College Park, Maryland, US RT 1 at Campus Drive, looking north. (MDOT)
Did you know that Maryland has a goal of reducing deaths and injuries on our roads to zero by 2030? This is Vision Zero, and it makes sense since zero is the only acceptable number.
The good news is that the curve bent downward last year, almost 10 percent compared to the previous year. The bad news is that adds up to 560 deaths on our roads.
Every life matters, so we need to build on this drop and bend the curve further every year. We’re especially concerned about the most vulnerable users of our road system – people who walk, ride, or roll along or across them. Tragically, fatalities and injuries of pedestrians and bicyclists are also stubbornly high with 144 lives lost in 2024 alone.
One big reason for this is that our roads and streets are designed largely for those behind a steering wheel. On the one hand, local, state and federal departments of transportation successfully built out tens of thousands of miles of roads that crisscross Maryland. In fact, the first segment of federally funded road – U.S. 40 – was built in 1806 linking Cumberland, MD and Wheeling, WV. Throughout this period we prioritized mobility and speed-of-travel above all else. That approach shortchanges other values such as safe access to cherished places including parks and schools and has resulted in harm to people.
In short, too many of Maryland’s roads lack infrastructure that would make them safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. Such features include sidewalks, bike lanes, marked crosswalks, trees and other greenery, as well as speed limits appropriate to city and suburban contexts. The purpose of our Complete Streets initiative is to strategically address this issue, both for existing and new streets (it’s usually easier to build better from scratch versus fixing an existing road).
Last year Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld and the leaders of agencies that manage different means or modes of transportation – dubbed modal administrators – signed an updated and upgraded Complete Streets policy for MDOT.
Now MDOT is proud to announce our Complete Street implementation plan developed with and by these agencies charged with managing our roads, vehicles, transit systems, airports and ports. This is a long-term, collaborative initiative with our Office of Active Transportation and Micromobility here in the Secretary’s Office working closely with modal administrators.
Aerial view of North Main Street at the intersection of Gordon Street in Bel Air. (MDOT)
The implementation plans are an essential step toward transitioning Complete Streets from policy to delivering results. That’s because the plans integrate Complete Streets into the modal administration’s core business. When put into practice, implementation plans begin to drive decision making that delivers projects that will move Maryland forward.
Specifically, we have identified MDOT champions to drive an increasing number of Complete Streets projects, with an eye toward measuring our performance on concrete results including reduced fatalities and injuries, improved access and connectivity to opportunities such as jobs and education, and improved quality of life for those in places traversed by streets in Maryland.
We’re confident our implementation plans are the best in the nation, and we are pressing ahead to do what few others have done – implementing them this decade.
Complete Streets is part of our sharpening of focus on safety through an enhanced, department-wide safety campaign to further drive MDOT’s safety initiatives. To continue to bend the curve, we need to be bold and strategic across all our work.
Fellow Marylanders: Please keep an eye out for projects coming your way this year. We ask that you ally with us to deliver them effectively, and that you hold us accountable for results.
Deron Lovaas is Chief of Environment and Sustainable Transportation at the Maryland Department of Transportation.
