Press Room

Transit planning off the rails:
Action has been promised for years, but don't sell your car just yet

By Andres Childers, Staff Writer

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy stood before Congress and vowed an American would make the 240,000 mile trip to the moon by the end of the decade. Eight years and an estimated $9 billion later, Neil Armstrong made good on the boast.

In the decades since the moon landing, a stream of Anne Arundel officials have pledged to connect the region to Baltimore and Washington, a daunting 40-mile trip. And commuters are still waiting.

Though ferries, maglev trains traveling along magnetic rails and light rail have been touted in recent years as alternatives to building more highways, pouring asphalt remains the default approach to transportation planning.

A 30-year outlook compiled by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, which includes Baltimore, its six surrounding counties and Annapolis, was universally panned this summer for its lack of transit planning.

Area officials received the revised plan earlier this month after sending it back to the drawing board. The second go-around shuffles more of the region's anticipated $8 billion federal allotment to transit, but still remains heavy on the road projects, to the dismay of some participating jurisdictions.

The council cut six projects from the plan - none in Anne Arundel - and reallocated the $240 million savings to support expanding the Red Line in Baltimore. Additional transit modes could be included in the next plan, expected in four years, officials said.

"It's going to take some time," said Harvey Bloom, the council's transportation director. "We're going to be doing a lot of fact gathering and research."

The regional priorities mirror the state's construction slate, which was presented to the County Council last week during an annual visit from Maryland Department of Transportation officials, who pleaded its case for a gas-tax increase. Faced with a $40 billion backlog of projects in Maryland, state officials said they lacked the funds to invest in new - and expensive - transit modes versus cheaper road projects.

Mass-transit advocates said key players have never articulated a single, unified vision for the region's transportation needs.

"One of the things that has always blocked that kind of action is the inability of citizens, businesses and government to agree to a plan," said Anne Pearson, director of the Alliance for Sustainable Communities in Edgewater.

But these days governments aren't even talking to each other. Annapolis Mayor Ellen O. Moyer said County Executive John R. Leopold has rebuffed all attempts to sit down and jointly plan the region's future transit needs.

"His response to me is 'This is a serious issue and we're doing our transportation plan and so are you, and maybe one day we'll talk,'" Ms. Moyer said.

Mr. Leopold dismissed the notion, calling it a distraction from efforts to secure the needed funds.

"There's no lack of opportunities for discussion," he said. "The key is the money."

Mr. Leopold said the county needs to mount a "full-court press" to secure the funds necessary to build more transit options.

Councilman Ron Dillon Jr., R-Pasadena, whose family runs a commuter bus service, praised the executive's efforts, but said the county hasn't taken an important first step: identifying where various groups of people live and where they're going.

"It's kind of difficult to get a feel for that, especially in the county," he said. "I don't see a coordinated effort to get that data."

Off the road again

Anne Arundel was not always road bound. From the 1840s until the rise of the automobile, the county was a regional rail hub between Washington, Baltimore and the Eastern Shore. But the rails gave way to highways, which have prevailed ever since.

"People have an understandable love affair with their automobiles," Mr. Leopold said. "They like the privacy. They like the convenience."

Annapolis Alderman Sam Shropshire, D-Ward 7, said he would like to rekindle the romance with the rails. He favors bringing street cars back to the city, and along with Alderman Julie Stankivic, D-Ward 6, he is asking the state General Assembly to study a light-rail system to connect downtown Annapolis with Parole.

Though more people appear to be clamoring for public transit, Anne Arundel boasts a rather dismal 8 percent ridership for the options that are currently available.

A state study found adding rapid transit to the increasingly clogged Bay Bridge - either a rapid-bus service or a light-rail system - would take only 620 cars off the road each rush hour, far less than the 16,000 passengers studies have shown would be needed to make the system viable.

Mr. Leopold said the key is to make public transportation just as convenient as using a car. He has targeted the area around BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport for "multimodal, all-service area," creating a mixed-used development adjacent to a variety of public transportation options.

"If they can walk to it ... they will use it," he said.

Surveys by Dr. Dan Nataf at Anne Arundel Community College's Center for the Study of Local Issues, show commuters will take transit only if it is located within six walking blocks.

"Very few would take it," he said. "They hope other people would take it so the streets are freer for them."

No capital for capital

While demand for transit appears to be on the upswing, funds are shrivelling as construction is stricken with double-digit inflation for building materials.

The state has proposed raising the gas tax for the first time in 14 years - tying it to the rate of inflation - to bolster the Transportation Trust Fund. The fund has been a lucrative target for past governors looking for a quick means to staunch a hemorrhaging budget.

Unlike building a road, which is a one-time expense, transit initiatives require ongoing operating funds, and often subsidies, making them more expensive to operate in the long run.

"It's a very capital-intensive program, as well as labor-intensive," Mr. Dillon said. "Other government programs are one or the other. Transit is both."

Last year Annapolis also found out it would lose nearly $1 million in federal transportation subsidies - a quarter of the bus system's budget - after the city was lumped in with the greater Baltimore metropolitan region. The move forced the city to discontinue the south county route, which Anne Arundel has taken over, and a Kent Island shuttle.

With a shrinking pot of federal funds, Ms. Moyer said the meetings of the Baltimore Regional Council are turf wars between "six different kingdoms" squabbling over the same pot of money rather than laying out a unified vision for the region.

"We don't do a very good job (communicating)," she said. "Or there's a strong political reason not to do a very good job."

Published Oct. 22, 2007, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright © 2007 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.