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Crafting a regional transportation plan
It may be useful to remind folks that proposed improvements to our network of roadways, bridges, transit services and other elements of the surface transportation system have to come about through a formal planning process defined in federal law. Each metropolitan area has a designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). In the case of the Baltimore region the MPO is the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (BRTB).
You should be familiar with the members of the BRTB. They include the mayors of the cities of Annapolis and Baltimore, the chief executives of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard, and Queen Anne’s counties and several state Cabinet secretaries, including those representing the departments of Transportation, Environment, and Planning. The administrators of both the Maryland Transit Administration and Harford Transit round out the board.
The BRTB has two major responsibilities, the preparation of a short-range plan covering projects for the next four years, known as the Transportation Improvement Plan and the Regional Long-Range Transportation Plan providing an outlook for the next two decades. Maximize2045,consisting of a “fiscally constrained” set of projects that the region expects to implement over the period 2024-2045, is that current long-range plan.
The name signifies that the plan intends to maximize the investments already made in the region’s transportation infrastructure. The plan establishes the region’s broad transportation goals and strategies and presents a list of the major surface transportation projects for the region. Maximize2045 also shows revenues the region expects to have available for these projects and estimated costs of these projects.
Some of the issues
While it’s not possible to do justice to a complex plan such as Maximize2045 in a single 800-or-so word column, one can get a sense of some of the issues and concerns by reviewing the summary of comments received from the public and the replies to those comments provided by the staff of the BRTB.
For example, there is still concern about an east-west connection across the heart of the Baltimore region. Said one member of the public, “—- bring back the Red Line of some sort even if it is not the one envisioned. Baltimore needs an east-west rail route.”
Well, clearly, that’s not going to happen in this plan. The reply: “The State and regional partners are evaluating the transit needs in central Maryland through the Regional Transit Plan. We look to provide a vision for the next 25 years with this (the still to be developed RTP) plan.”
Another comment suggested that the plan should be truly regional; “Carroll County needs to have Metro extended to Finksburg to provide a timely connection to Owings Mills and points south to Johns Hopkins. We also need a more direct connection to BWI and Amtrak.”
The reply to the prior comment certainly raised my eyebrows. “The policy of Carroll County, through our adopted plans and Board of County Commissioners’ resolutions, has always been to provide transit services only within the County. There are currently no plans to expand this type of service outside of the County.” Apparently, the commissioners welcome federal dollars for county roadways, but don’t want to dip their toes too deeply in the regional pool.
Another member of the public lamented that Maximize2045 gave no consideration of extending WMATA’s D.C. Metro from Greenbelt to Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport via Columbia. The response seems to say that is a WMATA issue and “WMATA is not in an expansion phase.” But it is further noted, both Anne Arundel and Howard counties have initiatives in this regard. Howard is looking into Bus Rapid Transit connecting Columbia to Prince George’s County via Route 29. Anne Arundel is in the process of planning for the extension of an existing regional bus route to the Greenbelt Metro station.
System balance
Another call for more balance in the system read, “Include previous rapid transit plans. Baltimore and suburban communities will not thrive without a modern transportation network built around walking, biking, and transit.” In reply, the BRTB noted, “By Federal regulation neither the TIP nor Plan are ‘wish lists’, meaning only projects in reasonably available funding are considered.” Somehow, the term “wish list’ often refers to transit projects, less often to multimillion-dollar highway developments.
There was at least one notable change to the original draft of the plan. “At the request of the FHWA (the Federal Highway Administration), the Loop project has been removed from the final version of the TIP.” The discussion of Elon Musk’s tunnel for his proposed HyperLoop for a high-speed connection between Baltimore and Washington is shifted to a discussion of “Emerging Technologies.”
I confirmed with Regina Aris, assistant director of transportation planning at the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, which provides staff support for the BRTB, that Maximize2045, with that adjustment concerning the Loop and a few minor tweaks, was adopted by the BRTB at its meeting on July 23.
Joe Nathanson is the retired principal of Urban Information Associates, Inc., a Baltimore-based economic and community development consulting firm. He writes a monthly column for The Daily Record and can be contacted at urbaninfo@comcast.net.
