October 14, 2014

Time: 9:00 – 10:30 AM
Location: Campaign Consultation, Inc. (1001 N. Calvert Street)

Attendees:
Kelly Cross, Chair, Brian O’Malley, Co-Chair, Robin Budish, Art Cohen, Peter Duvall, Ben Groff, Mac McComas, Klaus Philipsen, Jimmy Rouse

Welcome and Introductions:
Robin Budish opened the meeting with a brief welcome and announced that Brian O’Malley, President and CEO at Central Maryland Transportation Alliance would be serving as co-chair of the work group.

Status Update on the “Quick Hits”

  •  Jimmy Rouse reported that the third quarterly meeting with Khalil Zaied, Director of Operations – Mayor’s Office, William Johnson, Director – BCDOT, Robert Smith. Administrator and CEO – MTA and Danyell Diggs, () – MDOT to further discuss the implementation of the “Quick Hits” will take place in November 2014. In the interim, participants of Transit Choices will be meeting with staff members of the various agencies on the “Quick Hits” deliverable timelines. Jimmy reiterated that the city has been extremely responsive to our ideas and suggestions.
  • At the request of Veronica McBeth, Transit Bureau Chief – BCDOT, Transit Choices submitted ideas and suggestions for the Bike Share and Water Taxi RFPs which the city is in the process of drafting. Chris Merriam, chair of the Transit Choices Bike work group and executive director of Bikemore was acknowledged for providing key feedback for the Bike Share RFP.
  • On October 17, 2014 Jimmy Rouse and Robin Budish will be meeting with William Johnson, Director – BCDOT and members of his staff to discuss deliverable timelines for the “Quick Hits” list. On October 23, 2014 another meeting will take place with Charles Lattuca, Deputy Director – BCDOT to establish the timelines and locations for the implementation of five pedestrian friendly intersections using the “Complete Streets: model.
Discussion Points:
  • Ben Groff stated that in his opinion, the primary reason bicyclists don’t follow traffic/intersection rules is because the city has not adopted a “complete streets” model.
  • Art Cohen proposed that allowing vehicles to turn “right on red” can be dangerous for Pedestrians.
  • Brian O’Malley inquired whether installing bike share at all rail stops was included in the list of suggestions for the Bike Share RFP. Robin Budish responded in the affirmative.

Discussion of meeting on the Red Line :

  • Jimmy provided a recap of the discussion that took place at the Transit Choices meeting on September 30, 2014 about the proposed signatory Red Line support letter. Some participants had no objection to the letter, while others felt some revisions should be made. A revised letter reflecting the suggested changes was distributed among all work group members. Jimmy concluded by proposing that Transit Choices use the signatory letter format for “controversial” issues whereby participants will be given the option of signing, or declining to sign a letter. The advantage of having a signatory letter is that you can still participate in Transit Choices without signing the letter.
Discussion Points:
  • Klaus Philipsen agreed with the proposed revised letter stating that it was an elegant way to address the Red Line issue.
  • Art Cohen proposed having a second letter stating that “the following participants do not support the Red Line”, however, it was agreed that one letter would be sufficient.

Land Use around Red Line stations:

  • Klaus Philipsen recommended that when discussing land use around transit, the work group should determine actionable items and share the ideas with Fleming El-Amin, Red Line Project Manager at BCDOT.
  • One proposed actionable item was to invite Bill Cole, President and CEO with the Baltimore Development Corporation to meet with the work group to learn about our vision for transit and how land use is integral to good transportation planning.
  • A second proposed actionable item was to get Senator Bill Ferguson involved in the land use discussion.

Setting Agenda for 2015:

  •  Kelly Cross would like for us to get back to having an expert come in to speak to the group about rail. It would allow the work group to have more substantive conversations about rail transit as a smaller version of the plenary meeting. Additionally, Kelly proposed that the agenda for 2015 include further educating ourselves on rail transit issues, create accountability for the “Quick Hits”, and advocacy.
  • Brian O’Malley agreed with bringing in experts, adding that another preference would be to get a success or two on the “Quick Hits” list of objectives in 2014 and achieve implementation of all “Quick Hits” in 2015 if realistic.
  • Klaus Philipsen suggested that at all work group meetings members should learn something geared to actionable items. End the year (2014) with all of the progress we have made.
  • Jimmy Rouse proposed that the work group bring in an expert on “signal prioritization” and invite Frank Murphy, BCDOT and Ed Myers, Kittelson & Associates to participate in the meeting.
  • Art Cohen stated that some part of each meeting should be devoted to the long term vision for a fully integrated transportation system which would integrate all modalities.

Other Business:

  • Brian O’Malley recommended that the proposed Streetcar study should focus on how to connect people to jobs and what mode(s) would best work. We need to improve an interconnected system – start with a “needs” analysis, identify the gaps and determine which modality would work best.