Transportation System

Public transportation won't improve until the public demands itI am delighted by The Sun's leadership in devoting a series of editorials to the Baltimore region's woefully inadequate public transportation system (Dec 12-14).Access to living wage jobs, revitalizing neighborhoods through integrated transit and community development projects and improving our region's air quality in the face of future population growth are just some of the challenges an expanded, better coordinated, better financed public transit system would address.

More Howard County residents have used local bus service during the first quarter of the fiscal year than during the same period of the past fiscal year, local bus officials announced this week.During July, August and September, more than 23,000 additional riders boarded buses operated by the Howard Area Transit Service (HATS) and Connect-A-Ride -- the county's two largest public transportation services.The number is an encouraging sign for Corridor Transportation Corp. (CTC), a Laurel company that the county hired two years ago to oversee the transformation of the public transportation system.

OCEAN CITY -- Transportation and taxation will be at the top of the General Assembly agenda next year regardless of who is elected governor, legislative leaders told the Maryland Chamber of Commerce yesterday.The Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate and House of Delegates told business leaders that there is a broad agreement that the state's Transportation Trust Fund needs to be shored up -- but little consensus on how to do so. In particular, the legislators said, there is little political will to raise the state's gasoline tax -- the traditional source of money for transportation funds.

An article in the Howard County edition of The Sun on Wednesday incorrectly stated the reason for the creation of a passenger advisory group. Formation of the group was part of a contract between Corridor Transportation Corp. and Howard County's transportation division. The group was created before passengers lodged complaints about local bus service.The Sun regrets the error.Buses that are late. Wheelchair lifts that don't work. Buses that don't even show up.These are a few of the more than 30 complaints that passengers have lodged since late July against the Howard Area Transit Service (HATS)

Maryland will likely have to boost its tax on gasoline soon to keep the state's transportation system in good shape, the General Assembly's presiding officers said yesterday.But bowing to political concerns, the lawmakers said any increase in the state's 23.5-cents-per-gallon tax on gasoline will have to wait until the legislature convenes after the 1998 elections."The money for these projects doesn't come out of the sky," Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said during an Ocean City forum sponsored by the Maryland Chamber of Commerce.

As Howard County overhauls its transportation system, some advocates for the elderly, disabled and impoverished worry about the future of the car-and-van system that offers the only means of transit for many such residents.The county's private, nonprofit Urban Rural Transportation Alliance (URTA) has provided the specialized, reservation-style "para-transit" service for two decades. But next spring, the group may have competition when the county puts the service out for competitive bid for the first time.

The Baltimore Metro is the nation's best transportation system as long as the rails don't melt.Congress is going to investigate absolutely everything, up to Election Day and not a day after.

In less than two years, Carroll Transit -- Carroll County's only public transportation system -- has gone from the verge of bankruptcy to record levels of ridership. The non-profit enterprise, having regained its financial health, is now struggling to keep up with demand for its services.Its fleet of 20 vehicles, a collection of cars and vans that transports primarily elderly and disabled county residents, is hard-pressed to accommodate the steadily increasing ridership. Monthly trips have averaged between 4,000 and 5,000 -- double the number just two years ago. Carroll Transit has submitted requests to state and federal transportation agencies for about $130,000 in grants to purchase four additional vans and six radios.

HONG KONG -- In a novel feat of engineering, Hong Kong is close to completing a transportation system that will carry tens of thousands of people to and from their homes and offices on a giant outdoor escalator covered with a transparent plastic canopy.The escalator, which looks very much like something from the futuristic Jetsons cartoons, snakes its way through some of the oldest sections of hilly Hong Kong, following paths once taken by sedan chair carriers transporting the wealthy families to their hillside homes.

Carroll County's commissioners are undertaking a survey to see what residents think about public transportation and if they would support a county bus system. It's a worthwhile poll, but the ultimate decisions on creating a county public transportation system must be based on more than the public's hope or wish.As so many public transit systems in Maryland and elsewhere have found, the operating costs are enormous. Finding a balance between an acceptable fare that generates enough revenue to cover even half the operating expenses of a bus system continues to be a formidable challenge.

If longer commutes, heavier congestion, increased pollution and greater dependence on oil seem inevitable, there's a good reason: These ills all stem from the misguided way our elected officials fund transportation in America. It's time to establish a 21st-century transportation policy to pay for 21st-century priorities. Every day brings more news about our struggling transportation system: wearisome traffic delays, soaring gasoline prices and shrinking funds for transportation projects.

