44th District Network Meeting

On Thursday 7 July 2005 I was walking home from work when I saw Ed Cohen and he invited me to a meeting in which Maryland's Secretary of Transportation Robert L. Flanagan and MTA Administrator Lisa L. Dickerson will be present. The meeting was hosted by State Senator Verna L. Jones.

My notes from this meeting this weekend are below the photographs. If you have corrections, please e-mail them to me at the e-mail address on the home page. These notes represent what I heard and understood and are not necessarily the position or views of those mentioned herein.

The photographs were taken with my new Kodak EasyShare LS753 5-megapixel digital camera. Please enjoy the photographs.

44th District Community Building
Network Meeting

Thursday 7 July 2005

Senator Verna L. Jones:
Changes: There are some dissatisfaction and confusion about what is going on. Most of the changes are affecting transit dependents who live in the 44th District. This is not a done deal. The plan has not been finalized. This is the first time in three decades that such a plan has been taken place in Baltimore City.
Some of the people present include Fran Allen (Elijah Cummings’ office), Marvin Cheatham (president, Baltimore Chapter, NAACP), Frank Miff, and Al Foxx (Chief, City of Baltimore Department of Transportation). This is a State and City effort. We want to have quality transportation for Baltimore. These changes being proposed affect the senior citizens living here.

Secretary Robert L. Flanagan:
Senator Jones is on the Budget and Taxation Committee. Delegate Paige has seniority in the House of Delegates.
The bus system has not been comprehensively reviewed more than 30 years. We do not know if it was ever done. Every year the system changes a little bit but nobody ever looked at the whole system. Over 30 years where people wanted to go or come have changed a lot. It is our goal to try to improve the system. There are some problems with the existing system. We have service on Saturday and Sunday. It is not enough service. We are providing a lot of service for people going to work downtown but not or people working in hospitals...for people who do shift work. What we have put out for you to evaluate and comment on is not the end of the process. Every single comment that we get is important to us. The purpose of this exercise is to improve the bus service and to make it better for all of our customers.
Michael Deets and people in his office rode every single bus at all hours of the day and they counted people. We have talked to bus drivers, many of whom are good ambassadors for you and we have listened to people who have come to hearings. We almost certainly will change from what we had originally proposed. We were planning to make all the changes in October. Right now maybe there are some changes we should make in October and some later.

Lisa Dickerson:
We sincerely appreciate all of you who are coming out to our meetings. If you can make the system better for the least empowered of us, you can make it better for all of us. Nothing good can exist in the dark. Our bus routes were laid out against our trolley rail. Buses deserve the same attention as the rest of our modes.
We have over 12,000 calls a day. We have 50,000 people riding in the morning and 55,000 in the evening and 75,000 in the middle of the day. Arundel Mills Mall is talking to us about jobs for people there. We are working with Morgan State University to see how this is affecting low income people. We are open to suggestions. We are here to listen and to apply those changes in a meaningful way. We need to work with the school children as well.
This is Phase One. We are trying to get the service to the people who are on the buses now. Phase Two is to get the service to the people where there is no service now.
You can’t change one part without affecting other parts.

Michael Deets:
Our current bus system tends to work best taking people downtown in the morning and taking them back home at the end of the day. There is twice as much service then than during the day and twice as much service going downtown than crosstown. Over a nine-month period they had a comprehensive ride project. Somebody rode every line in the system and counted people getting on or off. They have information about where the buses are running ahead of schedule and behind schedule. They also did an origin-destination survey. They discovered that they don’t provide a single direct trip for most of the people riding their system. 52% of the people had to make a transfer and two-third (⅔) of them were going from one bus to another and about nine percent to the Light Rail.
They are looking for places where there are bus lines a block apart. They are looking for opportunities to improve the crosstown bus service. St. Agnes Hospital came to one of their meetings and said that it is impossible for people to get to the hospital because they have to ride all the way downtown and then back out. They are trying to simplify the system. Many bus lines have many branches. The 13, for example, has two branches. People getting off the 15 do not know where to transfer to catch the bus going west.
In this neighborhood the #5 line has the most frequency. People want service on Pennsylvania Avenue and Eutaw Place. They are looking at extending trips on the M-3 coming down Pennsylvania Avenue to downtown. The 91 was breaking up the 1 into two parts. People who want to get from one side o the City to the other have to transfer now. They are looking at connecting again many of these routes who currently go into downtown so that people can ride just one bus.

