An abandoned sign at a pocket park on Capitol Hill, in the 800 block of D Street SE. Image by Mike Licht licensed under Creative Commons.

A bill introduced by Montgomery County Councilmember Craig Rice on April 20 would require a permit to solicit money or donations from vehicles on high-speed roadways. A public hearing is scheduled for May 10.

The legislation opens with a section on pedestrian safety, saying the county’s Vision Zero action plan “requires greater safety measures related to the dangerous activity of pedestrians soliciting and collecting items from the occupants of vehicles in roadways.”

But critics in Montgomery County are calling Rice’s legislation an “anti-panhandling initiative,” saying it isn’t about traffic safety but rather about “criminalizing unhoused communities.” Bethesda Beat reported Wednesday that the bill has gotten mixed reviews from advocates for people experiencing homelessness and low-income individuals.

Rice could not be reached for an interview, but responded to the critiques on Twitter, saying he works closely with people experiencing homelessness and has supported services for them.

“It’s not anti-panhandling,” Rice wrote on Twitter. “It’s pro-safety. It’s vision zero. I pray you care about the safety of ALL of those in our roadways like you say you do. Keep in mind the majority of those who are experiencing homelessness are Black. Let’s show we care about them and their lives.”

Miriam Schoenbaum, a board member for the Action Committee for Transit (ACT), a Montgomery County advocacy group, said the bill as introduced doesn’t align with Vision Zero goals and doesn’t have much potential to improve pedestrian safety.

“There are lots and lots and lots of safe streets problems in Montgomery County that this bill doesn’t address,” Schoenbaum said. “If I were going to introduce pedestrian safety bills, they wouldn’t focus on people panhandling in medians.”

An effort with a history in Montgomery County

In 2013, Montgomery County launched a campaign to try to discourage people from giving money to panhandlers. A task force had originally considered banning the practice, as has been done in other counties, but the county wanted to allow firefighters to raise money with their “Fill the Boot” campaign for muscular dystrophy; a state attorney general’s opinion concluded that banning some forms of roadside solicitation but not others could violate the First Amendment.

The campaign encouraged people to donate to organizations providing homeless services instead of handing out cash, but reports at the time questioned its efficacy. That messaging still exists on the county’s website, urging people to “give a hand up, not a handout.”

Rice first proposed a bill banning panhandling outright in Montgomery County in late 2017, Bethesda Beat reported. That bill also drew opposition because of the Fill the Boot campaign.

What the current legislation does

The legislation introduced would require people to get a permit to solicit in roads with speed limits faster than 25 miles per hour.

The permit, available in homeless shelters and cooling and heating centers, would be free and would ask for but not require a name and address. The permit would include “educational materials” on roadside safety and require people to comply with the following safety rules:

  • Not entering the roadway unless the light is red;
  • Leaving the roadway when traffic signals allow traffic to move;
  • And avoiding soliciting after dark.

There aren’t any fines attached to not having a permit, and it’s not clear how or whether it would be enforced. Rice wrote on Twitter of the bill: “No cost. Not arrestable. No ticket. Just advice that they should go get a permit so they could be educated about the dangers and more importantly, get connected with services.”

The bill as introduced authorized county police to “instruct” people soliciting in the roadway that they need a permit. But after people on Twitter raised concerns about encouraging more interactions with police, Rice said he would remove all references to police in the bill, the Bethesda Beat reported. It’s not yet clear what the amended bill will say about enforcement.

Does this bill make people safer?

Rice said in 2017 he was inspired to introduce the bill banning panhandling after Richard Lee Cooper was struck and killed by a driver while panhandling on Middlebrook Road in Germantown in June that year.

This time around, after introducing the roadside solicitation permit bill, Rice is also invoking Cooper’s name.

On Twitter, someone wrote of Rice’s bill: “Just seems like we’re taking a money source away from people in desperate need.” In response, Rice wrote: “I hear you but are we focused on money or their lives? Richard Lee Cooper doesn’t need money anymore.”

The current legislation’s safety guidelines, which require permit holders to stay out of the road until traffic is stopped, wouldn’t have saved Cooper’s life. Cooper was killed while standing in the median along Middlebrook Road after a driver lost control.

Schoenbaum, of ACT, said that though the bill is justified by pedestrian safety concerns, it doesn’t actually address the pedestrian safety problems that are leading to most deaths in the county.

“It’s not panhandling that’s killing people,” Schoenbaum said, saying at least 59 non-motorists have been killed in traffic crashes in the county since Cooper’s death. One of them, a pedestrian trying to cross the street, was killed just blocks up Middlebrook Road from where Cooper died. He wasn’t panhandling.

Though Rice is justifying the bill with Vision Zero, the county’s Vision Zero framework isn’t geared toward affecting pedestrian behavior. Instead, its goal is a transportation system “designed for speeds that protect human life.”

The county’s Vision Zero coordinator, Wade Holland, declined to comment on Rice’s bill, saying his department is currently reviewing it.

According to the Vision Zero website, the framework requires a “systems-based approach” focusing on the ways the built environment puts people at risk, and a key component is equity: the idea that “all people have the right to move about safely.”

“You don’t make roads safe by removing non-motorists from the road,” Schoenbaum said, saying that while safe pedestrian behaviors are important, most people who stand near fast moving two-ton vehicles are aware of the risks. A Vision Zero approach, she said, wouldn’t make pedestrians aware of the risks; it would reduce them.

“You can reduce your risk from getting killed as a pedestrian by never walking anywhere,” Schoenbaum said. “But that’s not Vision Zero.”

A public hearing on the bill is scheduled for May 11 at 1:30 pm.

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Tagged: homelessness, maryland, montgomery county, pedestrian safety, pedestrians, roads

Libby Solomon was a writer/editor and Managing Editor for GGWash from 2020 to 2022. She was previously a reporter for the Baltimore Sun covering the Baltimore suburbs and a writer for Johns Hopkins University’s Centers for Civic Impact.