City DOT Remains on Shaky Ground

Until 2001 Baltimore didn't even have a department of transportation. Like in so many rural counties, transportation was rolled into the department of public works in a mindset that put pavement first and planning second.

Then in 2001 Mayor O'Malley in his quest to make the city more efficient created BC-DOT, a good move if one recognizes how important transportation is in a big city.

This was last year. 

In those 25 years BC-DOT stood up a city run transit system on land and water, embarked on a very ambitious act of bringing thousands of crosswalks and curb-cuts into compliance with ADA, adopt the execution of the council mandated Complete Streets legislation and issued a whole number of bike masterplans as well as a green network plan.

What all of these undertakings have in common is that they were implemented way slower than planned, in large part for lack of funding, but in no small part also for lack of an efficient internal organizational structure. 

In those 25 years the department had no less than 11 directors (including interim appointments and Frank Murphy whoheld the position twice). , for an average tenure of 2--1/4 years, often far less than that. Only the first director, Al Foxx had some staying power (9 years). 

Veronica McBeth (now Perry) the last person to leave certainly new the department well, she had been transit bureau chief there for four years taking over from Barry Robinson whose career ended when he was criminally charged for taking bribes in his role of running the Circulator bus. McBeth later changed to the Baltimore transportation consultant Kittelson for a stint and then worked for the federal department of transportation on policy matters before being appointed head of BC-DOT by Mayor Scott. 

But her tenure is ending this October after only 18 months and promising strides to get this office department control. Complete Streets, the bike masterplan and the curb cut fixes all remain ongoing tasks that are behind schedule just as some bridge reconstruction projects such as the Hanover Street bridge and the Russell Street viaduct. The press reporting about her departure points to her paving plans for Baltimore's pothole strewn streets as one of her successes.

Like many jurisdictions BC-DOT suffered from shortfalls in the so called highway user funds from the State which assist locals in maintaining their streets. The State legislature has restored some of these payments in recent years, but Baltimore which maintains all State highways inside its boundaries is still working down a giant backlog. Notably the Circulator and the water based Connector service have not only run without negative headlines under her reign but have been restructured and successfully gained riders. 

The resignation is part of ongoing upheaval across many departments of the Scott Administration, including Planning, HCD and BDC. Additional restructuring is yet to come.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA