Remember the point about Montgomery County adjusting to a smart growth land paradigm

Check out this pro-automobile editorial from the Gazette from a couple weeks ago, " Where we grow from here." And this cartoon. (This is what I meant to blog about.)


From the editorial:

One of the main problems with the proposal is that some of the methods to encourage transit-oriented growth are overly burdensome. For example, the proposal calls for allowing development to take place when roads drop to a level of service barely above failing, if a high level of mass transit access is available. The goal seems to be to make drivers so uncomfortable that they will be forced off roads and onto buses and trains. Encouraging the use of mass transit is worthwhile, but this method is shortsighted — allowing roads to fall to such low levels of service would not help people who live outside areas that have mass transit, yet still have to drive through those locations.

Whatever. You can't build a mass transit mobility paradigm without focusing on mass transit. The reality is that a 40 foot bus takes the space of 3 cars to move 40-80 people. The focus has to be on optimality of the system, and preferencing 3 people over 40-80 is a no win equation.

You can do this in a place like Montgomery County, which has a decent (not great) heavy rail transit network. You can't do it in Anne Arundel County (where Annapolis is) which has a minimal bus service no significant heavy rail transit service--they possess a couple light rail stations and a couple railroad passenger stations but lack a fixed rail transit network--and most people drive--5.5% of people living in the county walk, bicycle or use transit to get to work.

But it is a challenge to change. 12 years isn't enough time--especially considering that with the interregnum of Bob Ehrlich as governor in Maryland that 4 years were excised out of smart growth planning, especially for transit--to change the paradigm.