From Krist Boardman:
Thursday night going from I-70 to the Baltimore Beltway 695 I was presented with the dilemma of driving the northbound route toward Towson and eventually into Harford County, or the southeast route around the beltway, going through the Key Tunnel and northbound on I-95. Taking the southeast route because the Towson route was choked with traffic, I soon realized that the southeastern route was also choked with traffic. This was only Thursday night too; Friday night is usually much worse and that is from any driving location in the Baltimore metropolitan area.
It is at such times that I think I could do a brisk trade in bumper stickers that would say “Stuck in Traffic? Blame Hogan.” After all, he cancelled the Red Line and there really is not a comprehensive central Maryland transportation plan that will relieve the burgeoning traffic load that is overwhelming the area, and which will continue to get worse even if the Red Line is built because it will take years to get the project completed. Even after the Red Line is completed, if it is eventually built, there need to be many other significant transportation improvements to make traveling in the area better. The Hogan Administration has proposed to modify various bus lines which may help a little here and there, but these will have minimal impact on the overall situation.
For example, a proposal which I pitched to the good citizens of Darlington when I ran as a candidate for council president in 2014, to run a spur line from Bel Air to the Hunt Valley to Baltimore Light Rail line, was met with jeers and derision. Many good suburbanites believe that any public transportation links between Baltimore and the outer suburbs will be simply used by criminals from the city to burglarize homes in the suburbs. What many of these critics lose sight of is that the criminals who would have to take public transportation to get to the suburbs, would have to also use it to get back, and how many burglars are going to carry their booty such as 60 inch television screens, back with them on the transit lines without getting caught? They’d be better off if they drove to the suburbs in cars than if they took public transportation, but they can do that now anyway and we don’t have the public transportation.
A spur to the Hunt Valley to Baltimore light rail line would enable people to travel to the airport directly without having to drive or park. It not only would enable commuters to get to work places in the city from Harford County; it would enable commuters to get to work places in Cockeysville and Hunt Valley too instead of having to drive on not very good roads. In addition, that light rail connection gets sports fans to and from Oriole Park and M & T Stadium.
Another example of another good project would be a commuter rail line between Baltimore and Frederick. Take I-70 between those two locations during rush hours and you can see the snarl of congestion growing regularly. Fact is, there are lots of commuters who live in Frederick and work in Baltimore or vice versa who can only travel on I-70 or U.S. 40 and there are too many of them. I brought up the question of a rail link with state transportation officials and they said that to share the existing railroad tracks owned by CSX would be very difficult because CSX wants exclusive use for its freight services.
But this could be solved with negotiations for rush hour traffic use by a commuter link, or the state could build a track right down the middle of I-70 with underpasses or overpasses such as is done in many other places throughout the U.S. and maybe there would not be need for an agreement with CSX though it would be more costly to build the dedicated track. But this is an issue that will also have to be addressed and maybe not just by widening I-70, another costly proposition.
One promising program being launched in Baltimore city is an electrically-powered bicycle system that users pay a small amount to ride from one station in the city to another. This however is not a regional commuter plan such as the Red Line and other improvements described above. Governor Hogan is enamored of the Japanese-sponsored Maglev system proposed to run along the eastern corridor from Washington to New York and also Boston. But an obvious defect in that plan is that Baltimore does not have a good internal transportation link to get people easily to Maglev.
It seems the Hogan Administration is caught within its own mistaken choices yet does not want to make changes in its own mindset. Republicans are against borrowing money to build things, and since these projects come mostly from Democrats, that is even more of a reason for Hogan and his fellow Republicans to be against them. This meant that even when the Obama Administration had committed $900 million for the Red Line, a significant down payment, Hogan was against building it. The Maryland legislature in its wisdom increased the gasoline tax, anticipating that some of the money would be used for the Red Line, but the governor’s cancellation resulted in the monies being spent on far-flung suburban road improvements instead of on remaking the overall Maryland transportation structure which was what was intended. And also by cancelling the Red Line the governor threw away $300 million already spent on preliminary work for the Red Line.
As you may recall, something similar happened a few years ago when Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker cancelled a high speed rail line that would have run from Chicago to Minneapolis through Wisconsin, even though federal funds were already committed. Walker’s attitude was that there should be no forward progress if Democrats were in favor of this.
During the presidential primary campaign, Independent Bernie Sanders running for the Democratic nomination, repeatedly called for infrastructure improvements as a way of restarting the economy. Many projects have been stalled in recent years on the federal level but also on the state level the repair of bridges such as the U.S. Route 40 bridges in Harford County and other disputes between the governor and legislature have postponed further progress. If Sanders were elected president, he surely also would have faced obstruction from the Congress.
The interesting factor now is that the new president-elect, Donald Trump, is sure to clash against a Republican-controlled Congress over infrastructure improvements and how to finance them.
Trump does not want to continue with some of the trends, where funds go to protect foreign countries while the U.S. ignores needs at home. If Trump eventually gets his way, even Larry Hogan may have to rethink his priorities and plan for Maryland’s future instead of simply dragging his heels.
Krist Boardman
Screw the Red Line, the state can spend $38,000 a foot to build something useful.
We already had a “spur line” in Bel Air to Baltimore County. It was called the Maryland and Pennsylvania railroad. Passenger service was discontinued in 1954 from the immediate Baltimore Area to Whiteford, MD.
Come up with a better idea, like paying for expedited road resurfacing since we all have to sit in traffic everyday, may as well have to do it in smooth roads, not pot holes, patches, cracks and separations all over the place.
