MD: Advocates seek city support for bus stop shelters along Golden Mile

Advocates are seeking allies from the city of Frederick to improve public transit, with an eye toward safe and comfortable places to wait for a bus to arrive.

Chris McDonald, executive director of the Golden Mile Alliance, and Ken Oldham, president and CEO of the United Way of Frederick County, proposed seven shelters at existing bus stops at a public meeting of the City Council’s Land Use, Public Safety, and Community Development Committee.

Of the seven proposed shelter sites around West Patrick Street, two have existing benches.

McDonald said the goal was to provide the county’s transit division with a proactive plan to meet the expected needs of the region.

“We’re asking them to look ahead of time rather than be reactionary to what the current conditions are,” he said.

McDonald said focusing on the bus infrastructure in the Golden Mile made sense because around 40% of bus ridership in the county comes out of the Golden Mile district.

He added that that was due largely to the amenities and population in the area.

The Golden Mile has both a population density and poverty rate nearly twice the rest of the city of Frederick, according to a report published in 2021 by the Ausherman Family Foundation.

The rest of the county had significantly lower rates of density and poverty than the city, according to the report.

The United Way publishes data that divide the population into three categories: the Federal Poverty Level, those above the ALICE line and those below.

ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed and tracks households in which people have jobs, but cannot afford the basic cost of living in their county. This group is often called working poor. The actual number for that line varies by household type.

Grant funding from the state and county has allowed computers to be distributed to residents who earned less than twice the federal poverty level, allowing for a detailed look at where ALICE families live in the county, Oldham said.

He added that using anonymized data helped inform where the proposed bus coverings should be.

City Council Member Donna Kuzemchak said she found it “amazing” that 17% of ALICE families primarily use transit, compared to just 5% nationwide.

“That’s a huge difference. It’s massive,” Kuzemchak said. “I think it just proves that we need to do some work on this transit. I think it’s great that you’re bringing it forward.”

Council Member Kelly Russell said “it’s great to advocate” for improvements to the free transit services, but questioned how the city government could do that for a county-run program.

“Council Member Russell, in my many years of advocacy work, we know that advocacy has many tentacles and doesn’t start and end in one place,” Oldham said. “So we’re taking an all-hands-on-deck approach.”

Oldham and McDonald added that the city could be involved in a variety of land-use, easements, sidewalks or other local issues.

Russell pointed out that due to a years-old agreement between the city and county, county transit would be able to put a shelter wherever it wanted in the city’s right of way.

She said the bus system was “a great service and we’re lucky to have them.”

Dave Schmidt, co-owner of Wag’s Restaurant and a candidate for Frederick City Council, spoke during a public comment period in favor of the plan and a broader focus on public infrastructure.

Schmidt said he wanted to remove the stigma of using public transit and more heavily involve transit riders in the relevant conversations.

Kuzemchak agreed.

Schmidt also pointed out the role transit could play in the future of mobility in the city.

“We need to be investing in more transit infrastructure, not just because of equitable issues and people’s access to transportation, but also because we are looking at 20 or 30 years from now, such a different way that we move in and about the city,” he said.

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