Mass transit in Baltimore is part of the problem
Kevin E. Dayhoff July 12, 2015
"Right off, I'll say that Gov. Larry Hogan's refusal to
back the Red Line plan does not shock me. I thought it was expensive and
grandiose, involving the construction of deep tunnels and too much
infrastructure. I am sorry that neighborhood leaders feel shortchanged, but it
was a good idea that over the years went haywire as it grew more complex.
Baltimore is a place where it is best not to apply logic or expect much when it
comes to public transit..." [J
Kelly: “Baltimore is not a public transportation town:”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-kelly-column-bus-20150710-column.html]
I have good memories of the trolleys... But I have been all
over the world and I have never seen public transportation run worse than the
manner in which it is run in Baltimore - and Maryland.
It goes from nowhere to nowhere and the customer service is
horrid - you would think it was run by Comcast or Verizon. No wonder it does
not enjoy popular support.
++++++++++++++++++++
To which a reader on Facebook asked a fair question, “So
what is a reasonable solution for people in the city who cannot afford a car to
get work, hospitals, etc.?”
I am not sure that I know the answer, but I am sure that Facebook
is ill-equipped to answer this question in depth.
Eventually many folks who do not like Md. Gov. Larry Hogan
will rail about the governor’s decision to stop the politically-created boondoggle,
the red line; no matter how the metrics and the merits of the decision indicate
that the transit line was ill-conceived from the very beginning. Come a little
closer…. The whispers in the hallways of Annapolis are that the red line was essentially
conceived as a political bone to throw to the folks who bristled at the idea of
the mismanaged but nevertheless widely used and poplar DC metro, getting money
for the purple line.
Employment and economic opportunities do not widely take
into consideration locating in Baltimore, in part, because the transportation
system put in place to move employees from where they live to where the jobs
are located, does not work. Thus perpetuating an endless vicious cycle.
The previous administration in Annapolis recognized that the
Potemkin red line was poorly conceived and kept kicking the can down the road
because it recognized the political fallout of stopping the project.
There is a solid reason why the purple line was given the
go-ahead and the red line was stopped. The purple line makes sense - if some of
the extravagant costs can be contained.
The red line was an imaginary illusionary creature of
politics from the very beginning. The purple line was a manifestation of a
recognized need that will derive a well-utilized return.
The red line looks great on paper and the rhetoric is
utopian and wonderful. In the end, it would not have worked or solved any
transportation problems. The red line would have robbed precious taxpayer
resources and literally thrown money down a very deep tunnel that went from
nowhere to nowhere.
The construction of the project alone would have irreparably
damaged the local economy, it was supposed to better, beyond recovery and put
countless businesses out of business and put many folks out of work.
The previous administration knew full-well that the red line
and mass transit lacked popular support because mass transit in Baltimore and
Maryland is so poorly run. It lacks critical popular support - except for
political astroturfing.
The more the project was studied in order to avoid stopping
it, the more convoluted and complicated - and extraordinarily expensive it
became. In the end, no matter the cost, the red line would have served
very-very few folks at an untenable cost - that would throttled any other
future consideration for re-organizing and revitalizing mass transit for
many-many years.
If the red line had been appropriately priced, it might have
served well as another spoke in the mass transit wheel. But it was never the
silver bullet it has been made out to be in the current rhetoric. Perhaps as a
light rail – like the old successful trolley lines? Might have been worth the
cost? Maybe?
In the big picture, the red line would have served very
little of the folks in the city that "cannot afford a car to get to work,
hospitals, etc."
Of course the irony is that the escalating costs of owning a
car in Maryland, to help pay for a transit system that does not work, only
became part of the problem...
And the red line would have certainly not done a darn thing
to help alleviate traffic on the beltway - which, of course, is another
manifestation of a failed transit system.
This is not going to get figured-out at our pay grade. It is
at times like this that we sorely miss Md. Del. Pete Rawlings… I have a great
deal of respect for Congressman Elijah Cummings. I disagree with him on the red
line… But wholeheartedly agree with his quote about Del. Rawlings, “A
politician worries about the next election. A true statesman worries about the
next generation, and children yet unborn, and that was Pete Rawlings."
-Congressman Elijah Cummings.
I have close friends, whose opinions that I really respect
who very much disagree with me and I respect their thoughtful approach. However
too many folks in the know, are well aware that the cost of another
much-underutilized Potemkin transit line would bode well in a populist campaign
for re-election, but set back transportation in Maryland decades - no matter
how high you raised taxes to pay for a line very few folks will use.
The reasonable solution is to be a wise steward of finite
resources so that they may be spent in a manner that gets the most folks and
workers from point-a, to point-b. Look that up in the dictionary and you will
not see a picture of the red line. And this analysis come from someone who is a
staunch unrepentant supporter of mass transit and has the scars to prove it.
Just saying. We now return to our regularly scheduled program of cat videos and
cute pictures of dogs and children.
