Comments
spaceribs OP t1_iyifv5w wrote
here here!
sllewgh t1_iyisi7n wrote
Baltimore used to have one of the nation's best public transit systems. A half century of deliberate underfunding and having too few bus drivers has ruined it, but there's no reason we can't get back to where we once were by reversing that trend.
Infinite_Magnetic7 t1_iyjak37 wrote
How so??? The subway and light rail systems were highly underdeveloped, not connecting to neighborhoods and places that are too far out where transportation isn't accessible.
sllewgh t1_iyjh4w0 wrote
The bus system was a lot stronger. Light rail is good for serving high traffic routes, but a reliable and well developed bus network is what truly takes cars off the road. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the routes, there just aren't enough busses running them to keep the system speedy and reliable.
dingusamongus123 t1_iyjdy97 wrote
Zoning could be changed to allow more walkable development around existing stations and new rail lines could serve existing or easily buildable walkable areas.
gaiusjuliusweezer t1_iyk684d wrote
Yeah, while it is true that prohibiting development around our rail infrastructure has been a huge failure, this is a solvable problem as evidenced by the Owings Mills development
gaiusjuliusweezer t1_iyk7xo5 wrote
It’s funny that the new MTA corridor studies basically looked at a bunch of routes and were like “yeah on these route even buses that are slow and unreliable are at capacity, so that seems like a good place to upgrade” while the dumbest people in the city go “we don’t need this, nobody takes the [route that is completely different]”
zeroxicide t1_iyk6o7e wrote
Change the way you vote?
bottleboy8 t1_iym1icd wrote
Half a century ago, Baltimore had a competitive two-party political system. One party systems breed corruption.
sllewgh t1_iymjfhq wrote
Both parties serve the interests of the rich. That's not the problem.
bottleboy8 t1_iymk7t0 wrote
Per capita income in Baltimore City is $32k. "The rich" left a long time ago.
sllewgh t1_iyml1vz wrote
Do you know what "per capita" means? It doesn't mean there aren't rich people in Baltimore. Also, they don't need to be. Plenty of outside interests in this city.
Matt3989 t1_iyiegaj wrote
This is for the Baltimore Metro Area, not just the city.
Within the city we look better: https://imgur.com/a/7RVBKpR
BigB0ssB0wser t1_iyjt7nz wrote
This makes more sense. I've lived car free in Seattle, NYC, DC, and Baltimore and that first graph didn't seem accurate
Y2ff t1_iyj6swx wrote
It's well known that dividing people amongst arbitrary lines is a great way to make things better for everyone (sarcasm)
DONNIENARC0 t1_iyibre2 wrote
Could definitely do better, but I'm a little surprised at how well we stack up already. I'm not intimately familiar with many of these places, but I wouldn't have guessed we were ahead of cities like Tampa, Denver, Austin, etc.
spaceribs OP t1_iyiep7a wrote
I think it's due to having great advocacy for public transit and bikes, which we should celebrate. Complete streets certainly haven't been applied consistently, but it is on our books, and I bet those other metro areas don't have anything like that implemented.
YoYoMoMa t1_iyig3f2 wrote
>but I wouldn't have guessed we were ahead of cities like Tampa, Denver, Austin, etc.
Cities with a history of libertarian politics that grew extremely quickly become clusterfucks.
todareistobmore t1_iyjj2yr wrote
Baltimore has a much higher percentage of people who don't own cars than any of those cities (here are 2015 numbers, at least). Some of it's density but a lot of it's poverty.
[deleted] t1_iyk7wag wrote
Austin may be weird, but big oil still has an iron grip on that state. Big fans of “one more lane” mentality.
Xanny t1_iyjo4sh wrote
Theres definitely room to improve the bike share of that figure, and none of it is that capital intensive. It just requires bdot and mdot to be funded to install protected bike lanes and separated bike right of way. But its also important that people live in areas that can facilitate a biking lifestyle, which means transient oriented development, mixed use, higher density, and work a reasonable commute distance. Zoning desperately needs overhauled and simplified throughout the city with parking minimums eliminated and complete streets taken seriously.
wineberry_robot t1_iyk5dkj wrote
they just increased the amount of time between light rail trains again. It used to be as little as 10 minutes on the main line during rush hour, now it's 30 if it's even on time. And since there's two southbound trains, if you want to go to BWI or Glen Burnie you might have to wait for up to an hour in the freezing cold (source: I did it yesterday) because only every other train can take you. The trains are also constantly broken or single-tracking, slowing them down even further. And the light rail only goes north-south, so if you wanna go east-west you're fucked since Hogan cancelled the red line.
The busses are unreliable at best. The Charm City Circulator almost exclusively serves rich white communities. In fact, this is the case for much of the public transport in the city. The exception is communities like Ruxton which rejected plans for a light rail stop in their area for "crime related reasons" (racism). Ever wondered why the ride between the Lutherville and Falls Road stations is so long? Yeah. That's why.
I have lived in Baltimore my whole life, and until my early teens I had no idea we even HAD a metro. enough said.
Baltimore has so many things we could be doing better and public transport is definitely one of them. We have a budget surplus, we're the richest state in America, for fucks sake! why can't we just build some fucking trains ugh. I hope Wes Moore will address this.
[deleted] t1_iyk8bh3 wrote
Anyone who rides the early bird train to BWI knows that without it all the low income service workers wouldn’t be able to get to work. Every time you fly, thank the light rail.
bmore t1_iynyb0t wrote
I agree with your larger points but
>The Charm City Circulator almost exclusively serves rich white communities. In fact, this is the case for much of the public transport in the city.
Not really true at all.
wineberry_robot t1_iyonm7b wrote
Only the busses really go everywhere, and of course they’re super unreliable. most other routes just go North-South or around downtown, which in some cases does mean they pass through poorer black communities, like westport and cherry hill on the light rail. But that’s why the red line was such a big deal - it wasn’t designed around the white L. It ran East-West. It would’ve gone through some of the neighborhoods most severely affected by redlining and the highway to nowhere. But of course, Hogan funded suburban infrastructure instead, and the people in those communities are still left waiting for the bus.
Notonfoodstamps t1_iyjiwof wrote
This is MSA wide. By city proper we are solidly in the high end of the public transportation usage spectrum
sit_down_man t1_iyifmz2 wrote
If the next few/several years lead to a massive push for public transit infrastructure in the Baltimore metro, we could be among very good company on charts like this. Someone needs to convince Wes Moore that his ticket to stardom involves transforming central Maryland into a transit hub.