Update on Complete Streets

New BCDOT Director Sharkey at his confirmation

On October 3, 2019, Baltimore City Department of Transportation was supposed to release for public comment a draft Complete Streets manual. It never happened.

The Baltimore Complete Streets ordinance, enacted in December of last year, contained a robust public outreach requirement that was supposed to begin immediately, engaging community members in a detailed series of public meetings to bring awareness to Complete Streets principles and the creation of a draft manual. Councilman Ryan Dorsey consulted with Bikemore and the Complete Streets Coalition and developed a robust set of community engagement expectations that were delivered in a memo to then Director Michelle Pourciau.

In late April, Director Pourciau resigned after reports of an Office of the Inspector General investigation into her leadership tactics. Shortly thereafter, Mayor Pugh resigned amid the “Healthy Holly” scandal. In the aftermath of these resignations, it became clear that Director Pourciau had not devoted adequate resources to meet the legislative requirements of the Complete Streets ordinance. No significant community outreach had been conducted, and none meeting the expectations of the coalition or Councilman Dorsey had been planned. This seemed almost purposeful, and was a devastating blow to the implementation calendar of a bill that had just been recognized as one of the best Complete Streets initiatives in the country.

Shortly after this news, Acting Mayor Jack Young selected Steve Sharkey, then head of the Department of General Services, to lead Baltimore City Department of Transportation. Director Sharkey was unanimously confirmed by the Baltimore City Council on August 20th. Director Sharkey hit the ground running, immediately meeting with stakeholders on Complete Streets.

By August 29th, at the first meeting of the newly formed City Council Transportation Committee, chaired by Councilman Ryan Dorsey, Baltimore City Department of Transportation publicly agreed that the deadlines for the Complete Streets ordinance would not be met.

As a result, Councilman Dorsey introduced legislation to extend the deadlines of Baltimore Complete Streets, to ensure adequate community outreach is conducted, and conducted to the expectations of the Complete Streets Coalition and city council. The legislation, emergency adopted by the full city council on September 23rd and signed by Mayor Young on October 7th, gives Baltimore City Department of Transportation until October 16th to deliver a community engagement plan to the Land Use Committee for review and comment, and specifies that this plan must incorporate the recommendations set forth in the community engagement expectations originally sent to Director Pourciau.

Each deadline is then reset following this initial revision. Within 90 days, the Complete Streets Advisory Committee must deliver scoping recommendations for the Complete Streets Manual. By April 1, 2020, the Complete Streets Manual must be made available for public comment, and by July 1, 2020 the Complete Streets Manual must be adopted.

An additional clarification was also made in this legislative update: all other components of the Complete Streets ordinance, including the design standards like lane widths, design vehicles, and design speeds, and the prioritization of pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transit users over other modes, are immediately law effective this past Monday, October 7th. There should be no more grey area on the law.

While we are disappointed in the decisions of the prior administration which led to this delay, the future is bright. For the first time we have a Council President who supported creation of a Transportation Committee. We have a Transportation Committee Chair who bikes to work, who authored and passed the strongest and most progressive Complete Streets ordinance in the country. We have a Mayor who prioritized signing this legislative extension and who hired a Transportation Director who lives in Baltimore, who bikes to work, who knows how to support his staff and increase morale, and who is honest and transparent about the work ahead of him.

We look forward to working with this team of dedicated and talented elected and appointed officials to deliver a Complete Streets manual worthy of the legislation and coalition that demanded it, even if it will be a few months late.

Dockless Vehicle Update

Baltimore’s Shared Mobility Coordinator Meg Young talking about the scooter program:

Last Spring, scooters launched in Baltimore. The city quickly adopted a pilot program, originally intended to last six months, to explore and evaluate dockless shared mobility vehicles on Baltimore Streets. The initial pilot program rules and regulations were based on a white paper provided to the Pugh Administration by Bikemore.

As of February 28, 2019, the original proposed end date of the pilot program, dockless scooters and bikes had seen almost 756,000 rides by over 190,000 riders. At that time, Baltimore City officials decided based on a detailed survey showing strong support for continuation of a dockless mobility program to extend the pilot while formal rules and regulations were drafted and adopted for a permanent program.

