DOT operates with a $236 million budget and more than 1,000 employees, yet maintains only a skeleton crew dedicated to traffic signal maintenance. At a time when the agency prioritized hiring additional ticketing and enforcement personnel, it is clear that resources were misallocated.
What we urgently need is more maintenance staff focused on keeping our infrastructure operational.
The frequency and prolonged duration of traffic light outages across our city are not inconveniences; they are public safety emergencies. When signals are down at major intersections, we see increased congestion and serious accidents.
Just as we respond to other emergencies with an all hands on deck approach, we must do the same here. The current strategy is not working, and continuing it will not solve the problem.
I am calling on DOT to take the following steps immediately:
• Request mutual aid from neighboring jurisdictions and MyBGE with traffic signal technicians.
• Retain qualified outside contractors with expertise in traffic signal repair.
• Deploy all traffic enforcement officers and ticketing agents to direct traffic at busy intersections experiencing outages.
At the same time, DOT leadership must provide the City Council and the public with a clear, written action plan outlining both immediate corrective measures and long-term structural changes to prevent this recurring failure.
Baltimore residents deserve safe, functioning intersections. We cannot accept prolonged outages as the new normal. This requires immediate urgency and decisive action.
