Mobility priorities in Maryland

An email exchange....

1. A report from last night's Action Committee for Transit meeting in Montgomery County last night.

"An elected state representative talked, but didn't say much. What I took away was: Our transit priorities are 1. the ICC 2. The Red Line in Baltimore, and 3. the Purple Line.

Oh and by the way we don't have any money, and not much hope of getting enough. I'll check my notes, but I think that was pretty much it."

2. In Portland there were 3 attempts to pass statewide bonding initiatives to build the yellow line. It originally was to go from Vancouver to the western suburbs. Each failed. So they started the line at the Exposition Center and I don't think it goes into the suburbs. And to build it they created an urban renewal district and sold bonds against presumed tax revenue increases over the 20 year period the district can last.

MoCo and PG might have to do something like that.

3. Q. Has METRO used bonds at all for any construction? A. Don't know. Maybe the jurisdictions?

4. I'm beginning to think maybe MD should get Baltimore's red line built, and forget about the ICC and purple line for now. Let the people in MD focus on downtown DC, instead of trying to get between Silver Spring and Bethesda etc.

5. Langley Park, the intersection of New Hampshire Avenue and University Boulevard, is pretty hideous, but that isn't really my problem I suppose... but is Baltimore's red line a dog? Does its routing really go to places that people want to get to? Already Baltimore has three discoordinated transit modes--light rail, subway, and bus. Right now there is interesting discussion on the EnvisionBaltimore list (googlegroups) about streetcars.