This came in three parts. First, Baltimore City Council drafted authorizing legislation formally legalizing the use and regulation of scooters, e-bikes, and other shared mobility devices in Baltimore City. Second, Baltimore City Department of Transportation drafted rules and regulations based on the City Council’s authorizing legislation. Third, a weighted permit application was produced for vendors to apply for license to operate under the new permanent Dockless Vehicle for Hire Program.

The permit application was released this week. Companies have until July 24th to submit applications to be one of four vendors selected to operate in Baltimore City. Recipients will be announced July 29th, and the new permits will run from August 1, 2019 to July 31, 2020.

Rules and Regulations

We believe the adopted rules and regulations to be some of the best in the country, and can be revisited annually to adopt best practices learned in other cities. The majority of Bikemore’s comments on the rules and regulations were adopted.

Here are some highlights from the rules and regulations (the full rules and regulations can be found on the Baltimore City Department of Transportation website):

• Providers operating one vehicle type may operate up to 1,000 vehicles, and must operate a minimum of 150 vehicles.

• Providers operating multiple vehicle types may operate up to 2,000 vehicles, and must operate a minimum of 150 of each vehicle type.

• Adaptive vehicles (for use by those living with disabilities) are not counted toward vehicle maximums.

• Providers my operate vehicles 24/7 if they can demonstrate a maintenance and safety plan that ensures vehicles are regularly serviced and safe.

• Ride purchase must be made possible with cash and without use of a smart phone.

• Vehicles must be located in every city planning district, vehicle density is regulated, and additional equity priority areas are defined for placement.

Permit Application

The permit application allows up to four vendors to be selected. Eight sections of the permit application are scored to rank applicants based on vehicle information, maintenance, operations, education/engagement, hiring, data, sustainability, and company history.

Scored sections on the permit application

Each vendor will be required to pay a $70,000 permitting fee, a $10,000 performance bond, and a $0.10 excise tax per rental.

The annual permitting fee covers the cost of Baltimore City Department of Transportation shared mobility program staff, in addition to innovative public engagement and infrastructure:

• A Resident Mobility Advisory Board will be established, similar to the successful Food Policy Advisory Committee. Resident Mobility Advisors will be appointed from communities across the city, and will receive a paid stipend to meet six times a year to discuss mobility challenges in and solutions for their communities. ($6,000)

• 20 shared mobility corrals will be installed annually based on an evaluation of ridership and equity priorities. These corrals will be installed either on the street or sidewalk, and provide designated parking areas for shared mobility vehicles as well as private bikes or scooters. ($20,000)

• Existing mobility lanes will be evaluated and improved through resurfacing and patching to provide safer travel surfaces for shared mobility vehicles. ($100,000)

• Baltimore City Department of Transportation will produce community education materials ($19,000) as well as provide five $2,000 community micro-grants for education and outreach ($10,000)

The refundable performance bond covers anticipated city expenses, including the BPD Special Marine Unit for harbor retrievals, Baltimore City Department of Transportation towing services for improperly parked or damaged/abandoned vehicles, and damage to public property. Any funds not expended on these city services will be refunded to the companies at the end of the permit.

The excise tax of $0.10 per ride goes into the general fund. The Pugh administration committed to restricting these revenues to funding bike infrastructure installation in Baltimore City, however it is unclear if this restriction will be honored given we have a new government.

What’s Next

We look forward to Baltimore City Department of Transportation receiving applications from multiple vendors. We understand that all currently operating vendors plan on reapplying, and several other companies not yet operating in Baltimore have expressed interest.

Baltimore City has been on the forefront of shared mobility regulation and ridership success. We believe the establishment of formal rules and regulation and a competitive application will continue this trend, and hopefully bring more vehicles and vehicle types to more Baltimoreans while increasing our city’s capacity to successfully manage the program, reducing instances of vehicle damage, blocked right-of-way, and the other challenges associated with introducing new modes of transportation in Baltimore City.

Ultimately, the best thing Baltimore City can do to make shared mobility safer and more accessible to everyone is build more protected infrastructure.

Dockless Mobility Update

Update to the update: The Baltimore City Land Use and Transportation Committee unanimously approved moving this bill out of committee and onto Second Reader. Thanks for your support.

Tomorrow at 1:00pm, Baltimore City Council’s Land Use and Transportation Committee is holding a hearing on the proposed Dockless Mobility legislation that will update Baltimore City code to regulate dockless mobility vehicles, including e-bikes and e-scooters.

