In an effort to educate voters, we will be posting responses to our candidate questionnaire. Questionnaires were emailed to each candidate running for City Council, President of City Council, and Mayor. Candidates have until March 4th to submit. We are publishing results in the order they are received.
How frequently do you use a mode of transportation other than your car to navigate the city? Based on your experience, where should the city prioritize resources for transportation?
CO: I like the transportation system we have here in Baltimore, the only thing I will add is a system that addresses late and stranded passenger in the very wee hours of the morning in cold rain or inclement weather These buses will be deployed between 1 and 3 pm when it is raining or cold to pickup long waiting tired and ready to go home passenger, drop then off at points closest to where they live along its designated rout, and this will be without charge It will be gotta go buses, and will only serve the more disadvantaged neighborhoods.
What role do you believe biking and walking improvements can play in creating a safer, healthier, more livable Baltimore?
CO: More biking, more better i will give biking credit to new bikers to enable more people buy bikes we will make sure that the streets are well marked for bikers and train police to enforce biker and pedestrian security rules on the streets
Are you supportive of the city’s plan to implement bike share in 2016? If so, what do you believe to be the critical components of success?
CO: Bike share is great in principle, but we will give biker credits so more will own their own bikes, and get encouraged to bike when ever there is tight traffic like on game day and concert days.
Recent audits have discovered that the Department of Transportation struggles to measure key performance indicators. The city’s procurement and project management processes have also faced scrutiny. This has led to significant delays of key improvements to bicycle infrastructure in Baltimore. How will you work to improve performance and accountability of city agencies like the Department of Transportation under your leadership?
CO: I will study very carefully the current challenges and performances of the departments associated with transportation, and work to maximize their effectiveness with refreshed goals and strategies.
What impact do you see increasing rates of biking and walking in Baltimore having on the public health and safety of our residents? In what ways will your administration invest in the creation of safe places to encourage more people to engage in physical activity?
CO: I will encourage makers of walking shoes to provide more walking friendly foot ware, we will encourage people to circulate their fairly worn walker friendly foot ware at points where others can retrieve and use them as mayor, i will create the mayors office of public information which will go about telling citizens that walking is good for them, a kind of motivation to good healthful walking and biking.
A recent study by Harvard economists found that the single strongest factor affecting the odds of a child escaping poverty is not the test scores of his or her local schools or the crime in the community; it is the percent of workers in his or her neighborhood who have long commutes. How do you plan to improve transportation options and commute times for our most vulnerable residents?
CO: It is not, i suspect the length of the commutes, but the fact that bus transportation takes so long to get where they need to be as a result of waiting for the buses to come and riding along the meandering bus route, this leads to hours spent on transporting home, while car owners execute the same trip in a tiny fraction of the time As mayor, we will encourage and form a foundation to repair, receive and repair donated and abandoned cars and give them to the most transportation challenged families Our end to booting system will not hurt.
Often road redesigns that improve the safety for people on bikes or people walking do so in a way that removes priority for single occupancy vehicles. This can look like removing lanes for travel or decreasing available street parking. Can you describe how you would manage public expectations during project implementation, and handle any backlash from constituents that don’t share in the City’s vision for complete streets?
CO: It can be risky some times when bikers occupy and slow down car lanes, forcing cars to merge into sometimes occupied parallel lanes to avoid the bikers We can see how we can designate some wider street with signs that show they are biker streets, so drivers are ready to share the road where biking lanes narrow or merge with road traffic.
What other information about your candidacy would you like to share with our members?
CO: I have new ideas frequently , and I like news ways of doing the same things that bring improvement in the lives of people and the process of government.