Senator Jones:
On 10 June 2005 there was a letter sent to the Secretary about insufficient amount of time, dissolving bus lines, and multiple transfers. Ed Cohen is with TRAC and has been very involved.

One woman has a concern about the 91. There are 290 seniors in her building. Secretary Flanagan said that this is one of the changes that they are looking at and hopes to come up with a better solution.

Bernice Street:
She remembers the 18 streetcar and then the 7 bus. If you take the 7 off, it would be a hardship for most of those in this building.

Michael Deets:
We are looking at providing service from the Me. That would be fine, according to Ms. Street.

Joyce Green:
How many who did the service ride the bus to work on a daily basis? She was asked “Do a lot of people ride the 7 to Canton?” Joyce said that it is besides the point.
Secretary Flanagan said that the existing service is deficient. Joyce Green suggested shutting the service in Canton.
A man raised the issue about cutting the MTA budget and putting it towards highway. Why is the $5 million being cut from the MTA?
We have a State law that says that the transit system will be paid for by the State, not the people riding it, put to 60% of the cost.

Marvin "Doc" Cheatham:
Our system favors Baltimore County people coming into the City and going back. He lives on Eutaw Street and across the street is Eutaw Place. Across from the State Center there are 10 to 15 buses empty to accommodate Light Rail riders.
Senior buildings were built on bus lines. Our second concern is children. They should not be forced to come late to school because there are not enough buses.
Lisa Dickerson agrees. The Urban League and Morgan State are working with the MTA. They are looking at where the stops and shelters are around the senior citizen centers.
They expanded their safety program. They invested a fleet of new buses accessible for people with disability. They also are installing S-1 guard on the buses to mitigate injuries. Beverly Hill was the Assistant Administrator involved in this.

Stephen Lee of CHAO:
We are taking the buses now to where the bus riders are. It is about money and economics. How are we going to get people in the County to take buses instead of cars? Working with the Transit Riders League, we are looking at on-time performance. In some area they need smaller buses and more of the vans making runs. We need innovative ideas to bring up the quality of the buses.

Don Schrod:
The good doctor made a point about county residents riding the Light Rail free.

This is not true. It was an honor system. Last year they put fare inspectors on the Light Rail.

Elizabeth Gant would have no way of getting to the hospital if we take away the #7 bus. She goes to the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Stacey Smith: Where did the 11,000 people whom they talked to come from? Only three were from her area. The Southwest Senior Center will be affected by the #7.

Michael Deets:
Earlier they did an origin-destination survey during the first two weeks of December. It was a 50% sample. They did half of the town on every single line in the system. They estimated that there were 55,000 people on those buses.

Arlene:
They have been talking with the MTA about the #15 line. They transport about 200,000 people on the bus every day. To get 11,000 responses were very high on a survey.

G. Street wants to know why so many bus drivers are allowed to drive the bus and talk on cell phones. Operators training is the second most important item on their survey.

Secretary Flanagan:
They picked October because they wanted to do it when there was more day light hours and the weather will probably be warmer.

Vickie from Total HealthCare: expressed concern about her clients getting to her offices.

Secretary Flanagan: We made a decision to improve the service, but we have not made a decision on how.

Senator Jones: A month ago they were going with the changes. But now that is stopped. This is not a done deal.

Stacey said that they need to get off the bus and go into the communities.

Lisa Dickerson agrees.

Marvin Cheatham: They agree with the Senator. If we are not getting the real story, the NAACP will tell us.

The MTA is also working with the churches. They are being included in the process.

The Emerson Community decided not to take a position. They feel that it is time for a change. They are not in favor of buses running through their community at all. They want Mobility service. Only about seven people in their community ride the bus. They would like a small shelter.
Some times it takes marches. We don’t want to boycott. But we are not going to take this.

Lisa Dickerson:
After every hearing we can massage the data the next ay. If you have alternatives, she likes positive suggestions.
We are finished with hearings. We are in the community dialogs. They are available to attend community meetings to find out what the proposals.

Al Foxx:
If you have any problem with lights, streets, signs, call 3-1-1. He has to respond. A record is made and he has to answer to the mayor.