This legislation is necessary to enable a permanent Dockless Vehicle program in Baltimore City. The current pilot program, now on a several-month extension, will come to an end and be replaced with this legislation and subsequent annual operating permit guidelines developed by Baltimore City Department of Transportation.

When the legislation was initially introduced, we had a number of concerns. A drafting error implied criminal penalties, including potential imprisonment, for riders. The ordinance contained what we felt to be inflexible and overly specific language, including specifics related to age of users, vehicle definitions, and maximum vehicle deployments. However, we were hopeful that these issues could be addressed in subsequent meetings with DOT.

We’re happy to report that the bill will be introduced tomorrow with numerous friendly amendments that address the majority of our serious reservations:

• Criminal penalties have been removed from the bill for any users of dockless mobility vehicles.

• The DOT director can define additional dockless mobility vehicle types beyond bikes and scooters, allowing for potential cargo vehicles or vehicles for people with disabilities that make riding a two-wheeled scooter or bicycle difficult.

• Instead of a defined maximum in ordinance, the DOT director is instructed to set maximum and minimum numbers of vehicles in the annual permit, allowing more flexible change.

• The 16 year old age restriction for riding e-bikes and e-scooters (which would have applied to personally owned and operated e-bikes and e-scooters as well) has been removed, allowing for potential vehicles that can accommodate child passengers.

• Prohibition on multiple riders has been removed, allowing for potential tandem vehicles or vehicles that can accommodate child passengers.

• You may now choose to ride in the street or on the sidewalk adjacent to a street with a speed limit over 29mph (Before, you were forced to ride on the sidewalk on streets with a speed limit over 30mph).

• Electric motor speed limit of 15mph for e-bikes was restored to 20mph to match state and federal regulations of Tier I and II e-bikes.

In addition to these amendments, key language mandating equitable access to dockless vehicles throughout the city and in under-served areas as well as language around maintaining publicly accessible data remains.

Assuming these amendments, and the ordinance itself are approved by the Land Use and Transportation Committee as well as the rest of Baltimore City Council, we believe this ordinance will serve as a strong foundation for an innovative and nation-leading dockless vehicle permit developed by Baltimore City Department of Transportation that can evolve annually to reflect the changing market of this new mobility option.

While we congratulate Baltimore City DOT on drafting a strong first piece of legislation on dockless mobility, to fully support this program’s success, Baltimore City Department of Transportation will need to invest heavily in building protected, all-ages bicycle infrastructure throughout the city, with a clear prioritization of infrastructure in defined equity areas and areas with high rates of zero car households. We are a long way off from hitting that mark.

Update on Dockless Mobility

Technically, Baltimore City’s Dockless Vehicle Pilot Program ends on February 28th.

Over the past six months of the pilot program, dockless scooters and bikes have seen 755,952 rides by over 190,000 riders.

In response to the overwhelming ridership in the pilot program, Baltimore City Department of Transportation has worked with the mayor’s office to introduce legislation at City Council to formally authorize a dockless vehicle program. This legislation will authorize the program legally, and then Baltimore City Department of Transportation will create a permitting program for vendors to provide dockless bikes, e-bikes, and scooters.

BCDOT has also formed a committee to provide guidance on the formation of both the ordinance authorizing a dockless vehicle program as well as the subsequent permits that will be issued. As these are public meetings, we have been attending and providing feedback, even though we are not members of the committee.

Proposed Ordinance

You can view the proposed ordinance First Reader draft here.

Generally, we feel that the ordinance should be broad authorizing language that leaves most definitions, discussion of maximum and minimum numbers of vehicles, age limits, etc. to the actual permit.

As drafted, the First Reader misses this mark. However, BCDOT so far has been very responsive to our concerns, and we believe that they can be addressed through meetings with City Council and BCDOT prior to committee hearing, or at Land Use and Transportation Committee hearings or work sessions.

We do know that the largest (and unintentional) gaffe, the criminalization component, is proposed to be amended out of the legislation. The intent of that section was target providers of dockless mobility vehicles with serious penalties for failing to comply with regulations, not users of dockless mobility vehicles.

Proposed Permit Regulations

The Dockless Vehicle Committee, hosted by BCDOT, has been reviewing best practice documents from NACTO as well as policies in cities across North America and Europe for guidance and lessons learned.

We are hopeful that the resulting permit based on this thorough research-based approach will be a foundation for success and innovation, much like the original pilot agreements we worked with BCDOT to develop.