I don’t think the light rail system was around in 1945 in Hunt Valley
I don’t think so either.
You can very easily access the former Maryland and Pennsylvania route and see which Baltimore County stations it’s served passenger and freight.
I’m pretty sure Towson was one of them.
More polyanna in La La land from Boardman. Just check out what extending the spur did to Owings Mills Mall. More crime, now a ghost town mall.
Hogan Strong.
I love the fact that our total tax problem at the federal level is basically caused by the national debt, basically our deficit is about the same as the interest we pay on our debt. Idiots like Boardman say lets have more debt, I say let’s get our house in order. The constitution says a little something about posterity, lets stop piling debt on them.
White people don’t use public transportation. Just a free ride for the criminals to get out to the suburbs.
How about Hogan revoke the driving privileges of the 250,000 illegal aliens driving in Maryland. This way boardman can shut his trap.
What’s the emphasis on public transportation when one has a taxi, uber, Lyft and various other forms of private and suitable means for transportation? Why does Uncle Sam need to provide transportation, at some cost per rider?
I find it hilarious you told residents of Darlington you want Baltimore to Harford Public Transportation. Seems like a good way not to get elected.
Maybe you should focus on your voting base and the wants and needs of them before your own pipe dream.
When I woke up this morning, I had a red line running up my leg. Is that the same thing?
Thats a blood clot. Take two aspirins and go back to bed. Everything should be alt-right in the morning!
Nice article Mr. Boardman. Hope to see more soon.
I was on Liberty Road in Randallstown a Fe weeks ago, heading towards Frederick County.
I was sitting at a traffic light when a young man, appeared 18 or younger was standing on the sidewalk at the intersection talking at cars. “I’m from Body more son, that’s where I’m from. Body more.” over and over, while moving his arms and hands like a Mime.
I understand his constitutional right to stand there and say that, but it made me wonder how he got there and how long he was going to stay there. I also wondered if this person was a productive member of society?
Personally no one I know stands around traffic intersections and tries to impress people, or whatever his agenda was.
A pretty good article Mr. Boardman but a few questions. Wouldn’t a bus line from Bel Air to Hunt Valley be just as effective and billions of dollars cheaper? The line could easily change with changing demographics. This is what Gov. Hogan proposed instead of the Red Line. It saved the tax payers billions of dollars. Who the hell wants to go to Hunt Valley anyhow? Go Hogan !!!
Need an intercounty connector ( like the one on Montgomery county) between Frederick and Bel Air, with I-83 and I-795 meeting the connector on their northern ends.
Just look at a Google Map – makes total sense! – would decompress the beltway
A highway was proposed in the 1960s to run straight across northern Maryland from Havre de Grace to Hagerstown, which would provide an easy path to I-83. Would have been nice.
They could extend I-68 through to I-95.
Wasn’t there just an article on here about increasing foot patrols at the Aberdeen train station? I guess it’s because of something else Hogan did. Surely public transportation does not bring urban crime out of the city.
#17, Baltimore Beltway Inner Loop (I-695 Eastbound), Baltimore
Worst corridor: Reisterstown Rd./Exit 20 through Loch Raven Blvd/Exit 29
Length of worst corridor: 10.2 miles
Rush hour travel time tax on worst corridor: 96%
Longest rush hour travel time on worst corridor 19 minutes
Time per mile during longest rush hour travel period 1.91 minutes
Commuter Buzz: “This project, because of the way they pinched (traffic) to go through the bridge, caused that traffic to go from two lanes to one lane…,” Thomas McLamore, an area resident told the Catonville Times regarding a bridge replacement project that has congested the Beltway. “That traffic has nowhere to go but just to simply back up.”
To my dear friends who disagree with me:
You can do nothing or almost nothing. Nothing gets accomplished and things only gradually get worse.
There is a growing critical mass of cars which will get to the point where everything comes to a standstill even worse than it does now. That is the path we are on.,
There is a need to reduce the mass of cars on the road, not to mention the need to reduce carbon emissions as much as possible.
There is a saying, “Fail to plan, Plan to fail.” That is the path we are on now led by GO HOGAN.
I do’t care what the citizens of Darlington said, their response was racist and short-sighted.I’ll take issue with that any day. There are some things more important than becoming elected, and one of them is telling the truth.
Racist, everything is so racist today the word means nothing.
So you think having another electric choo choo train will somehow alleviate traffic congestion?
What is your solution?
Personally, I hope in the next few years I won’t have to drive.
I’ll be able to pull this electronic device out of my pocket, about 2″ wide, 4″ long. Open it up and hear electronic buzz that sounds like “Beep borp beep beep.”
Then I’ll say “Beam me up.”
Hopefully I can beam around to places.
Fact: Hunt Valley town center crime decreased significantly when the Loot Rail line was shutdown from Timonium to add the second rail; however, when the service was restored, the crime rates went back up.
Fact: Bikes are prohibited on the Loot Rail in part because the perps would ride their bikes to the Loot Rail and then ride the Loot Rail to Cockeysville where they would steal cars. This is in large part why much of Cockeysville is in an auto insurance *red zone*.
Fact: The Loot Rail does not benefit those of us tax payers who work 50-60 hours/week and commute another 15+ from Harford County who travel the I-95 and I-695 corridors daily.
Opinion: I’d rather see my tax dollars go to extending the I-95 EZ Pass lane (voluntary tax) from White Marsh to all the Harford County exits, and also please add another lane to Rt. 152 both ways!