Slow Streets Launch!

In April, we wrote “It’s past time to close some streets,” arguing that Baltimore City should follow guidance from the National Association of City Transportation Officials and faculty from the Bloomberg School of Public Health to immediately repurpose some street space away from parking and close some streets to through traffic as a pandemic response. Since that time, even more cities have implemented these measures to provide additional physical distancing space for residents on city streets. 

In May, Baltimore City Council unanimously passed legislation introduced by Council President Brandon Scott to implement at least 25 miles of slow streets with an equity lens within all 14 council districts. The legislation has gone unsigned by Mayor Young, but goes into effect without signature or veto after three regular council meetings. 

Since this deadline is fast approaching, Baltimore City Department of Transportation has officially announced their Slow Streets Program in response to the legislation. 

From the Baltimore City Department of Transportation press release: 

Over the next two weeks, BCDOT will begin to implement the citywide Slow Streets program which will include temporary “Road Closed: Local Traffic Only” signage on barricades to discourage cut-through traffic. The barricades used on selected streets will decrease traffic volumes to provide safer streets for physically distant walking, wheelchair rolling, jogging, and biking across the city.

The new Slow Street Program is credited to the passing of the Temporary Street Space for Pedestrians and Cyclists Bill 20-0532 and Slow Streets Pilot Program, which includes three locations across the city at Druid Hill Park, Lake Montebello, and Patterson Park. The new Slow Street Program will give residents more space to social distance and is designed to promote social distancing efforts for essential exercise and moving around town.  Since the city council passed Bill 20-0532, BCDOT has identified nearly 65-miles citywide of potential Slow Streets and will work with each City Councilmember to seek input from and prioritize the 25-miles mandated by the City Council.

In addition to identifying 65-miles of potential Slow Streets, BCDOT will begin accepting potential Slow Street nominations from residents across the City of Baltimore. All nominations must meet BCDOT’s Slow Streets criteria and will require sponsorship from their respective Councilperson in order to be approved for implementation. There will be an evaluation period 30 days after 25-miles of Slow Streets have been installed across the city. Baltimore City residents will be able to provide official comments and provide feedback.

Drivers should only use a designated Slow Street if their destination is within two blocks of that street. Residents, emergency vehicles, deliveries, and trash collection vehicles still have access to Slow Streets. Streets with bus routes are not eligible for a Slow Streets designation.

Click here to visit the BCDOT Slow Streets page and FAQ, and if you would like to request BCDOT consider a slow street in your neighborhood, you can fill out an interest form by clicking here.

We look forward to examining proposed implementations as more information becomes available, and will continue to hold the city accountable to the legislation’s intent to design and implement Slow Streets equitably. This includes using signage and barricades for closures, without any use of police enforcement.

It's Past Time to Close Some Streets

Oakland Slow Streets will close 74 miles of streets--10% of the city street network--to through traffic to promote social distancing.

Berlin, Bogotá, Brookline, Burlington, Calgary, Charleston, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Duluth, Edmonton, London, Louisville, Maumee, Minneapolis, Montgomery County, Montreal, New York City, Oakland, Ottawa, Philadelphia, Portland, Saint Paul, San Francisco, St. Louis, Stuttgart, Vancouver, Victoria, Vienna, Washington, DC.

These are just some examples of cities actively closing streets in parks or adding space on streets for people walking and biking to promote safe physical distancing.

Baltimore has come together in many amazing ways in the COVID-19 response. Inter-agency collaboration to get meals to residents is just one success. We need that same level of collaboration and vision from the mayor’s office on transportation. The mayor’s office should instruct Baltimore City Department of Transportation to coordinate with other agencies on a plan that reorganizes street space.

We live in an old city with narrow sidewalks, park paths, and other structural issues that make physical distancing as a pedestrian or bicyclist difficult. Physical distancing must be taken seriously, and the city must take steps to add space for pedestrians and bicyclists in our parks and on our roads to keep residents safe.

30% of our city lacks access to a car. In our formerly red-lined communities, lack of access to a car can be over 70%. 39% of our transit riders are essential workers, folks who must go to work during the pandemic and are walking to and from their transit stops every day. The number one origin and destination for scooter trips right now is Johns Hopkins Hospital. And, our parks are filled to the brim with people just trying to get out of the house for healthy exercise.

Based on these statistics, the plan should prioritize pedestrian and bike routes to job hubs and recreation, utilize the Baltimore Complete Streets equity assessment for route selection, and include input from hospitals, unions, and other essential employers as well as organizations distributing food and other essential goods. And, we must pay careful attention to what enforcement looks like, as no street closure should involve policing.

The National Association of City Transportation Officials agrees. They have released a COVID-19 Rapid Response Toolkit for cities, detailing actions in the transportation sector that should be taken right now to help prevent the spread of disease. 

The NACTO recommendations call for pop-up bike lanes, conversion of signals so pedestrians don’t need to push buttons, adjusting signal timing to slow cars, and most importantly, closing or limiting through traffic on select streets for physical distancing. 

We hope to see the mayor’s office instruct the Department of Transportation to coordinate with other agencies to implement NACTO’s Rapid Response Toolkit. The life safety of Baltimore City’s residents—a population particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 due to high rates of asthma, obesity, and other underlying health conditions from lack of access to exercise and poor air quality—is depending on their swift action.

Action Alert: Send a quick email now!

Email your Senator TODAY to pass HB368 - The Transit Safety and Investment Act!

The Maryland House of Delegates has passed this critical legislation that will provide funding to MTA Maryland to keep trains and buses from breaking down. 

If the State Senate doesn’t pass this legislation by Wednesday, we will need to wait at least another year to increase funding for our transit system.

In the meantime, we can expect reliability of our transit system to decline as buses and trains continue to break more than almost any other transit system in America. 

COVID-19 has made the urgency to take care of our most vulnerable even clearer. Our leadership needs to take action to provide resources to everyone, like a reliable source of transportation. 

You have to tell your Senator TODAY to pass HB368, or it may be too late to save the MTA.

Action Alert: Support the Transit Safety and Investment Act

In 2018, advocates and legislators passed a bill requiring the MTA (Maryland Transit Administration) to figure out the cost of repairs needed to keep Baltimore public transit running.

We got the results this year. It’s bad. The MTA system has a backlog of more than $2 billion in critical needs just to maintain our current infrastructure.

We’re working with advocates across the region and the MTA on a new regional transit plan, setting the stage for improvements over the next 25 years. But none of that will be possible without first fixing what’s broken in our current system.

The Transit Safety and Investment Act will add an additional $132 million a year over the next four years into the MTA to be spent on critical maintenance. This bill was introduced this session by Team 46 Delegate Brooke Lierman and backed by the new Annapolis Transit Caucus.

Governor Hogan has failed Baltimore through a willful neglect of our public transportation system. This bill is an opportunity to begin repairing that damage.

Tell your Senator to get this bill passed now before it’s too late. Without this additional investment, we risk further disruption and reduced reliability of MTA service.

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.