Transportation and Infrastructure

We need more traffic lights on timers throughout the city to allow for efficient traffic flow, especially during rush hour. I also want more speed cameras to prevent unsafe speeding while increasing revenue, but only if we can have synchronization of the traffic lights. The lack of synchronization frustrates drivers and leads to people trying to beat lights by speeding even more, achieving the opposite intended result for traffic signals. I have lived on Boston Street at Lighthouse Landing and on or just off Conkling Street in Canton and Brewer’s Hill. I have witnessed motorists driving more than double the speed limit while also skipping red lights and stop signs. In addition, inconsistent traffic patterns for adjacent intersections are confusing to motorists, especially if they are unfamiliar with those intersections. When traffic lights are followed by stop signs and vice versa, drivers are often focused on beating lights and are likely to drive through a stop sign just before that light. This happens in front of my house every day. If residents want speed humps near specific intersections as well, I will submit the requests and continue to follow up on them until they are completed.

Baltimore City is the only jurisdiction without a State Trooper Barracks, and we should demand one to allow for more traffic enforcement. The average Barracks has about 100 Troopers and civilian workers of the twenty-three existing ones. If we had that, two Troopers and civilian support could supplement each district at a given time, covering National and State Routes as well as all Trucking Routes, enforcing traffic law, running tags, and thereby helping to reduce stolen vehicles, illegal drugs, and guns, and other criminal acts. This will help BPD, which is struggling to retain officers, and it will also help supplement the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office which is helping enforce State’s Attorney Ivan Bates’ new policy on citations and misdemeanors. I also want to bring back the Transportation Taskforce to share best practices and foster communication among neighborhoods.

Mass transit needs to become a priority, but we are not addressing the real and current issues. A lack of bus drivers is the major reason buses are behind schedule. Before we consider the red line and Central Maryland expansion, let’s make sure we can manage what we currently have. We need to address having more direct routes going north and south, and east and west, and there should be two larger perimeter routes within the city that connect those routes. The Charm City Circulator is no longer working, and passengers cannot rely on the current routes of MTA.

Of the different options of the Red Line I have seen, 2A is the best one, but I still believe it is not what truly meets our needs. I am advocating to our state representatives and the agency representatives an alternative to these plans. Since part of the proposal includes a MARC station north of Bayview Hospital, the Red Line should run directly west of there on Pulaski Highway, which is four lanes across, and geographically central to bifurcate the city and to connect to our current infrastructure. This will also maximize ridership and save on costs. Similar to 2A but farther north, I would like to see light rail instead of rapid bus transit, which will require fewer people to operate it.

From the MARC Station at Bayview, going from east to west, it would go to the current Subway stop at Johns Hopkins (just south of it), and then a stop connecting to the light rail at Howard Street, which would also be just north of the Charles Center and Lexington Market stops for the Subway, and that station could be located in between the light rail and the Subway there. From there, it would continue directly west to the Highway to Nowhere (still Route 40) and Edmondson Village, as originally planned. Social Security could be connected with Owings Mills and Bayview could also be connected down to Trade Point Atlantic, which is one of the busiest bus stops near the Amazon Fulfillment Center. This would also help serve a large population of people in O’Donnell Heights, including individuals living in public housing there as well as the residents of St. Helena and Graceland Park.

Relating to my background in International Business, I want to work towards an increase in international trade through our ports and improve infrastructure and transportation while increasing jobs for everyone. We have made headway over the years to allow for larger carriers instead of just smaller Ro-Ro ships coming from Norfolk. In 2019, one of the largest carriers came here thanks to the additional fifty feet of dredging. In addition, there is an ongoing project to allow for double-stacked containers to be able to go under a bridge that they cannot currently clear by rail. I would work towards advocating for a continuation of these projects and other major capital improvement projects in our district.

There are still other issues at our ports that need to be addressed. A major concern is that EMTs/Police/Fire currently cannot enter the port quickly and respond to emergency situations either. We need to expand volume capacity for traffic at the ports. I will also advocate for a project in our capital budget to have an additional bridge on Boston Street going over the railroad crossing between Haven and Newkirk Street. The infrastructure needs to catch up with the increase in population and development in our current district, especially the Boston Street corridor and the east side of Brewer’s Hill. After listening to voters, I want to propose redesigning the roads and parking lots at Canton Crossing to be more pedestrian-friendly as well.