ANNAPOLIS, Md. — There is a proposed bill in Maryland designed to make it easier to get around – for our neighbors who have disabilities. The bill targets drivers who park at bus stops.
The Clear Lanes program targets illegally parked cars at bus stops – but it only operates in Washington, DC. WUSA9 spoke with a Maryland woman who is blind and said this is a real problem she deals with, and it slows her down every single day.
“The challenge we experience is that drivers don’t respect the bus lane and they make it difficult for us when they stop, park drive in the bus lane,” President of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland, Ronza Othman said.
Othman is blind and said it's frustrating having cars blocking her way at the bus stop.
“If somebody is parked or stopped in the bus lane, where the bus stop is then the bus can’t pull up to where we are and so we are missing our buses,” Othman explained. “We don’t know that they’re there so we can’t hear them because they’re not where they’re supposed to be.”
Othman is also the president of the National Federation of the Blind in Maryland and hears from several other members who have the same problem. Members who are blind, have low vision, or are deaf or blind — all depend on public transportation to get them from point A to point B. That’s why Delegate Robbyn Lewis, who represents the 46th district in Maryland has been working on the issue since 2018.
“One of the best ways to improve bus service is to remove obstacles,” Lewis said. “One of the best ways to remove obstacles is to secure dedicated lanes for buses to move in and you’ve seen those, you them in D.C.”
This would allow the use of camera enforcement to keep obstacles out of the bus lanes, monitoring systems mounted on buses, and would be reviewed by parking enforcement for possible citations.
“If buses aren’t working well, if they aren’t moving quickly reliably then the whole transportation network, all the modes are undermined,” Lewis said.
“How often do you feel like you come into a car being in the way or someone being parked illegally that’s affecting you getting go to the bus?” Alexis Wainwright asked.
“Every day,” Othman said.
Othman said this bill could be the first step to making public transit safer and more accessible in Maryland.
“It’s going to help us, maintain our independence as we move about our neighborhoods and our cities and it’s going to make sure we can do it more safely,” Othman said.
Lewis said when she first introduced this bill it turned into a study that took two years.
Now that D.C.’s done something similar – she’s hoping for more momentum.
No date has been set for a vote on this yet.
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