People are driving less, a lot less. That's hardly shocking given high gasoline prices and the downturn in the economy, and not entirely bad. Lowered consumption and greater fuel efficiency can only help the environment and loosen, if perhaps only slightly, the nation's dependence on foreign oil. But the trend is also disastrous for the financing of the nation's transportation infrastructure. At a time when the U.S. should be investing more in its deteriorating roads and bridges, the gasoline-tax-financed highway trust fund is oversubscribed and teetering on bankruptcy.

Maryland is at the threshold of a historic opportunity to grow and thrive. It is also teetering on the precipice of a crisis. There are 60,000 jobs coming into the state through the military base realignment and closure (BRAC) process, the Baltimore region's GDP is growing to $120 billion and our median household income is now among the highest in the nation. But with this tremendous surge in growth comes an increased strain on our overburdened transportation system. This is a challenge we must meet by increasing transportation funding by $600 million per year to maintain and make improvements to our transportation system.

When the business community complains that it's not getting taxed enough, attention must be paid. Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposed $392 million plan to improve the state's transportation system doesn't raise enough money to suit two influential business groups, the Greater Baltimore Committee and the Greater Washington Board of Trade. Both would like to see a 10-cent increase in the gas tax and at least $600 million spent annually on transportation infrastructure. Why? Because spending more money on transit and roads might be the single most important measure state government can take to help ensure Maryland's economic prosperity.

A coalition of mass-transit advocates urged the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board yesterday to scrap its $8.7 billion draft plan for traffic congestion relief over the next 28 years, contending that the proposal is heavily skewed in favor of highway projects. The advocates are attacking a potential blueprint for what the region's transportation system would look like in 2035. They say the draft Transportation Outlook 2035, prepared by local governments and the transportation board's staff, directs too much money to road projects, including many that would encourage sprawl and violate the state's Smart Growth policies.

BEIJING -- China has entered the high-speed-rail era. The signs are hard to miss. "Sixth national speed-up," proclaims a red banner the size of a billboard in the middle of the Beijing train station. "Harmonious, made-in-China" bullet trains. In the station in Tianjin, posters of smiling families in first-class seats line the walls, under the heading "Pursuit of Harmony." In a country where vacation season means two or three passengers for every seat, improvements to the rail system are heralded with great fanfare.

Promising more emphasis on mass transit and a return to Smart Growth principles to ease Maryland's traffic gridlock, Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley announced yesterday that he will nominate former Glendening administration official John D. Porcari to his old job of transportation secretary. Porcari, 48, of Cheverly in Prince George's County was considered by many Annapolis watchers to be a top pick for the O'Malley administration because of his experience in managing one of the state's largest agencies.

Columbia resident Harold Rappoport has what he calls a "pie in the sky" idea to help solve what likely will become congested streets in downtown Columbia as officials aim to turn the area into a bustling urban environment: a Segway scooter transportation network. "Doing something I think is more visionary, more high-tech, is much more in line with what James Rouse thought," Rappoport said of the planned community's founder. Rappoport's idea of people zooming around pathways on electric scooters didn't get an enthusiastic response at yesterday's meeting of Transportation Advocates - Del. Elizabeth Bobo, a Howard County Democrat, said she fell off the machine the one time she tried it - but the Columbia group brainstormed how to allay what likely will become congested streets around Town Center in the future.

State must support transit alternatives The Sun's editorial "Traffic pattern" (Nov. 13) accurately shows how seriously Marylanders take the state of our transportation system and lament the resulting deterioration of our quality of life. Yet government regularly responds to transportation issues with reruns of "solutions" that have led to our current quagmire of bigger funnels that force more cars into the same size hole. Marylanders are clearly willing to look to innovative approaches that go beyond costly cookie-cutter road "improvements."

PARIS - When a city can credibly make claim to being the epicenter of culture, when the grandeur of its architecture is as striking as it is here in the French capital and its museums are second to none, you have a city that shouldn't be a tough sell. And Paris isn't. More people visit this city than any other in the world, drawn by an easy sophistication, an elegance unforced, a charm enhanced by its effortlessness. Which raises this question: Why have Paris officials suddenly decided to decorate the city up like a whorehouse?