§ 2-5. General powers and duties.

The Director of Transportation has full power and authority to do any and all of the following:

(1) collect and analyze:

(i) all physical and economic data needed to measure existing, and to estimate future, street and highway traffic characteristics and needs, including parking needs; and

(ii) all data of whatsoever nature deemed helpful in expediting the flow of mass transportation traffic in the City of Baltimore;

(2) make such studies and collect data concerning the use of mass transportation systems operated in other municipalities located in the United States or any foreign nation, as he deems necessary or helpful;

(3) maintain records and information with respect to the operation of public mass transportation systems in the City of Baltimore;

(4) make studies relating to future needs and facilities for mass transportation systems in the City of Baltimore and its metropolitan area;

(5) cooperate fully with officials of surrounding political subdivisions to effectuate over-all transit and traffic coordination;

(6) make studies relating to the staggering of work hours of all businesses conducted in the City of Baltimore and the surrounding metropolitan area, to meet with and confer with the officials of the metropolitan area, officials of any company or business located in the metropolitan area, and to make recommendations as to work hours of the said establishments;

(7) study the routing or rerouting of existing or future mass transportation lines in the City of Baltimore and to recommend to the mass transportation companies and the Maryland Mass Transit Authority the adoption of said routes or reroutings;

(8) prepare plans and/or make recommendations to the proper officials for the removal of obstructions to the flow of traffic including transit traffic;

(9) reroute transit traffic in the City of Baltimore in the event of such contingencies as fire, flood, and other emergencies, in cooperation with the Police Department, Fire Department, and other municipal offices and agencies of Baltimore City;

(10)(i) designate portions of certain streets as transit lanes and to specify the type of vehicles and the particular use to which the lanes may be put; and

(ii) further, prohibit parking or stopping in the manner and subject to the conditions and limitations set forth in § 2-6 of this subtitle on portions of streets designated as transit lanes, and whenever the Director has prohibited stopping or parking in these lanes in accordance with § 2-6 of this subtitle and a vehicle is stopped or parked contrary to an administrative regulation, and signs are posted warning that stopping or parking in violation of the regulation will result in the impounding of the motor vehicle, the Police Department shall impound the vehicle in the manner and under the conditions set forth in Subtitle 31 of this article;

(11)(i) approve or disapprove the location of all transit loading zones, to locate and determine the size of all transit loading zones in the City of Baltimore used by mass transportation companies operating in the City of Baltimore, and, further, to rescind or modify any prior approval heretofore given for such transit loading zones; and

(ii) whenever any location has been designated as a transit loading zone, no vehicle other than a mass transit vehicle shall stop in said transit loading zone;

(12) require that all mass transportation vehicles before loading or unloading passengers must be, wherever possible, within 12 inches from the curb;

(13) direct that no transit vehicle shall stop at any point other than an established transit loading zone for the purpose of loading or unloading passengers, except as may be required by an emergency or at the direction of a police officer;

(14)(i) have and exercise all control over traffic that the Police Commissioner had prior to the time of the establishment of the former Traffic Commission of Baltimore City, including the power to establish special "no parking" spaces;

(ii) further, provided that whenever special conditions make it necessary or expedient to prepare plans for the integrated operation of traffic, the Director may make such special regulations with regard to traffic; and

(iii) nothing in this section may be construed to delimit the power of the Police Commissioner, as set forth in § 28-1 of this article, to act in emergencies or special situations;

(15) conduct engineering analyses of traffic accident causes and take such action, or submit recommendations to the proper persons for elimination of accident causes, make engineering, investigations and plans to improve traffic conditions;

(16) prepare and submit to the Mayor and City Council an annual report of the progress and operations of the Department of Transportation;

(17) make recommendations to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore for improvements of traffic conditions that cannot be accomplished by the directives, orders, rules, or regulations adopted under § 2-2 of this article;

(18) hold public hearings as, in the Director's discretion, may be necessary in connection with the exercise of his or her powers, these hearings to be held and conducted in the manner determined by the Director;

(19) establish and determine the design, timing, type, size, and location of any and all signs, signals, markings, pylons, channelization, and other devices for guiding, directing, or otherwise regulating, controlling, and contributing to or detracting from the safety of vehicular and pedestrian traffic;

(20) design, install, and maintain traffic signs, signals, markings, pylons, channels, and other devices for the control of vehicles and pedestrians;

(21) make recommendations relating to the design of new public ways or traffic structures as they relate to traffic operations;

(22) designate any intersection as a "Stop" intersection or thoroughfares as "through highways";

(23) designate intersections where left and/or right hand turns are prohibited for any or all types of vehicles;

(24) prohibit stopping or parking on sections of roads, streets, lanes, or alleys or adjacent to structures or intersections where, in the opinion of the Director, the presence of grades, hills, curves, bridge approaches, underpasses, or inadequate sight-distances create hazardous, hazard-producing, or unusual parking conditions; and

(25) adopt and promulgate rules and regulations which prohibit certain types of vehicular traffic during certain hours in order to improve the movement of pedestrians and transit vehicles on certain streets designated by the Director as transit malls.