By Alex Holt (Maryland Correspondent) • April 28, 2020
In many ways, COVID-19 has brought Baltimore City to a standstill. So several Baltimore neighborhood groups, transportation advocates, local elected officials, and even health experts are now pressing to close at least parts of some of the city’s underutilized streets to cars and open them up to pedestrians for exercise.
Take a look at the history of the passenger rail lines leading into Washington from Maryland and the suburban communities that grew up around them, starting with the Washington Branch Railway and the Camden Line.
By Nick Sementelli (Advocacy Committee) • April 28, 2020
A proposed one-way conversion in Eckington offers more safety for students, but neighbors are asking to modify the design to ensure the change also protects cyclists on the street.
The CDC-developed guidelines include recommendations like wearing masks, ventilating and disinfecting compartments, touchless fareboxes, reducing the maximum occupancy for buses and railcars, and increasing service on high traffic lines to avoid crowding. These guidelines are part of a larger plan to reopen the economy in phases. (Post)
The Virginia Attorney General agreed not to enforce a state law requiring that a witness sign all absentee ballots. The League of Women Voters, who filed the injuction leading to this agreement, said that they want to remove the witness requirement to mail-in voting altogether. (Daniella Cheslow / DCist)
Kweisi Mfume won the special election for the Baltimore area Congressional seat held by the late Elijah Cummings in Maryland’s first major mail-in election. 110,000 absentee ballots were sent in and only about 1,000 people voted in person. (Post)
Much of the reporting on whether walking is up or down in cities has relied on Apple Maps data that is measuring the number of people looking up walking directions, and doesn’t actually track people walking to familiar locations in their neighborhoods. (Kea Wilson / Streetsblog)
Transit riders in Maryland are now required to wear a face covering, and to help them do that Montgomery County’s Ride On buses now have individually wrapped masks for people who do not alredy have their own. (Rob Woodfork / WTOP)
Work began yesterday on a mile of Old Georgetown Road between Cedar Lane and I-495 to turn one of the vehicle lanes into a bike lane with a buffer. Last summer 17 year old Jake Cassell was killed by a driver while biking on that stretch of road. (Jordan Pascale / WAMU)
It looks like the current pandemic will encourage more delivery options, see many restaurants and small or midsized stores close, and leave behind plenty of empty storefronts on once busy streets. All these together could begin a wave of people moving out of dense city centers (Derek Thompson / The Atlantic)
