Zeke Cohen
Candidate for: City Council President
zekecohen.com
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Describe your vision of a healthy, safe, and equitable transportation system for Baltimore city and what roles walking, biking, and public transportation play in that vision.
We need a well-funded and equitable transportation system that connects residents to jobs and everyday needs and allows our students to get to school safely, reliably, and on time.
We must invest in sidewalks, lighting, holistic public safety, and local businesses to enable residents to complete more short trips by walking.
We must build out the Greenways Trail Network and Separated Bike Lane Network plan to create safe, family-friendly routes for biking. Complete streets does not mean a bike lane on every street, but it does mean a complete network built with equitable public engagement. While we build bike lanes, our legacy residents and older adult populations must be proactively listened to and included in the process.
We must build the Red Line and North-South corridor as high-capacity, fast, and reliable links in our transit network, but we must also invest more in our bus service that will continue to serve most residents and that we need to get students to school on time safely and reliably.
To meet Baltimore City’s adopted climate goals, we must shift at least 10% of current automobile vehicle miles traveled to active transportation and public transit. What is your plan to achieve this goal?
I believe that we can meet this goal through a) major transit investments (e.g. The Red Line and North-South corridor) and allowing increased density near these investments while protecting legacy residents and b) making it easier for people to complete short trips without a car.
I represent a district where many residents drive less than three miles to jobs downtown, and where I have been told by many that they would love to ride the Red Line to work instead. This is one anecdotal illustration of how major transit investments are essential for mode shift.
Similarly, I believe that every person in Baltimore should be able to walk safely and comfortably to nearby businesses, as I am grateful to be able to do in the Brewers Hill community where I live. Walking is highest on the complete streets modal priority, and we need to treat it as such. To enable more residents to walk, we need to invest in sidewalks and street lighting, reduce violent crime through a holistic public safety strategy, and invest in small businesses and main street corridors throughout the city.
What is your plan to continue to reduce the number of injuries and deaths on Baltimore City roadways each year?
Common sense traffic calming projects are popular and needed across our entire city. Currently, I have found that it takes 2+ years to have a speed hump installed. That is unacceptable. I will lead the council in funding an expanded traffic division at DOT and holding DOT accountable to hire and retain staff. We need staff capacity at DOT to implement Toward Zero and Complete Streets.
How often do you walk, bike or use public transit to reach daily destinations? If not often (or at all), what would make you more likely to use non-personal vehicle modes of transportation?
I am grateful to live in a very walkable neighborhood and I regularly walk to meetings in the First District. Walking is one of my favorite ways to connect with the city. Being on time is very important to me, and unfortunately, I cannot rely on our city’s transit to get me where I need to go, even across relatively short distances, quickly or reliably – I drive to most places that are not within walking distance of my home or city hall. Yet, our city’s children are held accountable for getting to school on time using transit. As council president, I will lead the council in collaborating with the administration and MTA to improve transit speeds, reliability, and frequency in our city.
As a former teacher, I know firsthand how much it impacts our students’ ability to learn, and how it impacts the ability of Baltimore households without cars to meet their basic needs. When in 2017 MDOT MTA tried to cut back the hours of student bus passes, I partnered with my colleague Councilmember Kris Burnett and impacted communities to organize a Bake Sale for Buses and raised $100,000. We ultimately took our fight to the General Assembly and secured funding to preserve free bus service until 8pm for students, because our youth deserve mobility.
In 2017, Baltimore City adopted the Separated Bike Lane Network Plan Addendum to the Bike Master Plan. This called for connecting 85% of Baltimore’s neighborhoods to safe, all-ages bike infrastructure by 2022. Less than 20% of this network has been built. What would you do to accelerate implementation?
We must acknowledge that not every street is right for a bike lane - the Separated Bike Lane Network Plan should guide us in prioritizing projects. These projects are getting held up by inadequate staffing, a lack of political will, and the lack of a standardized community engagement process. As council president, I will lead the council in funding more traffic division and transit bureau positions, including bike planners. With so many bike lanes to design, we should not be contracting out the designs, and I will work with DOT to create and fund bike lane design engineer positions. I will lead the council in holding the administration accountable to create a standardized, equitable, and inclusive community engagement process.
In short, I think that once concept designs are created, there should be an in-person community input session, with special attention made to invite and involve legacy residents and seniors. After incorporating changes from this session, mailers with a revised design should be sent to every address on the blocks where the project is planned with a request for feedback. As long as less than 50% of mailers come back with opposition, the project should proceed to final design and installation. The majority should rule, and we should not allow a small group of vocal residents to halt progress on any project.
That being said, when there is real, broad-based community opposition to a project, we must not proceed. We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past and impose transportation decisions on marginalized communities and legacy residents against their wishes. But we must also recognize that communities are not monoliths, and that often the individuals who bike not by choice but by necessity are the least likely to participate in the public involvement process.
