TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

We all agree that emissions should be reduced, but cling to lifestyles thhat produce emissions. Low emission public transportation is good, but limited in availability. Electric autos are increasing, and also offer improvement. To be realistic, we need means to take carbon out of the atmosphere also, a project in its infancy. Increased taxes may help, but committed individuals will do this without tax incentives - we need to pursuade more citizens this is important. No single solution exists. Transportation is a necessity. Keep trying.

Mass transportation is good for the environment and good for people. The fossil fuel industry has lobbied and propagandized everyone away from the most efficient and enlightened form of transportation in order to peddle WASTE and POLLUTION.

We believe it's essential to adopt a low-carbon transportation policy and build the public transportation network that will serve people throughout the region. We live in a suburb of Baltimore, and we have very few options to get to events in the city or in other suburbs except driving our car. We want to see more public transportation, starting with completion of the Red Line.

We need a plan that holds large transportation polluters accountable for the pollution they create and invests in clean transportation solutions including more public transit and electric vehicle infrastructure in rural areas; expansion of commuter rail, electric vehicles, and streets in the suburbs that are safe, walkable, and bikeable; construction of sustainable and equitable housing near transit; and providing electric bus fleets in urban communities.

We have seen how well electric public transportation works in our vacation travels in Europe. Cities in France have built new streetcar networks, and their success has led to installation of added streetcar lines and completely new systems in other cities. These are comfortable, modern streetcars that take people to work, to cultural events, and to sporting events.

Please write a plan that will greatly reduce carbon emissions and expand public transportation throughout the region.

Baltimore badly needs better public transit and we almost got it until Gov. Hogan cancelled the Red Line. My husband and I believe so strongly in the importance of transit as a way to improve our cities and the environment that we drive an electric car and created a pro bono video for the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance: https://vimeo.com/261064553

Baltimore City has terrible public transportation which forces many to have cars. As a result, Charles Street, a major thoroughfare, has closed down to one lane of auto traffic near John's Hopkins University. There is a bike lane and a lane of metered parking which could have been two or three lanes for auto traffic. The bike lane would also be safer behind the median, but that's more about a bad commissioner.

We used to have trolleys, and the rails have been buried beneath macadem for decades since the trolleys were discontinued. Those rails are sturdy and occasionally peer out when the street is worn down. It would be cheaper and healthier to resurrect the trolleys in the city, then move the bike lane and eliminate the extra parking lane, there already being a parking lane behind the median where the biking would be safer. For the rest of Baltimore, trolley service would be a boon for citizens so poorly served by buses and a very limited subway.

It is about time to for Maryland to tackle its public transportation deficiencies, renovate aging infrastructure and come into the 21st century. Public transportation is a human right: students have the right to timely and safe transport to school. Workers are spending more time behind the wheel each year, decreasing productivity and affecting quality of life. The environment suffers via increased pollution.

This is an extraordinarily important initiative and I hope you will be wise enough to enact it.

On behalf of the City of Baltimore Sustainability Commission: we applaud the MOU emphasis on equity in implementation of TCI policies, and would like to emphasize the elevated transportation pollution burden felt by urban populations, on account of the concentration of transport in their residential and work areas. For this reason, we propose that the exiting paragraph:

"BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Signatory Jurisdictions will work with communities to ensure that the benefits of a cap-and-invest program flow equitably to communities that are underserved by clean transportation alternatives, disproportionately bear the costs of the current transportation system, or suffer disproportionate impacts of vehicular pollution and climate change;"

be edited to include a final phrase: "including urban populations burdened by vehicular pollution from non-resident commuters and from commercial and industrial vehicles."

More broadly, we urge an emphasis on coordination between State-level authorities and city governments on TCI implementation as this process moves forward.