Maryland Transportation

Maryland transportation projects, already scheduled to absorb $1.1 billion in cuts over the next six years, will lose an added $1 billion because of slumping revenues, state officials said yesterday. The Maryland Department of Transportation delivered the bad news in the final version of its 2009-2014 capital spending plan. The cuts are even steeper than those projected in a draft last fall. State officials now predict a $350 million-per-year drop in money going to the Transportation Trust Fund.

Now that the 2013 Maryland General Assembly session is in the rear-view mirror, few who travel the roads in our state can deny that one of the most important accomplishments this past session was putting in place a long-term solution to the state's enormous transportation funding challenges. With the funding package approved, at least one part of a looming crisis was solved - providing new revenue for much-needed state transportation projects. However, as the voice of Maryland's cities and towns, the Maryland Municipal League is concerned that what has not yet been resolved is the need for a lasting, more permanent solution on funding future municipal transportation projects.

Cheryl Sparks, the chief spokeswoman for the Maryland Transportation Authority, fights the same battle day after day after day. Who could blame her for turning to her favorite columnist for a little help? Sparks works for the agency that runs Maryland's toll facilities - the toll portion of Interstate 95, the Baltimore Harbor crossings, the Bay Bridge and a couple of other elderly bridges over the Susquehanna and the Potomac. Alas for her, a big part of Sparks' job description consists of explaining to folks that she doesn't work for the MTA. That acronym belongs to the Maryland Transit Administration, the agency that runs the Baltimore bus system, the light rail, the Metro subway (yes, Baltimore has one)

Those things that make Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller a formidable adversary in Annapolis can sure come in handy sometimes. This week, he single-handedly restored to relevancy one of the most important issues facing Maryland - a looming shortfall in transportation funding - that others in his party seem to regard as radioactive. Call him irascible, call him egotistical, call him a bull in a china shop, but the real lesson here is to always call on the longest-serving Senate leader in Maryland history when it's time to pick up an unpopular cause like raising the gas tax. The veteran Prince George's County politician may often be wrong, but he's never in doubt.

President Barack Obama turned to Maryland for another high-level appointment Friday as the White House announced that he intends to name Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari to the No. 2 position in the U.S. Department of Transportation. In choosing Porcari, Obama has selected one of the few state transportation secretaries whose portfolio includes all the major modes of travel - highways, aviation, mass transit, maritime commerce and rail freight. If he clears the required background checks and is confirmed by the Senate, Porcari would serve as deputy to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former Illinois congressman and a Republican.

Gregory Anthony Bauer, a former truck driver who was enjoying his career as a Maryland Transportation Authority maintenance employee, died Wednesday after he was struck by a car while clearing debris along Interstate 95 near White Marsh. He was 38. In a tribute to Mr. Bauer, Gov. Martin O'Malley ordered the state flag to be flown at half-staff from Thursday to Monday. John T. Monk, chief of the facility maintenance office at the Harbor Tunnel, described Mr. Bauer as a close personal friend, whom he hired and trained.

Police videotapes clearly show Josh T. Waterman driving north on Interstate 95, unfazed by blaring police sirens and flashing lights as Maryland Transportation Authority police cruisers give chase for a traffic violation. Fourteen minutes after Waterman first refused to pull over for speeding, two videotapes show gun-pointing police officers surrounding his slow-moving car at the Fort McHenry Tunnel toll plaza. In a brief but deadly salvo, they fire eight bullets that crash through the unarmed man's windows and kill him. The fatal result on that day in November 2000, vividly seen on videotape and in eyewitness accounts obtained by The Sun, is the focus of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by the family of Waterman, a North Carolina man with a history of mental illness.

SOME DOINGS are under way in cyberspace this month at the Maryland Transportation Authority, the agency that oversees the state's seven toll facilities and the roughly $121 million collected at the booths each year.Just surf on over to the agency's World Wide Web page for the latest information on (yawn) toll-taking in Maryland. Among the offerings on the Internet, the MdTA is providing "descriptions of toll facilities, current toll rates and facts about the authority's police force," according to a two-page release detailing this new venture.

Michael Desales Byrne Jr., 64, of Anne Arundel County has been identified by the Maryland Transportation Authority as the motorcyclist who was killed Thursday on Interstate 695 in Curtis Bay. Byrne, of the 7600 block of Briar Lane in Pasadena, was in the southbound slow lane about 7:40 p.m. when he lost control of his motorcycle, hit the barrier, re-entered the slow lane and was struck by a tractor-trailer. He died at the scene. Lori Vidil, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Transportation Authority, said yesterday that authority police are investigating the incident.

