EnvisionBaltimore Roundtable February 2009

Most of the notes on this meeting are mine, but I also incorporated some notes from Art Cohen.

Stu Sorada [4633]: “Summit” is a word that has been overused in this region. This is our third summit. We are now calling them “Roundtable.” We want to keep this going every two or three months. Wants this one to share ideas for action. Wants us to gel, find common ground, move forward. Wants an action plan - short-, medium-, and long-term. Thinks “action plan” is a better term than “vision.”

Introduction.

Richard Chamber: We have Nine Guiding Principles for better mass transit in the Baltimore Metropolitan Region:

● WE MUST build on the existing vision for regional transportation (i.e., a system that fosters smart growth and sustainability).
● WE MUST coordinate all transportation planning with land use planning.
● WE MUST make the transportation planning process adaptable, fluid, easy to understand, and open to public comment at all levels.
● WE MUST identify new and creative ways to increase funding for mass transit.
● WE MUST ensure that the regional mass transit system is integrated and well connected.
● WE MUST have safe and timely mass transit throughout the region.
● WE MUST ensure that the region’s mass transit system is managed by an efficient and empowered governing body.
● WE MUST bring a regional transit constituency that is active and willing to forge partnerships with a variety of stakeholders.
● WE MUST NOT wait for the long range plans to work themselves out - we need t work for short-term improvements whenever possible

We have the highest number of extreme commuters in the country here in the Baltimore area. The transportation planning process is confusing. There are people who think that the buses are run by the City of Baltimore. Bus stops need to be safe and there needs to be enough room for people waiting for the bus.

WMATA is 1.5 million trips a day. MTA has 400,000. Portland has 37,000 trips a day. Denver has 295,000. Pittsburgh has half the trips that the MTA has.

Brian O’Malley, CMTA [Central Maryland Transportation Alliance], just over a year old. Coalition of for profit and non-profit members. Some are business leaders, others are civic leaders, etc. Some of the things that they do is to make at all levels to develop and promote short term strategy as well as long term strategy. k3=e3. There is an effort to bring car-sharing to downtown Baltimore. This will give people the accessiblity of cars for those who come to downtown Baltimore. ZIPCar has shown some interest in coming to Baltimore. CMTA is talking to Downtown Partnership, ZIP Cards, the City of Baltimore, and others. CMTA is talking to MTA about Smartcard. You load your money on one card and it will be seamless throughout the region. MTA is working on it and CMTA is trying to be a partner.

Brian spoke for CMTA, to tell those present about its initiatives. They included car-sharing (like Zipcar); next-train and Smartcard by MTA; A growth improvement plan for MARC; a marketing campaign on "the culture of transit" (i.e. dealing with awareness, attitudes); approval of Alternative 4C for the Red Line; helping to fund the trip taken by Baltimoreans last Fall to see transit around the nation (West Coast) and produced a DVD about it; convening TOD work with Re-Connecting America; the Feb. 24 "summit" coming up this next week (with a screening about the Red Line); membership in T4America, a coalition with a voice at the federal level (working on the Stimulus Package and the Fed Surface Transportation Act Re-Authorization Bill); and finally the Business Alliance for NE Mobility (covering the territory from Massachusetts down to Virginia).

The Next Vehicle Available signs is the next thing. Some signs are out. This has boosted ridership. MTA has the technology to put more out. BGE has to provide the power to make them work. There is also a problem with the owner of the shelters.

Growth and Investment Plan

We are trying to find funding to make MARC grow, everything from maps, stations, cars, and tracking.

Culture of Transit Marketing Campaign. We are trying to understand people’s understanding and awareness of transit. Surveys will be done in March and a focus group in April. They are a partner in supporting the Red Line. They are in favor of Alternative 4C. They helped fund the Transit Around the Nation trips. They produced a DVD and there are copies at his office.

Transit Oriented Development is another of their initiatives.

They are having a summit next Tuesday at the University of Baltimore, 19:00-21:00. They will be screening the Transit Around the Nation DVD. They are a local organization and trying to have a vision at the federal level. They are a part of the T for America (Transportation for America) campaign.

Richard Chambers asked if there is a defined time for the LED signs. The signs are driven off the radio system. We have 200 signs units and a dozen out there today. There are two issues associated with them. The signs and the brackets interfere with the map cage in the shelter. The map cage has to be taken out. Not all the shelters have power. BGE wants every shelter to be metered. This is a later requirement. MTA is totally ready to go. The highest use shelters is in front of the Arena. There are three shelters there.

