From the Maryland Department of Transportation:
The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), in partnership with multiple State and local agencies, initiated a unique multidisciplinary “Carbon Neutral Corridor” pilot project to plan and evaluate policies, programs and actions to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.
The purpose of a “carbon neutral corridor” project is to identify strategies that focus on sustainable transportation, smart growth, land conservation and restoration, and energy efficiency practices that support a long term goal of achieving significant reductions in carbon emissions.
The first project and pilot corridor is US 40 from the Baltimore City line to the Susquehanna River.
This project identifies strategies to design, implement, measure, and modify new and existing policies, actions, and off-set programs that reduce carbon emissions. Guiding principles include, but are not limited to:
– smart growth planning for new and redevelopment;
– focusing growth in Priority Funding Areas and adjacent to existing and planned transit infrastructure;
– aggressive pursuit of improved vehicle and fuel technologies;
– carbon sequestration and conservation projects;
– energy efficient housing
– green urban design standards; and
– promotion and implementation of residential, commercial, vehicle and business energy efficient and low carbon technologies and operational practices.
MDOT and its partners have been defining and testing four scenarios:
– a baseline, or business as usual, scenario,
– a transportation scenario,
– a land use scenario, and
– an energy/environmental conservation scenario.
Lessons learned from these four scenarios tested in spring 2011 will be applied to create a draft recommended combined scenario and draft corridor implementation plan in summer 2011, which will include both short term and long term recommendations. We will be sharing a draft implementation with the public prior to finalizing this plan.
Through a strategic coalition building process and stakeholder outreach, the US 40 Carbon Neutral Corridor team will develop a comprehensive corridor vision that results in attaining smart growth, conservation, transportation and climate change goals where the net emissions from the corridor are significantly reduced. The US 40 corridor’s multimodal transportation system, expanding economy, and diverse environment will allow recommendations of the US 40 corridor plan to be transferable to other transportation corridors in Maryland and around the country and create a real world setting that can serve as a national model.
Further, this effort will inform the statewide efforts to address the “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Act of 2009” which has a goal of achieving a 25% reduction (from a 2006 baseline) in GHG emissions by 2020. There is a legislative deadline for a draft Climate Implementation Plan of December 31, 2011 and a final Climate Implementation Plan of December 31, 2012.
US 40 CNC / Pilot Corridor Location Map:
Harford County:
South and East of US 40: The boundary will follow Harford County’s shoreline from the Baltimore County line to the Susquehanna River/Cecil County line. This area includes both the CSX freight corridor and Amtrak Northeast Corridor/ MARC Penn line (including Edgewood and Aberdeen stations), Aberdeen Proving Ground, and the cities of Aberdeen and Havre de Grace.
North and West of US 40: The boundary from the Baltimore County line can follow census tract/traffic analysis zone (TAZ) boundaries on a line approximately halfway between I 95 and US 1/MD 22. The attached map highlights the corridor area by including the first group of TAZs as created by Baltimore Metropolitan Council (BMC) north and west of I 95. The actual boundary is likely to be less precise in order to have flexibility in including potential conservation and agricultural areas in Harford County. The recommendation is that the boundary stays south of US 1 and MD 22 so as to not include the City of Bel Air. The corridor boundary then picks up MD 155, including the Harford County Airport and intersects with I-95.
To view the first newsletter, visit: www.mdot.maryland.gov/Planning/CNC/US40_CNC_Newsletter.htm
Please visit the project web page at: www.mdot.maryland.gov/Planning/CNC/US40.html
If you should have any question or comments on this pilot project, please send them to MDOTCarbonNeutral@mdot.state.md.us.
Maybe, just maybe, someone in this study will recognize the importance of connecting the MARC system, from the end of the line in Perryville, those few extra miles to Newark, Delaware. As commuter lines go, I think you can take Virginia Railway Express from Richmond to DC. You can then catch MARC, and but for those few miles in Cecil County, could then take a commuter train all the way to the tip of Long Island.