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STATE OF MARYLAND

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

MARYLAND TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION

BaltimoreLink Public Hearing

320 York Road

Towson, Maryland 21204

January 5, 2017

BEFORE:

PAT KELLER, Hearing Officer

LARRY JACKSON, Hearing Secretary

Proceedings recorded by electronic sound recording; transcript produced by Free State Reporting, Inc.

FREE STATE REPORTING, INC.

Court Reporting Transcription

D.C. Area 301-261-1902

30

I N D E X

Page

Opening remarks by Pat Keller 3

Rules and procedures by Larry Jackson 6

Speakers:

Markus Zanow 9

Megan Shook 11

Tom Spence 15

Sharonne McDowell 17

Jean Dillard 20

Jeff Peck 23

Paul Thompson 26


P R O C E E D I N G S

MR. KELLER: Good evening, everybody. Let the record show that it is now 9:00 p.m. on the 5th of January 2017.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Nine or five?

MR. KELLER: Pardon?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You said nine.

MR. KELLER: Oh, the 5th of January. Excuse me.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's 5 p.m., not 9 p.m.

MR. KELLER: Oh, that was where I made the mistake? Okay. 5 p.m. on the 5th of January.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Is this a public record?

MR. KELLER: This is a public record. This will be recorded. All your comments will be made part of the public record.

I call this public hearing conducted by the Maryland Transit Administration as required by Title 7 of the Maryland Transportation Article. The Maryland Transportation Administration, also known as MTA, is a modal agency of the Maryland Department of Transportation.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Pat Keller and I work for the Maryland Department of Transportation MTA. The MTA is serving as a hearing officer this evening. The hearing secretary is -- and he may introduce himself.

MR. JACKSON: My name is Larry Jackson.

MR. KELLER: Mr. Jackson will be taking written notes of your comments. I welcome you to the public hearing and I thank you for taking the time to attend. If you have not already done so, please silence your cell phones.

The purpose of this hearing is to accept testimony pertaining to the Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration’s proposed service changes for the next phase of implementation of the BaltimoreLink Transit Network redesign. The proposed changes would become effective on or about Sunday, June18, 2017. Full details of the proposed changes are presented in a two-volume document available at the registration table. For those of you who have not picked up a copy, it looks like this. Yes, there is -- it’s called Volume II, but it’s the volume with the routes in it, that’s correct.

The proposed changes again will take place Sunday, June 18. Full details of the changes are presented in this document.

The role of the hearing officer and the secretary is strictly to take testimony. We are unable to answer questions while this hearing is in progress. Please address any questions you may have to the MTA representatives just outside the room. That’s the comment I made earlier. If you have questions about routes and services and scheduling and times, things -- technical things of that nature not related to testimony, your questions will be answered in the next room.

The Maryland Transit Administration is committed to ensuring no individual is excluded from participation in or denied the benefits of its transit services and programs on the basis of race, color, national origin, as protected by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The secretary will now state the rules and procedures for this hearing. Mr. Jackson.

MR. JACKSON: Good evening. The procedures for this hearing are as follows: Individuals desiring to testify should register in the lobby area. Speakers are required to provide their name and address. If representing a group, its name and address should also be provided.

For this hearing, all statements should be directed to the hearing officer, and must be related to the subject matter of the hearing as outlined in the proposal. Questions should be addressed to MTA representatives outside of this room. The hearing officer cannot respond to questions while the hearing is in progress. Speakers are required to limit their statements to three minutes. These proceedings are recorded by a court stenographer. Prepared statements or literature pertaining to the subject of the proposal may be submitted to the hearing officer or to the MTA Office of Customer and Community Relations. For those who prefer to submit comments in writing rather than verbally, comment forms are available at the registration table. MTA staff is available to offer assistance. Comment forms can also be downloaded by visiting www.baltimorelink.com.

Written statements may be submitted for the hearing record by submitting to MTA staff at the registration table, mailing to the address listed on the comment form, or emailing comments to with written testimony as the subject heading. All testimony received by the February 21, 2017, deadline will be considered before the proposals are finalized.

