Politics & Government

County Transportation Gurus Gather for Solutions

Panelists pitch wild ideas to resolve congestion on Route 50.

Experts in the field of transportation planning put their heads together on Tuesday in Broadneck to find solutions to looming problems.

In 2009, when county planners assembled their long-range vision of the county up to year 2035, they left one piece out—transportation. That aspect of the plan has been worked on throughout these past three years, and is set to be finalized soon.

A key component of the plan will come from a citizens group established by County Executive John R. Leopold to gather input from around the county on what should be included.

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The public meeting held Tuesday at St. Margaret’s Parish Hall was organized by the Broadneck Council of Communities (BCC) on the eve of the citizens group’s final meeting, when the public input portion of the plan’s assembly will be closed.

In attendance were a number of public officials and members of communities representing Severna Park, Pasadena, Annapolis and the Broadneck peninsula.

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George Cardwell, who oversees county transportation under the county’s Planning and Zoning Department, opened the meeting with a grim financial truth.

The county budgets for about $20 million in transportation funding each year, with $15 million going directly toward current road rehabilitation. That leaves $5 million to start new projects, Cardwell said. 

Cardwell and his associates delivered a brief presentation on the status of the plan, but the bulk of the two-hour meeting was spent in a back-and-forth volley between panelists over what the priorities should be.

Panelists found a rallying point in discussing solutions to the congestion that builds up along Route 50 on Friday afternoons before the poll station at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

“The best idea I’ve heard here tonight is to turn that poll around on the Bay Bridge,” said Denny White.

The idea originated from a woman in the crowd who left before the meeting was over. After the idea was introduced, it had the group talking throughout the night.

Her concept to alleviate weekend traffic involved closing the eastbound polling station, and instead, polling those drivers when they come back, by building another poll on the west end of the bridge.

Cardwell smiled and nodded during the presentation of this idea, but didn’t add much to the conversation.

Extending the Washington Metro’s rail system east from New Carrolton was ruled out as financially unfeasible. Cardwell said the construction of new rail lines costs about $125 million per mile, a cost which is borne mostly by state and local funding, with only about 40 percent usually paid for with federal money.

“The density is not sufficient to justify it [heavy rail]. That’s the fact—not what I wish,” said Bill Nevel, a BCC member who helped organize the Tuesday meeting.

Many of the big-picture concepts discussed would involve the state joining the conversation. And as one member of the crowd noted, there were no representatives of the Maryland State Highway Administration present.

Anne Arundel County Councilman Dick Ladd (R-5th District) said it would take the state delegation to get anything long-term and expensive funded.

“There are some people upstream that need to hear from you,” Ladd said.

David Humphreys, the executive director of the Annapolis Regional Transportation Management Association, said there were short-term solutions to consider, but there were also long-term solutions at work that would dramatically alter the landscape of travel in the coming years.

“Autonomous vehicle are coming. Robotic transit is closer than you think,” Humphreys said. “All it takes is a push to go there.”

Humphreys said bus rapid transit, often called BRT, can expand current infrastructure capacity without “paving everything.”

“It took us the better part of a century to transition from trolley cars and horse and buggies to cars being everywhere. We are going to see a transition back,” Humphreys said. “It’s going to take a while. But those who are going to get there first… are those who make the political connections.”

At the end of the meeting, Nevel said he thought there were some lively ideas in the crowd, and hoped they would help drive the discussion forward.

“We heard good ideas. What we didn’t hear a lot of is the tech jargon that generally accompanies meetings like these, and that’s a good thing,” he said.

Details on the transportation plan can be found on the county's website.


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