Baltimore Regional Transportation Plan Fact Sheet

The Baltimore Regional Transportation Plan will serve as the guide for how the area will try to dig its way out of the calamities created by sprawl and traffic congestion. Unfortunately, after repeatedly ignoring public input, the $16 billion plan will only make sprawl and congestion worse.

The plan will only make congestion worse.

Under the "Outlook 2020" Draft Baltimore Transportation Plan (developed by the Transportation Steering Committee (TSC) of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council), drivers in the region can expect delays and transportation energy use to double, according to TSC’s own analysis. At the same time, the use of buses, trains, and light rail, which reduce congestion and damage to the environment, will be undermined. A number of major sprawl-inducing projects are proposed (see attachment). Among the most notable: MD 32 expansion ($207 million), Westminster Outer Bypass ($200 million), and "additional" HOV-2 lanes on I-95 ($209 million). Several years ago the northern of section I-95 was increased from 6 to 8 lanes and advertised as "future HOV," but HOV lanes were never implemented.

The plan banks on the false notion that we can build our way out of congestion.

We have been building and widening highways for more than 50 years. Has congestion improved? Decades of research have demonstrated the building and widening highways increases congestion (see: "If You Build It, They Will Come" by Donald Chen, Surface Transportation Policy Project Progress, March 1998.)

The plan promotes a laundry list of inefficient and costly projects.

Most commuters drive through dozens of towns, and at least a couple of counties in their daily commute. Instead of looking at transportation concerns from a regional standpoint, local governments are given free reign to create sprawl and congestion-inducing projects without any consideration for neighboring communities who will bear the brunt of more traffic. Uncoordinated planning leads one county to designate a growth area and call for increased road capacity directly adjoining the next county’s agricultural land preservation district.

The plan will feed sprawl.

There is a direct correlation between building or widening highways and the proliferation of sprawl development. Carroll County, once thought too remote from Baltimore, is not too far from Columbia, Fort Meade and Laurel. The proposed expansion of MD 32 will lead to mushrooming residential development in rural Carroll County, pushing up property taxes and overcrowding schools.

Sprawl and congestion harm our environment and spur urban decline.

By paving over valuable farm and resource land, sprawl reduces the area’s natural ability to filter the water that pours into Chesapeake Bay. These critical areas are disappearing at a rate of 10 acres per hour (the equivalent of 10 Baltimores per year). As the number of miles people travel goes up year to year, more air pollution – and thus water pollution – is produced. TSC’s Plan reinforces road-fueled outer suburban growth which means no growth or decline in our towns, cities, and established suburbs.

Public participation is ignored in the regional planning process.

Despite TSC’s failure to assert the authority accorded it under federal law, environmental and citizen groups have participated in the process in good faith, only to have their comments summarily dismissed. In response to our comments regarding TSC’s lack of adherence to its own stated principles in creating a regional plan, the TSC stated that it "…acknowledges that there are limitations and believes that the Plan presents the most logical alternative for addressing regional transportation needs." The TSC has failed to explain its "logic" in choosing its preferred alternative – a Plan which appears to contradict its own goals. The Plan reports that "of the 152 projects on the candidate list, 57 projects were assigned a high policy-level rating…" but never says how they came up with that designation.

The planning process has been stripped of its real authority.

The real transportation decision-making process is not open to the public. Although ISTEA/TEA-21 (federal transportation acts) invests the TSC as the regional planning authority, it has practically no decision-making power. The real transportation planning process for the region appears to center around Maryland Department of Transportation’s separate negotiations with local officials. The stakeholders who have the strongest self-interest in transportation planning—highway engineers, construction companies, and freight haulers and associations representing them—generally do not even participate in TSC’s public review process.

A sound policy reinvests in existing communities.

Costly capacity expansion through large projects should be funded only in concert with greater efforts to manage congestion, reduce projected demand for automobile use, and curb sprawl by encouraging compact development patterns and reinvestment in established communities. To do otherwise is to waste tax dollars.

A regional planning vision will build healthy communities.

A regional vision of how to improve quality of life for our communities, sustain a healthy economy and preserve resource lands should be the basis of assessing the region’s transportation needs. The Long Range Plan is the best (and at present, the only) opportunity for the region’s leaders to articulate a common vision for the region that integrates economic development, land use and transportation planning. The Baltimore Metropolitan Council (BMC) has the power to conduct a regional vision planning process and to begin the process of integrating transportation and land use planning across local boundaries. It’s time BMC used its power.

A sound plan encourages and reflects public opinion.

Informed and meaningful public participation is essential to creating regional solutions to quality of life, land use planning and transportation issues. The TSC should continue to upgrade its technical analytical capability and provide concerned groups with access to these tools in order to better inform public participation and the decision-making process. In addition to technical improvements, an extensive outreach and inclusive new public participation process should be implemented.

A sound plan includes strategies to reduce congestion.

To achieve regional transportation goals, more creative and cost-effective strategies to manage demand and mitigate congestion are needed. We have proposed a number of more effective strategies for the Plan. For example, bicycle/pedestrian projects, Intelligent Transportation Systems, and HOT (High Occupancy Toll) lanes are given too little attention, and should receive greater support along with other options that we have proposed (see attachment). Funding for these projects could be found by deleting from the Plan expensive, counter-productive capacity expanding highway projects. Some of the savings from eliminating the MD32 project could be redirected to the southern part of Howard County for transportation improvements in established communities that make up the County’s designated growth area.

A sound plan improves the existing roads, railways and buses.

Baltimore region needs to maintain and enhance existing transportation infrastructure, and meet the mobility needs of the diversity of its citizens. A plan for the region should begin by improving maintenance of major and minor bridges, roads in and around Baltimore City; Access-to-Jobs Services for low income communities; improving pedestrian environments and access to bus stops and transit stations with sidewalks, lighting, signage, secure bike parking, amenities and security. Transit systems need expanded marketing and information services to reduce customer delays and assure smoother and more assured door-to-door connections. Priority treatment for buses would improve service, cut costs, and serve more passengers. Better parking management and information systems would cut traffic, delays, and assure efficient use of parking resources.