BCDOT is also learning lessons from the pilot, specifically around the equity requirements. The pilot used Community Statistical Areas as the tool to distribute vehicles equitably among neighborhoods, but we saw that these areas were too large to achieve the intended distribution. Therefore, BCDOT is exploring some other ideas including creating designated dockless mobility hubs in equity priority areas, as well as targeting high ridership bus stops and transit hubs for mandated deployments.

We encourage members of the public to contact DOT with any specific things you’ve seen work well in other cities that may be incorporated into a draft permit. Just visit their page here.

Next Steps for the Pilot Program

Since the pilot program technically ends this week, and we have not formalized the replacement program, BCDOT plans to extend the pilot through the spring. New agreements with Bird and Lime will be signed, and BCDOT has agreed to entertain at least one more operator application. We understand that Jump is interested in entering the pilot program in that slot.

BCDOT Dockless Survey

From December to January, BCDOT launched a survey on dockless mobility that was shared widely through community liaisons, council people, the mayor’s office, transportation advocacy organizations, and the Bird and Lime applications. 5,283 people responded in total.

Results are about what one would expect:

• There is broad support for the program from both riders and non-riders, with highest support from younger residents.

• Most people use dockless vehicles to commute or socialize, and do so because it is convenient.

• Dockless vehicle use predominantly replaces automobile trips, and has encouraged slightly more walking.

• The improvements people want to see the most are safer places to ride and more vehicles.

Update on the Bike Budget (It's Bad)

Bikemore Executive Director Liz Cornish, Councilman Leon Pinkett, Councilman Ryan Dorsey, and MBAC Chair Jon Laria testifying at Planning Commission.

A month ago, Baltimore City Department of Transportation released a FY2020-2025 Capital Improvement Program that totally eliminated the line item for bicycle infrastructure for all six years.

Three weeks ago, we testified at the Planning Commission alongside Councilman Dorsey, Councilman Pinkett, and Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Commission Chair Jon Laria about this disparity, and members of the Planning Commission suggested BCDOT come back with a budget that reflects the adopted plan.

Yesterday BCDOT did the opposite, by presenting a plan to the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Commission to build only about six miles of infrastructure by 2025.

BCDOTs revised CIP at a meeting yesterday. The 12.7 miles listed are “lane miles” not road miles, which means DOT is counting bike infrastructure in both directions on a street to inflate their numbers.

The Separated Lane Network Plan calls for building 77 road miles of infrastructure from 2018-2022, using $5 million in local dollars to match federal and state grants totaling about $27 million dollars over those five years.

BCDOT instead proposes building 6.35 road miles of infrastructure from 2020-2025, using just $3 million of local and federal dollars total. About 3 miles of this proposal are facilities that should have been built back in 2017.

If we’re being generous and count all 6.35 miles of infrastructure, BCDOT plans to ignore 92% of the plan they paid to develop and asked the Planning Commission to adopt. At the pace they propose, it will take over 70 years to implement the 5 year Separated Lane Network Plan.

After overwhelmingly negative feedback at the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Commission yesterday, it’s possible BCDOT will again revise their CIP request for today’s Planning Commission hearing.

But here’s where we’re at right now:

• A BCDOT budget that blatantly ignores adopted city plans

• A bicycle program over 20 miles behind schedule and a clear plan to fall further behind

• Constant threats to downgrade and remove existing bike infrastructure

• A missed deadline on the very first Complete Streets Ordinance update

• A mass departure of talented BCDOT staff

• Rising injury and death on our roadways

Even if the CIP is revised to show everything we want on paper, how can the Director be trusted to faithfully implement it, given these past two presentations, where we were told there was no capacity or intent to do that very implementation? How can we trust this agency to act in good faith when all the signs listed above prove they’re failing on nearly every front?

Baltimore City Department of Transportation will present their revised CIP at 3:00PM today, with public comment to follow. We plan to be there to highlight our concerns, and welcome citizens to join us.

Baltimore City DOT CIP Follow-Up | 417 E. Fayette Street, 8th Floor | 3:00PM until comments conclude

If you can’t join us, you’re also welcome to send an email expressing your concerns and the meaningful affect of bicycle infrastructure on your choice to live, work, and play in Baltimore to the Planning Department for inclusion in the Commission file (deptofplanning@baltimorecity.gov) and BCDOT Director Pourciau (michelle.pourciau@baltimorecity.gov).