More remonstration about the molasses of change: Transit planning, Baltimore County, Maryland and Towson

In the 1960s and early 1970s, the Urban Mass Transit Administration was funding "next generation subway" systems in the San Francisco Bay (BART), Atlanta (MARTA), Miami (Metrorail), Washington (WMATA), and Baltimore (Metro).

But Baltimore was late to the party, and instead of getting funding for all six of its planned lines, it got funding for one.  Note that Atlanta, BART, and Miami had problems of their own--certain suburban counties refused to participate for both Atlanta and BART, and Miami's route planners designed the system to serve areas they wanted to develop, rather than to ensure that service was also provided to key activity centers.

Comparing DC to Baltimore and the impact of transit made me realize how important to revitalization is a network of multiple lines serving residential and office districts and other activity centers, like airports, versus a single line.

For example at DC's core of 31 Metrorail stations, every one of those neighborhoods have improved reversing decades of decline.  Granted it took as much as 40-45 years to accomplish this.

Baltimore light rail in Downtown.  It's not sleek but has a kind of charm.  In my Purple Line writings, I've suggested as part of the contract, Maryland could upgrade to new cars on the Baltimore light rail.

Flickr photo by SoCal Metro.

Later, Maryland Governor Schaefer created a complementary light rail line, from a small industrial railroad that went bankrupt.  While serving Downtown Baltimore, the line wasn't that great from a transit network perspective, because it was built on a route that served industrial sites, not residential and commercial areas.  

In particular, it bypassed Towson, the county seat and the county's primary business district (unfortunately, the single subway line didn't go far enough east to serve the county's other primary business district, White Marsh).

In the interim the metropolitan planning organization proposed a secondary light rail line that would provide service directly to Towson, as well as to Columbia, Maryland, a primary activity center in Howard County.

Baltimore Regional Transit Expansion Map, 2002.

When I worked for Baltimore County in FY2010, as a bicycle and pedestrian planner, simultaneously the master plan update was going on, and I was asked to submit a briefing paper on transit and sustainable mobility.

The major point I made was that the transit lines needed to be knitted into a network and that the light rail needed to be rerouted to serve Towson directly and that the subway line needed to be extended to White Marsh.  

-- "From the files: transit planning in Baltimore," 2012, written originally in 2010

A secondary point was that the subway and light rail could be connected more directly in Baltimore City.  I didn't mention a southern extension to Columbia, because the memo was about Baltimore County, but that was implied.  

A few years later, a planner for MDOT made the point that the light rail should also be extended just one half mile to one mile north, to better serve the business district in Cockeysville where McCormick Spice is based.  Had I known that at the time, I would have suggested that too.

Now everything I wrote was rejected because it was at the peak of the post-2008 recession, and the planners were ordered to omit "any recommendations that cost money."

For what it's worth, over the past ten years, the regional recommendations for transit were incredibly paltry and stunted, in part because the Republican Governor, Larry Hogan, had negative interest in transit, except for maglev.

-- "Small update: Transit agenda for Greater Baltimore," 2021-

It appears that's changing.

Caption: see below 

There is an article a few months ago in the Baltimore Sun, "Maryland transportation officials ask for public comment on potential transit routes from Towson to Baltimore," that planners are suggesting that Towson be served directly by light rail.  From the article:

State transportation officials are asking for public input on seven proposed transit routes that would connect Towson to downtown Baltimore.

The Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration unveiled seven options for a new north-to-south transit line connecting Baltimore County to Baltimore City by light rail, bus or subway. The seven proposed “alternatives” were identified in a feasibility study completed in 2021. The assessment is one of the first out of 30 transit corridors the agency will study as part of its 25-year Regional Transit Plan aimed at improving public transportation in Central Maryland.

That could have been accomplished already. 

Especially if it had been prioritized in the 2010 Baltimore County Master Plan.

Building new infrastructure is hard enough, without politics and opposition interfering.

The Baltimore, Atlanta, Miami, and San Francisco examples have made me realize that it's almost impossible to do these projects "right" when major activity centers aren't included as part of the basic service program.

Caption from the Baltimore Sun.  Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration unveiled seven proposed transit lines from Towson to Baltimore in its “North-South Corridor Study,” an assessment completed in 2021 that’s one of the first of 30 corridor studies aimed at making public transportation more efficient in central Maryland. 

Alternative 1 (pink) Light Rail Transit from Lutherville to University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) via York Road/Greenmount Avenue. 

Alternative 2 (dark red) Bus Rapid Transit from Lutherville to University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) via York Road/Greenmount Avenue. 

Alternative 3 (purple) Bus Rapid Transit from Towson to Harbor East, via York Road/Greenmount Avenue. 

Alternative 4 (light green) Heavy Rail Transit (Subway) from Towson to Port Covington, via York Road/Greenmount Avenue. 

Alternative 5 (dark green) Bus Rapid Transit from Towson to Port Covington, via York Road/Greenmount Avenue. 

Alternative 6 (blue) Light Rail Transit from Lutherville to Otterbein, via Goucher Boulevard, Loch Raven Boulevard. 

Alternative 7 (oramge) Bus Rapid Transit from Towson to Harbor East, via Joppa Road, Loch Raven Boulevard.