June 13, 2018

Dear Neighbors,

As promised in my communication from earlier today, after speaking with Director Pourciau, I have some updates and clarifications on the meeting format tomorrow evening on Roland Avenue Safety at RPEMS from 6-7:30PM.

After signing in, you will be provided with meeting instructions. It will be an open house format with six stations to circulate through.  Two stations will have all the information on the proposed modifications including one option that DoT believes strikes a balance between costs and meeting safety concerns, three stations with detailed scenarios to supply data on the pros and cons of the different proposals, and one station providing definitions of bicycle infrastructure.  They plan to have 2 to 3 DoT personnel at each station to answer your questions.  The Director also plans to circulate with some of her other staff fielding questions and providing answers.  At 6:45PM there will be time for remarks on the proposed options.  The meeting will conclude promptly at 7:30PM.

Since this is a public meeting, the DoT does give the standard option of sending in mail, email, and comment cards as feedback. Please also keep in mind that the Roland Park Civic League has a robust and open and transparent Policy Approval policy where we will plan to meet over the next few weeks and ultimately vote on how we would like the DoT to proceed, and communicate that directly to the Director and Councilwoman Middleton.  I am confident that if we tune out the external rhetoric and have an evidenced-based, data-driven discourse we can find consensus as a community and gain the support of Councilwoman Middleton in delivering our message to the DoT.  We are not actually that far off from gaining consensus; a safer Roland Avenue for all users has always been our primary objective.  And it remains so.

See you tomorrow night!

Bob

Robert Connors
President, Roland Park Civic League