In 2018, Baltimore City received national recognition for passing the first equity driven Complete Streets ordinance in the country. This legislation contains a modal hierarchy prioritizing vulnerable road users and mandates best practices in roadway configuration and design. Are you committed to retaining this ordinance and the current practices and modal hierarchy it mandates?
Yes – under my leadership, the council will stop second-guessing complete streets and instead focus on holding DOT accountable and giving them fiscal support to fully implement complete streets, including its equitable community engagement requirements.
What is your position on The Red Line alternatives? If a surface route is selected, are you committed to ensuring the route has 100% dedicated right-of-way, even if it may require significant parking removal? Are you committed to a parallel separated bike facility, even if it may require significant parking removal as well?
The Red Line should be implemented as a light rail project with 100% dedicated right-of-way and priority for transit at traffic signals. When I was campaigning in 2015 and 2016, I stood strongly in support of the Red Line even though many residents told me I lost their vote by supporting it. I stood by it then and I stand by it now because it is the right thing for Baltimore. I have been proud to organize my district in support of the project in the nearly 9 years since its cancellation, and now see a broad consensus in support of the project that we did not see in 2015.
I support parallel and perpendicular comfortable bike facilities that are separated if they are on high-traffic streets – the southeast portion of the project already has existing and proposed facilities with the Inner Harbor Promenade and the Greenway Trail. Because walking is above biking in the complete streets modal hierarchy, it is even more important that we improve pedestrian comfort and safety within ½ mile of Red Line stations, including ADA and lighting upgrades.
What is your position on the MTA’s North/South Corridor alternatives? If a surface route is selected, are you committed to ensuring the route has 100% dedicated right-of-way, even if it may require significant parking removal? Are you committed to a parallel separated bike facility, even if it may require significant parking removal as well?
Anyone who has ridden the CityLink Red understands the urgent need to increase transit capacity, speed, and reliability in the Greenmount Avenue/York Road corridor. I want to see annualized capital cost per trip metrics before weighing in on mode, but regardless of mode, vehicles should operate in 100% dedicated right-of-way. As for the Red Line, pedestrian improvements within ½ mile of stations/stops and parallel and perpendicular comfortable bike facilities are essential.
The Baltimore Greenway Trails Network is an adopted city plan to create a 35 mile multi-use trail loop through Baltimore, connecting the vast majority of city neighborhoods and institutions to parks, greenspace, and existing trails. Are you supportive of this effort, and if so how will you ensure portions of the project in your district are constructed?
I have championed the Greenway Trails Network in my district and spoke up in support of it during the most recent budget cycle. I recently secured a commitment from DOT to install a high-comfort crossing with a HAWK signal at Haven St and O’Donnell St to complete a key future trail connection. As council president, I will champion the Greenway Trails Network as a citywide asset. As I discuss above, in regard to bicycle facilities in general, I believe that staffing and an improved, more equitable public involvement process are key to advancing this priority.
Agree or disagree?Do you support maintaining the city’s micro-mobility program that provides dockless bikes and scooters?
Yes
Would you support creation of a government subsidized bike share system?
Yes
Would you support local legislation to subsidize the purchase of e-bikes and membership for micro-mobility or bike share systems?
Yes
Are you committed to retaining every piece of separated bike infrastructure in the city that’s been built?
Yes
Cars are often longer than a single rowhome is wide. Households with multiple vehicles compete for parking in front of other neighbors’ homes. Do you support scaling residential permit parking fees to either the size of or number of vehicles in a household so those with more vehicles parked on city streets pay their fair share?
Yes
Do you support a citywide speed limit of 25mph on arterials and 20mph on neighborhood streets?
Yes
Do you support banning turns on red at all intersections that permit pedestrian crossing?
Yes
Do you support expanding automated enforcement to all roads that have high rates of crashes and speeding, not just near school zones?
Yes
Do you support legislation to create income-based traffic enforcement fine reductions or waivers locally?
Yes
Do you support allowing increased density adjacent to high-quality transit, grocery stores, Main Street districts, and in other high-amenity neighborhoods?
Yes
Do you support increasing Transit Oriented Development zoning to include all areas within a quarter mile of high-frequency bus routes and a half-mile of light rail and metro stations?
Yes
Minimum parking requirements are shown to increase housing costs while limiting potential density and making neighborhoods less walkable. Do you support removing parking minimums from new development?
I have supported removing parking minimums as an incentive for inclusionary housing and other forms of housing affordability. I believe that we need to strategically reduce or remove parking minimums to encourage density and transit-oriented development, particularly in proximity to high-capacity/frequent transit lines. However, I do not support removing parking minimums citywide for new development.
Do you support removing single family residential zoning categories, so that people can choose to build and live in a variety of housing options citywide?
No