MR. KELLER: Thank you, Mr. Jackson. Just to iterate this point, if after this public hearing, after your testimony, you have other comments and things you’d like to make, you have up until February 21 to do so and there’s various means to do it. By no means think that tonight is the end of it. You have up to February 21 to make more comments available to us.

Notices regarding this hearing were published in 2016 as follows. We are required to read these. December 5 and 12, The Baltimore Sun; December 27, The Jeffersonian; December 28, The Towson Times; December 29, The Dundalk Eagle and East County Times; December 30, The Sun’s Weekend and El Tiempo Latino.

Notices published in 2017 include: January 4, City Paper, January 6, Afro-American, The Sun Weekend, The Baltimore Times; and The Jewish Times; January 9, The Baltimore Sun; and January 11, The Catonsville Times and Arbutus Times.

At this point in time, we’ll begin our public testimony. I’d first like to invite any elected officials. Do we have any elected officials that have signed up, Mr. Jackson?

MR. JACKSON: I’m unable to determine by this list, but I don’t believe so.

MR. KELLER: Are there any elected officials present? Seeing none, hearing none, let’s proceed.

When your name is called, please step up to the microphone, state and spell your name and provide your address for the record. All right. Let’s begin. Our first speaker is Markus Zanow. If I butcher your name, please forgive me.

MR. ZANOW: My name is Markus Zanow, M-A-R-K-U-S, Z-A-N-O=W. I live at 1100 Green Acre Road, Towson, Maryland 21286. I oppose the cessation of regular bus service between the Cromwell Bridge Park and Ride facility on Taylor Avenue. I have an MBA degree in transportation and public utilities. In my business career, I worked for railroads including CSX. Early in my work for the Rock Island Railroad, I conducted commuter market research and I revised the railroad’s commuter tariff. I am now retired, but I work part time for Visit Baltimore, primarily in the Baltimore Convention Center. For my present part-time work, I have ridden the Number 3 bus line that starts out at 5:05 a.m. from the Cromwell Bridge Park and Ride facility. I have used the Number 3 bus at many other times to go to or to return from work. And I’ve even ridden the Number 3 bus that leaves Baltimore at 9:57 p.m. to go home after I attended a symphony concert. I know the Number 3 bus line and I’ve got a personal gauge of the number of persons using it. The line is well patronized and that includes the section on Loch Raven Boulevard between Taylor Avenue and Cromwell Bridge Road Park and Ride facility.

Under the proposed new schedule, the only busses available between Cromwell Bridge Road and Taylor Avenue would be the Number 103 express buses. All other service on this line segment would be abandoned. It strikes me that in revising bus schedules, one should adhere to the Hippocratic Oath, do no harm. In deliberately abandoning this well-patronized line segment, the MTA is doing harm. A fault of some present bus line routings is meandering or failing to follow a direct route. For the most part, the proposed premier CityLink routes are direct. The exception is the CityLink Green Line. It abruptly leaves Loch Raven Boulevard at Taylor Avenue and then goes west to terminate at the Towson Town Center. The Towson Town Center is already served by a direct bus route, Quick Bus 48 and Route 8 and will be served by the CityLink Red.

I fail to see why a portion of Number 3’s well patronized bus line should be sacrificed for the second bus line to the Towson Town Center. Please revise your plans and assure the continuance of regular bus service between Cromwell Bridge Road Park and Ride facility and Taylor Avenue.

MR. KELLER: Thank you very much, Mr. Zanow. Thank you for sticking to the three minutes.

MR. ZANOW: Do you want a copy?

MR. KELLER: Sure. Absolutely. We will accept all written testimony.

MR. ZANOW: I kept it underneath the three minutes.

MR. KELLER: You made it. Are you ready? Okay. Our next speaker will be Megan Shook.

