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| Secretary Rahn: "call me Pete" at the kick off meeting for the RTP Commission |
The occasion: A new Regional Transit Plan Commission which was legislated last year thanks to an initiative of the Baltimore delegation. The legislatures squeezed the creation of a Baltimore regional transit plan (RTP) out of agreeing to a big chunk of money going to Washington's regional Metro system for upkeep and repairs.
"We know Central Maryland is desperately in need of better connected and more reliable transit,
and we need a plan to make that happen. Because no single comprehensive plan had been created for the region in decades, I worked hard with my colleagues last year to pass a bill
requiring a new Regional Transit Plan for Central Maryland. We need an ambitious and thoughtful plan to meet the needs of Marylanders," (bill sponsor Delegate Brooke Lierman, Baltimore City)
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| CO2 emission from transportation in MD |
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| Vehicle miles traveled: Up and up: 75% commute in single user cars |
Any land use or transportation planner would conclude, that a serious shift is needed to rectify these bad trends. Alas, the Secretary who presides over air, water, rail and road transportation and the Governor are staunch opponents of transit expansion and set on wider roads instead.
Secretary Rahn ("call me Pete") greeted the new RTP Commissioners with the ambiguous statement that the RTP is a "valuable opportunity to examine transit for the region, paint a vision and see how it can be implemented and eventually funded". He doesn't see anything wrong with his current approach and is happily pointing to transit investments such as the ongoing rail car overhaul and replacement, investments dating to a time before he came into office. He used a good time of his talk to paint the bus overhaul dubbed LINK as a success. The bus reform had been initiated by his boss, Governor Hogan as a consolation prize for Baltimore after the $3 billion Red Line had been taken off the table.
Link has produced significant results. Changes are based on data. On-time performance [for bus] improved from 59% to 77%, a huge improvement. [18%](Secretary Pete Rahn).The RTP is supposed to be a plan for the near-term future of area transit, an especially urgent undertaking since there is almost nothing on the table in terms of expansion of service. This puts the entire region into a competitive disadvantage, because mobility and alternatives to the dreadful commute in a car are big draws of attractive regions elsewhere. This makes transportation a big issue for employers searching for talent as well as for workers who can’t get to their employment on time.
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| Once sinking, now rising again: Personal injuries in traffic |
Not that the region has no transit today. Without the MTA traffic would be decidedly worse. The MTA Administrator gave the new Commissioners a few impressive numbers describing his daily operations:
- There are 210,000 daily bus riders utilizing some 762 buses,
- 51,000 transit rail users in about a 100 Metro and light rail cars and
- 38,000 MARC commuters in 225 coaches, many double deckers.
- And then there are 15,000 passengers on commuter buses and
- 7,000 customers on MTA's 376 vehicle mobility service "2% of riders but 12% of operating expenses").
However, this system was created decades ago in a much less populated region.
The preparation of the RTP is headed up by MTA and a full complement of consultants distributed over a number of Focus Areas described on the website this way:
State of Good RepairIdentify the level of reinvestment needed to maintain the existing transit services in Central Maryland.
FundingDevelop funding and financing strategies to support regional mobility services, based on best practices and regional analyses.
New MobilityEmbrace changes in transport, technology, and mobility that are altering how we move about. Assess the new mobility options available in the Baltimore region, including bikeshare, scootershare, carshare, rideshare, and microtransit, and identify opportunities and challenges associated with leveraging these services to meet regional mobility needs.
Customer ExperienceImprove the experience of using transit—from planning a trip to reaching a destination—through new technologies, improved amenities, and better customer service.
Service Quality and IntegrationEvaluate existing transit services and determine potential improvements to make it easier to travel in the Central Maryland region.
AccessWork with local partners to ensure the areas served by transit are safe, comfortable, and convenient for people who use the region’s transit options to live, work, and prosper.
Corridors of OpportunityIdentify existing and potential corridors that could benefit from additional transit investment.
The Commissioners, instructed by Deputy Administrator Holly Arnold (“One of our stars at MDOT” Secretary Rahn), were equipped with the yellow stickers and colored dots which one knows from community participation efforts. Armed with these conventional tools the Commissioners could indicate which focus areas they care about and what topics they suggest under each. The audience ("the public") was invited to do the same on questionnaires which consultant coordinator Simon Taylor carefully collected in some kind of ballot box. (Results will be published later, use of current smart phone polling tools would have brought immediate results).
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| The region as defined by the RTP |
Eventually the three hour commission session ended with a series of public testimonies.
Only the intrepid Transit Equity Coalition spokesman Samuel Jordan addressed the elephant in the room directly, the fact that the cancellation of the Red Line took off the table what would have been the only transit expansion in some 30 years, making Baltimore's economy poorer by $3 billion in the process. Jordan encouraged the Commission to consider this line as a basic block of the new RTP, even if the Secretary would not want this.
Proponents of a transformative regional plan included the Greater Washington Regional Partnership, a group which looks at DC and Baltimore as one region, the Get Maryland Moving Coalition, CMTA the Sierra Club, the Greater Baltimore Committee and a Housing advocate. Josh Tulkin of the Sierra Club illustrated in drastic numbers what the region has to do, to bring the transportation emissions in compliance with the 2030 targets. The 16 year old Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg, who is the root of international student led climate strikes, would have approved.
Only the intrepid Transit Equity Coalition spokesman Samuel Jordan addressed the elephant in the room directly, the fact that the cancellation of the Red Line took off the table what would have been the only transit expansion in some 30 years, making Baltimore's economy poorer by $3 billion in the process. Jordan encouraged the Commission to consider this line as a basic block of the new RTP, even if the Secretary would not want this.
Proponents of a transformative regional plan included the Greater Washington Regional Partnership, a group which looks at DC and Baltimore as one region, the Get Maryland Moving Coalition, CMTA the Sierra Club, the Greater Baltimore Committee and a Housing advocate. Josh Tulkin of the Sierra Club illustrated in drastic numbers what the region has to do, to bring the transportation emissions in compliance with the 2030 targets. The 16 year old Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg, who is the root of international student led climate strikes, would have approved.
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| Sam Jordan of the Transit Equity Coalition |
Those demonstrating high-schoolers should inspire this Commission. After over 50 years of doing almost nothing on regional transportation plans (as GBC CEO Don Fry pointed out in his testimony), it is time for aggressive and accelerated catch-up.
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
The Regional Transportation Plan previously on this blog:
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