(BALTIMORE – June 10, 2026) – Planners in Baltimore continue to design transportation systems for the citizens they *wish* existed rather than the citizens who are actually here. This disconnect is at the heart of why so many mobility projects, especially bike‑focused Complete Streets initiatives, fail to reflect the lived realities of Black residents in the Black Butterfly.
When a neighborhood is asking for streetlights, grocery stores, safe crossings, traffic calming, functioning sidewalks, and economic investment, and instead receives a bike lane, it sends a clear message:
The City is not planning for the people who live here; it is planning for the people it hopes will come.
Most Black residents in West Baltimore do not use bicycles as a primary mode of transportation. This is not a matter of preference; it is a matter of history, safety, culture, and economic reality. For decades, Black neighborhoods have been shaped by disinvestment, dangerous road conditions, lack of lighting, high traffic speeds, and the absence of basic amenities. Under these conditions, biking is neither practical nor safe for most people.
Yet transportation planners continue to prioritize bike lanes, road diets, and multimodal designs that reflect the habits and desires of a small, mostly white, mostly affluent segment of the population rather than the mobility patterns of the communities that actually live in the neighborhoods being redesigned.
Complete Streets, in particular, was implemented in many Black neighborhoods without meaningful community knowledge, input, or transparent communication. Residents were not informed early, not invited into the design process, and not given the opportunity to shape priorities. Instead, decisions were made first and presented later, mirroring the same top‑down planning practices that harmed these communities in the past.
This approach does not advance equity. It undermines trust, reinforces historical trauma, and continues the cycle of planning *done to* Black communities rather than *with* them.
True equity in the Black Butterfly requires planners and consultants to start with the lived experiences, priorities, and mobility patterns of Black residents, not with a pre‑selected solution. It requires transparency, early engagement, and a commitment to repairing past harms rather than repeating them under new branding.
Until planning begins with the people who are already here, it will continue to miss the mark.