MS. SHOOK: Good evening. My name is Megan Shook and I live at 4100 North Charles Street. I’ve lived in the city for -- well, since 1966. I’ve ridden the buses over the years a lot. I’m sort of pleased taking a look at the 11 route that you have redirected since last summer when I did testify and offer comments. I use that route a lot. It’s right in front of -- stops in front of my house. I got here today on that route. It used to, in the earlier version of this BaltimoreLink plan, was going to turn over on Mount Royal and go down Gilford Avenue and end up at City Hall because apparently the downtown place where the end of the route sort of stopped and stayed and lingered and hung out behind the hotel wasn’t pleasing to the merchants or hotels or whatever downtown. You were going to route it over to City Hall and then you changed it back to going downtown. That is the route I use to get to the Inner Harbor for everything. If I need to get to City Hall, I can easily jump on a bus on Baltimore Street and get over to East that way because there’s lots of buses on Baltimore Street. Any way that was good. That was actually an improvement from last summer and I’m glad you listened.

I don’t have so much to say because I didn’t look at the site to see what the changes were before tonight.

My other point was, you know, you don’t need to say “Happy Holidays” on the buses. It’s really stupid. It really interferes with our figuring out what bus it is. When you look at the bus, sometimes you don’t have very much time. There’s big trucks in the way. You get one quick glimpse and if it says “Happy Holiday”, you have no clue what bus it is. I think you could get rid of the “Happy Holidays.” You can let the bus drivers say “Happy Holidays” or something. You know, what I mean, to put it on the bus is just a nuisance really; because the important thing is to know what bus is coming. If you’re standing at the bus stop, you have to cross the street, you have to get up from the bench, you have to gather up your bags, whatever you’re doing, and “Happy Holidays” is just a nuisance I think.

Now, I’m looking at the 3 and 36 buses, which, you know, people buy their houses based on bus routes. I mean I don’t know if you think about that, but that’s like a major thing for people. You know, the number 3, you took that off 33rd Street. I mean all the people that live in Ednor Gardens, they’re not going to walk over to Charles Street to the Silver Route or walk over to Loch Raven to the Green Route. They had a Number 3 bus and there it was. It’s been there forever on 33rd Street. But now it’s gone.

And the 36, my grandchild uses that bus every day. It’s really great. It takes him from his school on Guilford Avenue to his home in Ednor Gardens near 36th Street, and again, that’s all, you know, taken away. I guess his family will have to move. Thank you.

MR. KELLER: Thank you very much, Ms. Shook. Our next speaker will be Mrs. Debbie Lang. Mrs. Lang? Perhaps getting her questions answered. We’ll come back to that. Linville Taylor. Did I get that right?

MR. JACKSON: Lynette --

MS. TOLSON: Tolson.

MR. KELLER: Oh, I’m sorry. Lynette, yes.

MS. TOLSON: I don’t want to speak.

MR. KELLER: No, I don’t want to speak.

MS. TOLSON: No.

MR. KELLER: Okay. You don’t have any --

MS. TOLSON: I was just observing.

MR. KELLER: Okay. Fair enough. If you have questions, you can step -- yeah, great.

MS. TOLSON: Thank you.

MR. KELLER: Speaker, next speaker, Tom Spence. Mr. Spence.

MR. SPENCE: I just have a few impromptu remarks. My wife and I moved to Baltimore in 2000 and we went to Mount Vernon area near the Washington Monument. In 2009, we totaled our car. Actually, I totaled our car and so we went to riding the bus system and we’ve been riding buses since with once in a while resource to ZIP cars and for the last year, using Uber sometimes. Our first connection with the bus system was fairly positive. There are obvious flaws; but I have to regretfully say that our experience between 2009 and 2017, the service has been steadily going down. A lot of the problem is just total inpredictability [sic] of scheduling. There was a time that you could sort of count on schedules and our feeling now is you can’t.

We moved from Mount Vernon in 2014. We moved to Hamden area. We now live in the retirement home known as Roland Park Place, so our lifeline to the system is the 22 bus. When the 22 bus is coming is anybody’s guess.