Chair: Bruce Gartner, Vice President/Maryland Transportation Client Account Manager, Jacobs
Staff: Teresa Milio Birge, 410-727-2820
Description: The Transportation and Mobility Committee is dedicated to creating an interconnected, multi-modal, accessible transportation network that actively contributes to economic growth and moves people and goods efficiently. The committee studies and promotes regional transportation initiatives that connect workers to employment hubs and supports business growth by allowing the free flow of goods and services.
Membership: Membership in the Transportation and Mobility Committee is open to all GBC members.
Activities:
2018 Transportation and Mobility Committee news:
On May 9, 2018 the GBC Transportation and Mobility Committee met and received a presentation from Holly Arnold, Director of the Office of Policy Planning and Programming for the Maryland Transit Administration. Arnold focused her remarks on BaltimoreLink, Greater Baltimore’s core bus network system which was launched on June 18, 2017. It represents an overhaul of the regional bus network routes.
Arnold discussed increased efforts to achieve connectivity and reliability in the bus system, including capital improvements such as transfer facilities, real-time signage and clearer maps. Next steps for BaltimoreLink are operational and schedule tweaks, mobile ticketing, North Avenue Rising (supporting economic revitalization along North Avenue through increased mobility) and fleet overhauls and replacements.
The Transportation and Mobility Committee heard from Michelle Pourciau, Director of Baltimore’s Department of Transportation (BDOT), at its March 14, 2018 meeting.
Pourciau said she is working to provide Baltimore City with a safe and sustainable multi-modal transportation system. To accomplish her mission, BDOT seeks to enhance transit, bicycle and pedestrian accessibility options through a coordinated transportation planning and asset management process and implementation program.
Pourciau, who has been in her current position since 2017, previously served for 22 years with the District of Columbia Department of Transportation, ultimately serving as director of that agency.
Following Pourciau’s presentation, the Committee was briefed on transportation-related legislation pending in the 2018 legislation session of the Maryland General Assembly.
The GBC’s Transportation and Mobility Committee met on January 24, 2018 and received two presentations, one from Heather Murphy, Director, Office of Planning and Capital Programming at the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) and a second from Joe McAndrew, Director of Transportation Policy at the Greater Washington Partnership.
Murphy focused her discussion on MDOT’s Fiscal Year 2018 – Fiscal Year 2023 Consolidated Transportation Program. She also discussed Governor Larry Hogan’s traffic relief plan, which proposes a public private partnership that adds new toll lanes and widens portions of I-495, I-270 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and took questions from Committee members.
McAndrew provided a presentation on the Greater Washington Partnership’s regional transportation priorities. The Greater Washington Partnership’s goals is to unify and advance growth in a region they define as Richmond to Baltimore. His organization has four priorities for regional mobility: (1) connect the super-region; (2) improve the consumer experience; (3) ensure equitable access; and (4) integrate innovation. The Committee added that freight movement by rail should be integrated into any regional transportation efforts by the Greater Washington Partnership.