Commentary

Six roadway workers were killed last month when a driver traveling at high speed collided with another car on the Baltimore Beltway, Interstate 695 (”Where is the rage (and policing) over deaths on Maryland’s roads?” April 19). The force of the crash sent the vehicle barreling into a highway construction zone, causing the vehicle to flip. The video from a nearby Maryland Department of Transportation camera makes it clear no one in the pathway of that car had any chance to survive.

This past September, Baltimore City issued an all-too-familiar boil water advisory to residents of West Baltimore, a region of the city with historically and predominantly Black communities. A potential E. coli exposure meant residents had to boil their tap water for at least a minute before consumption. Months after the contamination incident, residents remain concerned about the water quality.

Easily distracted by spring and the call of the wild, I doubt I could sit this month in the Maryland Horse Library and Education Center, appealing as it is, and read a history of British steeplechase, though one never knows: It might give me the itch to attend this month’s Maryland Hunt Cup for the first time in years. Still, in fall or winter, on a day of rain or snow, I could see myself sitting in the library’s comfortable loft with some old book about horse racing or horse shoeing or horse barn building or running hounds with horses.

For those who tuned in to Mayor Brandon Scott’s State of the City address Monday evening, live from the Middle Branch Fitness and Wellness Center, the experience was likely underwhelming. That doesn’t make it bad, necessarily. Such annual assessments — whether in Towson, Annapolis or other seats of local government — are usually aimed at the political class and public servants who follow the minutia of bureaucracy, budgets, political alliances and the like, because, let’s face it, their careers center on it.

Friday’s announcement by Gov. Wes Moore that Maryland is moving to stockpile mifepristone, the abortion pill that is now under review by the U.S. Supreme Court, was a welcome development given the uncertainties over access. Other states have made similar moves in recent days — including New York, California, Massachusetts and Washington — and we expect more to follow, at least in areas where women’s reproductive rights are still valued.

As the first state to require service learning to graduate — a 75-hour volunteering mandate adopted in 1992 — Maryland has long had a reputation as a place that prepared young people well for civic life. Yet as the state gears up to implement the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, civics is strangely missing. Yes, the Blueprint invests $3.8 billion in education over 10 years, and promises new programs to eradicate achievement gaps and improve outcomes.

Drivers are the heart of Lyft. Right now, they are showing us the future of our business — and it’s electric. On our platform, we saw trips in electric vehicles increase by over 90% last year, outpacing even the rapid growth of electric vehicle adoption across the U.S. and in Maryland. Drivers with Lyft see a huge opportunity in going electric: it’s greener, the technology is new (and fun), and, perhaps most importantly, they save money on gas and maintenance costs.