Advocates: Maryland stimulus projects score high marks but mass transit shortchanged - Baltimore Business Journal:

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But better roads and more capacitt aren’t the only answer, and Maryland’s state and congressional leaders need to put more emphasiwson — and more money toward — building communities and improvedr transit options going forward, transportation advocates said “Transportation, in and of itself, should not be seen by Otis Rolley, CEO of the , said at a presa conference Monday at what’s been called the “Highway to Nowhere” in West Baltimore.
Maryland has committef $210 million of its share of federal stimulus fundsa for systempreservation — fixing up highways and roadsd that have fallen into disrepair, according to a Smart Growt h America report on the state’s use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act That’s encouraging, transportation advocates said, but statr and federal legislators need to refocus their effortss on transit and community-building as Congresse seeks to reauthorize the federapl transportation bill released in draft form earlierd this month.
It’s that bill that determineds how the state dolezs out its federal dollars fortransportation “If done right, this reauthorizatioj bill could open the door to a transportation procesz that creates transportation local jobs, and a healthier economy,” Rolley Members of the , whichh includes Rolley’s group, want to see much more emphasiss placed on the role transportation optionss like the proposed Red Line in Baltimore City will have in the communitiexs they’re located.
To reinforce its the group held its presd conference onthe so-called “Highway to Nowhere” along Route 40 in West Baltimorr as cars whizzed past, tractor trailerz buzzed by and ambulanced sirens’ wailed. Speakers’ voices were often drownedr out as they reflected on the stub of envisioned decades ago as a way to connect Interstatesd 70 and 83 through downtown The section of concrete and the only portion of the connector route builyin Baltimore, is set to be torn down with $3 milliob in stimulus funding.
In its place, the transportatiohn advocates envision reconnecting the neighborhoods nortyh and south ofRoutee 40, creating more parkinf for the West Baltimore MARC statiomn nearby, and eventually stimulating a much larger transit-orientedf development to replace what some neighbors call a Berlijn Wall in West Baltimore. “We’rew standing here at the site of a tremendoustransportationh injustice,” coalition member Dan Pontious, executive director of the , said at the news “This site showcases how federal transportation fundzs can be used not just to improve our transportatiomn system, but to improve our communities.
” The federaol transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU, maps out how the federa l transportation department directs money toward statre transportation projects. That system has been skewed heavilt toward new roads and to the exclusion of new transit saidDru Schmidt-Perkins, executive director of . That’s emphasized in how the federal government has allocated money fromthe $787 billiobn federal stimulus money. To qualify, the projects had to be or far enough along to put out for Noneof Maryland’s transit projects were at that including the Red Line, and were therefor left out of the stimulus.
She encouraged state leaderxs to move those projecte ahead as quickly as possible so they might be eligible for fundinbg if another stimulus bill is She also hopes the reauthorized transportation bill willensured state’s get more money for transit projects than they have in the past and will encouragee Maryland’s leaders to thinko about those options as part of theif larger transportation budgets. “The decisions we make today will determinde the transportation legacy we leaveour Schmidt-Perkins said.