This is not a high priority for light rail. Both the light rail and the subway are on a set schedule. Therefore there is no need for the system right now.

The infrastructure for smartcard is in place. They need to finalize a financial arrangement for WMATA. The company that provides the card can’t come up with the software for the smart card to work between systems. Monthly and weekly passes are the issues for Baltimore. We want the passes. The company can do it for Baltimore only but not for Baltimore and Washington which has a different system [of fares].

Dan Pontius, CPHA. CPHA was founded in 1941 to take on slum houses in Baltimore. They had a Transit Riders League in the early 2000 when they had funding for it. They spent a lot of time working on the Red Line Community compact. They are interested in again playing the role that they did with the Transit Riders League (TRL).
CPHA is focused on neighborhoods and the grass roots; involved with the West MARC Station project; involved with the Red Line Community Compact; TOD; working on the Stimulus Package with CMTA and 1000 Friends of MD; and wants to once again form a transit riders league (like they had earlier).

Bruce Gardner of MDOT [4638]: Federal stimulus package. He was getting new numbers as he walked out the door. He works for the governor’s office. He gave a detailed preview of Maryland’s transportation part of the Stimulus Package. The link [from Art Cohen] is:

http://www.maryland transportation. com/Planning/ Economic_ Recovery/ Phase_I_Transit_ and_Highway_ Recovery_ Projects. pdf

The first shot of money has to be out the door within 120 days for highway and 180 days for transit. The agencies at the federal level have to be prepared and this is new for them. We are looking at $620 million to come into Maryland, $430 on th highway side and $180 on the transit side. On the top left of MDOT web site is an American flag button. This gives information on what is happening in this area. They will be posting fact sheets.

On the money it is fix it first. Thirty-nine percent will be for bridges and then road resurfacing. There are programs for fixing sidewalks and for safety. There is a transportation ehancement component, about $12 million. There is a strict time line. The governor has to certify that he is maintaining a certain level.

The categories include urbanized and growing state money. $150 million. The bulk of the money is for transportation. We have local bus replacement, about $7 million. We want to make sure that this is spread throughout the State. You have to spend half of that in the first 180 days.

Senator Jim DeMent of South Carolina introduced a bill to exclude some items. He is a foe of transit.

There is about $750 million nationwide for new start programs. We don’t believe that it will benefit Maryland.

$1.5 billion is available to compete on. We will be looking at this closely. Our challenge is what do we have to do for BRAC. The eligibility for MARC for new start or other categories is a challenge. There is a possibility that the stimulus money can be used for this. The maximum that a state can receive is $300 million out of this $1.5 billion. It has to be a high impact project.

$50-70 million in funding. There are several light rail projects, station improvements, and refurbishment of vehicles, $10-15 million range. $10-20 million range for buses. $40-45 million for Metro improvements. $10-20 million for MARC. These are for projects that can get out the door and make us successful. Projects that were eligible for federal finding before will probably be eligible now. They want projects to be one type of funding only.

Access 2000 was a big report done between 1998 and 1999 for all the rail stations in the State. MTA did the report. It is now on the shelf. Some of it has been implemented. Much still remains to be done. SHA is talking about making sidewalk programs a part of this.

Easy projects will be done. If it is complicated, it won’t be done. The Baltimore City had 80-90% of sidewalks access to the rails and the counties were way behind with only 10-20%. They also wondered whether Baltimore tunnels were going to be in federal appropriation bills.

MARC parking is a project that is not ready. The first part is to get rid of the bridge abatement. Parking is short term. TOD is middle term, and rail lines is long range.

A woman asked about bike racks. In Baltimore 100% of the buses have bike racks on front and every new bus will have them. There might be a couple of older buses that do not have racks. In Baltimore the buses stay in the same garage. In WMATA they go from garage to garage. It took 72 days to put racks on every bus. All the buses are bike accessible.

$80 is for high speed rail.

There is the issue of the Baltimore tunnel. We have funding to study that. We now want the money to do it.

Klaus Phillipsen asked why can’t we design a parking lot within 180 days. There are some energy programs that we can look at for transportation.

The problem is getting the project going, not finishing it.

