E. J. Pipkin - Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

As a resident of Stevensville, Pipkin himself has been affected by traffic congestion on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and has fought to reduce the problem. In 2005, he proposed a set of bills, which ultimately failed to pass, in that year's Maryland General Assembly session, known as the "Bay Bridge Users' Bill of Rights". The bills would have, among other things, made various modifications to the governing board of the Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA), banned trucks from the bridge when one of its dual spans is carrying two-way traffic, and waived tolls whenever backups extended beyond a certain point. Later that year, Pipkin was one of the 22 citizens appointed by Governor Robert Ehrlich to serve on the Bay Bridge Task Force, to explore the possibility of building a new crossing of the Chesapeake Bay.

In the 2006 Maryland General Assembly session, Pipkin once again tried to pass parts of the Bay Bridge Users' Bill of Rights, this time more successfully. Among the bills that passed that year included one that made various modifications to the governing board of the MdTA (e.g. addition of two appointed members; imposition of three term limit of service; lengthening of terms to four years, rather than three years; etc.). Along with Delegate Mary Roe Walkup (R-Dist. 36), Pipkin also proposed a bill to remove the Baltimore County-Kent County crossing from the list of crossing locations that could potentially be studied in the future). However, that bill did not pass (nor did it pass when re-introduced in 2007). Also during 2006, Pipkin worked collaboratively with MdTA to promote successful legislation (Senate Bill 168, signed into law as Chapter 24 of 2007 of the Laws of Maryland) that doubled the amount of violations fines that could be issued for overweight tractor-trailers crossing the bridge.