Testimony: Complete Streets for MDTA

WABA supports HB 135, which would establish a “routine accommodation” policy for safe, separated pedestrian and bicycle facilities on bridges and across-controlled access highways.

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HB 135: Transportation - Maryland Transportation Authority - Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety and Accessibility

House Environment and Transportation Committee
Washington Area Bicyclist Association – FAVORABLE

February 22, 2024

Chair Korman and Committee Members,

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) is an advocacy organization with 1,200 Maryland members, founded in 1972. We fight for a just and sustainable transportation system where walking, biking, and transit are the best ways to get around.

WABA supports HB 135, which would establish a “routine accommodation” policy for safe, separated pedestrian and bicycle facilities on bridges and across-controlled access highways. It would, in effect, extend “complete streets” provisions to the Maryland Transportation Administration (MDTA), the one Maryland transportation entity not covered by 2018 legislation that required the Maryland Transportation Authority and MDOT modal administrations to adopt a complete streets policy that requires the implementation of certain complete streets design features.

The MDTA exemption has led to the omission of separated bicycle and pedestrian facilities from the Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge, despite a previous governor's announcement that the bridge would include them. The MDTA similarly failed to deliver continuous bikeways, as had been promised, along the entirety of MD 200, the Intercounty Connector.

These omissions – the result of an unjustified exemption – limit Marylanders’ and visitors’ green transportation and recreation options. The current MDTA policies endanger bicyclists and pedestrians who seek to use or cross MDTA facilities, contrary to the state’s Vision Zero commitment. Further omissions may additionally cost us federal transportation funding and will certainly limit mobility options for new or reconstructed facilities such as the I-495 Potomac crossing, a new Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and a new Susquehanna River crossing.

Bicycle and pedestrian facilities, if designed into projects, add modest additional cost, which is justified by mobility, tourism, and economic benefits. The cost of these facilities is an insufficient reason for concern about this bill.

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association urges a Favorable HB 135 committee report and House floor vote.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on this legislation.

Seth Grimes, seth.grimes@waba.org

More about Maryland Legislation

WABA develops and advocates for state legislation to make bicycling in Maryland safer and more accessible and for state funding to expand Maryland’s bicycle network, working directly with legislators and Maryland Dept. of Transportation (MDOT) leadership and as part of the Bike Maryland coalition. We also work on broader road-safety, transit, and environmental legislation and funding, typically as part of larger statewide coalitions. The annual Maryland legislative session runs from January to April, but our work developing legislation starts the preceding summer.

We’re thrilled that several bills we worked on or supported were enacted in 2024, directing an MDOT Vision Zero Coordinator and public review process; the Better Bus Service Act, allowing bus-lane enforcement cameras (with bikes allowed); authorizing stop-sign cameras near schools in Prince George's County; and the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Memorial Act, addressing penalties for hitting a cyclist in a bike lane.

Our 2024 advocacy included unsuccessful efforts that we will likely pursue in future years. (It often takes years to pass a bill. ) These include a Great Maryland Trails Act, an E-bike Rebate and Voucher Program bill, and a bill addressing maintenance responsibility for sidewalks and bike paths along state roads. Another topic on our list for 2025 is contributory negligence, a prejudicial statute that says that if a crash victim is even only 1% at fault, then they are liable and may not recover (full) costs and damages from the party largely at fault.

More about Laws & Policy

WABA works with grassroots advocates at the local, county and state level to support laws and policies that make it easier and safer to walk, bike, and take transit. And we work to changes ones that make biking less safe, make it harder to build bike infrastructure, or that deprioritize the safety and convenience of people walking, biking, or taking transit.

In practice that means advocating for robust and transformative Vision Zero programs, enforceable Complete Streets policies, and funding for new infrastructure that supports biking, walking and transit.

Other regional legislative priorities include:

Reforming Contributory Negligence (passed in DC, in the works in Maryland and Virginia).
Getting rid of the Level of Service engineering standards in transportation decision-making.
Funding E-bike purchase rebates.

More about Advocacy

WABA fights for a region where biking, walking and transit are the best ways to get around.

We educate policymakers and organize grassroots advocates for to speak up for safer places to bike and walk; and for laws and policies that protect people who are walking and biking, reduce dangerous driving, and facilitate changes to the built environment.