A body discovered by a boater near Kent Island last week has been identified as a 17-year-old Severna Park High School student, Maryland Transportation Authority Police said. Emily Rose LeClare had been missing since Dec. 18, when her vehicle was found abandoned on the Bay Bridge. The police "don't know how she got in the water," said Cpl. Jonathan Green, a spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. The boater who found the body first contacted the Maryland Natural Resources Police, who then contacted the MdTA police, Green said.

Here's a question for you Maryland taxpayers out there: Would you rather pay a higher tax on many items you purchase each day or on something you may buy perhaps once a week (a commodity that's actually decreased in price nearly 20 percent in recent months, by the way)? Surely, most people would choose the latter. But there's another way to look at it: Would you rather see the Maryland sales tax rise after enduring a similar increase a mere five years ago, or see the gas tax rise after a 20-year freeze?

The latest chart tracking Baltimore-area gasoline prices looks a bit like a sandwich cut in half diagonally, so steep is the decline. A gallon of unleaded has fallen about 28 cents per gallon (nearly 8 percent) since mid-October and is expected to fall further - despite the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, the busiest travel times of the year. That's substantial, but it's also little noticed by most Marylanders. Economists aren't forecasting a sudden upswing in the job market.

Not long after the Maryland General Assembly last adjourned back in mid-April, gasoline prices were approaching $4 a gallon. Currently, a price-conscious shopper can purchase a gallon of regular unleaded in the Baltimore area for as little as $3.50. That's a 50-cent swing in prices, essentially a 12.5 percent discount from just one month ago. So, Mr. and Mrs. Average Maryland Consumer, has this drop in prices had a huge impact on your life? Has it revived the economy? Put the unemployed back to work?

Maryland's top transportation priorities should include widening the Baltimore Beltway, making Route 295 six lanes near BWI Marshall Airport and building the city's Red Line light rail, a national transportation group said Wednesday. The recommendations were part of a 40-item wish list compiled by TRIP, a nonprofit research organization sponsored by the construction industry, insurance companies and unions. "These are game-changing projects," said Frank Moretti, TRIP's director of policy and research.

The Maryland Transportation Authority has denied challenges from the two losing bidders over the awarding of a 35-year contract to build and manage the state's two travel plazas on Interstate 95 north of Baltimore. In a seven-page letter dated Tuesday, the authority's executive secretary said an evaluation committee had reviewed plans from HMSHost, Airport Plazas/Tichman Construction Corp. and Areas USA and determined that the Florida-based Areas USA best addressed the goals outlined in the request for proposals.

The task force studying Maryland's transportation funding has yet to finalize its recommendations, but members should expect to receive a great deal of criticism when they do. The panel's preliminary recommendations made Tuesday include a 15-cent increase in the state's gas tax, and opposition to gas taxes, state or federal, has become a rallying cry for the right-wing. Never mind that, if enacted, the proposed 15-cent per gallon tax increase, achieved in nickel increments over the next three years, is almost certain to go unnoticed by motorists.

A checkpoint to examine truckers' identification is set to begin tomorrow for access to the Dundalk Marine Terminal, according to city transportation workers. To accommodate the checkpoint, the left lane of Keith Avenue will be closed from the bottom of the exit ramp off Interstate 95 southbound to Vail Street. The checkpoint, set to run from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, will enable Maryland Transportation Authority police to ensure truck drivers have identification cards. Truck drivers without cards will be directed to follow a detour to a lot on Broening Highway, where Maryland Transportation Authority Police will conduct a background check on drivers and issue temporary identification cards, according to city transportation officials.

A 28-year-old Atlanta man was arrested Tuesday by a Maryland Transportation Authority officer after police said they found nearly 146 pounds of marijuana during a routine traffic stop. Themba K. Koyi was driving south on Interstate 95 in Baltimore County when his rented 2008 Nissan sedan was stopped by a transportation authority officer for speeding, police said. The drugs, valued at more than $200,000, were discovered during a check of the vehicle, police said.

At the Petro gas station on York Road in Timonium, a gallon of unleaded was quoted at $3.91 last week. Four blocks south, near Ridgely Road, that same gallon of gasoline cost $4.05 at the Citgo. Despite the 14-cent difference, both stations appeared to be doing well, attracting a steady pace of motorists. That's hardly a shock. After all, 14 cents is little more than 3 percent, or half the state's sales tax. And other service stations on York Road in Timonium reflected a range of prices, with most falling somewhere between Petro's and Citgo's.

Considerable uproar could be heard earlier this year when officials at the Maryland Transportation Authority announced that beginning in July, E-ZPass subscribers would for the first time be required to pay a $1.50 monthly fee on top of what they're already charged for tolls. Protesters made two predictions: first, that many people would drop Maryland E-ZPass accounts; and second, that the result would prove counterproductive as more people paid tolls manually, and the backups at Baltimore area tunnels, bridges and other MdTA facilities grew worse.