.
We know that Mayor Brandon Scott and the leadership at Baltimore City Department of Transportation–unlike past administrations and leadership–truly believe that Baltimore needs to invest heavily in walking, biking, and public transit. That’s why we were proud to endorse Scott for mayor. But belief must result in action–and action means a budget reflective of those beliefs.
This year, Mayor Brandon Scott and the Baltimore City Department of Transportation should, at minimum:
Double the Bike Program funding in the CIP from $500,000 to $1,000,000
Commit to hiring additional bike program staff, including a dedicated trail planner.
Commit to advancing all current bike projects in the CIP to this or the next fiscal year.
Release an update to the Separated Lane Network Plan for adoption by the Planning Commission.
Identify a dedicated funding stream of local dollars to fund every year of the plan going forward. Lock-boxing automated enforcement revenues to complete streets retrofits instead of funneling those revenues to police would be a good start.
Commit to utilizing a multi-million dollar local match to leverage state and federal funding for design and construction of large segments of the updated Separated Lane Network.
We can’t settle for less.
We will be submitting a version of this summary as testimony at the Baltimore City Department of Transportation’s CIP presentation before the Planning Commission on Thursday, January 13th at 12:00pm.
If you are interested in participating and commenting yourself, you can attend online here.