Transportation
DEFINITION/DESCRIPTION
Our daily choices around how we travel to work, school, shopping and other destinations is a key factor in the sustainability of a community. Our overwhelming dependence on cars creates congestion, noise, and air pollution, an increase in accidents and has a major impact on household costs. Public transportation impacts commuters in terms of money spent on fares and time lost waiting. A sustainable transportation system is based on a compact mixed-use land use and promotes diverse options that are safe, low cost and reduce vehicle miles traveled.
CURRENT STATUS
The “bones” of Baltimore are supportive of a sustainable transportation system. The City is working with the MTA to reconfigure a century-old network of bus routes, adding dedicated bus lanes and transit signal priority on key corridors. The City established bicycle and car sharing systems and developed a Bicycle Master Plan and a Separated Bike Lane Network. Less progress has been made to improve to conditions for walking or address the equity of transportation decisions. The cancellation of the Red Line light rail project and the Master Developer Agreement for the redevelopment of State Center ends or at least delays what would have been Baltimore’s largest transit oriented development project.
EQUITY INDICATORS
Transportation has an enormous impact on the ability of residents to earn income and get to the services they need. Roughly a third of Baltimore households do not have access to a car. Unreliable, disconnected, and/or slow transportation options have very real impacts on opportunities. Travel time to work is an indicator of poverty. The MTA has begun implementing changes designed to improve reliability and reduce travel times. The City and MTA need to continue working together to ensure efforts are effective and communicated to residents and are equitably distributed throughout the city.
STRATEGIES
1. Prioritize Complete Streets
Action 1 - Adopt a Complete Streets Ordinance that creates a process for evaluating how streets and corridors will serve pedestrians, transit, bicycling, freight, and Single Occupancy Vehicles (SOVs) and improve availability of transportation between low-income neighborhoods and jobs.
Action 2 - Develop and fund implementation of a Pedestrian Master Plan, including a sidewalk inventory.
Action 3 - Improve safety for walking by managing speeds around schools and high-crash areas through the built environment and re-establish photo enforcement of speeding and red light running.
2. Improve reliability and the level of service of transit; and accessibility to rail and bus stops
Action 1 - Support and expand dedicated lanes, signal priority, and queue jumps for transit areas with high ridership and congestion.
Action 2 - Standardize coordination between agencies on transit routes, reliability, development design, roadway design changes, access to stops and other policies and infrastructure.
Action 3 - Develop a sustainable transit stop design with curb extensions/bus bulbs, stormwater mitigation, solar power, compacting trash can, and/or other sustainable aspects.
Action 4 - Develop "mobility hubs" (transit transfers, bike sharing, car sharing, EV chargers, and/or ride hailing) within communities.
Action 5 - Improve water-based transportation options and ensure good oversight.
Action 6 - Coordinate with on-demand ride hailing services to provide first mile/last mile connections.
3. Set a course for excellent transportation by citywide and regional visioning and implementation thereby reducing our carbon emissions
Action 1 - Work with regional partners to advance the regional rapid transit study and rail plan; assess options for the East-West corridor and develop a strategy
Action 2 – increase non-car transportation by Improving the safety and accessibility of bicycling through the continued implementation of a high-quality, equitable bike infrastructure; implement the Bike Master Plan and Separated Bike Lane Network Plan, increasing the mileage of on- and off-street facilities by at least 10 miles each year for the next 10 years.
Action 3 - Establish a strategic plan for the Baltimore Department of Transportation and prioritize capital projects to implement the new plan
Misc Action Items
• Encourage carpooling (much of Baltimore’s traffic and emissions are not from residents)
• Employers incentivizing transit use by paying for passes
• Procure cleaner, quieter, and lighter revenue vehicles.
METRICS FOR SUCCESS
Strategy 1: Reduce pedestrian injuries and fatalities by 20% in five years
Strategy 2: Improve bus on-‐time performance by 20% in five years
Strategy 3: Increase the areas that can be accessed through a low-stress bicycling
network in five years