The “Highway to Nowhere,” closed since Sept. 10, reopened this week, to much cheering from those of us who commute into Baltimore from the south and/or west.

It seemed that since work started on the Baltimore Grand Prix course (also known at Pratt Street, Light Street, Conway Street and Russell Street)  a couple of months ago, there wasn’t a real good way to enter the city from the south.

I had given up on I-395 and had been taking Route 40 in from Ellicott City, which, even with the closed highway, was faster. But the construction forced traffic onto Mulberry Street, and the lights (especially at MLK Boulevard) slowed things up for me by probably 10 minutes.

I know how bad that highway has been for West Baltimore, where it literally has divided the community since the 1970s. But it is good for me, especially while Grand Prix construction is going on.

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Fairfax County in Virginia has dropped plans to fund a huge medical research center, and that could be great news for Montgomery County.

Montgomery has big plans to build on its Life Sciences Center off of I-270, creating a massive Science City that would compete with the biggest biotech hubs in the country — for more info on the project, check out my story in today’s paper.

According to the Washington Examiner, the county’s exit from the Ignite Institute for Individualized Health project marks the second financier to lose interest in the last few weeks. And that has raised hopes for Montgomery’s efforts to lure the research project to settle in the proposed 20 million square foot development at Science City.

Here’s what the Examiner says happened in Fairfax:

County leaders were considering up to $150 million in revenue bonds for the genomics startup but got cold feet after Inova Health System said it couldn’t drum up$25 million previously pledged for the center.

“Fairfax County was concerned about being left out there by ourselves with a very ambitious project,” Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova said. “Without a medical partner and without a funding partner, there is no way Fairfax can do it.”

Even with the setbacks, Ignite officials say they remain committed to a headquarters in the Washington area. Ignite President and Chief Executive Officer Dietrich Stephan has said willing partners will fill the void left by the county and Inova.

Montgomery County officials hope Stephan will look elsewhere despite a handful of partnerships already established in the commonwealth.

“I think it opens up the door to renew discussions with them,” said Steven Silverman, director of the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development. “If Inova hadn’t participated in this, there would have been no Fairfax or state of Virginia commitment.”

Ignite says its built on a “collaborative ‘hybrid’ model that includes independent leadership, affiliations with universities and clinical centers of excellence, a non-profit academic component and for-profit accelerators/incubators.” It sounds exactly like what Montgomery and one of its development partners, Johns Hopkins University, are aiming for.

Lots of approvals have to be put in place for the Science City project to move forward, but it will be interesting to see what happens if the expansion gets the green light and Ignite is still looking for funding.

(Belward Farm pictured, a 107-acre farm being developed by JHU for Science City)

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As of this morning’s commute I am officially a field tester of the Maryland Transit Administration’s new Charm Card.

The Charm Card is a rechargeable plastic fare card, just like the Washington Metro’s SmarTrip card. Instead of buying paper passes daily,weekly or monthly you can add money to the card as needed — with the option to load it with weekly or monthly passes as well.

So, I plunked $20 into the vending machine this morning — paying with credit card is apparently forthcoming, but not available yet. And, on the first time out, everything went as expected, with no problems.

I can’t say I was really expecting there to be any problems; it’s not like using rechargeable fare cards is a novel idea.  The SmarTrip card launched in May 1999, and more than a million cards have been issued.

But the MTA is not taking chances. After a two-month field test on the subway system, it’s on to a test of the Light Rail and buses. That means it won’t launch systemwide until some point next year.

I’ll provide updates periodically of how the experiment is faring.

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One of our visitors recently suggested mass transit for St. Mary’s county in a comment on commuting improvements.

Looks like that wish may be granted: Maryland transit officials will study the feasibility of commuter rail service between D.C. and St. Mary’s County this spring. (This is in addition to a separate analysis of possible bus rapid transit or light rail service in the southern part of our state).

JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor

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There’s been a lot of talk about the pros and cons of BRAC on Maryland’s roadways lately.

While BRAC will recapture some Maryland workers who have been lost to jobs in Washington and Virginia, many commuters are hoping the state’s real BRAC gain could come in the form of speedier commutes — that is, if mass-transit projects result.

The number of workers commuting from the Baltimore region to Washington grew by 26 percent between 1990 and 2000, according to a recent story in the Baltimore Examiner. And Virginia gets about 116,000 Maryland workers every day (most of them from PG and MoCo, but about 13,000 come from Baltimore).

From the story:

More and more, Baltimore-area commuters are taking long commutes toward Washington’s suburbs in southern Maryland and Northern Virginia. But planners are hoping that growth tied to military bases near Baltimore and suburban Virginia will reverse some of those trends.

Some suggestions on the table: Anne Arundel County would like an extension of the Metro’s Green Line to BWI airport. Harford County has gotten funds for a new MARC station in Edgewood and has proposed a new transit center in Aberdeen.

Do you employ public transit in your daily commute, or is it too time-consuming or inefficient for you? Do you think Maryland needs to shape up its transit systems – and is BRAC its only chance to do it?

JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor

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