Even more transit

(I really do want to write about other stuff. I swear.)
Red Line study area, Baltimore.

Baltimore
Last night I went up to Baltimore to see the "world premiere" of the CPHA video, "Transit Around the Nation: Exploring Possibilities for Baltimore's Red Line," which recounts some of the lessons learned while taking four citizen-official groups to Portland, Denver, LA, and Boston.

I don't have my notes with me, but their three lessons are:

1. Transit and economic development have to be planned and worked for concomitantly;
2. Transit agencies must be proactive in terms of planning;
3. Citizens must be truly engaged and involved in the process.

There are many differences of opinions within the pro-transit community in Baltimore about this. For one, people worry that the state will do Bus Rapid Transit, which in most places in the U.S., isn't rapid, and it tends to not have the kind of economic development impact that rail-based transit does. For that reason alone, BRT shouldn't be considered.

But the Transit Riders Action Coalition of Baltimore argues, with some justification, for heavy rail (WMATA like subway, underground) because speed--transit efficiency--is needed to entice people out of their cars.

The Portland system has proven that speed at the level of the Washington DC-system isn't necessarily required. Plus the cost of tunneling, at least $400 million/mile, makes it seem unlikely that the Baltimore region could round up the kind of money required for such a system, which means that most stakeholders are pushing for light rail.

I don't know the social, cultural, economic, and physical landscape well enough to weigh in with my normal sense of authoritativeness. Perhaps extending and improving the Baltimore subway, for example, beyond the last eastern stop towards Canton and even looping around back to downtown needs to be studied, even independently of the Baltimore Red Line proposal. There's no question that the Baltimore subway system needs to be extended to more parts of Baltmore to become more useful.

They do have tough issues. Figuring them out is essential into propelling Baltimore to the center of the region once again. The Baltimore region is growing, so if Baltimore can get its transit right, like DC and Arlington County Virginia, it can accelerate extant trends that are beginning to help various Baltimore neighborhoods stabilize and attract more residents.

It's hard for Baltimoreans to think well of light rail, because their first generation light rail system on Howard Street hasn't had the kind of impact that other more successful light rail systems have had in other locales. This is an instance where you can't blame them for being skeptical.

Washington DC
Our friends at the Examiner have a couple relevant pieces today on the editorial page.

First, there is a letter to the editor by Ronald Utt of the Heritage Foundation, "Federal Funding feeds Metro's mismanaged policies, contracts." One of the ways he says that the WMATA system is mismanaged is because custodians make about $20/hour, and that wage rates for the system are high.

This reminds me of a story from a headhunter helping an accounting firm expand around the country. He said he told them that they would need to pay more in the Washington region, because of the prevailing wage rates and demand. They resisted and couldn't staff up the office. They finally buckled and raised what they were willing to pay, otherwise, they couldn't have opened an office in the DC region.


This point is relevant to analyzing what Dr. Utt writes. It isn't WMATA's "fault" that many states pay their teachers less than what WMATA pays janitors. It also isn't relevant. Yes, if WMATA hired illegal immigrants such as many of the contractors for downtown DC buildings, they could pay less. Is this the right thing to do is another question.


And this is how the local jurisdictions provide less expensive bus service through contractors, which is the other example that Mr. Utt cites. Likely these employees aren't unionized, and perhaps the wage rates are such where families cannot be supported. Similarly, WMATA has the same "problem" that GM and Ford has--legacy costs, pension and higher wage rates-- because the system has been around for 30 years. With annual wage increases and the like, a 20 year WMATA employee will make more money than an employee with two years of experience working for the Fairfax Connector bus system, etc.


I expect much better reasoning capability from a person with a PhD and with the honor of serving as a "Senior Research Fellow" for the Heritage Foundation.


2. The Examiner also has a good editorial, "Eight red flags on the road to Virginia’s ‘Big Dig’." I don't agree with all of their red flags. After all, Bus "Rapid" Transit isn't all it's cracked up to be in terms of service, the number of passengers carried, and most importantly, the spillover economic development generated.

Plus, "Red Flag #5: Exemption from federal cost/benefit standards," and "Red Flag #7: costs continue to rise" ought to focus more on the flaws in the analytical process used by FTA. (See the entry "Tunnel Vision" from the Getting There transportation blog, for more about these flaws.) And why should any credible source suggest building a transit system that is majorly flawed from the get-go, which is what would happen with an elevated transitway in the Tysons Corner area--as much as I don't care if the West Group and the Lerners make more money, good urbanism and well-designed transit demands underground subway service in this area.

Still, the editorial makes for some interesting reading.

Hampton Roads
This AP story, "Transportation camp teaches about careers," discusses the Summer Transportation Institute at Hampton University. The Federal Highway Administration provided a $40,000 grant for the camp, which is intended to promote careers in transportation.

One of the things I would like to see with a "summer jobs" program for the city's youth are more focused and developed programs along these lines, focusing on various aspects that improve the city's livability.

From the article:

The group explored the control centers at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, built a bottle rocket, designed a futuristic car and a bridge and boarded an aircraft simulator at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton. They also visited Nauticus, the Norfolk science center, the Virginia Department of Transportation in Richmond and the U.S. Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis in Newport News...

During one of the last days of the camp, two VDOT bridge engineers challenged the students to design and build 15-inch-long bridges out of 25 wooden sticks and glue. Three wobbly structures were lined up spanning two desks when engineer Richard Csernelabics arrived with a large bucket of sand to test how much weight they could hold.

Apparently, Howard University offers this program also, although the website hasn't been updated since 2001... which might mean they aren't offering it now.

Index Keywords: transit