Subtitle 40 – Complete Streets

In this subtitle, the following terms have the meanings indicated.

“Complete Streets” means a transportation philosophy that calls for streets to be constructed and operated in a way that considers the needs of all users and enables equitable and safe access.

“Advisory Committee” means the Complete Streets Advisory Committee established by this subtitle.

“Public transit vehicle” means any vehicle that:

“Street” means any street, boulevard, road, highway, alley, lane, sidewalk, footway, mall, esplanade, or other way or place that is owned by the City or habitually used by the public.

“Transportation Department” or “Department” means the Baltimore City Department of Transportation.

“Transportation Director” or “Director” means the Director of the Baltimore City Department of Transportation or the Director’s designee.

Except as otherwise provided in this subtitle, this subtitle applies to all project phases undertaken by or, under the authority of the Transportation Department for the improvement of any street and public right of way, including planning, programming, design, acquisition of land, construction, construction engineering, reconstruction, rehabilitation, resurfacing, retrofit, and operation.

This subtitle does not apply to ordinary maintenance, such as mowing, cleaning, sweeping, pothole filling, concrete joint repair, and other regular or seasonal maintenance. Ordinary maintenance includes local road resurfacing on roadway segments, exclusive of intersections, that experience traffic volumes of fewer than 6,000 vehicles per day, based on the latest available or estimated traffic data.

This subtitle does not apply to a project at or above 30% design or under construction as of January 3, 2020.

This subtitle does not apply to a street where use by both pedestrians and bicyclists is prohibited by law.

The Advisory Committee comprises the following officials (or their respective designees):

The Transportation Director is the Chair of the Advisory Committee.

Subcommittees may be established.

The Advisory Committee meets on the call of the Chair as frequently as required to perform its duties and at least once per quarter.

A majority of the members constitutes a quorum for the transaction of business.

An affirmative vote of at least a majority of a quorum is needed for any official action.

Minutes must be taken of all meetings of the Advisory Committee.

The minutes of every meeting must be made publically available by posting on the Transportation Department’s website within 7 days of the meeting.

promoting interagency cooperation in project identification, funding, and planning;

reviewing proposals for projects brought to the Committee by any of its members;

reviewing the status of projects to which this subtitle is applicable;

making recommendations to the Director about prioritization of projects;

reviewing reports on complete streets implementation, compliance, and performance; and

coordinating interagency cooperation in community engagement.

In this Part IV, the following terms have the meanings indicated.

“Transit street” means any street on which a public transit vehicle provides fixed-route service.

“Truck route” means any street so designated on the Transportation Department’s map of “Official Truck Routes”.

In this section, “design vehicle” means a selected vehicle, with specific weight, dimensions, and operating characteristics, used to establish street design controls.

The design vehicle used by the Transportation Department for all streets, except for transit streets and truck routes, must be the design vehicle recommended for neighborhood streets by the most recent edition of the National Association of City Transportation Officials, “Urban Street Design Guide”.

The design vehicle used by the Transportation Department for transit streets must be the design vehicle recommended for designated transit streets by the most recent edition of the National Association of City Transportation Officials, “Transit Street Design Guide”.

The design vehicle used by the Transportation Department for truck routes must be the design vehicle recommended for designated truck routes by the most recent edition of the National Association of City Transportation Officials, “Urban Street Design Guide”.

The design speed must be equal to the target speed and posted speed limit on any local, collector, and non-interstate arterial.

In this section, “shared street” means a street developed for mixed use by low volumes of slow-moving vehicular traffic mixed with high levels of walking.

Except as provided in this section or otherwise required by law, the lanes of any street may not be more than 10 feet wide, but 9 feet is the preferred width.

National Association of City Transportation Officials:

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials:

Federal Highway Administration:

Institute of Transportation Engineers, “Manual for Context Sensitive Solutions in Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares for Walkable Communities”.

National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Report 616, “Multi-Modal Level of Service Analysis for Urban Streets”.

The Complete Streets Manual must include Complete Streets street typologies for classifying City streets.

In creating street typologies, the Transportation Director, in consultation with the Advisory Committee, must consider:

The Complete Streets Manual must include a process for identifying, screening, and prioritizing projects seeking funding through federal or state grants, the City Capital Improvement Program, or other means.

This project prioritization process must include an equity assessment. The equity assessment must consider transportation disparity trends based on race, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, ethnicity, national origin, or income and recommend ways to reverse these trends. It must assess and recommend ways to eliminate structural and institutional discrimination in transportation based on immutable characteristics.

The Complete Streets Manual must include a project delivery process.

This project delivery process must include:

The Transportation Director must publish the proposed Complete Streets Manual or proposed amendment to the Manual by posting a copy of the proposal to the Department’s website at least 45 days before its adoption.

After the 45-day public comment and hearing period, the Director may modify and adopt the Complete Streets Manual.

A copy of the Complete Streets Manual and, from time to time, any amendment to the Manual must be filed with the Department of Legislative Reference before it becomes effective.

DOT guidelines, policies, and procedures must be updated for compliance with the Complete Streets Manual.

prepare a report assessing the status of the Complete Streets Transportation System; and

submit that report to:

Performance measures will be established using available data.

The annual report must measure year-over-year change in transit on-time performance, as measured by:

The annual report must measure commute times for all modes of travel, as measured by the travel-time-to-work data reported in the American Communities Survey’s “Commuting (Journey to Work)”.

The annual report must measure modal share, as measured by the means-of-transportation data reported in the American Communities Survey’s “Commuting (Journey to Work)”.

The annual report must measure year-over-year changes in certain economic development data points and conditions:

The annual report must include an inventory of all ongoing projects in any phase and the projected cost of those projects.

The annual report must include a list of all instances in which the local standards set forth in this subtitle or in the Complete Streets Manual were or are planned to be superseded by state or federal standards, pursuant to <cite data-path="|26|§40-31">§ 40-31 of this subtitle</cite>, as well as citations and causes for the local standard being superseded.

In preparing the annual report, the Department must separately report data by geographic subunit (e.g., census tract, traffic analysis zone, or the like).

The annual report must separately report data into the following categories:

The annual report must be made available to the public by posting it on the Transportation Department’s website.

To the greatest extent possible, all underlying data used in preparing the annual report must be made available to the public.