Foster Nichols, Chair of the BRTB/CAC Policy and Legislative Subcommittee, Baltimore Regional Transit Advocacy Summit. [See Art Cohen’s notes.] The county executives and the mayors of Baltimore and Annapolis are members. They meet monthly. The elective officials have their appointed designates who usually attend the meetings. The BRTB has agreed to enter a dialog and respond to our group. One of our first resolutions has to do with Transportation 2035. We did not like the plan and that started the process of dialog. Transportation planning should be based on need and where we want to be. Last April we passed a resolution asking for a new plan based on need. TO2035 allocated additional funds for transit. In December 2008 Jim Smith sponsored a committee to undertake a regional visioning exercise. The CAC has not seen any action. The Toronto Metrolink document said that a bold vision with understandable goals and objects is critical as a guide and common reference point for decision making.

The attention of the country will be focused on transportation industry during the next couple of years.

Values: Everyone should have an equal opportunity to travel; the transportation system helps protect the environment. transportation system should encourage and support economic vitality of the region. Transportation system must provide convenient access. The system should be as seamless as possible. Intra and inter regional travel are both important. Walking and cycling promote public health. Efficient and effective goods movement is important. Transportation system needs to be flexible. It is a valuable public good worthy of investment. Elements of a transportation system are all modes integrated and all inclusive and people and goods movement. There is a hierarchy of modal priority and serving both discretionary travel and transit dependent.

The Toronto model took a year with three segments of public feedback. They had a triple bottom line of people, environment, and economy. There was a focus on active transportation which include walking and cycling. We need to do transportation planning in concert with land use planning. Toronto is about twice the size of our region in population.

In December 2007 a few people met at Café Hon. They were unhappy about how things were going. They wanted to get some grant money for long range planning. They went to different sources, but it was not going on very well. In the fall about a year later Foster Nichols handed Bruce a package and it was what they wanted.

Somebody said “All we have to do is to plagiarize liberally.”

The CMTA is getting a base line on how people view transit and will try to change this. In the last several years 90% of we built was for automobiles. Even our rapid transit are automobile aimed. Only one out of four trips are work trips and only one third of those are from the suburbs into downtown. Even that traffic has become worse, but it has not gotten people out of their cars. Since gas prices have come down, transit use has remained high.

There is a four-part solution:

1. Connect transit and land use
2. Make transit really easy to use. Make transit stop the community’s front door. In Hunt Valley they moved the shops to the light rail stop.
3. Create an integrated regional network. Zurich has 350,000 population. Any village of 300 or more has to have a minimum of 18 trips a day. SmartMove was done in Kansas City about three years ago. It was set up to look like a rapid transit system.
4. Give transit a new image through branding and marketing.

New priorities must be established. People want 41% for public transportation, 37% for roads, and 22% for bicycles and walking. The actual spending is over 90% for roads.

The #40 QuickBus is a start. It has not gone far enough with the actual branding and marketing that is needed. There is as study up the York Road corridor. We need to mark the system and make it easy to use.

Art Cohen asked if Toronto has some of the same attitude that we have here. They have not kept up with their investment and growth. Now they are catching up.

There was a great system for buses to take people to the library. About 35 people came out and stopped it. The state senator did not come to the library. They used to call the light rail “loot rail” because they said that people would come on the light rail and loot their homes.

Chris Merriam did not see anything about smart growth today. He said that there are too many mothers and fathers and on of them have land use authority. He was in the CAC and made the same observation and demands then that we are making today.

A man said that political attitudes have to be changed. Chris has two recommendations to the slide show. The triple bottom line and land use should be the basis for many of his slides.

Maybe we should have a goal of being able to buy milk, etc., at at least 30% of the station A woman asked if we are going to do updating of some of our locations. Most of the subway stations have news stands but nobody in them. We have sent out a few requests but have not received many responses. Maybe the noise is too high.

There is nothing on the red line from MLK to Social Security. Henry Kay said that where the transit stops are where they can put in something new.

Al Cohen said that on the west coast there projects did not succeed until there was heavy community support. A woman said that you have to pitch the transit against the car. AAA says that the ownership of a car costs about $8,000 a year.

Kristy: The Maryland PIRG (nothing to do with pirogi) is sending out a report that ties into this vision. They will be hosting a press conference and they want a strong showing of support from transit advocates. The report is still in peer review.